In last month’s issue of the Where What When, I began the story of Menachem Begin, one of the great leaders of our people. To recap: Begin was born in 1913 and grew up in a shomer Shabbos home in Brisk. At age 13, he joined Betar, the youth movement of the Revisionist Zionists, and became enamored of Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky, its founder. Jabotinsky believed that the Zionist leadership under Chaim Weizmann and David Ben Gurion was too weak and too passive. The Revisionists had the same ultimate goal as the mainstream Zionists, a Jewish state, but they were willing to achieve their goal by force, if necessary, rather than depending on the goodwill of the gentiles.
In 1940, the Soviet authorities arrested Begin for anti-Soviet and anti-Communist propaganda and sentenced him to eight years. Fortunately, as a Polish national, he was soon released as the result of a Soviet-Polish treaty. He joined the Free Polish Army and ended up in Palestine, where he spent two years working for the Polish Army while at the same time building relations with the Betar cells there. After being let go by the Polish army, he became head of the military organization Etzel, Irgun Tzva Leumi, or the Irgun.
Before the creation of the State, the Irgun was in conflict with the Jewish Agency and the Haganah, the mainstream Zionist establishment. The Haganah cooperated with the British rulers in Palestine during World War II so as not to hamper their fighting Hitler in Europe. Begin, on the other hand, fought the British to “encourage” them to leave the country. The Irgun’s most famous action was the bombing of the King David Hotel, when many British were killed. Needless to say, Begin was a wanted man and hid in plain sight in Bnei Brak, disguised as a gemara-learning Yid. Now let us resume the story:
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The Jewish revolt against the British in Palestine continued unabated and in fact grew more intense. Several things happened that made the British position untenable. First, the ship, the S.S. Exodus, arrived at the shores of Palestine in July, 1947. The United Nations happened to have a delegation in Palestine at that very moment, and they saw with their own eyes how the British forced 4,500 survivors of the Holocaust to return to Germany. At the same time, the British hanged three Etzel fighters, despite the fact that the Etzel was holding two British sergeants and threatened to hang them if the British hanged the Jews. The Vaad Leumi, the National Council, led by Ben Gurion issued a statement that, although what the British had done was horrible, they would consider the hanging of the two British hostages as a “bloodthirsty deed contrary to all human standards and an unforgivable crime against the Yishuv and the Jewish people.” In short, the divide between the tactics of Menachem Begin and David Ben Gurion were insurmountable, and their feud was far from over.
Begin gave the order, and the two British sergeants were hanged from a tree. The note attached to one of the men’s bodies read that the sentence had been carried out against members of the “criminal Nazi British army of occupation.” This was a blow to British prestige and left them humiliated. It showed that they were no longer able to maintain law and order in Palestine, and it hastened the end of the British Mandate.
Two more incidents exacerbated the rift between the Haganah and the Etzel: Deir Yassin and the ship, the Altalena. In short, Deir Yassin was a village on the road to Jerusalem (today’s Har Nof). It was one of many towns that had to be pacified to alleviate the siege of Jerusalem and the starvation that prevailed there. The Etzel fought in Deir Yassin, and according to most reports, a lot of civilians – men, women and children – were killed. It was termed a massacre, and to this day it is used by those who oppose the State of Israel to show the brutality of the Zionists.
The facts are not clear. Historians are still doing research on what happened. Begin never intended it to turn out as it did, but the incident had two results: First, Menachem Begin was ostracized by respectable Jewish leadership in the United States and considered “beyond the pale.” Second, the Arabs throughout Palestine panicked and, fearing that the Jews would massacre other villages, fled in huge numbers. This actually benefited the Jews as it enabled a Jewish majority to exist in the areas claimed by Israel by the end of the War of Independence.
The Jewish State was declared on May 14, 1948. Two weeks later, on May 29, there was a ceasefire that lasted 28 eight days, during which both sides were prohibited from importing arms. Ben Gurion, who saw the nations of the world in a totally different way than Begin, felt that Israel had to adhere to the ceasefire, even though they desperately needed arms. He knew that the Arab states would continue to arm themselves, but he wanted international standing for the new state of Israel. (This debate on how much Israel has to care about international legitimacy is still going on.) During the ceasefire, a shipload of arms arrived from France, bought and paid for by the Etzel. Begin had ordered them not to send it, but the people in France ignored him. All Begin wanted was a percentage of the arms for his men fighting to keep hold of the Old City of Jerusalem, but Ben Gurion refused and ordered that the boat be sunk rather than let Begin have anything. He had decided that the State of Israel could not have independent militias and warlords, and that every gun and every soldier had to be under his control: one army and no exceptions.
