Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving prime minister, took up the reins of his most recent and turbulent term in late 2022 as Israel faced a historic moment with a Nodal Return and Uranus in Taurus conjunct its Taurus Sun. I wrote at the time that Israel had “turned its face against progress and doubled down on the worst of the past.”
He was facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust as he headed the most rightwing administration in the country’s history, made up of Jewish ultranationalist and religious parties. He promised to overhaul the judicial system, accelerate settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and highlight Jewish identity in public life. These and other plans have drawn unprecedented criticism from the defence establishment, business community, education system, LGBT+ rights groups, legal officials.
Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich, an ardent supporter of Jewish settlements, was made finance minister, with a second post in the defence ministry with sweeping administrative controls over the occupied West Bank.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, convicted of incitement to racism in 2007 and a former disciple of the anti-Arab ideologue rabbi Meir Kahane, went in as national security minister with expanded powers over the Israeli police and responsibility for border police who operate in the West Bank. He advocated that that soldiers receive blanket legal immunity from prosecution. Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are sanctioned by the UK and other states for inciting settler violence.
2022 had already seen Israeli forces kill more Palestinians in the West Bank than in any year since the United Nations began systematically recording fatalities in 2005, after the last major Palestinian uprising. The bloodshed has been blamed by Palestinian and Israeli rights groups and U.N. experts on Israel’s excessive use of force and open-fire rules as well as rising assaults by settlers in the West Bank.
Since the Hamas 2023 attack, settler violence and expansion have reached record levels, often occurring with what observers describe as “near-total impunity” or with the support of Israeli state policies. Reports from 2025-2026 indicate that more than 93% of police investigations into settler violence in the West Bank were closed without indictment, and only 3% resulted in convictions. Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to military courts with a reported 99.74% conviction rate, whereas Israeli settlers in the same territory are subject to civilian courts.
Benjamin Netanyahu, 21 October 1949 10.15 am Tel Aviv, Israel, has a Libra New Moon in his 11th house square an acquisitive Jupiter in Capricorn in his financial 2nd house; and sextile a bombastic Mars in Leo in his opinionated 9th (conjunct Pluto). He has an idealistic and slippery Neptune conjunct Mercury in 10th house; with his Mercury in an impulsive square to Uranus.
He has the headstrong Antares on his Sagittarius Ascendant which can lead to destruction through obstinacy. His Chiron is in his 12th suggesting he is trapped in an identification with the scapegoat and victim; with Chariklo nearby he will also be rooted in a sense of eternal suffering.
The recent February Aquarius Solar Eclipse fired up his combative Mars; and the upcoming August Solar Eclipse conjunct his Pluto hints at a need to transform his outlook totally (though he could ignore the celestial tug and continue as before.) His Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct his Midheaven exactly now (birth time being accurate and not rounded up) which could suggest a change of direction. Tr Neptune square his Uranus late May to mid August and again off and on into early 2028, will be nerve-stretched, perhaps even more fanatical. That tr Neptune at 4 degrees Aries does hit a variety of charts including the Israel country one and may be significant.
His Progressed Mars will square his Uranus later this year into 2027 which will be a tremendous jolt and could be risky. But on the whole he looks in better shape than one might expect ahead – with a sprinkling of unfavourable midpoints this year, and more positive, successful ones in 2027. Where he will run into the buffers, if he is still around, will be by 2030 with his SA Mars square his Pluto.
Tr Uranus will rattle up his relationship with Israel this month with a calamitous tr Uranus opposition the Mars/Saturn midpoint as the Iran offensive heats up; and gets another jolt as tr Uranus moves into Gemini in the second half of this May and repeating later. But for all that, it is a tight bond with no immediate signs of a separation.
His relationship with the USA is a good deal more troubled right through this year into 2027; as indeed is Israel’s with the USA for several years ahead.
His bond with Trump with a composite Pluto, Saturn, Mercury, Sun, Mars is toxic, only capable of surviving if the white-hot/black anger is directed outwards. If their involvement in a war against others was knocked out of the equation and they turned on each other ???!!! Wipe out. Again late May to end of August this year will prove a disappointment to them. Though it won’t end the friendship.
Netanyahu’s 2022 Term chart has a yod of South Node sextile Sun inconjunct Mars – which fits with a regressive and aggressive/martial administration.
Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir (without birth times) look relatively upbeat over the next two or three years. Though there may be cracks appearing with Netanyahu. No doubt they hope to supersede him at some point. Smotrich is an opportunistic Sun Pisces opposition Jupiter Mars conjunction which is being activated this year and in 2027.
Ben-Gvir has a determined and adventurous Jupiter Venus in Taurus opposition Uranus which is being challenged and possibly boosted over the coming two or three years; with a super-confident, self-aggrandising Jupiterian yod inconjunct an ambitious Neptune sextile Pluto. He could be prominent towards late decade.
An intriguing argument has been put forward about Israel’s long term future – that it is likely to turn into a ‘third-world economy’ because the fast-growing ultra‑orthodox Haredi community is under-educated, under-employed and refuses national service. The view is thought to be overblown but it is still true that the more educated, productive, entrepreneurial and tax-paying part of the population, which stocks the military, is growing far more slowly than the Haredi who at present number about 1.5 million people, or 14pc of Israel’s population. They typically marry young, have large families and their segregated schools focus on religious scripture, often at the expense of subjects such as maths and science. Few will go to university, and up to half of Israel’s Haredi men do not join the mainstream workforce.
There is an interesting article in “NYT” today on how Trump was lured into operation in Iran by Netanyahu. If DJT is removed or incapacitated, it’s clear there’s no love lost between JD Vance and Netanyahu. They are going to pin all of this to him, and I wouldn’t be completely surprised if it led to Hague.
It is so depressing that these people have been democratically elected.
Does it count as ‘turbulent times’ if you are the one who causes them?
Intriguing about the possible long-term effects in a country where a large religious group has major influence and possibly power, but refuses to adapt to changing circumstances. Perhaps non-Israeli Jewry will save Israel from itself, but unfortunately there is probably no astrology that could indicate whether this might happen.