Benjamin Netanyahu’s reckoning a sour ending for a transformative prime minister

Benjamin Netanyahu showed the opposite of grace as he exited from power on Sunday. If you want to evaluate his legacy on the basis of his final day in office, you will mark him down as one of history’s sorest losers. 

History will likely tell a very different story, one that cites Netanyahu’s time in office from 2009 onward as a hinge moment in history itself — as a period during which Israel moved beyond the existential drama of its first 60 years and established itself as an enduring, undeniable and formidable permanent presence on the world stage, a mature nation other countries could no longer pretend would just somehow vanish, go away, or be wiped out.  That is in part because the Israel of 2021 is domestically a fulfillment of the mere promise of Israel in 2009 — with an economy nearly doubled in size over 12 years and household income per capita 50 percent higher. This once-poor, resource-starved struggling nation is now the world’s 31th richest.