Benjamin Netanyahu will make history this weekend by becoming the longest-serving Israeli prime minister, surpassing a record held by the country's founding father David Ben-Gurion.
Yet the prime minister, who will match Ben-Gurion's 8,475 days in office on Friday, faces an election in September after the Knesset unexpectedly dissolved in June. Netanyahu pushed the dissolution bill after he failed to muster enough support from his right-wing allies to win a confidence vote and swear in a government.
"Who's counting?" he said airily when asked about the career milestone during a conference hosted by Israel Hayom and attended by US envoys.
To judge from his solid approval ratings, Netanyahu, 69, has delivered what Israelis wants: a purring economy and relative security.
He has also rallied a rising Israeli right-wing with rhetoric against the country's Arab minority and cut down potential political challengers with divide-and-conquer tactics.
Netanyahu became Israel's youngest-ever premier in 1996, serving until his defeat in a 1999 election. Re-elected in 2009, he extended his tenure through the ballot box in 2013 and 2015.
But in a surprise turn, he failed to form a new coalition government after claiming victory in an election three months ago, and now serves as a caretaker prime minister.
That means a do-over in September, just weeks before prosecutors are expected to decide whether to indict Netanyahu in three graft cases, which he has castigated as a witch-hunt.
Netanyahu has scored a string of statecraft goals with the help of President Donald Trump: US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, as well as Washington's withdrawal from world powers' 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
He may be one of the few world leaders who can boast a rapport with both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Much like Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu has doubled as defense minister and bolstered the military as part of an uncompromising distrust of Israel's neighbors and a doctrine of self-reliance.
