[[Russia]] | [[Zionism]] | [[Uganda Programme]] | [[Theodor Herzl]] | [[19th Century]] | [[Benzion Netanyahu (1920-2012)]] # Benjamin Netanyahu's Original Family Name Nathan Mileikowsky isn't a separate person—it's Benjamin Netanyahu's family name before his father **Benzion Netanyahu** changed it. ## The Name Change **Original Name**: The family name was **Mileikowsky** (sometimes spelled Milikowsky or Milejkowski), a Polish-Jewish surname. **Why Changed**: Benzion Mileikowsky hebraicized the family name to **Netanyahu** (meaning "God has given" in Hebrew) as part of the Zionist project of rejecting diaspora Jewish identity and creating new Hebrew identity in Palestine/Israel. This practice was extremely common among Zionist immigrants. Examples: - David Grün became David **Ben-Gurion** - Golda Mabovitch became Golda **Meir** - Shimon Perski became Shimon **Peres** The name changes symbolized rebirth—shedding "weak" diaspora Jewish identity for strong, rooted Hebrew/Israeli identity. ## Why This Matters **Anti-Semitic Usage**: The Mileikowsky name gets weaponized by anti-Semites and some anti-Zionist critics who use it to argue Netanyahu is "really" a Polish foreigner with no connection to the land, delegitimizing Israeli claims. **Legitimate Historical Point**: The name change does illustrate that Zionism was a settler-colonial project—European Jews immigrating to Palestine and claiming it as ancestral homeland despite centuries of absence. Netanyahu's family came from Poland/Lithuania, not historic Palestine. **Netanyahu's Response**: He rarely acknowledges the name. When critics bring it up, he dismisses it as irrelevant or anti-Semitic deflection. ## The Broader Context Netanyahu's family history is standard Ashkenazi Zionist trajectory: **Father's Background**: Benzion Netanyahu (born Mileikowsky) was born in Warsaw, immigrated to Palestine as a child, became historian and Revisionist Zionist ideologue, worked with Jabotinsky, spent decades in America teaching. **Identity Politics**: The name change represents Zionism's attempt to create "new Jew"—Hebrew-speaking, militarily capable, agriculturally rooted—versus diaspora Jew seen as bookish, passive, disconnected from land. **Irony**: Netanyahu, despite changed name and sabra image, spent formative years in America, speaks perfect English, is culturally hybrid. He embodies the very cosmopolitanism that Zionism officially rejected. The Mileikowsky name is historically accurate but gets deployed in bad faith by people trying to delegitimize Netanyahu or Israel by implying foreignness. The legitimate critique is that Zionism involved European colonization of inhabited land—the specific surname is beside the point.