Behind the Headlines a Profile of Menachem Begin

Menachem Begin who is expected to be Israel’s next Premier, is a mixture of the prophet and the soldier. He is a man of profound, almost mystical beliefs and tough determination to achieve his goals. He is an authoritative personality who has become used to being obeyed in his own close circle but who at the same time, believes in the role of the parliamentary democratic process.

By achieving the leadership of the State, Menachem Begin has at last Fulfilled the dream of his life. He will move from his tiny, modest apartment in an old Tel Aviv suburb to an official residence in Jerusalem. After 40 years of being virtually ostracized by the ruling establishment controlled by the Labor political machine, Begin now becomes himself controller of a new machine. It is against this background that one should consider Begin’s recent declarations.

BEGIN’S EARLY YEARS

Begin was born in 1913 in Poland. He received a classical Polish education contained with broad-based Jewish studies. He grew up in a warm Zionist home where he absorbed his zealous devotion to the idea of an independent and strong Jewish State.

At the age of 16, he joined the rightist Revisionist youth movement, Betar (acronym for B### Trumpeldor). His outstanding eloquence, his profound devotion to the ideas of Betar and his dominant personality brought him quite soon to the leadership of the Betar movement in Poland. He quickly grew close to the Revisionist leader, Zeev Jabotinsky, whom he admired without reservation.

In his autobiography “White Nights,” Begin, describing his experiences as a prisoner under the Soviet regime, tells emotionally of his sorrow and desperation after Jabotinsky’s death. Begin was arrested by the Soviet secret services (the NKVD) after the Russians invaded Poland. He was sentenced to eight years of hard labor in a camp in Siberia. He survived the exhausting interrogations of the NKVD officers and the conditions of the Russian camp. Following the pact signed between Poland and Russia the Polish prisoners were released and Begin returned to the Polish army of Gen. Anders with which he arrived in Palestine in 1942. Demobilized a year later he was appointed commander of the “Etzel” (the Military-National Organization or Irgun Zvai Leumi) which was the military branch of the Revisionist movement in Palestine.

POLICIES CONTROVERSIAL

The Etzel’s leadership and fighters believed in an activist policy aiming at liberating Israel from the British Mandatory regime. Its concept and operations were sharply criticized by the then-Jewish establishment. The Jewish ruling circle banned the Etzel, called its members the “deserters” and even took an active part, at one stage, in the British efforts to apprehend them. Begin was hunted by the British intelligence service. He directed his fighters from mobile headquarters staffed by a few of his enthusiastic and loyal supporters (known later as “the fighting family”).

The Etzel military operations against the British Mandatory regime are still a subject of controversy in Israeli politics. Most leading historians tend to ascribe only a minor effect to Etzel’s militant approach on Britain’s final decision to leave Palestine. However, at the end of the British Mandatory regime, the established military organization Hagana and Etzel acted in collaboration.

Etzel and the Revisionist Movement were transformed into a purely political body after the establishment of the State when Begin emerged from the underground to become the head of the Herut Party. Yet Begin and his friends remained “deserters” in the eyes of the Israel public at large, due in some measure to David Ben Gurion’s political tactics.

BEN GURION WAS ARCH FOE

The veteran Mapai leader openly despised Begin and for many year he succeeded in impressing his feelings about Begin upon the majority of the Israeli people. Ben Gurion never called Begin by his full name. In Knesset debates he would call him “the person who sits next to Dr. Bader” (one of the Herut leaders). Ben Gurion coined the slogan “Without Herut and the Communists,” whenever he referred to potential combinations for forming coalition governments.

For many years Ben Gurion’s policy prevailed. Begin and his party were a relatively minor political power, never considered a possible Cabinet partner. Begin’s political views served Ben Gurion’s aims. Herut has always been a strictly ideological party holding steadfastly at its doctrines. Against the background of a pragmatic and flexible government, led by the Labor leaders, Herut has been portrayed as a fruitless devotee to some esoteric ideas. Thus, Herut objected to the German reparations agreement as well as to several political moves in the Middle East initiated by American Administrations.

Though Begin and his movement were isolated and banned, this stubborn leader strove to increase his political power. Consistently and devotedly he either initiated or gave his approval to political parties that gradually broadened his following and changed the image of his party.

BEGIN A CULTURED MAN, DOGMATIC LEADER

Herut established a political alignment with the Liberal Party which was later incorporated into Likud. By assenting to such maneuvers, Begin demonstrated devotion to his goals and political realism. His inner strength, his undeviating belief in his own truth, the stubbornness that had enabled him to survive the Soviet camps and the British manhunt, finally brought him to the Premiership.

Begin will be a different kind of Prime Minister than his predecessors. He will be a more “Jewish” leader, a person who unselfconsciously quotes the Bible, the Talmud and traditional Jewish proverbs. He will be a Prime Minister of wide education who speaks several foreign languages fluently and whose interests encompass the histories and the cultures of many nations. Begin may be the most eloquent leader that Israel ever had. He will be a Prime Minister of courtly manners and politeness. Yet, he remains a zealous and dogmatic leader who has had no experience in bringing his views face-to-face with reality. He will also be the same Menachem Begin whose word was law in his close political circle for 40 years.