Tel-Chai Nation: Ben-Zion Netanyahu passes away at 102

The father of Israel's prime minister has died at 102 years old:

JERUSALEM — Ben-Zion Netanyahu, a historian and the father of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, died early Monday in his Jerusalem home at age 102.

Ben-Zion Netanyahu, born Ben-Zion Mileikowsky in Warsaw in 1910, emigrated with his family to Palestine in 1920. In 1944, he married Tzila Segal, whom he met while during his studies in Palestine, then under the British Mandate, and had three sons.

The family moved to the United States, where Netanyahu continued to pursue his academic work to become a historian of great renown, specializing in research of Medieval Spanish Jewry and the roots of the Spanish Inquisition.

He also pursued his Zionist passion, working closely with Zionism’s prominent Revisionist leader, Zeev Jabotinsky, as his personal secretary in the United States during World War II. The Revisionist movement was uncompromising in its political positions and differed sharply from the socialist Zionists of the early 20th century. Netanyahu opposed the United Nation’s 1947 Partition Plan.

That plan, as some may know, was rejected altogether by the Arab/Muslim countries, the real problem facing us all out there.

After the foundation of Israel, the family returned to the fledgling state. Despite Ben-Zion’s internationally acclaimed work, Israeli academia did not embrace the scholar, whose right-wing beliefs went against the grain of the prevalent socialist hegemony, and he continued his scholarship with various American universities until becoming professor emeritus at Cornell University.

The Netanyahus lived between the United States and Israel until their final return in 1976, after their son, Yonatan, was killed during the Israeli commando operation to rescue hostages on an Air France flight hijacked to Entebbe, Uganda.

Benjamin Netanyahu, then living in Israel, had traveled to the U.S. to deliver the tragic news to his parents.

“The longest, most difficult journey of my life,” he later said. “Since then, our family changed drastically.”

Ben-Zion Netanyahu was eulogized by many as a great scholar, intellectual and ideologue of unwavering principles. Education Minister Gideon Saar said Ben-Zion Netanyahu was a “Zionist in every fiber of his being” and a man who saw with “clear sobriety the dangers facing our people.”

Many attribute the prime minister’s deep convictions and flair for history to his father’s unwavering beliefs. “Benjamin Netanyahu was raised on uncompromising Zionism,” Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin told Israel Radio.

Condolences were extended across the political board and opposition parties have withdrawn no-confidence motions and bills calling to dissolve parliament and move to early elections in respect of the week of mourning.

Ben-Zion Netanyahu was to be buried in Jerusalem on Monday. He is survived by his sons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Iddo Netanyahu, a physician, author and playwright.