JERUSALEM, March 23 (Reuters) - Benjamin Netanyahu came closer to forming a coalition government on Monday after recruiting the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.

Here are some key facts about Netanyahu:

* Netanyahu was born in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on October 21, 1949, and grew up in Jerusalem. One of three sons, Netanyahu's father, Benzion, is a renowned Jewish historian and supporter of the late hawkish Zionist ideologue Zeev Jabotinsky. Netanyahu, married three times, has three children, an adult daughter with a former wife, and two sons with his current spouse, Sarah. They live in Jerusalem.

* Known by a boyhood nickname, Bibi, Netanyahu is the most fluent English speaker of Israel's current crop of politicians, having gone to high school in the United States where his father worked as a researcher and university lecturer. Netanyahu is also a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also earned a masters degree in business management.

* In 1967, Netanyahu joined the Israeli army and served in an elite commando unit, taking part in secret missions and a 1972 rescue of hostages on a hijacked Sabena airliner, an operation that was led by current Labour party leader, Defence Minister Ehud Barak. He fought in a 1973 war and attained the rank of captain before his discharge.

* Netanyahu entered politics after his brother, Yonatan, was killed while leading the 1976 raid to rescue hijacked Israeli hostages from Entebbe, Uganda. His first high-profile political assignment was Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in 1984. He won a seat in parliament with the right-wing Likud party in 1988 and was also named deputy foreign minister.

* Though voicing objections to withdrawing from occupied land for peace, Netanyahu, as prime minister between 1996-1999, pulled Israeli forces out of part of the West Bank town of Hebron under an interim peace accord with the Palestinians. An early election triggered by a further U.S.-brokered deal with Palestinians ended his term in 1999. As finance minister in 2003, Netanyahu implemented market reforms credited with stimulating economic growth despite a Palestinian uprising. He quit his cabinet post in 2005 in protest at Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. (Jerusalem newsroom)

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