In the early 1980s, Benjamin Netanyahu made a splash as a telegenic young diplomat in Washington and at the United Nations, out to shape international opinion on Israel with his silver tongue and fluent English. He was a regular on ABC’s “Nightline” and the Sunday morning news talk shows, and kept a meticulous list of the country’s media elites, whom he courted assiduously. Forty years later, Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, an embattled leader who has unle...