The arrival of the Altalena set up the potential for civil war in the fledgling State of Israel. Ben Gurion and his Vaad Leumi considered Begin a fascist, and it is not a hyperbole to say that they really did hate him. In fact, there is no question in my mind that Ben Gurion wanted Begin killed on the Altalena and that is why he insisted on firing on it. It was, otherwise, not necessary to fire on the ship. But, I am getting a little ahead of myself.
Interestingly, Yitzchak Rabin, commander of the Palmach (part of the Haganah), was in charge of the destruction of the ship and was responsible for the deaths of some of the men on board. Begin was forced by his men to get off the boat and save his life, but he completely lost his senses for a time. He went on secret radio and gave a speech that convinced many that he had suffered a nervous breakdown. This was one of the reasons he did not do well in the first Knesset elections. In truth, there could have been a civil war. The reason it did not happen was that Begin was a far better human being, in my opinion, than Ben Gurion. He declared that, even though they had fired on him, he would not fire on another Jew, no matter what.
Begin, following his teacher Jabotinsky, believed in “hadar,” which can be explained by a similar term I once heard from Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, zt”l, of the Mir. A Jew is a nichbad, an elevated human being; he does not do things that are beneath him. Hadar is a similar concept, and it means that a Betar soldier is a ben sar, an aristocrat, not a benoni, a common person. That may also explain why Ben Gurion wore short pants and sandals while Begin wore a suit and tie. These two men were very different, and their hashkafos, their ideologies, were as different as night and day.
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Menachem Begin suffered from mood swings that could be called manic depressive. When he lost it, he really lost it. (This explains why, when his wife Aliza died, he quit public life and never again appeared except to go to his wife’s grave on her yahrtzeit.) He sank into depression more than once in his career.
The second time civil war became a possibility was a few years after the declaration of the State. Ben Gurion needed money, and he could get it from Germany in the form of reparations for the Holocaust. Begin went completely ballistic at the idea of accepting “blood money” from those who murdered his parents. He was not pragmatic like Ben Gurion; he was an ideologue all his life, and principle meant more to him than practicality. He disrupted the Knesset debate. He caused a mob to assemble outside the Knesset, and there was real fear of civil disruption, if not actual war. Someone could have been hurt, and it would have happened, except that Begin, once again, was unwilling to go beyond words. A Jew does not harm another Jew. Once the Knesset voted to take the money, he kept quiet. He believed in democracy and accepted the vote as the legal end of the debate.
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In the interest of space, I am going skip all the years that Menachem Begin and his party were in the loyal opposition, as it is called in the parliamentary system. He was in the opposition for 29 years. The Israeli historian Anita Shapira believes that Begin is the only leader in the history of democracies to have lost eight consecutive elections only to win the ninth. Then came the Mahapach, the Reversal.
In the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the mood in Israel changed, and the Labor party was gradually losing its hold on power. Little by little, other parties were arising that chipped into their lead. Yigael Yadin led a new party, DMC, the Democratic Movement for Change, which took away enough votes from Labor to put Likud, led by Begin, in the lead and gave him his first chance to form a new government. Now, the world got to see Begin not as a terrorist, not as a political gadfly, but as prime minister, and this scared the daylights out of many Israelis. The Sefardim danced in the streets, but the elites mourned the end of Israel as they knew it.
