Binyamin Netanyahu's Official Website

CLICK HERE TO VISIT (links to homepage or first page of website). Be sure to see his LINKS PAGE, too. Personal Anecdote: Mr. Netanyahu, before becoming Prime Minister of Israel, Cabinet Minister, Likud Party member and sometimes leader, used to be Israel's Consul General in Los Angeles, California. That's how I met him. I didn't know him as well as some other members of the Jewish Defense League knew him but I was aware of his devlish sense of humor. Once upon a time (and many times thereafter), the PLO and Islamic Student Council (actually pretty much one and the same as each other) planned a violent anti-Israel riot at the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles. They actually imagined that they could walk right up to the building housing the consulate and start smashing windows or beating people up. Whatever. They didn't count on the Jewish Defense League getting there FIRST. We were a human barrier that they simply could not penetrate and those few who tried very quickly regretted the attempt and scampered back to their side of the boulevard with a few new bruises to show for their pathetic attempt. The FBI did not try to stop the confrontation although they were happily taking pictures of all the attendees. On both sides. Eventually, the LAPD showed up and ordered the entire crowd (both sides) to disperse. And there was simply no way the JDL would abandon Israel until every last anti-Israel anti-American fanatic was gone from the street. Every last one of them. So, just as the LAPD started slapping on the handcuffs on us JDL members, Binyamin Netanyahu comes out from the consulate stating with great conviction to the police, "No, no, you have no legal authority to do that." Seems that it is federal law that the building(s) that house any foreign embassy or consulate as well as 500 feet extending outwards from those buildings is the sovereign territory of that nation. So the LAPD was stepping onto Israeli "soil" to arrest the JDL. Mr. Netanyahu told them they would have to gain his government's permission to do that and since he was his government's representative and he was declaring all of us in JDL to be Israeli citizens "by right of return*," he was therefore refusing to allow the LAPD to have access to "his" citizens. He asked them to kindly step off of Israeli soil. So none of us were arrested that day and we turned our side of the street into a great block party celebration. Shalom Sherman, a well-known Israeli entertainer who happened to be on the premises, came out to entertain us. It was great fun. And I thought that Mr. Netanyahu was a very funny man for doing what he did. *The "right of return" refers to Jews who emigrate to Israel and can almost automatically be granted Israeli citizenship by claiming this right. A person normally goes to Eretz Israel to do this but conceivably, since Israeli embassies are considered "Israeli soil," I guess a person could also make that same claim that way. At least, that's how it worked that one day with Mr. Netanyahu. Many American citizens hold dual citizenship with another country.