A POET AND A WARRIOR

 

Jonathan (Yoni) Netanyahu z”l always felt committed to serving in the Israeli Defense Forces. While Yoni enjoyed his studies at Harvard, in which he excelled, he felt increasingly that his place was not there. Israel was in the midst of fighting a “War of Attrition” against Egypt and Jordan, and of combating terrorism in its towns and cities. Consequently, he discontinued his studies in philosophy and mathematics at Harvard and returned to Israel to rejoin the army. Soon after, he was appointed commander in chief of the top commando unit in the Israeli military (where his two younger brothers, Benjamin - Israel’s current prime minister - and Ido, also served).

He had previously served in the Six Day War and was badly hurt while helping to rescue a fellow soldier who lay wounded deep behind enemy lines. In the same year he commanded a dangerous operation, in which senior Syrian officers were captured and exchanged in return for captive Israeli pilots. The following year, he participated in “Operation Spring of Youth” in which terrorists and the leading members of Black September were selectively killed.

During the Yom Kippur War Netanyahu commanded the force in the Golan Heights, in a battle to prevent the Syrian’s raiding the Golan’s heartland. In the same Operation he also rescued Lieutenant Colonel Yossi Ben Hanan who was lying wounded  behind Syrian lines.  The unit he led was part of the small force which unbelievably held back a massive flood of 700 Soviet tanks manned by Syrians. Following the war, he was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service.

Due to the heavy casualties inflicted on the Armoured Corps, (with a disproportionate number in the officer ranks), he then volunteered to serve as the Armoured Corps commander. Netanyahu turned his brigade into the leading military unit in the Golan Heights.

In 1980, many of Yoni Netanyahu's personal letters were published. The famous author Herman Wouk describes them as a "remarkable work of literature, possibly one of the great documents of our time." Many of his letters were written hurriedly under trying conditions in the field, but according to a review in The New York Times, they gave a "convincing portrayal of a talented, sensitive man of our times who might have excelled at many things, yet clearly chose to devote himself to the practice and mastery of the art of war - not because he liked to kill or wanted to - but because he knew that, as always in human history, good is no match for evil without the power to physically defend itself."

Netanyahu's father commented in 1977, that Yoni would have been disappointed with the West's reactions against terrorism. "He would, I think, express great dismay and concern at the weakness and indecision displayed by some democracies toward this phenomenon," he said. "He felt that there are principles that must be upheld if civilization itself is to survive. In a letter to his parents, in 1969, Yoni wrote:

“In another week I’ll be 23. On me, on us, the young men of Israel, rests the duty of keeping our country safe. This is a heavy responsibility, which matures us early... I do not regret what I have done and what I’m about to do. I’m convinced that what I am doing is right. I believe in myself, in my country and in my future”.

In a letter to his brother Benjamin he wrote in December 1973:

“We’re preparing for war, and it’s hard to know what to expect. What I’m positive of is that there will be a next round, and others after that. But I would rather opt for living here in continual battle than for becoming part of the wandering Jewish people. Any compromise will simply hasten the end. As I don’t intend to tell my grandchildren about the Jewish State in the twentieth century as a mere brief and transient episode in thousands of years of wandering, I intend to hold on here with all my might.”

On July 4, 1976, while commanding the legendary Entebbe rescue mission Yoni was killed from a stray bullet, and laid to rest among the other Israeli heroes at Jerusalem’s military cemetery on Mount Herzl.

Operation Entebbe became known as Mivtsa Yonatan (Operation Yonatan) in his honor. The Yonatan Institute, established in 1979, sponsors international conferences on combating terrorism.

                                                                            

Herman Wouk wrote that Netanyahu was already a legend in Israel even before his death at the age of 30. “He was a taciturn philosopher-soldier of terrific endurance, a hard-fibered, charismatic young leader, a magnificent fighting man. On the Golan Heights, in the Yom Kippur War, and after Entebbe, "Yoni" became in Israel almost a symbol of the nation itself.”