Begin did not join in the dancing in the streets. Instead, he donned a kippa and recited the Shehechiyanu. Israel had never witnessed such an act by a high-ranking politician. When a reporter asked him shortly after the results were announced if there was anything in particular he wanted to say, he said he wanted to thank Aliza. He then quoted from memory the verse in Jeremiah 2:2: “I recall with favor the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride; how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.” But Begin altered the last line, saying, “Lechteich acharai bamidbar, b’eretz zarua b’mokshim – You followed me in the wilderness, in a land sown with land mines.” Just hours after the election, a reporter shoved a microphone in Begin’s face and asked him in what style he would be prime minister. Begin paused for a moment at the odd question and then responded simply, “In the style of a good Jew, Yehudi tov.” If I were to summarize in a few sentences the difference between Begin and those who came before and after him, it would be: Menachem Begin was a Jew, not an Israeli. He did not seek to build a new Jew; he sought to provide a haven for his people. He did not reject religion in favor of socialism, he considered Judaism and Zionism to be one and indivisible.
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I will now skip to the groundbreaking visit of Anwar Sadat, prime minister of Egypt, to Jerusalem, and the subsequent negotiations with him in America under the guidance of President Jimmy Carter. Carter did not understand Menachem Begin and thought he was a “psycho.” To Carter and his men, Sadat was a visionary; Begin was a Jew, a Pharisee, a much-reviled character type in the Christian New Testament, who was pedantic and unwilling to see the big picture. Sadat and Carter completely misread Begin.
During the negotiations, Begin was unwilling to consider Palestinian autonomy. And the mere notion of dividing Jerusalem was unthinkable. He also refused to discuss the settlements. He was willing to discuss the Sinai because that is not Eretz Yisrael, but he would not discuss giving up one inch of the land that he believed G-d gave to his ancestors. Carter did not understand that, to Begin, either Jews have a right to Eretz Yisrael or not. Carter’s team really disliked Begin, whom they called an “inverted sabra,” that is, soft on the outside and tough on the inside.
In desperation at the lack of progress, Carter convened the Camp David talks, which Begin called “concentration camp deluxe.” He and the Israeli team, along with Sadat and Carter and their advisors, were there for 12 intense days. Carter warned Begin that Camp David was “an opportunity that may never come again.” (Even in 2014, we often hear that warning.) Begin answered President Carter on Israeli television: “Our people lived thousands of years before Camp David and will live thousands of years after Camp David….If we are told that this is the last chance to arrive at peace, we shall not agree. There are no last chances in life.”
Let me quote a paragraph from a book about Begin that recently came out, which shows Begin as the quintessential Jew. Can you even imagine any other Israeli Prime Minister doing what I will now describe?
Even more bewildering to Carter was Begin’s resolute refusal to even discuss the issue of dividing Jerusalem. When Carter broached the topic, Begin related the story of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz, the eleventh century Jewish scholar who was pressured by the archbishop of Mainz to convert to Christianity. Rabbi Amnon asked the archbishop for three days during which he would consider it but immediately regretted having done anything at all that might be interpreted as his even considering such an unthinkable act. When he did not appear…he was dragged in by guards. He asked that his tongue be cut out, since it was with his tongue that he had expressed doubt of his everlasting commitment to Judaism…. In his last moments, he recited the prayer called the “U-Netaneh Tokef,” and then he died. Carter understood Begin was making it clear that he would not make Rabbi Amnon’s mistake. Carter shared the story with Sadat, and the issue of Jerusalem was dropped. (From Menachem Begin by Daniel Gordis, which is the source for much of what I have written.)
Begin ultimately signed the Camp David Accords on September 17, 1978, which established peace with Egypt that has prevented war between the two countries until today.
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Begin was elected prime minister twice. He proved to be a good leader in many respects. He wasn’t the best in terms of economics, but he was determined on matters of defense. He decided to bomb the Osiris Nuclear Reactor in Iraq to avoid another Holocaust. For this he was roundly condemned by the United States as well as the European countries. Years later, they recognized his foresight.
Unfortunately, Begin and his cabinet were duped into starting the First Lebanon war by Ariel Sharon, who, as pointed out, was the grandson of Zeev Dov Begin’s friend in Brisk. The war, which begin in June 1982, became a quagmire, and many soldiers died in what many felt was a war of aggression, not of pure defense. Crowds picketed Begin’s home, and he took it very personally. A survivor of the Holocaust cannot accept being called a killer of Jewish boys. Then he was smeared with consequences of the Sabra and Shatilla massacres, of which he had no knowledge.
