Benjamin Netanyahu From Cheltenham, Pennsylvania

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

                                                 Netanyahu in 2023; at age 74

Benjamin Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 21, 1949, but his father and family had immigrated to a township outside of Philadelphia to teach at Dropsie college between 1956 to 1958 when Ben was 7 years old and in 2nd grade till he was 9 years old.  He was a middle child.  Later on his education was in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to get his BS and MS, and also Harvard University.

A 17-year-old Netanyahu, right, sits with a friend at the entrance to his family home in Jerusalem in 1967. Netanyahu spent his teenage years in the United States, going to high school in Philadelphia.

 He became the Prime Minister of Israel 3 times putting in 17 years as the PM, now its 9th PM.    Bibi served from 1996 to 1999=3 years; then from 2009 to 2021=12 year run;  and now since December 29, 2022=2 more years so far=17 years.  

After graduating from high school outside of Philadelphia in 1967 at 18, Netanyahu returned to Israel to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. He trained as a combat soldier and served for five years in a special forces unit of the IDF, Sayeret Matkal which is as hard a place as any in Israel ending in 1972 at age 23. My service in the unit strengthened my understanding of the risks involved behind approving operations and the risks that fighters are taking on. It is tangible and not theoretical for me. BenjaminNetanyahu, on Sayeret Matkal (Maariv 2007) In other words, graduating from such a place is SPECIAL !

His older brother,  Jonathan,  died in service on July 4, 1976.  He know what its like to lose a special member of your family.  Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu (Hebrew: יונתן נתניהו; March 13, 1946, New York City, United States – July 4, 1976, Entebbe, Uganda) was the commander of Sayeret Matkal, which is a special armed force unit of the Israel Defense Forces, from 1975 to July 1976.  In fact, Yonatan was serving as the commander of Benjamin's former unit, the Sayeret Matkal, and died during the counter-terrorism hostage-rescue mission Operation Thunderbolt in which his unit rescued more than 100 mostly Israeli hostages hijacked by terrorists and flown to the Entebbe Airport in Uganda.The subject of hostages hits Bibi personally !!!

He took part in numerous cross-border raids during the 1967–70 War of Attrition, including the March 1968 Battle of Karameh, when the IDF attacked Jordan to capture PLO leader Yasser Arafat but were repulsed with heavy casualties, rising to become a team-leader in the unit. He was wounded in combat on multiple occasions. He was involved in many other missions, including the 1968 Israeli raid on Lebanon and the rescue of the hijacked Sabena Flight 571 in May 1972, in which he was shot in the shoulder. He was discharged from active service in 1972 but remained in the Sayeret Matkal reserves.

Following his discharge, he left to study in the United States but returned in October 1973 to serve in the Yom Kippur War. He took part in special forces raids along the Suez Canal against Egyptian forces before leading a commando attack deep inside Syrian territory, the details of which remain classified today.                                                                 

                     Netanyahu with his son Yair at the Western Wall in 1998  They are putting a note/prayer into the wall which is the custom.

Yair, now 33 years old, Yair Netanyahu was born in Jerusalem to Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara. He has a brother, Avner Netanyahu, and a half-sister, Noa Netanyahu-Roth; Noa is Benjamin Netanyahu's daughter by his first wife, Miriam Haran née Weizmann.

Resource:

wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu