Irgun emblem. The map shows the British Mandate of Palestine, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" is written above the map, and "raq kach" ("only thus") is written below.
Achievements
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin accepted the prize in person
Benny Begin as a child with his parents in 1946. His father Menachem, then commander of the Irgun, is disguised as a rabbi to avoid arrest by the British
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin acknowledge applause during a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C., during which President Jimmy Carter announced the results of the Camp David Accords
Irgun emblem. The map shows the British Mandate of Palestine, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" is written above the map, and "raq kach" ("only thus") is written below.
By 1955 Begin had initiated talks with the General Zionists in an effort to form a non- socialist political bloc. Ten years later an agreement was finally reached when Gahal was established by Herut and the Liberal Party of Israel.
Toward the 1973 elections, the Likud bloc was set up to include additional political parties besides Herut and the Liberals. The Likud won its first major electoral victory in May 1977, and on June 20, Begin was sworn in as Prime Minister. He appointed Moshe Dayan, who left the Alignment as Foreign Minister – to the disappointment of some members of his own bloc.
Menachem Volfovich Begin was an Israeli politician and a leader of Revisionist Zionism, who from 1977 to 1983, as head of the right-wing nationalist Herut Party and the Likud bloc, became the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel.
Background
Menachem Volfovich Begin was born on August 16, 1913 in Brest-Litovsk (now Brest, Belarus) to Zeev Dov and Hassia Biegun. He was the youngest of three children. On his mother's side, he was descended from distinguished rabbis. His father, a timber merchant, was a community leader, a passionate Zionist, and an admirer of Theodor Herzl. The midwife who attended his birth was the grandmother of Ariel Sharon.
Education
Menachem Volfovich Begin was educated at the Mizrachi Hebrew School and at 14 he was sent to a Polish government school, where he received a solid grounding in classical literature, and gained a lifelong love of classical works, which he was able to read in Latin. In 1931 entered The University of Warsaw where he studied law, learned the oratory and rhetoric skills that became his trademark as a politician, and viewed as demagogy by his critics. He graduated in 1935, but never practiced law.
Career
In 1931, Menachem Volfovich Begin joined the Betar youth organization, and in 1938 he became the leader of its Polish branch. Because of the participation in a mass demonstration of protest against the limitations on Jewish immigration to Palestine, he was arrested by the Polish authorities and spent several months in jail.
When World War II began, Menachem Volfovich Begin moved to Vilnius, where he was arrested in 1940 by Soviet authorities and sentenced to 8 years in Pechora camps in Siberia. At the end of 1941, he was released from the camp as a Polish citizen and joined the army of General Anders, which was being formed in the territory of the USSR following an agreement with the Polish government in exile. With the army, Menachem Volfovich Begin went to Palestine in 1942. Upon demobilization, he became a commander of the underground militant organization Irgun Zvai Leumi, which fought against the British administration in Palestine. After the proclamation of the State of Israel, Begin decided to disband Irgun Zvai Leumi and to incorporate it into the Army of Defence of Israel. Before the election to the first Knesset (Parliament) in 1948, the Herut («Freedom») movement was formed and Menachem Volfovich Begin became its leader. He led the opposition in the Knesset for twenty years.
In 1967 Menachem Volfovich Begin joined the National Unity government as a minister without portfolio. He held that post until the government of G. Meir decided in 1970 to hold peace negotiations with Arab countries based on a partial liberation of the territories occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War.
In 1970–1973, Menachem Volfovich Begin led the opposition block Gahal, and after the election to the eighth Knesset he became the leader of the Likud coalition. In 1977 he became the sixth Prime Minister of Israel and held that post till 1983. He was known for his uncompromising stand in relations with Arab countries and for his active contribution to setting up Israeli settlements on the West Bank of the Jordan River. However, when in 1977 the President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt put forward a peace inititive and visited Jerusalem, Menachem Volfovich Begin supported that move and joined lengthy negotiations. They led up to signing a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt on March 26, 1979 at Camp David, USA.
Menachem Volfovich Begin published a number of books, including Uprising (1950), White Nights (1953), memoirs on Soviet corrective camps), In Underground: Essays and Documents (1959-1961, 4 volumes).
Menachem Volfovich Begin died on March 9, 1992 and was buried in Jerusalem.
Before the creation of the state of Israel, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was opposed by the Jewish Agency. As head of the Irgun, he targeted the British in Palestine. Later, the Irgun fought the Arabs during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine.
Menachem Volfovich Begin was elected to the first Knesset, as head of Herut, the party he founded, and was at first on the political fringe, embodying the opposition to the Mapai-led government and Israeli establishment. He remained in opposition in the eight consecutive elections (except for a national unity government around the Six-Day War), but became more acceptable to the political center. His 1977 electoral victory and premiership ended three decades of Labor Party political dominance.
Views
Quotations:
"We were granted the right to exist by the God of our fathers at the glimmer of the dawn of human civilization nearly 4, 000 years ago. For that right, which has been sanctified in Jewish blood from generation to generation, we have paid a price unexampled in the annals of the nations."
"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. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth. Peace is all of these and more and more."
