Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his family thanked Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni Wednesday for memorializing Netanyahu's brother, who was killed in the 1976 Israeli raid at Uganda's Entebbe Airport.

But the Ugandan president, who is in Jerusalem to attend Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations, wanted to know about the more distant past.

He grilled Israeli opposition-leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his historian father on Israel's history - including the Jewish presence in the Holy Land.

He asked the Netanyahus when Jewish people first lived in what is now Israel. He also wanted to know what other communities lived in the area throughout the centuries, and if Jewish people displaced those communities.

"In the Bible, when the Israelites came from Egypt, there were other tribes here. What happened to them?" President Museveni asked, referring to the biblical story of the Israelites' return to the land they came from after escaping slavery in Egypt.

The 98-year-old Netanyahu patriarch, Benzion, a retired professor of history at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was happy to oblige. He, along with help from his sons, offered a history of the Jewish people's many exiles and returns to the area that now comprises Israel.

Netanyahu spokesman Ari Harow said President Museveni, "seemed to want to get beyond the history of the last 60 years."

Harow described the visit as a social one. Museveni met the Netanyahus in 2005 at the dedication of a memorial to Lt. Col. Jonathan (Yoni) Netanyahu, who became a heroic figure in Israel after his death. He was the only Israeli soldier killed in the daring rescue.

Benjamin Netanyahu called the famous raid, in which Israeli forces rescued more than 100 hostages held by Palestinian gunmen, "a turning point in the world's battle against terrorism." He offered his support for a planned museum commemorating the rescue.

Museveni spent much of the 1970s leading resistance against Uganda's then-dictator Idi Amin, who supported the Palestinian hijackers.