Who was Menachem Begin?
Menachem Begin grew up in Brest-Litovsk, where he was born in 1913. As a law student in Warsaw he joined Betar, the youth wing of Ze'ev Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionism. The Soviets jailed him in 1940-1941. He then travelled to Palestine with a Polish army unit and in 1943 took over the Irgun, a Jewish underground force. When Israel became a state, he formed the Herut party and spent almost thirty years in opposition. In 1977 his Likud alliance won the election and he became prime minister. He won the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Egypt's Anwar Sadat. He left office in 1983 and died nine years later.
Political views
- He held to Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionism, which turned away from the socialism of Labor Zionism and put weight on strong leadership and discipline.Source: news.bbc.co.uk
- Under his command the Irgun fought British rule by force, and in 1946 it bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 people.Source: news.bbc.co.uk
- He bitterly opposed the 1952 deal on reparations from West Germany, which he said amounted to forgiving Nazi crimes.Source: en.wikipedia.org
- He tried to steer Israel's state-run economy toward free markets, with a reform plan that let the currency float and trimmed subsidies.Source: en.wikipedia.org
- He invited Egypt's President Sadat to Jerusalem, and later signed a treaty with Egypt and withdrew Israeli forces from Sinai.Source: news.bbc.co.uk
- He backed new Jewish towns in the West Bank and Gaza, and his government annexed the Golan Heights.Source: en.wikipedia.org
- He said that standing against anti-Semitism meant the Jewish state could defend itself by whatever means it needed, and in 1981 he ordered the air strike on Iraq's nuclear reactor.Source: news.bbc.co.uk
Legacy
Admirers say Begin gave a voice to Mizrahi Jews who felt shut out by the Labor establishment, won the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab country and stood firm for Jewish security. Critics point to the Irgun's bombings of British targets while he commanded it, and to the Deir Yassin killings of Arab villagers in 1948. They add that the 1982 invasion of Lebanon pulled Israel into a long occupation. An Israeli inquiry later found that his government bore indirect blame for the Sabra and Shatila massacre, in which Lebanese militiamen killed Palestinians. His economic record also suffered because inflation climbed.
In their own words
“Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family.”