The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family

A great part of the novel’s context revolves around the creation of the Jewish state of Israel, Zionism, and the differences between Israeli Jews and the rest of the Jewish diaspora. As the narrator Ruben states at the beginning of Chapter 4. the state of Israel is 10 years old at the time of the novel (i.e., 1959-1960). This is significant because the creation of Israel witnessed the culmination of a centuries-long Jewish dream of repossessing the old lands of Judea, which they believed were promised to them by their God. This dream came to be known as Zionism, but how exactly to create a Jewish state, where it should be, how it should be governed, etc., differed among many groups. There was not one unified idea of Zionism.

In the novel, Ben-Zion Netanyahu is a member of the New Zionist Organization (NZO), founded by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who broke away from the World Zionist Organization because he believed the Jewish people needed to use military tactics to bring about Zion. Jabotinsky and his followers attacked British forces (who controlled the area of Palestine following the Ottoman defeat after WW1) to convince the British to create a Jewish state.