Menachem Begin, Guerrilla Leader Who Became Peacemaker
Published: March 9, 1992
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Having learned English by listening to the BBC, he served in the British Army in Palestine as a conscripted interpreter until the end of 1943. Then he took over the leadership of the Irgun underground in the battle for a Zionist homeland. Wanted by British With $50,000 Bounty
By 1946 the British authorities were conducting an intensive hunt for the man they described as the "grim-faced, bespectacled Menachem Begin," placing a price of $8,000 on his head. Later, it was raised to $50,000.
The Irgun, often working with weapons and explosives purchased from the Arabs, set about breaking the grip of colonial rule. Mr. Begin, in his book "The Revolt," explained the group's actions this way:
"The arrest of British officers in order to secure the annulment of a death 'sentence,' the arrest of more officers which did not prevent the murder of our captive comrades, the whipping of officers in retaliation for the whipping of our young soldiers, hangings in retaliation for hangings."
In the first elections for Parliament, in January 1949, Mapai, the Labor Party, emerged with 44 seats; the left-wing Mapam won 15, the religious bloc, 16, and Mr. Begin's Herut Party, 14.
Leading the opposition, Mr. Begin called for retaliatory raids against Arab irregulars. He fought bitterly against ties with West Germany and was suspended from Parliament for organizing demonstrations.
He was forever demanding apologies in Parliament and being asked to apologize in turn, sometimes for personal remarks and sometimes for policy statements. He would demand preventive war, for example, only to hear an opponent say that "anyone who does so is a criminal against the Jewish nation." A policy dispute would become personal.
By the time of the 1956 war with Egypt, Mr. Begin's party was the second strongest. With the Israeli move into Sinai, the party lost much of the stigma of extremism, for the war was viewed by many Israelis as the expression of a policy long advocated by Herut.
In 1973, Mr. Begin broke an embargo on domestic criticism of the Government's action in failing to accurately gauge Arab intentions leading to the war. The Arab attack on Yom Kippur, he said, only underscored the need to retain occupied territories.
He resisted every pullback agreement, and in 1975 derided Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger for "telling us to trade territory for legitimacy."
"We don't need legitimacy," Mr. Begin said. "We exist. Therefore we are legitimate." With Power, Some Compromises
Although Mr. Begin did in time exchange territory for a form of legitimacy by giving up the Sinai and withdrawing Jewish settlements in return for peace with Egypt, he began as Prime Minister in a familiarly militant fashion. He visited a West Bank settlement, Elon Moreh, the day after the 1977 election and declared: "We stand on the land of liberated Israel. There will be many Elon Morehs. There will be many, many settlements in the coming weeks."
In supporting the establishment of West Bank settlements, Mr. Begin made a distinction between those in territory within biblical Israel and those outside, like in Sinai.
As Prime Minister, Mr. Begin became somewhat less outspoken and dramatic, learning to accept the necessary compromises of governing. He drew former opponents into the Cabinet: Moshe Dayan, Defense Minister in Labor Cabinets, became his Foreign Minister, only to resign in October 1979 over relations with the Arabs.
In the 1950's, Mr. Begin had called "every German a Nazi, every German a murderer," but as Prime Minister he congratulated the West Germans for freeing a hijacked Lufthansa airliner in Mogadishu, Somalia, and he met with the West German Ambassador.
Politically, he survived a challenge from the Labor Party a year after he took office. He suffered from diabetes as well as a heart ailment, and there were rumors as early as mid-1979, vigorously denied, that he was working on a reduced schedule. There were calls in Parliament for his resignation, but none was successful and he survived many votes of confidence.
While Israel under Mr. Begin returned the Sinai to Egypt, it seemed to strengthen its hold on the other occupied territories -- principally, the West Bank and the Golan Heights -- through the establishment of the settlements.
Israel, under Mr. Begin, changed the unit of currency from the pound, a vestige of British rule, to the shekel, a coin used by the ancient Hebrews.
And Parliament, under Mr. Begin, formally declared all of Jerusalem, a city divided into Jewish and Arab sectors before the 1967 war, to be the nation's undivided and eternal capital -- an act that was not recognized by most other countries.
Mr. Begin's party was narrowly returned to power in 1981 in an election campaign marked by violence, the first such for Israel. The confrontations often pitted Sephardim, the Jews from the Arab lands who identified with Mr. Begin, against the formerly governing Ashkenazim, those from Europe.
These clashes bespoke a rift in Israel that was to become deeper, especially during the Lebanon war. Those backing Israeli military action often came from Sephardic ranks, those opposing it from the Ashkenazim.
Photo: President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt, President Jimmy Carter and Prime Minister Begin joined hands outside the White House on March 26, 1979, after signing the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. (United Press International); Mr. Begin in the 1940's, above, when he was the leader of the Irgun Zvai Leumi campaign against the British rule of Palestine. He was a brilliant orator, right, and rose to become Prime Minister after spending nearly three decades as the head of Israel's major opposition party. (I.P.P.A.; Contact)