Benzion Netanyahu, Hawkish Scholar, Dies at 102

Source: New York Times

Benzion Netanyahu, the father of the two-time Israeli prime minister Benjamin, who fought for the creation of the Jewish state by lobbying in the United States and went on to write an influential history of the Spanish inquisition, died on Monday. He was 102.

His death was announced by the prime minister’s office. Mr. Netanyahu was at various times a journalist, encyclopedia editor, professor, historian and lobbyist — not to mention a behind-the-scenes adviser to his son, the most powerful person in Israel. Throughout, his views were relentlessly hawkish: he argued that Jews inevitably faced discrimination that was racial and not religious, and that efforts to compromise with Arabs were futile.

In the 1940s, as the executive director of the New Zionist Organization in the United States, he met with influential policymakers like General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dean Acheson. He also wrote hard-hitting full-page advertisements that appeared in The Times and other newspapers.

The goal of his group, which was part of the movement known as revisionist Zionism, was to prevent dividing Palestine between Jews and Arabs to create the new Israel. The group wanted a single, bigger state that would have included present-day Jordan.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/world/middleeast/benzion-netanyahu-dies-at-102.html?pagewanted=all