Menachem Begin


Menachem Begin (August 16, 1913 - March 9, 1992) became the 6th Prime
Minister of Israel in May 1977. He negotiated the Camp David Accords with
Egpytian president Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, for which they jointly received
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.

Begin was born in Brest-Litovsk, Russia (located in a region which became
part of Poland from 1919 to 1939 and is today a part of Belarus and known
simply as Brest) and since 1939 he was the leader of the Zionist Betar
organisation. In 1940-1941 he was imprisoned in the USSR. In 1941 he
volunteered to join the Polish army of Anders. Released from that army along
with many other Jewish soldiers, in 1942 he joined the Irgun (also known as
Etzel) and in 1947 assumed its leadership. He was responsible for the
bombing of Jerusalem's King David Hotel that killed more than 70 people. In
1948 he was at the center of the shipping of Irgun arms to Israel, ending in
the sinking of Altalena, by gunfire ordered by David Ben-Gurion.

After the founding of the state of Israel, Begin founded the Herut political
party (which later on became the dominant party in the Likud coalition).

In 1979, Begin signed the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty with Anwar Al-Sadat.
Under the terms of the treaty, Israel handed over the Sinai peninsula to
Egypt. This involved the demolishing of all Israeli settlements in the area
(including the town of Yamit). Begin faced a strong internal opposition to
this move, which led to a split in his own Likud party.

In 1982, Begin's government invaded Lebanon, citing the need to put the PLO
out of rocket range of Israel's northern border. This began Operation Peace
for Galilee, which lasted for six months (although Israeli presence in
Lebanon continued until 2000).

Begin himself retired in August 1983, deeply disappointed and depressed by
the war, his spouse's death and his own illness. He died in Jerusalem in
1992.

Quotes

     "No more wars, no more bloodshed, and no more threats"
               -Menachem Begin, Broadcast to the Egyptian People, November
               11, 1977.

     "[The Palestinians are] beasts walking on two legs."
               -Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon
               Kapeliouk, "Begin and the Beasts". New Statesman, June 25,
               1982.