obituaries
Netanyahu from page 74
mainstream Jewish leaders as "too cau-
tious, too appeasing and too ready to swal-
low the meaningless statements of sympa-
thy that [are] issued from high places."
Bergson and Netanyahu employed tac-
tics that were not commonly used by the
American Jewish community at the time,
including placing full-page advertise-
ments in the New York Times and other
newspapers. Some of the ads challenged
the Roosevelt administration's stance on
refugees. Others took aim at the British
government's White Paper policy of clos-
ing Palestine to Jewish immigration. One
that Netanyahu authored was headlined
"The White Paper Must Be Smashed, if
Millions of Jews are to be Saved!"
Netanyahu divided his time between
Revisionist headquarters in New York
City and Capitol Hill, where he sought to
mobilize congressional backing for the
Zionist cause. At the time, mainstream
Jewish leaders such as Rabbi Stephen S.
wise were strong supporters of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt and stayed away
from the Republicans. Netanyahu, by con-
trast, actively cultivated ties to prominent
Republicans such as former President
Herbert Hoover, as well as dissident
Democrats such as Sen. Elbert Thomas of
Utah, a Mormon.
In 1944, Netanyahu sought to have the
Republican Party endorse Jewish rescue
and statehood.
In the months leading up to that year's
Republican national convention, the
Revisionists undertook what they called
"a systematic campaign of enlighten-
ment" about Palestine among GOP lead-
ers such as Hoover, Sen. Robert Taft, who
chaired the convention's resolutions com-
mittee, and Rep. Clare Booth Luce, wife of
the publisher of Time and Life magazines.
The GOP adopted an unprecedented
plank demanding "refuge for millions of
distressed Jewish men, women and chil-
dren driven from their homes by tyranny"
and the establishment of a "free and dem-
ocratic" Jewish state. The Republicans'
move compelled the Democrats to com-
pete for Jewish support and treat the
Jewish vote as if it were up for grabs. The
Democratic National Convention, which
was held the following month in Chicago,
for the first time endorsed "unrestricted
Jewish immigration and colonization" of
Palestine and the establishment of "a free
and democratic Jewish commonwealth."
These events helped ensure that sup-
port for Zionism and later Israel would
become a permanent part of American
political culture. Every subsequent
Republican and Democratic convention
Benzion Netanyahu and his son, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
has adopted a similar plank. To do less
became politically inconceivable.
In recent years, pundits have speculated
on the extent to which Benzion Netanyahu
may have influenced his son's actions as
prime minister. While it is difficult to draw
a direct connection between father and son
on specific policy matters, there is a paral-
lel in their efforts to cultivate support for
Israel on both sides of the political aisle.
While working as a political activist in
the 1940s, Benzion Netanyahu also man-
aged to complete a doctorate in medieval
Jewish history at Dropsie College in
Philadelphia. He later taught Jewish history
at Dropsie, and then at the University of
Denver and Cornell University. Netanyahu's
magisterial study, The Origins of the
Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain,
widely considered a groundbreaking work
in his field, was published in 1995. He
spent time in both Israel and the United
States over the years, returning to Israel
permanently in 1976, the same year his
son Yoni was killed while leading the
Entebbe rescue operation.
Notoriously reluctant to grant inter-
views, Netanyahu generally succeeded
in eluding the spotlight. He only recently
agreed to cooperate in the first documen-
tary on his life and legacy, by Israeli film-
maker Moshe Levinson, which coinciden-
tally is scheduled to premiere this week in
Jerusalem. 1- 2
Rafael Medoff is founding director of The
David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust
Studies in Washington.
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74
May 3 - 2012
Obituaries