OBIT

Netanyahu’s Father Dies at 102

Scholar fought for creation of Israel.

Israeli intellectual—and father of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—Benzion Netanyahu died Monday at age 102. By turns a journalist, historian, and lobbyist, Netanyahu was a fierce and consistent supporter of the independent Jewish state and argued against compromise with Arab states. Asserting himself as a leading supporter of Zionism in the 1940s, Netanyahu met with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and prominent politicians, lobbying for a Jewish homeland on behalf the New Zionist Organization. In 1944 Netanyahu convinced the GOP to make support for a Jewish state part of its platform. The scholar also went on to write an influential history of the Spanish inquisition.