Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime minister since 2022; heads the Likud list, seeking another term
Benjamin Netanyahu gets a D
Score: 66 out of 100, the average of 9 measures. Graded on what Netanyahu has said and done, because we count recorded votes only for the US Congress. Every line is below, with its source.
- AIran: the regimeWith liberty, 1 source
- AIran: the peopleWith liberty, 1 source
- FAlliesBoth ways, 4 sources
- FMilitaryBoth ways, 2 sources
- ABordersWith liberty, 1 source
- AIslamizationWith liberty, 2 sources
- FSecularismBoth ways, 2 sources
- FCapitalismBoth ways, 2 sources
- FFree speechAgainst liberty, 2 sources
Netanyahu, on the record
17 things Netanyahu has said and done. Each one has its source, and each is marked with the same test we use for votes in Congress. A line that does not settle the question is marked as not clear and counts for nothing.
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As prime minister he ordered and announced Israel's strikes on Iran's nuclear sites and military leadership in June 2025.
“Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation aimed at dismantling the Iranian threat to Israel's survival.”
- By the test we use for votes
- With liberty
Ordering military action against the regime's nuclear programme counts as with liberty.
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During the 2026 war he addressed Iranians directly, telling them Israel stood with them and that their chance to take a path of freedom was near.
“I say to the Iranian people: The moment when you can embark on a new path of freedom - that moment is approaching. We stand by you, we are helping you.”
- By the test we use for votes
- With liberty
Speaking for Iranians against their rulers counts as with liberty.
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Asked why Israel does not send weapons to Ukraine, he said Israel must keep its freedom to act beside Russian forces in Syria, feared that arms given to Ukraine could reach Iran, and called Israel's course the balanced way.
“First of all, we have a close military border with Russia. Our pilots are flying right next to Russian pilots over the skies of Syria.”
- By the test we use for votes
- Against liberty
Withholding arms from Ukraine and describing a balanced line between Kyiv and Moscow is neutrality in that war.
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The Kyiv Independent, citing Axios, reported that after refusing for weeks to discuss it he approved handing about 90 Patriot interceptors back to the United States, which sent them on to Ukraine; his office confirmed only the return to the United States.
- By the test we use for votes
- Not clear either way
The missiles reached Ukraine through Washington after a delay and without Israel saying it was arming Kyiv, so the act does not settle the measure.
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In a Knesset speech, nearly four years into Russia's war on Ukraine, he presented his regular contact and long personal relationship with Vladimir Putin as an asset for Israel.
“this decades-long personal relationship helps protect vital Israeli interests, including efforts to prevent interference along our northern border.”
- By the test we use for votes
- Against liberty
Holding up a friendship with Putin during his war on Ukraine is staying neutral between Moscow and the countries standing against it.
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In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly he praised the American president for standing with Israel against the Islamic Republic and said Israel had never had a greater partner.
“We've had no greater partner than President Trump”
- By the test we use for votes
- With liberty
Holding up the partnership with the United States is backing that alliance.
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To pass the 2026 budget his coalition promised the Haredi parties a law that would in effect keep yeshiva students exempt from army service, while the army chief warned of a manpower shortage.
- By the test we use for votes
- Against liberty
Promising to keep a large group out of the draft goes against the conscription the army depends on.
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He asked for the budget law to be reopened so that more money could go to the defence establishment.
- By the test we use for votes
- With liberty
Seeking more money for the armed forces is funding and equipping them.
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After Eritrean asylum seekers rioted in Tel Aviv he asked a ministerial team for a plan to remove all people who entered Israel illegally.
“I am asking the team I convened today to prepare a complete and updated plan for the removal of all other illegal infiltrators from the State of Israel”
- By the test we use for votes
- With liberty
Ordering a plan to deport people who entered illegally is enforcing immigration law.
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The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in June 2021 that, faced with losing power, he had said he would be willing to form a government together with Ra'am, the party of the southern Islamic Movement.
- By the test we use for votes
- Not clear either way
This is a news agency's account of what he was ready to do in 2021, with no words of his own on the page, and no government with Ra'am was formed. It does not settle the measure.
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He welcomed the American move to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation and said Israel, which had already outlawed part of the movement, was working to finish the job.
“This is an organization that endangers stability throughout the Middle East and beyond,”
- By the test we use for votes
- With liberty
Backing a ban on the Muslim Brotherhood is acting against it.
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Before taking office he told the Knesset there would not be a state run by Jewish religious law, answering a report that his coalition deal with United Torah Judaism included religion-based laws.
- By the test we use for votes
- With liberty
Pledging that religious law will not govern the state counts as with liberty.
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Under agreements he reached with his coalition's Haredi parties, the Knesset passed a Basic Law declaring Torah study a fundamental value of the state, by 63 votes to 52.
- By the test we use for votes
- Against liberty
Writing a religious value into constitutional law as part of a deal with religious parties puts religion's rules into law in return for political support.
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The 2026 state budget his government sent to the Knesset brought a new tax on building land and a tax on electronic cigarettes, and kept VAT at 18 per cent instead of returning it to 17.
- By the test we use for votes
- Against liberty
New taxes and keeping a tax rise in place count against free markets. It is the budget of the government he heads, and the same line is in his finance minister's record.
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He and his finance minister agreed to cut the excise tax on fuel, lowering the price of petrol by half a shekel a litre.
“At a time when the price of fuel is surging across the world, we make sure it does not surge in Israel”
- By the test we use for votes
- With liberty
Cutting a tax is on the lower-taxes side of the measure.
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On the day the Knesset passed a law letting the government close foreign news networks it deems a security risk, he said he would use it to remove Al Jazeera from Israel.
“the time has come to eject this herald for Hamas from our country.”
- By the test we use for votes
- Not clear either way
Closing a broadcaster counts as against free speech. This law is a temporary wartime power aimed at foreign networks judged a threat to state security, which is a harder case, so we do not mark the line either way.
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His cabinet voted unanimously to close Army Radio by 1 March 2026; he backed the proposal at the meeting, saying an army-run station exists only in places such as North Korea and that he believes in competition. The High Court later struck the decision down.
“Today we bring the defense minister's proposal to abolish Galei Tzahal - a military station that broadcasts under the army's authority.”
- By the test we use for votes
- Against liberty
A government decision to shut a broadcaster is against free speech whatever reason is given.
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