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36 Friday, June 1, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Number two
and rising
At 34, Benjamin Netanyahu,
Israel's Number Two man at the
embassy in Washington, seems
destined for leadership.
BY GARY ROSENBLATT
Editor
A it •
ntil now, he has lived in the
shadow of others. His father
was editor-in-chief of The Hebrew
Encyclopedia and is one of the world's
foremost experts on the Spanish In-
quisition. His older brother,
Jonathan, was the martyred hero of
the Entebbe rescue. His mentor,
Moshe Arens, brought him to Wash-
ington where he served as deputy
chief of mission at the Israeli Em-
bassy. Today he remains the Number
Two man, at the,Embassy, now under
Meir Rosenne, many years younger
than anyone else to have held the
post. But it is clear that Benjamin
Netanyahu is destined to be known
for his own merits, as his own man.
At 34, Netanyahu ("Bibi" to his
friends) is being talked about as the
next Israeli Ambassador to the
United Nations to replace Yehuda
Blum, whose term expires this sum-
mer. He has also been discussed as
Clirector-general of the Prime Minis-
ter's office, and a top post with the
,
Jewish Agency. Despite his youth
and relative lack of experience, it is
not difficult to see why Netanyahu is •
so highly regarded. He is brilliant,
handsome and articulate, and during
his tenure in Washington he has im-
pressed many with his ability-to gain
support for Israel.
His large office in the modern
Israeli Embassy is dominated by a
computer terminal on his desk, un-
derscoring his *age ; as ,one, of the
new breed of young Israeli leaders —
pragmatic rather than confronta-
tional, low-key rather than emo-
tional. It is an image exemplefied by
Arens, now Israel's Defense Minis-
ter, who hand-picked Netanyahu for
the prestigious Embassy position
though the two had met only briefly.
Still, one can see why they clicked.
Both men spent several years in
America as teenagers, both
graduated from the Massachusetts
Institute of .Taelipology. and 'both