A State Memorial Day for Menachem Begin

As published:

Knesset approves 1st reading of bill for Menachem Begin memorial day

NOVEMBER 24, 2021

The Knesset approved a preliminary reading of a bill to create a national memorial day in memory of former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin.

The bill, proposed by Likud faction chairman MK Yariv Levin, passed with support from the coalition.

"This is the least that should be done for Menachem Begin, a great leader who himself designed important elements in Israel's identity," Levin said.

And from the Knesset site:

November 24, 2021

Knesset Plenum passes in preliminary reading bill for state memorial day for Menachem Begin

​In its sitting on Wednesday, the Knesset Plenum voted to approve in its preliminary reading the Bill for Commemorating Menachem Begin (Amendment—State Memorial Day), 2021, sponsored by MK Yariv Levin (Likud). In the vote, 41 MKs supported the bill versus one opposing vote. The bill will be turned over to the Education, Culture, and Sports Committee.

The bill proposes to dedicate a state memorial day to the memory and works of Menachem Begin. On this day, events will be held for commemorating Menachem Begin, a state memorial ceremony will be conducted, and IDF camps and schools will devote time to commemoration events and teaching about his accomplishments. As the 4th of the Hebrew month of Adar is Menachem Begin's date of death, it is proposed that this day serve as the state memorial day for Begin.

The explanatory notes state: “Menachem Begin's name is inscribed in the nation's history as one of the great leaders of the Jewish people in the twentieth century. Begin took part in the struggle for the state's independence, contributed to the democratic foundations of the State of Israel and strengthened them. He established the principle that there would be no civil war, eliminated social barriers, strengthened the unity of the people, made the first peace accord and more.

“In the past, the Knesset has affixed state memorial days for prime ministers, and there is no doubt that the influence, work and contribution of Menachem Begin are worthy of being memorialized in a similar fashion. The purpose of the bill is to inculcate the legacy and the values espoused by Begin and bring them closer to the next generations."

MK Levin: “This is the least we can do for Menachem Begin, an illustrious leader who shaped with his own hands important elements in the identity and the very existence of the State of Israel. I am convinced that teaching his legacy in schools, as proposed by the bill, will contribute greatly to the education of our future generation."

Minister Zeev Elkin responded on behalf of the Government, saying: “One cannot help but point at the famous sentence said by Begin in the context of an extended term of office, that 'a prolonged stay in power is a danger to the nation's freedom and the morality of its members, and it begets corruption.'"

^ 

A Bit of a Sarcastic Provocation

The Begin Center received this email:

Could this be a real person?

Well, back in 2008, one "Neal Wohlmuth", writing in the North California Jewish News on February 1, advocated genocide as a “solution” to the “Palestinian problem”. He also stated that Israel should expel the Arabs from Gaza and finished in a flourish:

“Those who refuse to leave should be annihilated. Start the carpet bombings.”

He seems to have left a comment here, realating to a 2018 JPost article on the King David Hotel bombing.

I am going to make an educated guess that indeed, this is an anti-Zionist Jew who has adopted a line of tongue-in-the-cheek provocation black propaganda to harm Israel's interests. A Jew because of the familiarity with Judaism displayed in his email.

There is/was a Neal Wholmuth in San Francisco (p. 9) but I doubt he is our Neal, even if he sponsored a kiddush. But who knows?

In Septemeber 2017, he left a comment regarding a Jerualem Post article on the King David Hotel bombing.

But to respond to his quips, three Jewish freedom fighters, engaged in resistance actions against a repressive mandatory regime which had reneged on its commitments and responsibilities as per the 1922 League of Nations decision to reconstitute a Jewish national homeland were hanged the previous day. Moreover, in standing by its 1939 White Paper after the Holocaust which kept Jews languishing in Europe, it had lost all moral authority, Prisoners of war are not to be treated as criminals. Menachem Begin ordered that the British soldiers be hanged and that put an end to the gallows in the Land of Israel.

And thanks to Begin and the Irgun and the other Hebrew undergrounds, we can eat cake in a free Israel today.

^

Correcting a Misleading Assertion

This Letter-to-the-Editor was sent to the UK's Jewish Chronicle:

In Lawrence Joffee's review ("The Rise of the Israeli Right", March 31) of Colin Shindler's most recent book, we read that on June 20, 1948, Menachem Begin "defied the state of Israel's month-old provisional government by smuggling forbidden weapons aboard a requisitioned ship, the Altalena". That assertion is misleading.
The arms ship Altalena had docked near Moshav Kfar Vitkin in accordance with the agreement with Israel's Defence Ministry officials. The government was informed of the ship's existence on June 1 whereas the Hagana had been contacted about the ship while it was in France months earlier.
On June 15, Begin and members of his staff met with government representatives and reported the ship's imminent arrival.  As even Wikipedia notes, David Ben-Gurion wrote in his diary entry for June 16: "Yisrael [Galili] and Skolnik [Levi Eshkol] met yesterday with Begin. Tomorrow or the next day their ship is due to arrive…I believe we should not endanger Tel Aviv port. They should not be sent back. They should be disembarked at an unknown shore."  At a second meeting, the Mapai-dominated Kfar Vitkin moshav was selected.
At the beach, the IDF demanded a different distribution of the weapons and ammunition than that had been originally agreed upon which was 20% would go to Irgun units enlisted in the IDF.  Seeking to settle that issue, Begin refused to submit to the 10-minute ultimatum handed to him and, given the lack of communication facilities, ordered the ship, which had been fired upon resulting in the deaths of both Irgun members and IDF soldiers, to sail to Tel Aviv. There, on June 22, it was fired upon and eventually shelled and abandoned.
The real question for historians is why did Ben-Gurion defy his own agreement.

It was published in this week's edition (no online link available) and so I do not know if, or how much, it was edited.


However, I had to send this letter of complaint:

I understand my letter appeared today in The JC.
I have not as yet seen it but I received this note from a friend:
Have just read your letter to the JC. Surely the subeditor's heading for the letter: "Begin's action is still begging an explanation" is completely wrong? Your final para makes clear it is Ben Gurion's actions which require explanation. (I think the sub ed got carried away with his attempted pun of Begin and begging.) You should ask for a correction! 
If my correspondent is right, I do think a correction is warranted, something along the lines of:
"In a letter published last week by Yisrael Medad on the Altalena Affair, the heading gave a misleading impression that Medad considered Menachem Begin's actions as "begging an explanation" whereas, as his letter makes clear, David Ben-Gurion's actions still require an explanation."
Thank you.

________________

UPDATE

The letter:

^

Another Misquotation of Menachem Begin

Found here:

The critic Leon Wieseltier once warned that nationalist politics grounded in collective memory can “destroy the empirical attitude that is necessary for the responsible use of power”. It is an insight that events in the Middle East – that proving ground for the irresponsible use of power – seem to confirm every day. To take only one example, when Israeli forces encircled Beirut in 1982, Israel’s then prime minister, Menachem Begin, announced that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had the “Nazis surrounded in their bunker”, even though it was Yasser Arafat and Fatah that were trapped in the Lebanese capital. It was a paradigmatic example of what happens when collective memory born of trauma finds political and, above all, military expression.

First of all, the exact text of that August 2, 1982 thank-you message to American President Ronald Regan (thanks to MP):

The image emphasized the attack on civilians, rather than Arafat as a Hitler and no "Nazis" is there.  And Begin is relating to the historical achievement of a Jewish leader being able, finally and fully empowered, to defend innocent Jewish lives.  Not that Arafat was a "Hitler" but that unlike in World War II when no Prime Minister, President or other free world leader cared enough to defend Jews, Begin had that power.

And if the link to Nazis bother David Rieff, the author of the oped whose new book, In Praise of Forgetting, is to appear soon, almost eight years ago, we wrote on the matter:

Menachem Begin viewed, correctly, that Arafat had inherited the Mufti's identification with racial antisemitic hatred of the Jew as a Jew and therefore, it is not the Holocaust that Begin was promoting as a symbol but the very real physical deaths that Arafat was promoting at the time. 

__________________

UPDATE

The material here was used by Melanie Phillips in her JPost column Friday, March 4:

here:

^

Abe Foxman Recalls Jabotinsky and Begin

In his JPost blog, Abe Foxman recalls what he learned as a young Betari in New York:-

...Most significantly, the efforts by some on the right to paint these laws as consistent with Likud ideology are egregiously off the mark. Indeed, those who initiate these laws are doing great damage to the nationalist cause they espouse.

A little history is in order. When Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and then Menachem Begin created and built Revisionist Zionism, they were often accused by the Zionist establishment as not only being extreme nationalists but of being anti-democratic. Some suggested they were Zionist “fascists” in the making. Indeed, when Begin was elected prime minister in 1977, there were those on the left who implied that Israeli democracy was at risk.

Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. The very fact that Likud came to power after 30 years of Labor’s dominance of the Israeli political system was a sign of Israel’s democracy strengthening and maturing. Whatever one thought about their broader nationalist views, and clearly, the arguments about territory continue to this day, the charge that the Revisionists, and later the Likud leadership, were anti-democratic was inaccurate and insidious. Prime Minister Begin, consistent with the views of his mentor Jabotinsky, did everything to strengthen democratic values, free speech, free courts and free expression.

For decades, Likud, representing the mainstream right, has been a living example that nationalism and democracy can co-exist in a healthy and harmonious relationship. Indeed, as strong defenders of Israel’s democratic values, the right was more able to make its case for nationalist foreign policies. Whether one agreed with them or not, the case could not be made that they were undermining democracy at home at the same time. While the left may have claimed that nationalism and anti-democracy were linked, they had no basis for that assertion.

Now the introduction of a series of laws that in their totality have the feel of restricting democratic values is making the early politicized criticisms of the left seem relevant.

You'll Purchase the Book?

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Begin and Irgun in a Washington Post Blog

In a Washington Post blog, we found this:-

(a) Menachem Begin, before become prime minister of the State of Israel, was the commander of the most powerful Jewish insurgent-terrorist group in Palestine, the Irgun Zwei Leume, which by increasing violence discouraged the British from continuing their protectorate. (Killing tourism was one aspect of Begin's terrorism. I remember looking out from a huge hole blown into a tourist haven, Jerusalem's King David Hotel.) That terrorism's result: a democracy.

This comment was left there:

On Menachem Begin, Elliot writes: "[the Irgun] violence discouraged the British from continuing their protectorate."

They were charged with a Mandate to reconstitute the Jewish national home by the League of Nations in 1922. Big difference. This wasn't a matter of British colonialism but a betrayal of international trust.

and also he writes of "(Killing tourism was one aspect of Begin's terrorism. I remember looking out from a huge hole blown into a tourist haven, Jerusalem's King David Hotel.)"

While tourism surely would have been affected byt the attack, it was solely the southern wing of the hotel which was targeted, which had been for the previous seven (7!) years expropriated by the Brisih Mandatory government and the British Army to be used as offices. The section attacked was not a "civilian" target directed against "tourists" as could be inferred.

- - -

Evans on Carter On Begin

From an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post:

Former President Jimmy Carter has just released a new book, We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan that Will Work...

For Israelis only, Carter reserves the word 'radicals' in his book. He also calls former prime minister Menachem Begin by the same abjective and then describes him as the "most notorious terrorist in the region." Of course, he said the British said that, not him. Carter goes on to describe Binyamin Netanyahu as a "key political associate and naysayer" who was strongly opposed to Israel relinquishing control over the Sinai.

It appears that Jimmy Carter is revising history. The Binyamin Netanyahu I know was attending college during the Camp David meetings in the late 1970s. In fact, when I recommended him to Begin for a government job, the prime minister did not even know who Netanyahu was. I have no idea how Carter was so aware of Binyamin Netanyahu's political ideology; he was selling furniture at the time to help fund his schooling.

The former president also writes that at the time, Begin agreed to divide Jerusalem. I found that to be astonishing, especially since Begin had given me a copy of the letter he penned to Jimmy Carter on September 17, 1978, in which he wrote, "Dear Mr. President, on the basis of this law, the government of Israel decreed in July 1967 that Jerusalem is one city indivisible, the capital of the State of Israel." According to Begin, Carter informed him that the US government did not recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Begin told me he responded, "Excuse me sir, but the State of Israel does not recognize your non-recognition."

Carter further charges that Begin agreed to a freeze on building Jewish settlements but Begin told me he had not agreed to a total freeze; he only agreed not to build new settlements for three months, during the negotiations.

Carter also gives the impression that he and Begin were close friends by saying that Begin and then Egyptian president Anwar Sadat visited him in Plains to reaffirm the personal commitments each had made to the other, which I found quite humorous.

Begin told me he had refused to meet with Carter when the president traveled to Jerusalem. At that time, he was no longer prime minister but was outraged that Carter had misrepresented the events during their meetings...

Begin, Senior and Junior on Ceding Land

Benny Begin spoke of his father, former Prime Minister Menachem Begin: "When we struck peace with Egypt, Menachem Begin taught us that if you must cede land for peace you do it, but only under certain conditions.