In November of1982, Begin made the decision to go to the U.S. for important meetings while Aliza was in the hospital, and she died while he was in Los Angeles. “Lama azavti otah – How could I have abandoned her” were his anguished words when told.
That was the end, really. Begin held on as prime minister for a while, but he had sunk into a deep depression and finally told his Cabinet, “I cannot continue any longer.” It should be pointed out that he was on lots of medications for heart disease and diabetes and other ailments, and the combination of drugs may have contributed to his mood. He retreated to his apartment and was cared for by his single daughter, Leah. He also had a married son and a married daughter who were very close to him. Only they and a very few close associates ever got to visit him after that. Carter asked to meet with him on one of his interminable visits to the Middle East to teach the parties how to make better decisions, and, not surprisingly, Begin declined and did not want to see him.
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Begin was not dati and certainly not chareidi. He was what we call “traditional.” I had an insight recently regarding his religiosity. You will not hear this story from any other source, and it is very relevant to understanding Menachem Begin.
In our daily Gemara shiur with Shlomo Horwitz at Shomrei Emunah, we recently learned a phrase: “Peh kodosh yomar davar zeh – Would a holy mouth say such a thing!” This reminded me of an incident many years ago: Through my son Shmuly’s in-laws, in Israel, I got to know Ephraim Shach, a”h, the only son of the late Gadol, Rav Menachem Man Shach, zt”l, who davened at the same minyan. I once visited him for a long and interesting interview about his life and times. He told me that in 1980, the Agudah held a Knessia Gedola (convention) in Yerushalayim. Feigi and I attended. On the program, it was written that Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, would give greetings. Yet, he wasn’t there, and it seems that his presence had been cancelled. No one had ever told me exactly why, and I asked Reb Ephraim.
This is what he told me: Menachem Begin was very popular with the chareidi world, and at previous Knessiot Gedolot, the prime minister of the secular Labor party had given greetings. But a kana’i (extreme) element had opposed the presence of any representative of the “Zionist state,” and the organizers had given in. A headline appeared in a secular newspaper, probably Haaretz: “Shach: Ani Eftach velo hakofer Begin.” It meant that Rav Shach had ruled that he himself would give opening remarks and not the non-believer Begin.
Reb Ephraim got a phone call from Begin who was literally crying. He said, “Why did your father call me a kofer? I may not be a tzadik, but I am a believer in Hashem.” Menachem replied that he was sure his father had never uttered those words and they were made up by the secular newspaper.
“How do you know?” asked Begin.
“Because my father would never talk that way: “Peh kodosh yomar davor zeh?” Begin insisted that he go to his father and ask him directly.
Menachem told me that he got in his car and drove from Yerushalayim to Bnei Brak and told his father what the newspaper had written and Begin’s reaction. The Gadol Hador asked his son what he told Begin. Menachem answered, “I told him that my father doesn’t talk that way; such words never leave his lips.”
Rav Shach smiled and said, “You are absolutely right.”
Begin was an emotional man, and it really bothered him to be called a non-believer. Certainly, it would not have bothered the Mapai prime ministers. By the way, that Knessia Gedola was the very last one held by the world Agudah, which afterwards split into two political parties.
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Menachem Begin was a product of his life’s experiences: Poland between the two world wars, imprisonment in the USSR, loss of his family in the Holocaust, leading the underground revolt against the British with tactics that were roundly condemned by the mainstream leadership but very effective but. He formed and led a political party that was loyal to him, even though he lost eight elections in a row. He was an inspiring speaker who rallied the lower economic classes, the Oriental Jews, and others who were not part of the elite class of secular Ashkenazim, who controlled everything in Israel. He endured ostracism and unbridled hatred from David Ben Gurion. In fact, Ben Gurion refused to utter his name, referring to him as “the member sitting next to Dr. Bader.” He never wavered from his belief in democracy and the rule of law, even as he was maligned as a fascist and an incipient dictator. When he was called to testify by the Kahan Commission investigating the Sabra and Shatilla massacres and was asked his name, he replied “Menachem Ben Zeev Dov Ve’ Chasia Begin. He was a loyal son of his father and mother, a Jewish Jew through and through his whole life.
Chaval al d’avdin velo mishtakchin. Woe to us that he is gone and there is no one to replace him.
