ISRAEL: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on YouTube

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Like U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the hot seat on YouTube’s World View, and questions from around the world.

In a special broadcast paired with Israel’s Channel 2 news, Netanyahu answered questions from Israelis before switching to English to answer questions from 90 countries around the world, including many throughout the Middle East.

Israelis were concerned about a host of local issues, including recent allegations that he accepted private funding for public travel (which Netanyahu dismissed as a slander campaign), and the decline in stature and caliber of Israel’s political leaders, once modest -- frugal, even -- and far flashier today. Citizens asked about Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held captive in the Gaza Strip for five years, about Israel’s response to recent rocket attacks on its south and how approving settlement construction after the murders in Itamar would help matters.

Israel’s policies, the peace process and regional upheaval were on everyone’s mind. Will you negotiate returning the Golan Heights to Syria? Whose side do you take in the recent eruptions throughout the Middle East? Is Israel a strategic asset or liability to the U.S.? And why is Avigdor Lieberman the foreign minister?

Check out the video ( or view it at this link) for more questions and Netanyahu’s answers.

-- Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem.