Center Bulletin Vol. 3, No. 50

Volume 3, Issue 50
September 25, 2007

Total Number of Visitors Since October 2004: 326,097


Menachem Begin Once Again Number 1

Once again, Menachem Begin has emerged in the annual poll conducted by the Ma'ariv newspaper as the best Prime Minister Israel has had since the creation of the State. The numbers are more or less constant with past years and with different polls conducted by polling organizations for newspapers, television and radio stations.

Menachem Begin is number 1 with 26.8%, followed by David Ben Gurion at 25.6%, Itzhak Rabin at 17.4%, Ariel Sharon is number 4 with 9.1% and Yitzhak Shamir is number 5 with 5.4%. The lower middle group is Levy Eshkol with 4.8%, Binyamin Netanyahu with 4.4%, Golda Meir with 3%, and Shimon Peres with 2.5%. At the bottom of the list are Moshe Sharett at 0.9%, Ehud Barak at 0.2% and Ehud Olmert at 0.0%.

Druze Celebration of Menachem Begin

On 19 September in Daliat Al Carmel, the Druze community held a memorial day which recalled the positive effect Menachem Begin had on the Druze people and how he improved the relationship between the Druze and the Jews in Israel. The lunchtime event was opened by Sheikh Muwafak Tarif, a spiritual leader of the Druze, and by Amal Nasseraldeen, former Member of Knesset and head of the Druze Yad L'Banim. The event was emceed by Rafik Chalabi, former director of the Israel Broadcast Agency, who also made a few short films about Menachem Begin for th is event. Also in attendance and providing short remarks were former Speaker of the Knesset, MK Ruby Rivlin; former Foreign Minister, David Levy; recently confirmed Minister without Portfolio, MK Ami Ayalon; former MK Amnon Linn; and other leaders of the Druze.

In all, the event was attended by more than 100 of the most important leaders of the Druze in Israel—including representatives in the fields of education, spirituality and politics.

MK Ami Ayalon said in his remarks that although he had never been a supporter of Begin, "he learned that he was a true democrat and one of the most important leaders Israel has ever had."

Upcoming Publications

English

White Nights:

This book of Menachem Begin's recollections of his period of incarceration, interrogation at the hands of the infamous NKVD, his exile to forced labor camps in Northern Russia is being republished. This edition will contain, for the first time in English, selected documents from the NKVD protocols found in the KGB archives which were brought to Israel in 1989. This book was last published in English in 1979 by Harper and Row.

Basic Outlines of our World View and our National Outlook:

Out of print for decades, Menachem Begin's first major political/ideological tract, originally published in 1952 and based on a speech before the second Herut conference in 1951, is being translated for the first time into English. The pamphlet is prominently displayed at the beginning of the Roth Family Avenue of the Heritage and has been requested by many visitors. It is currently available in Hebrew.

Gidi: The Life Story of Amichai Paglin:

The Begin Center is sponsoring the publication in English of a book about Amichai Paglin (Gidi) who was the Irgun's Chief of Operations. Among the topics detailed in the book are the bombing of the British Mandate Government Offices and the Army HQ in the King David Hotel's South wing, the demolition of the Jerusalem Railway station and the conquest of Jaffa.
You may place orders through the Begin Center in advance for any of these titles.

Hebrew

1. Revolt of the Irgun: 60 Years After:

In 2004, upon the anniversary marking 60 years since the declaration of revolt against the British by the Irgun, two academic conferences were conducted by the Begin Center and the Jabotinsky Institute. A collection of the various lectures delivered during the conferences will be published by the Ministry of Defense publishing house in cooperation with the Begin Center and Jabotinsky Institute. The book will contain 18 of the lectures relating to all aspects of the revolt, covering political, military and diplomatic themes.

Israel's Strike Against the Iraqi Nuclear Reactor:

This collection of articles and lectures in Hebrew was originally published in 2003 and is now being reprinted. Many of the authors of the articles and lectures were active participants in the action on June 7, 1981 and provide a unique perspective on those historic events. This booklet is also available in English.


On Bookshelves Now

Several years ago, Udi Leibel's doctoral thesis on the discrimination practiced by the state authorities against the fallen of the Irgun and the Lechi received a student award from the Begin Center. We are now pleased to inform our friends that his thesis has been published as a book in Hebrew. Entitled The Path to the Pantheon – Irgun and Lechi and the Parameters of Israel's Commemoration, the book was published by Carmel with the participation of the Begin Center. Yechiel Kadishai wrote a Forward.

The book details the "politics of grief" in Israel and the practices of David Ben-Gurion and later Mapai politicians to minimize and set as outcasts those members of the fighting underground groups that did much to liberate the state of Israel from the British occupier. Non-recognition, lack of payments and other forms of discrimination are detailed as well as the eventual process of reclaiming the fallen in later years, especially after the Likud 1977 election victory.

The book can be ordered from the Begin Center or on-line at http://www.text.org.il/index.php?book=0704044.