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Benzion Netanyahu

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Author

The Resume

    (March 25, 1910-April 30, 2012)
    Born in Warsaw, Poland
    Birth name was Benzion Mileikowsky
    Scholar of Judaic history and Medieval studies
    Revisionist Zionism movement activist
    Editor for the Hebrew Encyclopedia ('Encyclopedia Hebriaca')
    Editor at the Zionist Political Library, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (1935–1940)
    Came to the United States in 1940 to work with the New Zionist Organization (1940-1948)
    Lobbied the United States Congress to support the creation of the Jewish state
    Edited the English reference works; The Encyclopedia Judaica and The World History of the Jewish People, both in the 1960s
    Israeli Professor of History at Cornell University (1971-1975); Named an Emeritus Professor in 1978
    Author of 'Don Isaac Abravanel. Statesman and philosopher' (1953), 'The Marranos of Spain. From the late XIVth to the early XVIth Century' (1966), 'The origins of the Inquisition. In fifteenth Century Spain' (1995), 'Toward the inquisition. Essays on Jewish and converso history in late medieval Spain' (1997), 'The Five Forefathers of Zionism, Yedioth Ahronoth' (2004), and 'The Founding Fathers of Zionism' (2012)
    Perhaps most famous for being the father of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu (1996-99, 2009 - )

Why he might be annoying:

    His first name sounds like Benzino.
    He is credited with developing the hard-right foreign policy stances of his son.
    He had been an early, strong advocate for Arab transfers out of Palestine in the early 40s.
    He tried, and failed, to launch a political career in the early years of Israel's statehood, likely due to his being perceived as 'too extreme' (so far to the Right that even the populist Menachem Begin wouldn't take him to Knesset with him).
    He was known for his hawkish views on Israeli statehood, denouncing any call for compromise with the Palestinians (he was even opposed to partitioning Palestine in the first place - preferring modern-day Jordan).
    He allegedly hated to see his son make political compromises (e.g. the 1997 Hebron agreement to partially cede control of the city).
    His son circulated a disputed claim that he had predicted the Holocaust in a 1937 article on Theodore Herzl, and later predicted the fall of the Twin Towers in a 1990s conversation with him.
    He told an Israeli newspaper in 2009, 'the tendency to conflict is the essence of the Arab. He is an enemy by essence. His personality won't allow him to compromise. It doesn't matter what kind of resistance he will meet, what price he will pay. His existence is one of perpetual war.'
    He was accused of being selective with his sources, interpreting European Jewish history 'through the rearview mirror of the Holocaust' (by his own admittance, admitting to the belief that Jewish history was merely 'a history of holocausts').

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was the son of a Rabbi who promoted Zionism wordwide.
    He started out as personal secretary to Ze'ev Jabotinsky (only a year prior to his untimely death).
    He persuaded Republican Party leaders to call for a Jewish state in its 1944 platform.
    He conferred with both General Dwight Eisenhower and U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson, in the early 40s.
    He reportedly left the Revisionist movement after the founding of the State of Israel.
    David Ben-Gurion privately credited him with easing the factional division of the Zionist movement.
    He was prolific, perhaps the highest authority on the subject of Sephardic Jewry in Medieval Spain, as well as Zionist history.
    He put forth the then-new argument, in 'Origins of the Inquisition,' that anti-Semitism took on a fundamentally new meaning during the Spanish Inquisition.
    He argued that Spanish Jews were targeted not because they had different beliefs.
    Rather, those who adopted Christianity were targeted, as well, indicating that the hatred against them was racial, anticipating the Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany.
    His eldest son commanded the rescue of more than 100 Jewish and Israeli hostages in 1976 (he was also the only Israeli soldier killed in the raid).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


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    In 2023, Out of 15 Votes: 46.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 17 Votes: 5.88% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 68 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 20 Votes: 55.00% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying