Menachem Begin: The Protector of Israel

Image - Mugshot of Menachem, arrested by Soviets in his Zionist Days.Source

    Menachem Begin lived for 72 years; he was born on August 16, 1913 and he died on March 9, 1992. He was the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel starting on June 21, 1977 and continuing on until October 10, 1983, at which point he resigned. He was also the leader of a militant Zionist group, the Irgun, who resisted the Mandate of Palestine. During his rule as Prime Minister, Begin signed a peace-treaty with Anwar Sadat of Egypt in 1979, and invaded Lebanon beginning the war in 1982. 

Image – Menachem Begin (right) and Anwar Sadat (left) meeting at the Camp David Accords in 1978, facilitated by Jimmy Carter (center), to discuss their peace-treaty.Source

    Menachem Begin contributed to history in many ways. The peace-treaty which he signed with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, at the Camp David Accords, ended a prolonged conflict without many complications. Menachem also started the war between Israel and Lebanon in 1982. He was a prisoner of the Gulag labor camps system and was subjected to Soviet torture methods. He commanded the successful “Operation Opera” during which the Israeli Air Force pre-emptively bombed “Osirak,” an Iraqi nuclear reactor that was being used by the Iraqis to manufacture weapons grade plutonium. Seeing as Iraq was an enemy of Israel, Menachem did not want them to obtain nuclear missiles that could be used against his country. Operation Opera led to the creation of the Begin Doctrine; Israel forever after would act pre-emptively to prevent any of its enemies from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Video from one of the pilot’s the cockpits during Operation Opera: