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their son, who said he would have enjoyed the contest even if he had finished in last place.” 118
    In April 2010, Avner went on to compete in the World Bible Quiz competition, held at the Jerusalem Center for the Performing Arts. In this he placed third, but his parents were just as thrilled, as was the rest of his extended family. In fact, Avner’s maternal uncle Hagai Ben-Artzi (one of Sara’s brothers) noted that it was his father, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, who had made Bible study such an important part of their family’s life.
    “I’m saluting my father here; it’s all thanks to him,” Ben-Artzi told the Jerusalem Post . “They [Avner and his grandfather Shmuel] meet every day to study the Bible.” 119
    The prime minister handed out the prizes to each of the top three finishers, including his son. “David Ben Gurion said that the foundation of our existence here is the Bible,” Netanyahu said. “I was brought up studying the Bible; so were my brothers. The Bible has once again become the Book of books for all of Israel. . . . The Bible is the basis for the existence of the people of Israel and the State of Israel.”
    A few months later, in July 2010, a friend e-mailed me to ask if I had seen Netanyahu interviewed on Larry King Live on CNN the night before. I had not, but at his prompting, I found the intriguing interview online.
    “You’re prime minister of Israel,” Larry King noted. “A previous prime minister was assassinated. You live in the center of a hostile world. Are you ever able to really relax?”
    “Yeah—you know, yes,” Netanyahu replied. “And I’ll tell you when. Every Saturday, our Sabbath, we have a day off. It’s a very good idea that this institution was brought into the world. So I have a day off. And every Saturday, I take an hour and a half, and I read from the Bible with my younger boy. He has just won the National Bible Championship in Israel, and he came third in the international. It’s like the big spelling bee, you know, huge. I relax then. I draw a lot of spiritual strength. You know, I used to teach him. He is now fifteen. But in the last couple of years, he teaches me. So, yes, I draw enormous reservoirs of strength, and I think that is needed for all leaders, but especially for the leaders of Israel.” 120
    A Bible Study at the Prime Minister’s House
    In the fall of 2011, sadness struck the Netanyahu home. Sara’s father, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, passed away. In December of that year, the prime minister honored his father-in-law in a very special way.
    “Taking a page out of David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin’s playbook, Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu will begin hosting a regular Bible study group in his official residence for researchers, public officials, and invited guests,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “Netanyahu announced the establishment of the study circle on Friday at a ceremony marking thirty days since the passing of his father-in-law, Shmuel Ben-Artzi. The study group will be named after Ben-Artzi, a noted poet and Bible teacher. Both Ben-Gurion and Begin, when they each served as prime minister, hosted regular Bible study groups. Netanyahu said he was establishing the class to perpetuate love of the Bible.” 121
    I wrote about this development at the time and noted that “these are excellent steps by the prime minister, and he should be commended for them. Indeed, let us pray that the study of the Word of God has a powerful, personal impact on the prime minister and his family and each of his colleagues and guests. Let’s pray that many Israelis would follow the prime minister’s lead and begin reading the Holy Scriptures again and that Bible studies in people’s homes would spring up all over the land of Israel. Let’s pray that more and more Israelis would develop a new and deeper curiosity about Bible prophecy, both the dramatic prophecies in the Scriptures that have already been fulfilled and those that will come to pass soon,