"He was the one that made sure to pass a law cementing Israel's sovereignty in the Golan Heights, out of strategic foresight, and there is a wide public consensus on this issue. The man made very courageous decisions."

LA Times Links Mumbai Attack to King David Hotel Blast

The LA Times found an opportunity to smack around Israel regarding the Mumbai attacks on hotels:

Hotels have always been prime targets for soldiers and terrorists, and you could fill an entire guidebook with the list of lodgings that have been bombed or shot at by combatants looking to spill blood and get attention.

Here are some of the more notable hotel episodes of the last seven decades:

— The King David Hotel in Jerusalem was bombed in June, 1946. More than 90 people were killed, most or all of them British officials using the building as a headquarter. The British controlled Jerusalem at the time, and the bombers were Zionists, commanded by Menachem Begin (who was to become Israel’s leader decades later).

These comments were left there:

Mike Jefferson Says:
November 29th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I find it ironic that the LA Slimes would lead off with the Irgun bombing of the King David. A few salient points are in order. First the King David Hotel was primarily a military target as it was the HQ of the occupying British troops. Second, the British received a phone call from the Irgun urging them to evacuate in advance of the bombing - the British chose not to. All of the other terror incidents you mention were perpetrated against innocent civilians.

Also, I find it interesting that the paper chose to ignore the many high profile bombings perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists including the Passover massacre in Netanya.

Seth Levy Says:
November 29th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Why did you mention it was Zionists responsible for the King David Hotel, the IRA responsible for the Hotel Europa and Grand Hotel, and so on but omitted any responsible parties that were Muslim such as in Islamabad or Taba? Why did you forget the many hotel attacks in Israel that the Palestinians committed such as the recent Netanya Hotel attack in 2002 that killed 30? Will I ever see a response to this? Probably not but hopefully (if you publish it at all) someone will see it and recognize your bias towards appeasing radical Muslims.

Yisrael Medad Says:
November 29th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
One more comment on the King David Hotel attack: only the southern wing was targeted which was wholly British, having been taken over from the owners in stages, beginning already in 1938. The Army Headquarters were located there as were the offices of the Mandate Government Secreteriat. See Thurston Clarke’s book, “In Blood and Fire”.

Menachem Begin figures as the moral leadership missing in today's Israel in this article in The Forward:-

Yossi Shain, a political scientist who holds a dual appointment at Georgetown University and Tel Aviv University, believes that "we live in an era of scandals."

Omri Sharon, son of ex-prime minister Ariel Sharon, started serving a seven-month prison term last February after being convicted on campaign-funding violations. President Moshe Katsav was forced to resign in June 2007 following charges for rape and sexual harassment. His predecessor, Ezer Weizman, resigned seven years earlier under suspicion of accepting large sums of money from a businessman.

Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson resigned in July 2007 under suspicion of embezzling millions from a union he used to run, and in March of the same year, Kadima minister Haim Ramon was convicted of sexual misconduct and given a community sentence Ρ though he then returned to Olmert's Cabinet.

Shain is unconvinced that more wrongdoing exists than ever before, and believes that many of today's scandals are uncovered because politicians and the media increasingly make it their business to do so. "Everybody today is a hunter, and right now it is hunting season," he said. "We are in a phase in our nation where corruption and scandal dominate our hearts and minds."

Koren offers a different explanation: "Today's is a different generation of leaders [compared] to what we had before. They like the good life.

"Contrast them with Begin, who left office with so little that he could not buy an apartment and lived in a rental until his death. There has been a complete change in mindset of politicians, which has created a situation where even claims like the current ones do not take the nation by surprise."

Yehuda Avner's The Scarlet Pimpernel

Bygone Days: The Scarlet Pimpernel

The bus slowed as it approached the bustling intersection dissecting Tel Aviv from Jaffa, where a sinewy Arab constable, perched on a pedestal under a sun shade, and dressed in short pants and a fur fez, directed the traffic with a truncheon. Abruptly, he began blowing his whistle and swung his arms around like a windmill, doing his bungling best to halt the traffic while two English policemen darted across the road, their revolvers at the ready. Another bus, clearly unaware of anything amiss, swerved around the corner and crashed into an empty cart that had halted in the middle of the road. The cart rolled onto its side, knocking down an Arab clutching a sack of oranges. The Arab groaned in pain, his oranges spilling and bouncing all over the road, causing even more chaos.

The bus driver agitatedly jumped to his feet, and cried, "Look -they're chasing someone. He's throwing leaflets. He must be an Irgunist."

