Menachem Begin (16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992), born Mieczyslaw Biegun, was Prime Minister of Israel from 21 June 1977 to 10 October 1983, succeeding Yitzhak Rabin and preceding Yitzhak Shamir.
Biography[]
Menachem Begin was born on 16 August 1913 in Brest-Litovsk, Belarus, Russian Empire. He studied law at the University of Warsaw in Poland, and he organized the Betar group in Warsaw to counteract anti-Semitic students there, defending themselves. In September 1939 he moved to Wilno after Nazi Germany invaded Poland at the start of World War II, and from 20 September 1940 to July 1941 he was imprisoned by the Soviet Union. In May 1942, he made aliyah to Mandatory Palestine, and in 1944 he joined the Irgun paramilitary organization in guerrilla warfare against the United Kingdom. From 1944 to 1948 the group attacked British installations and posts, and the group was funded by engaging in insurance scams and demanding money from Jewish merchants. His Irgun group used terrorism against the British and later the Palestinians during the 1947 struggle between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, and on 1 June 1948 he agreed to assimilate his forces into the Israel Defense Forces after Israel became independent. He formed the right-wing Herut party and sat in the Knesset, and he was angry at the former Jewish Agency leader and current Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion since the Altalena Affair, clashing over Ben-Gurion's policies. In 1965, Herut merged with the Liberal Party of Israel to form the Gahal party, and in 1973 he allied with Ariel Sharon to form the "Likud" conservative alliance. In 1977, the Likud coalition won elections, and Begin became Prime Minister.
Begin oversaw negotiations with Egypt in the 1978-79 Camp David Accords, in which Egypt made peace with Israel. He also oversaw Operation Litani in 1978, eradicating the PLO's presence in South Lebanon, from where they were able to launch a number of cross-border attacks against Israeli civilians. Originally known as a radical nationalist, he was now hailed as a statesman of historic proportions, but his policies were controversial. In 1981, he authorized Operation Opera to bomb the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq to prevent Saddam Hussein from getting access to nuclear weapons, and in 1982 he ordered the invasion of Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War in order to avenge the attempted murder of Israeli ambassador in London Shlomo Argov. The operation led to the PLO's withdrawal from Lebanon in 1985, but Israel remained in Lebanon for 15 more years to help Maronite militias in taking control of the government so that a pro-Israel Lebanon could also make peace with Israel. Bad publicity surrounding Israel's alleged role in the Sabra and Shatila massacres led to Begin losing reelction in 1983, and he retired to Jerusalem, where he died in 1992.