The old Bibi is back

"Reckless", "cavalier", "unscrupulous", "petty politician, not statesman"…these and such epithets applied to Benjamin Netanyahu by friends and foes alike - not that he ended up with many friends - when he was first Israel's Prime Minister back in the late 1990s. Re-elected in February, Netanyahu seemed aware of the question on everyone's lips - foes and new-found friends alike: Will Bibi the Second be different from Bibi the First? For the first hundred days in office the answer was still in the balance, although most Israelis, and even U.S. citizens, were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt that he had changed, that Benjamin Netanyahu was no longer Bibi. Now, there's little doubt: Bibi's back.