Benzion Netanhayu, 99, father of the Israeli prime minister

Benzion Netanyahu, father of the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is a professor emeritus of history at Cornell, though he now lives in Israel. In 1996, just after Benjamin was elected Prime Minister for the first time, and one year after the elder Netanyahu had published his magnum opus, "The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain," I proposed doing a piece on him that would explore both his scholarly and political views. Benjamin has often commented on the influence his father had on him and his two brothers (the eldest of the three, Yonatan, died leading the heroic Israeli assault on Entebbe, rescuing hostages).

The reputedly ultra-nationalist Benzion didn't go for it at the time, commenting (reasonably) that people would comb the resulting article looking for things to use against his son. Now, however, age 99, he has cast aside such scruples, and recently sat down for a lengthy interview with the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, who had not been consulted, caught wind of the interview, he asked that the newspaper not print the transcript, citing his father's advanced age. In a compromise, the newspaper let the Prime Minister's brother, Iddo, look it over and do some editing.

It would be hard to argue that the interview was sanitized, however, judging from excerpts posted on The Promised Land, an English-language blog written by a reporter for Maariv:

Q: I suppose you don't believe in the peace process.

A: I don't see any signs that the Arabs want peace we will face fierce attacks from the Arabs, and we must react firmly. If we don't, they will go on and Jews will start leaving the country we just handed them a strong blow in Gaza, and they still bargain with us over one hostage if we gave them a blow that would really hurt them, they would have given us [the hostage] Gilad Shalit back.

Q: Operation "Cast Lead" [the incursion into Gaza] was one of the worst blows we handed on a civilian population.

A: That's not enough. It's possible that we should have hit harder.

Q: You don't like the Arabs, to say the least.

A: The Bible finds no worse image than this of the man from the desert. And why? Because he has no respect for any law. Because in the desert he can do as he pleases. The tendency towards conflict is in the essence of the Arab. He is an enemy by essence. His personality won't allow him any compromise or agreement. It doesn't matter what kind of resistance he will meet, what price he will pay. His existence is one of perpetual war.

[More after the jump.]