Menachem Begin Research Paper

Menachem Begin has been called numerous names over the past few decades, these names range from Israeli’s sixth prime minister to a terrorist; however, behind all of this, one cannot deny that Begin was a firm realist. Before even acquiring an influential political position, Begin experienced a lifetime of political struggle. Beginning his political career under Vladimir Jabotinsky’s ultra revisionist Zionist views (Tress 1984, 304), Begin sought out controversial approaches to reach his goals. Under Jabotinsky, Begin was influenced into siding with non-mainstream secular Jewish movements. These included going against the somewhat Utopian left-wing socialistic views and embracing the idea that at the core, Jews had to survive on their own.

With views that disagreed with socialistic ideologies, Begin’s youth under Jabotinsky can be described as the process that greatly shaped Begin. Other than the paramilitary ideas, Jewish self-defense, the fascist concept of a strong leader with direct contact with the masses that Jabotinsky stressed (Tress 1984, 308) directly relates to how Menachem Begin manages his political manifestations.
Living as a Jew in Eastern Europe was hard enough for Begin; however, with the start of World War II things went downhill fast. Upon sending his wife to Palestine, Begin attempted to reunite with her, but on the way there he was captured by the Soviets. Even after he was freed by the Soviets in 1941, Begin’s Zionist passion did not fade away. Following his freedom, Begin made it to Palestine and worked his way up to become an Israeli underground Irgun (Teller 1952, 360).
During Begin’s time as the head of the Irgun, he was called a terrorist; however, this term has been challenged numerous times. Following the bombing of King David Hotel on July 22, 1946 led to numerous casualties; people tend to forget that the hotel was a military base for the British and the fact that Begin had called the to warn them of the impending bombing (Begin 1977, 224). Two years down, another large incident that happened during Begin’s involvement with the Irgun was the Altalena Affair, where the newly formed Israeli Defense Forces sunk the battleship Altalena (Zamir 2010, 17-58). The ship was financed by the Irgun to bring in people and weaponry to aid the newly found state of Israel; however, during the process of communication between Begin’s Irgun and Ben-Gurion’s IDF, there were complications. These so called complications led to the ultimate decision that resulted with the sinking of the Altalena along with its 1000 immigrant fighters and weaponry (Omer-man 2011).
Following the tragedy of Altalena, in August 1948, Begin and high-ranking Irgun officials formed the Herut. The party was ideologically cherry-picked Begin’s mentor Jabotinsky’s revisionist Zionist writings. Furthermore, in addition to the revisionist Zionism, the Herut’s foreign policy was to “bring about the unification of all parts of” (Collin Schindler 2008, 132) historic Israeli territories. Although Begin officially entered the political arena with the Herut party in 1948, he did not gain power until almost three decades later in 1977.
Leading up to the elections, the Likud -the successor of the Herut party- campaigned under a spotlight for Begin’s unpretentious and virtuous personality. On the other hand, the opposing party, the Alignment criticized Begin as a fascist totalitarian extremist. Nonetheless, on May 17 1977 Begin’s right wing revisionist Likud won the Israeli Knesset elections by a historical landslide and overthrew the left-wing political basis that had reined Israel since it obtained its statehood (Peleg and Scham 2007, 73).
Although elected prime minister, Begin required the majority of the Knesset; to do this he won over the religious and Sephardim voters (Abramson 2013).

Upon attaining his goal, Begin could now finally put his political goals into action. Begin’s first and likely his most impactful accomplishment as prime minster was securing peace with Egypt through the Camp David accords.

Trailing series of private and public efforts by Begin, the Israeli-Egypt Peace Treaty was commenced. In 1978, Begin and Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat negotiated the Camp David Accords in presence of President Jimmy Carter. A year after, Begin and Sadat signed the historic Israeli-Egypt Peace Treaty; Israel agreed to return the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt and established peace with its largest and greatest Arabic enemy state. Although the entire situation was volatile, the agreement prevailed and led to shifting in Israel’s tactical and regional statuses.

Not everyone agreed with what Begin did; criticism was extremely rampant in his own Likud party regarding his contradictory behavior towards Begin’s history of being a prompt promoter of Greater Israel agenda (Quandt 1983, 14). Nonetheless, Begin’s image turned overnight from an extremist terrorist to a Nobel Peace Prize winner with his past enemy Anwar

Sadat.
Subsequent to the Israel-Egypt peace treaty signing in 1979, Menachem Begin’s second largest political achievement rose from Iraqi Saddam Hussein’s nuclear threats towards Israel. As an ardent revisionist Zionist, Begin did not take the intimidations lightly. Especially when diplomatic attempts to halt Iraq failed, the Israeli government under Begin, preparations of a preemptive attack by the Israelis began (Simons 1994, 320).
On June 7 1981, with the consent of the Israeli cabinet, “Operation Opera” was successfully held out. Israeli Air Force successfully destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor Osirak with long ranged missiles. Numerous countries around the world criticized the Israelis for this action and the United States was one of them. To these remarks, Begin responded “On no account shall we permit an enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against the people of Israel." (Begin 1981) and fully acknowledged the bombings.
Operation Opera had not only decimated Iraq’s potential weapons of mass destruction, but also it left a powerful statement to the world. After Menachem Begin firmly enunciated the actions and justified them, the Israeli policy adopted the “Begin Doctrine”. The doctrine stated that Israel would enforce a preemptive strike, counter-proliferation policy towards its enemies and its threats (Spector and Cohen 2008, 16-17). Not long after this incident, Begin’s last large political achievement was made.
Almost exactly a year after the preemptive strike on Iraq, Begin’s government invaded South Lebanon on self-defense motives, under the name “Operation Peace for Galilee” which led to the 1982 Lebanon War. This declaration was in response to the attempted assassination of Israeli’s ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1982. Begin accused the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the mastermind behind this deed and thus waged war to eradicate the PLO’s political and military presence in southern Lebanon (Bird 2004, 288).
Even though the 1982 Lebanon War did not go as Begin planned, the endeavor was clear –it was to apply the Begin Doctrine. Operation Peace for Galilee was Begin’s last giant political action during his tenure; later into 1982, Begin’s wife died and shortly after he retired from his position.