Menachem Begin

Menachem Wolfovitch Begin (August 16, 1913-March 9, 1992) ( name in Hebrew: {{Audio|He-Menachem_Begin.ogg|??????? ???????}} ) became the 6th Prime Minister of Israel in May 1977. With the mediation of US President Jimmy Carter, Begin negotiated the Camp David Accords with President Sadat of Egypt, agreeing on the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from the Sinai Peninsula and its return to Egypt. Begin and Sadat were awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for this implementation of "Land for peace".

In British Palestine

:See related article: Irgun.

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Forcing the British out of Palestine

Begin then moved to the British Mandate of Palestine, where he quickly made a name for himself as a fierce critic of the socialist-oriented Zionist groups led by David Ben-Gurion for being too co-operative with the "colonial" British. Begin was a proponent of a militant Revisionist Zionism. In 1942 he joined the Irgun (Etzel) and in 1947 assumed its leadership. He was determined to force the British government to remove its troops entirely from Palestine. He believed that the British had reneged on their original promise of the Balfour Declaration, 1917, and that the White Paper of 1939 restricting Jewish immigration was a travesty.

Related Topics:
British Mandate of Palestine - Socialist - David Ben-Gurion - Revisionist Zionism - 1942 - Irgun - 1947 - Balfour Declaration, 1917 - White Paper of 1939

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Armed rebellion against the British

Even after the Holocaust (1939-1945) the British refused to open the borders of Palestine to Jewish refugees and survivors of Hitler's extermination camps. Begin was outraged at the policies of the British which he deemed to be outright pro-Arab. He issued a call to arms and from 1945-1948 the Irgun launched an all-out armed rebellion, attacking British installations and posts. He planned the bombing of the British administrative and military headquarters (at the luxurious King David Hotel) in Jerusalem that killed 91 people, including many British officers and troops.

Related Topics:
The Holocaust - Hitler's - Extermination camp - Arab - British administrative and military headquarters - Jerusalem

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Secret commander eludes capture

Somehow, he managed to elude both the British and the members of the Jewish Agency who wanted to capture him. From his places of hiding, he directed the unconventional warfare of thousands of fighters who plagued the British forces. Tens of thousands of British troops were called in to quell this Jewish uprising, but Begin and his Irgun continuously harassed the British until the day they pulled out of Palestine in 1948.

Related Topics:
Jewish Agency - Unconventional warfare - Irgun

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The Altalena affair

In 1948 Begin was at the center of the shipping of Irgun arms to Israel, ending in the sinking of the Altalena by gunfire ordered by David Ben-Gurion. Begin was onboard the ship, and a number of Irgun men were killed. It was assumed that Ben-Gurion was hoping that Begin would be killed too, but that did not happen. The leader of the troops firing on the Altalena was none other than the young Yitzhak Rabin.

Related Topics:
1948 - Altalena - David Ben-Gurion - Yitzhak Rabin

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The Deir Yassin episode

Begin has been accused of being responsible for what transpired on the April 9, 1948, when commandos of the Irgun and the Lehi attacked Deir Yassin, an Arab village of about 750 residents located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and according to Plan Dalet, it was to be destroyed and the residents evacuated. Yet over 100 people were killed. Begin had maintained that the residents were warned to retreat. The entire episode remains disputed.

Related Topics:
Irgun - Lehi - Plan Dalet

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Calls for Irgun to stop fighting

Within days of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948 Begin broadcast a speech on radio calling on his men to put down their weapons. It was the first time that the public had ever heard his voice. He reviewed some of his forces at a few public parades and repeated his command that they lay down their arms and join with the Haganah to form the newly established Israel Defense Forces. People were surpised at his slight build and mild demeanor, the formality of the way he dressed and his "old world" manners and attention to detail and appearance.

Related Topics:
Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel - May 14 - 1948 - Haganah - Israel Defense Forces

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The Irgun, together with the underground Lehi militia (also known as "The Stern Gang"), were widely denounced by left-wing Israelis, particularly Ben-Gurion, as "terrorist" organisations. Shortly after the founding of the state of Israel the Irgun and Lehi chose to disband, with Begin renouncing any thought of civil war even though he would be in the political wilderness for almost thirty years.

Related Topics:
''Lehi'' - Militia - Terrorist

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Sephardi political support

Begin's voice was not quelled and he continued to have an appeal to those who felt that they were "second class" citizens in Israel, particularly the newly arrived Sephardim, who had fled from Arab countries and resented the dominance of the secular Ashkenazi elites many of whom were atheists and even communists more sympathetic to the USSR than they were to the Sephardim whom they deemed to be "primitive". Therefore Begin's anti-socialist and anti-elitist messages of Jewish pride with his open embrace of Judaism and the appeal to strength attracted them, and the Sephardic Jews of Israel became his political base that gave him their votes as a block, and when he was finally elected as Prime Mnister in 1977 many of them chanted Begin melekh Yisrael ("Begin king Israel"), (a reference to a traditional Jewish song celebrating the biblical King David).

Related Topics:
Sephardi - Fled from Arab countries - Ashkenazi - Atheists - Communists - USSR - Judaism - King David

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