Netanyahu, father of Israeli PM, dies Benzion Netanyahu, a leading figure in the early Zionist movement and the father of the Israeli prime minister, died on Monday at the age of 102. Born in Warsaw in 1910, his family moved to British-controlled Palestine ten years later, eventually settling in Jerusalem. A historian by training and profession, Mr Netanyahu has been credited as a decisive influence on his son, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other rightwing leaders in Israel today. He was a fervent believer in the idea of "Greater Israel," rejected the notion of a Palestinian state and vociferously defended Israel's right to all the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. In the years leading up to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, Benzion Netanyahu emerged as an important member of the Revisionist Zionist movement, serving as secretary to the group's leader, Zeev Jabotinsky. The movement called for a more aggressive policy towards the British mandate government in Palestine, and rejected all proposals to divide the land into two states, one for the Jews and one for the Palestinian Arabs. The movement clashed openly with the more moderate leaders of the mainstream Zionist organisations, who eventually succeeded in sidelining their internal opponents in the first decades after the founding of Israel. The movement is seen as the ideological forebear of the modern Likud, the rightwing political party led by Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister was known to consult frequently - and occasionally clash - with his father on policy. Benzion Netanyahu, the prime minister once said, taught him "how to correctly view reality, how to understand what it contains within it and draw the necessary conclusions." As an academic, Mr Netanyahu specialised in the history of the Jewish community in Spain. He taught Jewish history at a number of US universities, ending his career as professor emeritus at Cornell University. Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, lauded Mr Netanyahu on Monday as "a great historian and a great Jew."