FRIENDS can be taken for granted. Enemies require individual attention.

During World War II, for example, Gen B.L. Montgomery fought against the German Gen E. Rommel. Montgomery kept a photograph of Rommel in his caravan HQ. He explained later: “I used to look at it and say to myself, ‘What sort of guy is that?’” Similarly, today’s Arab leaders should keep a copy of the autobiography of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by their bedside. They should know the man who, like some shrill wartime siren, causes them recurring insomnia.

Bibi: My Story (2022) is a self-portrait of Netanyahu’s lifelong commitment to the state of Israel. Its subtitle could have read (to borrow Winston Churchill’s witty remark about Montgomery) ‘In defeat, unbeatable; in victory, unbearable’. Netanyahu has tasted both, in unequal measure. He has survived to become, at the age of 77, Israel’s longest serving leader.

He recounts how, when considering his first bid for prime minister-ship in 1996, he asked his father Benzion (academic editor of the Encyclopaedia Hebraica) what should be the prerequisites for leadership. Vision? Flexibility? His father replied: “Education. A broad and deep education. Otherwise you will be at the mercy of........

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