At brother’s memorial, PM lauds Yoni Netanyahu’s ‘commander's qualities’
Accompanied by wife and sons, Netanyahu delivers emotional speech during the memorial service marking 42 years since the death of his brother Yoni Netanyahu, who was killed in action during Operation Entebbe.
Yoni, who was a commander of the Sayeret Matkal commando unit, was killed in action during Operation Enntebbe—to rescue Israeli hostages held in Uganda in 1976.
The event was attended by several MKs, ministers, current and former IDF commanders and the Netanyahu family, including prime minister’s wife Sara and their two sons Yair and Avner.
“I am not used to talking in this position—and I believe I haven’t done it in 42 years—but I want to talk about a battle during the Yom Kuppur War when Yoni’s unit of 30 people was confronted by 50 Syrian commandos, and three of our soldiers were killed. The Syrian force was destroyed, despite the fact that they opened fire first. Yoni had qualities of a commander and the ability to read the battle with composure and courage, which are important to victory," said the prime minister during his remarks.
Yoni was awarded a medal for his participation in the war. In June 1975 he was appointed as the commander of the Sayeret Matkal unit. A year after, during a rescue operation in Entebbe, he was shot in the chest at the terminal in Entebbe Airport and died shortly after.
“This afternoon we’ll inaugurate a new wing in Jewish Legion Museum, the clear core of the IDF which was established 100 years ago, when Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor said to the British Army that Jews can be soldiers. That was a revolutionay idea. Later on, the first Jewish Legion was established,” Netanyahu continued.
“That legion fought here, in Israel and marched with symbols, a Star of David and a flag. It excited the entire world. During their first march in London there was tremendous excitement. The commander of the legion was the British officer John Henry Patterson. He knew the Torah and was fascinated by those Jewish fighters,” exclaimed the prime minister.
“Twenty years later, in 1938 my father, who was only 28 years old, went to London and convinced Jabotinsky that he needs to repeat his actions in America for the sake of the Jewish state," Netanyahu continued. "
Shortly after arriving in the US, Jabotinsky died. My father convinced him to focus on the struggle not only for the Jewish state but for the Jewish and Hebrew army,” the premier explained.
“One of those who had helped him in his propaganda efforts was that same officer, John Henry Patterson, who came to the US. The friendship between the two strengthened. As a result, my father and mother, during their Zionist mission in 1946, decided to call their first born son ‘Jonathan’. ‘John’ in honor of John Henry Patterson, the first commander of the Jewish force in 2000 years, and ‘Nathan’ in honor of my grandfather Nathan Mileikowsky, Netanyahu,” he told his listners.
