84R18679 JGH-D
By: Riddle H.C.R. No. 102
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Party won the
recent parliamentary election in Israel on March 17, 2015,
empowering Mr. Netanyahu to form a new government and embark upon a
fourth term as prime minister of the "other Lone Star State"; and
WHEREAS, Born in Tel Aviv in 1949, Mr. Netanyahu spent his
early years in Jerusalem, and twice during the 1950s and 1960s, he
lived with his family in a suburb of Philadelphia, where he
graduated from Cheltenham High School; and
WHEREAS, From 1967 to 1972, Mr. Netanyahu served in the
Israeli Defense Forces as a member of the elite special forces unit
Sayeret Matkal, taking part in a number of dangerous missions; in
1972, he was one of the commandos who successfully retook a hijacked
plane at Tel Aviv-Lod International Airport, during which action he
received a gunshot wound to his shoulder; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Netanyahu returned to the United States in 1972
to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but he
interrupted his studies for 40 days during the Yom Kippur War to
take part in special forces raids along the Suez Canal and to lead a
commando team deep into Syria; he then continued his education at
MIT, earning a bachelor's degree in architecture and a master's
degree in management; and
WHEREAS, In 1978, Mr. Netanyahu became head of an antiterror
institute in Israel named for his late brother, Yonatan, who died
while leading a special forces unit in rescuing hijacked Israeli
citizens in Entebbe, Uganda; he entered public service in 1982 as
deputy chief of mission at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.,
and from 1984 to 1988, he served as the Israeli ambassador to the
United Nations; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Netanyahu joined the Likud Party in 1988 and
later that year won election to the Knesset, Israel's parliament;
he became the leader of Likud in 1993, and he first served as the
nation's prime minister from 1996 to 1999; after spending two years
in the private sector, he returned to public life, first as foreign
minister and then as finance minister under Ariel Sharon; by 2005,
he was once again the leader of Likud, and he became prime minister
again in 2009; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Netanyahu has been elected prime minister four
times, matching the record of David Ben-Gurion, the founder of
Israel, and he is the only prime minister to have won three
elections in a row; he is also the second-longest-serving prime
minister in Israel's history, after Ben-Gurion; and
WHEREAS, Since he first took up arms in his nation's defense
in 1967, Benjamin Netanyahu has been for nearly half a century a
dynamic and passionate champion for the State of Israel, and his
confident and decisive leadership, and the strong bonds he has
forged with his friends and allies in the United States, have helped
to ensure Israel's prosperity and security; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 84th Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby congratulate Benjamin Netanyahu on his reelection as prime
minister of Israel and extend to him sincere best wishes for the
future; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be
prepared for Mr. Netanyahu as an expression of high regard by the
Texas House of Representatives and Senate.