It’s official. Likud leader Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu was sworn in as Israel’s Prime Minister earlier this week. Those in America and Israel who are yelling despised much of what Bibi did during Round One in the job from 1996-1999. They remember his stalling the peace process, his poor handling of the “conversion crisis from 1997-1998) and his miserable management of subordinates.

Some critics are already deriding Israel’s “most right-wing” government in years. But I’m hoping that a different reading of Bibi’s past performance – combined with what we now hope is his political maturity – may surprise some people. People forget that in 1999 his government fell because he was not right-wing enough for some coalition partners. That is because he first gave up 80 percent of Hebron, one of Judaism’s most sacred cities, and an additional 13 percent of the West Bank. Thus, he can make surprising compromise.

This time, Bibi has the cover of the Labor Party as a coalition partner (even though Labor leader Ehud Barak should resign as head of that party and just be a professional Defense Minister, a job at which he is quite good).

Labor is on record as favoring “land for peace.” The same goes for another major coalition partner – the Shas Sephardi Orthodox Party. In the past it consented to such policies, social issues important to their voters being their primary concern. After all, they voted for the Oslo Accords.

Finally, Bibi’s much criticized other major partner – the Russian-based Yisrael Beitenu Party – is led by new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Despite criticism of his words, in policy Lieberman believes in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is a different portrayal than is often characterized.

As a product of democracy, I think Netanyahu can be “dared into making peace.” That will only happen if the Palestinian Authority can assert governance over its people, which today is far from the case. With that in mind, Bibi is right to first focus on “economic independence” for the Palestinians. I hope this builds a middle class with something to lose, as well as the joint Palestinian-Israeli ventures that were once a hallmark of the ill-fated Oslo years. (They collapsed in large part due to Yasser Arafat’s miserable leadership.)

So I’m willing to give Bibi a chance and believe that all American Jews should. In Israel’s chaotic political system – and is our crazy one any better?—he emerged as the choice of the majority of parliamentarians chosen by the people. Let’s respect that and root for him. There will be time to yell if things don’t work out.

P.S. LITTLE KNOWN ISRAELI TRIVIA

Bibi is the fourth Israeli to serve as Prime Minister twice. The others are:

David Ben-Gurion – 1948-1953, 1956-1963 (Ben-Gurion had resigned as part of the infamous Lavon Affair, which become an unhealthy obsession for him the rest of his days.)

Yitzhak Rabin – 1974-1977, 1992-1995 (Rabin actually wasn’t elected the first time, but took over for the disgraced Golda Meier, who actually won the late December 1974 elections – which had been postponed due to the October Yom Kippur War.)

Shimon Peres – 1984-1986, 1995-1996 (Peres was never outright elected. The first time he was part of a national unity government with Likud’s Yitzhak Shamir and the second time he finished out the term of the assassinated Rabin.)