The 102 year old father of the Israeli Prime Minister has died. He was said to be the chief influence on his son was a zionist of the first rank. A scholar, he was also a man of intransigent attitudes and deeply felt sense of history.
An interesting paraphrase of his thought: he said the Israelis and the Palestinians were like two goats on a narrow bridge. Neither could back up and one had to go into the river.
I've never had much use for his son because of his never give an inch attitude and the way he has played our politicians but I have to admit there is some wisdom in this approach given the narrow focus of Palestinian vision as represented by their most vocal leaders.
The imago thrown up for the son by this hard, brilliant man must have been overwhelming.
When I was a kid I wanted to join the army at 17 because I was afraid Viet Nam would be over before I got there. That was in 1964. My dad was unlike Ben-Zion Netanyahu in this sense: he told me that apparently I had not been paying attention to what he had told me about World War II, in which he participated in the Pacific theater. He said wars were unpredictable and even a "good" one was a horror show. And Viet Nam was not a good one and there was no way he was going to sign off on my joining early.
As the twig is bent, so grows the tree. Ben-Zion bent one way, other fathers bend their sons in others.
Thanks again, dad.
An interesting paraphrase of his thought: he said the Israelis and the Palestinians were like two goats on a narrow bridge. Neither could back up and one had to go into the river.
I've never had much use for his son because of his never give an inch attitude and the way he has played our politicians but I have to admit there is some wisdom in this approach given the narrow focus of Palestinian vision as represented by their most vocal leaders.
The imago thrown up for the son by this hard, brilliant man must have been overwhelming.
When I was a kid I wanted to join the army at 17 because I was afraid Viet Nam would be over before I got there. That was in 1964. My dad was unlike Ben-Zion Netanyahu in this sense: he told me that apparently I had not been paying attention to what he had told me about World War II, in which he participated in the Pacific theater. He said wars were unpredictable and even a "good" one was a horror show. And Viet Nam was not a good one and there was no way he was going to sign off on my joining early.
As the twig is bent, so grows the tree. Ben-Zion bent one way, other fathers bend their sons in others.
Thanks again, dad.
