Netanyahu included on Time’s annual list of 100 most influential people

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was included Wednesday in Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people for 2026, one of two dozen political leaders on the list.

It is the long-serving premier’s fifth time making the list.

The magazine’s blurb on Netanyahu said he was “responsible for the worst security failure in his country’s history” — the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror attack  — but has since made a political comeback.

Israel’s fights in Lebanon and Iran, and the release of the hostages held in Gaza, “have boosted his standing with the Israeli public,” it said, even as those conflicts and West Bank settlement expansion “may also poison international attitudes toward his country” and have “eroded support among younger Americans.”

The list also included US President Donald Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US military chief Dan Caine, and White House envoy Steve Witkoff.

Other political leaders featured included Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

The entry on Mamdani alludes to his harsh criticism of Israel, saying his “relationships with key constituencies—including parts of the Jewish community… will test his ability to put ideas into action.”

Netanyahu has never acknowledged direct responsibility for the failures surrounding October 7 and has relentlessly attempted to place the blame on others, primarily the security establishment.

Opinion polls have regularly shown a clear majority of Israelis support a state commission of inquiry, Israel’s highest investigative authority, which Netanyahu opposes because it is appointed by the judiciary, which he argues would be biased as his government is pushing to curb the courts’ powers.

During the October 7 attack, terrorists who burst into the country from the Gaza Strip killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251, also mostly civilians, who were taken as hostages to Gaza. The attack triggered a war, which eventually ended with a US-brokered ceasefire in October 2025. All of the hostages, dozens of them dead, have been returned to Israel.

Former hostage Noa Argamani, who was kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists in October 2023 and rescued in a daring IDF operation in 2024, was included in Time magazine’s list of 100 Most Influential People of 2025.

A number of cultural icons with Jewish roots also made the cut this year: actor Ben Stiller, designer Ralph Lauren, Paramount CEO David Ellison and singer Noah Kahan.