Premier Menachem Begin said at the closing ceremony of the 11th Maccabiah Games last Thursday that Israel does not suffer from a “Massada complex.” In fact, he noted, “Israel does not have any complexes at all. We are free men and women.”
But if Israel has no Massada complex, it does have “Modi ‘in consciousness,” the Premier declared. Modi’in is where the Maccabis launched their uprising against the Syrian empire. “We learn from Massada how never to reach it and from Modi ‘in how to do it. There will never again be a downfall with heroism. Whenever necessary, there will always be heroism with victory,” Begin said.
The Premier was reacting to a recent article in The New York Times comparing Israel to Massada. He urged the Maccabiah athletes to write to the Times to tell its editor that Israel has no Massada complex.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
