Time magazine on Thursday released its annual listicle (did you know that’s a thing?) of the 100 most influential people in the world, which, mind you, is not the same as the 100 nicest people or the 100 most useful in service to humanity. It’s just the 100 names considered to have made an impact in 2019, assembled by Time magazine, which may or may not be one of the 100 most influential magazines in the world at this point.
In the list of 26 leaders who impacted the world in Time magazine’s opinion, you’ll find Israel’s soon to assume his fifth term as prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Time’s David French explains Netanyahu’s success with the demise of Israel’s left following the second intifada, “with fresh memories of suicide bombers rebuking the idea that there exists a partner for peace. Ongoing rocket attacks launched by Hamas show that present dangers are real. And Iran’s power and ambition signal that even two generations after the Yom Kippur War, Israel can face existential threats.”
Arguably, any strong rightwing politician could have taken advantage of these conditions to lead a move away from the Oslo debacle. But Bibi, according to French, has managed to couple his anti-Oslo stand (although he continues to play coyly with supporting and objecting to a Palestinian State) with Israel’s growing prosperity. Indeed, “as the election shows, sufficient numbers of Israelis believe not just that Netanyahu is partly responsible for that success but that he’s the nation’s indispensable man.”
“Bibi certainly deserves his share of credit for Israel’s strength, but persuading Israelis that he alone could achieve it is his true political accomplishment,” French concludes.
And now, for your note-taking pleasure, the list of the 26 most influential leaders in 2019 according to Time Magazine (click here for the complete list, especially if you’re done with your Passover cleaning chores:
Nancy Pelosi
Donald Trump
Greta Thunberg
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Jacinda Ardern
Juan Guaidó
Abiy Ahmed
Mitch McConnell
Brett Kavanaugh
Jane Goodall
Benjamin Netanyahu
Zhang Yiming
Hoesung Lee
William Barr
Pope Francis
Xi Jinping
Leana Wen
Imran Khan
Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed
Cyril Ramaphosa
Robert Mueller
Mahathir Mohamad
Matteo Salvini
Jair Bolsonaro
Zhang Kejian