Soccer Dad

A bibi story

Having had the opportunity to participate with a number of other bloggers in a call to Binyamin (Benjamin) Netanyahu the other day, I thought about him a bit. He's thought of rather highly in my family because of something that happened in late 1998.

My brother-in-law's father-in-law passed away. His son Z. was studying in Israel. The problem was that then Histadrut leader, Amir Peretz had called for one of his paralyzing strikes. There were no regular flights out of Israel.

For some reason, that I don't recall right now, then PM Netanyahu was to go to Paris and meet with Secretary of State Albright.

Someone as Z.'s Yeshiva had a connection with the Prime Minister's office and was able to arrange for Z. to fly on the Prime Minister's flight. (Z. wasn't the only passenger "tremping" - as one Israeli newspaper put it - with the PM. There were a few others including a prominent doctor.) From Paris, Z. would take the Concorde to get home for funeral.

On the flight, Z. said that the journalists on board were rather obnoxious and had nothing to do with him. That was until Netanyahu made an announcement that there was a young man on board who was traveling home to his father's funeral. It was only then that the journalists paid him any mind or showed him any consideration.

I understand that Netanyahu rubs a lot of people the wrong way. However we have a slightly different view of him.

Technorati tag: Benjamin Netanyahu.