"The difficulties of peace are better than the agony of war."
"No more wars, no more bloodshed. Peace unto you. Shalom, salaam, forever."
"Israel is still the only country in the world against which there is a written document to the effect that it must disappear."
"Things you see from there are not what you see from here."
Personality
Menachem Volfovich Begin was a gifted speaker and a polemicist. He also developed a reputation as a great writer and political leader.
Interests
oratory, politics
Sport & Clubs
chess
Connections
In 1939 Menachem Begin married Aliza Arnold (1939-1982), who was the daughter of his host. On 29 May 1939, the couple married. They had three children: Binyamin, Leah and Hassia.
Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin, father of Israel's right wing and sixth prime minister of the nation, was known for his unflinchingly hawkish ideology. And yet, in 1979 he signed a groundbreaking peace treaty with Egypt for which he and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat received the Nobel Prize for Peace. Such a contradiction was typical in Begin's life: no other Israeli played as many different, sometimes conflicting, roles as Begin, and no other figure inspired such sharply opposing responses. Begin was belittled and beloved, revered and despised, and his career was punctuated by exhilarating highs on the one hand, despair and ostracism on the other. This riveting biography is the first to provide a satisfactory answer to the question, Who was Begin? Based on wide-ranging research among archival documents and on testimonials and interviews with Begin's closest advisers, the book presents a detailed new portrait of the founding leader.
The Prime Ministers
The Prime Ministers is the first and only insider account of Israeli politics from the founding of the Jewish State to the near-present day. It reveals stunning details of life-and-death decision-making, top-secret military operations and high level peace negotiations. The Prime Ministers brings readers into the orbits of world figures, including Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat, Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana and the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Written in a captivating literary style by a political adviser, speechwriter and diplomat, The Prime Ministers is an enthralling political memoir, and a precisely crafted prism through which to view current Middle East affairs.
Right Hand Man: The Biography of Yechiel Kadishai Chief-of-Staff and Confidant of Menachem Begin
Right Hand Man is the gripping story of Yechiel Kadishai, Menachem Begins right-hand man and confidant. Kadishai was by Begins side for decades, from the long years in the desert of opposition to Begins ascendance to the premiership; from meetings with world leaders and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize to the Lebanon War; from Begins resignation and seclusion until his death. Menachem Michelson, born in Israel, was privileged to be among the paratroopers who took part in liberating Jerusalem.
Peace in the Making. The Menachem Begin - Anwar Sadat Personal Correspondence
Here, for the first time, is the complete correspondence between Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egypt’s President Anwar el-Sadat as they wrestled with what would become their Nobel Peace Prize–winning accomplishment. The letters, together with transcripts of speeches, press conferences, interviews, rare photos and official documents, reveal the personal relationship the two leaders constructed, which was eventually reflected in the treaty they signed. The personalities, the principled issues, the maneuverings, the clashes, the compromises and agreements are all revealed in these letters. Covering the period from June 1977 until a day before Sadat’s assassination in October 1981, the Begin-Sadat correspondence affords a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the efforts, crises, and agonizing decisions these two leaders faced and overcame to achieve peace. Supplemented with photos and the full texts of the Camp David Accords and the Israel-Egypt peace treaty, this groundbreaking volume sheds new light on a peace process that succeeded.
Menachem Begin's Zionist Legacy
This collection of brilliant and never-before-published essays by six of the most perceptive observers of Jewish and American life gives fresh insight into the personal, political, and religious character of one of Israel's most remarkable and controversial figures. Menachem Begin's Zionist Legacy explains Begin's unabashed and unapologetic commitment to his people before any others, the misunderstood relationship between Begin and his mentor Ze'ev Jabotinsky, why Begin was detested by his rival David Ben-Gurion, and the true role of Jimmy Carter in the process leading up to the Camp David Accords, and more.
2015
Menachem Begin and the Israel-Egypt Peace Process: Between Ideology and Political Realism
Focusing on the character and personality of Menachem Begin, Gerald Steinberg and Ziv Rubinovitz offer a new look into the peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt in the 1970s. Begin's role as a peace negotiator has often been marginalized, but this sympathetic and critical portrait restores him to the center of the diplomatic process. Beginning with the events of 1967, Steinberg and Rubinovitz look at Begin's statements on foreign policy, including relations with Egypt, and his role as Prime Minister and chief signer of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. While Begin did not leave personal memoirs or diaries of the peace process, Steinberg and Rubinovitz have tapped into newly released Israeli archives and information housed at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and the Begin Heritage Center. The analysis illuminates the complexities that Menachem Begin faced in navigating between ideology and political realism in the negotiations towards a peace treaty that remains a unique diplomatic achievement.
Alisa & Menachem Begin: A Love Affair
Prime Minister Menachem Begin was a modest man of extraordinary stature. Alisa Begin was exceptionally wise, courageous and caring. Dr. Joyce Starr was blessed to spend personal time with the Begins, to experience their warmth, grace and humanity behind the public curtain. Illuminating the human dimension with private vignettes, the author also includes endearing "Begin" stories recounted by leading US diplomats.