יואל שילה

Benjamin Netanyahu will be remembered in history as one of the greatest leaders of the free world. Not only of the Jewish people, but of the entire Western world. What has guided his public life for more than fifty years is, without doubt, a deep consciousness of Netzach Yisrael, the eternity of Israel. He is a leader whose driving force is very different from what we usually see in politics. His motivation moves between a profound concern for the future of the Jewish people and a deep faith in the historic role of the people of Israel. Alongside this stands a powerful vision for the State of Israel that helped transform it into a global high tech powerhouse and a regional military and diplomatic force. Once, during one of my meetings with Netanyahu, he asked me about my family name and where my ancestors came from. I told him about my great great grandfather who fled Eastern Europe, from the city of Odessa in Ukraine, to England. He was a persecuted Jew who carried with him the historic fate of the wandering Jew. I also told him about my grandfather who, in 1948, was a young Jewish man in London. When he heard David Ben Gurion declare the establishment of the State of Israel on the radio, he immediately boarded a flight and came to Israel to fight in the battles of the War of Independence. Netanyahu listened with great attentiveness. I felt that the story touched something deep within him, the place that he lives and breathes more than anything else. The story of the Jewish people and the idea of Netzach Yisrael. This is the driving force that runs in his veins. This is why he has taken upon himself what he sees as a life mission to confront and remove the Iranian threat and to prevent the Iranian regime’s project of destroying the State of Israel. Netanyahu grew up on the story of his father, Professor Benzion Netanyahu, who together with Ze’ev Jabotinsky tried to save the Jews of Poland before Hitler’s terrible destruction. They did not succeed. The gates of the land remained closed and the Jews of Poland did not escape. Even before the Holocaust, Jabotinsky tried to warn the Jews of Poland to understand the scale of the danger. He could not prevent the catastrophe. This is the historical lesson that was deeply instilled in Netanyahu from a young age. Never remain indifferent to a threat of annihilation against the Jewish people and do everything possible to stop such a threat before it materializes. The Jews of Poland did not have a leader who could recognize the danger in time and mobilize the world and the leaders of the great powers to fight against the destruction of the Jewish people. By the time Churchill entered the war it was already too late for nearly six million Jews who were murdered in Hitler’s machinery of extermination. Until today the Jewish people have not returned to the numbers they had before the Holocaust. The Jews of Poland did not have their own Netanyahu who could mobilize the world in time to remove the terrible threat and the worst happened. As someone who has had the privilege of meeting Netanyahu more than once, I believe it is a great fortune that our generation has a leader of such stature. A leader who knows how to conduct remarkable diplomacy, navigate between everyday politics and major statesmanship, and build strategic international alliances. Above all he is a leader driven by a deep historical consciousness. A deep connection to Netzach Yisrael and to the long and enduring story of the Jewish people. I am certain that when I tell my grandchildren that I had the privilege of working with this man, it will be one of the most meaningful things I will ever be able to tell them.