This is a wonderful tribute to an outstanding scholar and Jewish leader.
Even his name rings with Zionism and Yiddishkeit (Benzion-son of Zion, Netanyahu-given by G-d). When thinking of the Netanyahu family it's hard also not to think of Jonathan Netanyahu, who was Israeli paratrooper killed rescuing Jewish hostages during the raid on Entebbe. This is a courageous, intelligent family with deep ties to the Land of Israel.
One phrase that absolutely jumped off the page for me was this:
"Netanyahu’s own lesson from the Spanish Inquisition is that for Jews,
assimilation is as much of a utopian path as socialism. As Pinsker, and
later Theodor Herzl made clear, the only way for Jews to be redeemed is
by doing it themselves."
And then this:
"Today the heirs of the failed utopian movements of the last century have
joined forces with the jihadist heirs of the Mufti of Jerusalem to deny
the Jewish people our sovereign rights to our land. If they succeed
they will finally and irrevocably destroy Herzl’s greatest achievement."
This is something that I am going to repeat the next time anyone asks me: why are Jews liberals?
Despite all the evidence that the left is hostile to Jews in Israel, why do Jews vote liberal (or Democrat)?
Why do they remain liberals?
Most of the time I have a standard answer which is: because they are liberals first and then-just happened to have been born Jewish. Their church (synagogue) is the Church of Liberalism.
Assimilation (now into the dominant liberal culture) is the latest Jewish utopian movement.
And as a utopian movement, it is bound to fail as well.
But Jewish utopianism is a long-established tradition throughout history, with plenty of failed messiahs and legions of dead Jews littering the path. The facts, however, are irrelevant. The truth and evidence are of no concern!
Jewish assimilation and liberalism are simply the latest Jewish utopian movements.
They are just as destructive as other failed, Jewish utopian movements.
The stakes have always been high and the losses great.
But now the State of Israel is at at existential risk because of this rot within our own people, their external cheerleaders and their proxies as well.