Leaflets fluttered around the intersection like so many laundered kerchiefs flapping in the wind, displaying an ill-printed Irgun broadside: "JEWS ARISE! FREE THE HOMELAND OF THE BRITISH OPPRESSOR!"

The flyer was crowned by an emblem in the form of a rifle thrust aloft by a clenched fist, and ringed by the motto, "ONLY THUS!" It was the insignia of the Irgun.

All keyed up, the driver stuck his head out of the window to get a better view, and gasped, "Oh my God, they've got him cornered. They're beating him up. He's bleeding."

Two middle-aged passengers, white faced, clung fast to each other, standing on their tip-toes trying to peer over the driver's shoulders. A schoolgirl with long fair plats and a satchel on her back, sat paralyzed, eyes riveted to the floor, pressing her hands to her ears. An old Hassid screwed up his face in repugnance upon seeing people on the other side of the street gazing in fright upon a young man - just a boy really - lying prone on the curbside, his arms twisted behind his back, manacled. Blood oozed from a gash at the nape of his neck, staining the collar of his gray windjammer. And as he lay there face down on his belly amid his scattered leaflets, with his khaki trousers crumpled to his knees and his dark-blue beret askew on his curly ginger head, he kicked blindly and futilely at a British soldier who, with one steel-studded boot on his shoulder and the other in the small of his back, had him pinioned to the ground like a maimed steer.

THE TWO English policemen with the revolvers came panting back and, gesticulating at the jammed traffic, barked orders to systematically sort it out, and open up a lane to let a Black Maria through. They flung the handcuffed lad into this mobile dungeon, and soon the intersection returned to normal.

A bearded passerby, attired in the long-coated, dusty garb of a humble, God-fearing Jew, his black fedora dented by wear and tear, stared upon the scene with suppressed rage. Head bent, he walked through the check post adjacent to the crossroad manned by British policemen who, in their starched ironed uniforms, brassy belts, navy-blue peaked caps, and polished boots, seemed invincible. None gave the weary-eyed, pious Jew a second look as he walked by, not noticing his fleeting glance at the poster plastered onto the wall by the check post, which read: "WANTED: MENACHEM BEGIN DEAD OR ALIVE TEN THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO HIS CAPTURE."

Gazing back at him from the heart of the poster was a grainy, grimy, unshaven, lean, coffin-like face with piecing black eyes framed in spectacles, and with the desperate stare of a man on the run. The image looked nothing like the Jew peeking at it.

BY THE TIME he reached his house - a ramshackle tiny home in a nondescript refuse-strewn side street called Yehoshau Bin-Nun - the sun had begun to set. He was about to place his key in the lock when a man on the other side of the street called out loudly, "Reb Yisrael Sassover - we need you for the mincha minyan" [afternoon prayer quorum]. The man had to shout because of the cacophony of chained dogs barking from the municipal dogs' home on one side of the little house, and doomed cattle mooing and snorting in the municipal abattoir on the other side. Given the noise, the smell, and the flies, few people ventured down Yehoshua Bin-Nun Street, which is precisely why its occupant chose to live there.

Reb Yisrael Sassover shouted back, "I shall join you presently, Reb Simcha. I just have to tell my wife I'm home." Reb Simcha, a short, round-bellied, red bearded fellow, full of good cheer and goodly deeds, was the beadle of the shtiebel - the homey, intimate neighborhood synagogue on a parallel street.

As Reb Yisrael Sassover entered his frugal home the chief of operations of the Irgun underground army sighed in relief: "Menachem, thank God your back. We were getting worried." "I'll get you some tea," said his wife, Aliza without fuss.

"They're expecting me in shule for mincha," Menachem Begin told them. "I must go. I won't be long."

It was 1947, and the revolt against the British rule of Palestine was at its height. As commander of the Irgun Menachem Begin had adopted a variety of guises - Pimpernel style - to avoid British detection. He had been a down-and-out law student, an out-of-pocket solicitor, and presently he was Reb Yisrael Sassover - a run-of-the-mill, unpretentious, deeply observant, God-fearing Jew, without much of a livelihood, and seemingly incapable of ever making one, subsisting, so local gossip had it, on his wife's dowry, poor thing.

THERE WAS absolutely nothing about the man to stamp him as an underground fighter, let alone a commander-in-chief. He was no gunman, no dashing, heroic-looking rebel, no ruthless-looking killer type, no poet of insurrection ripe for legend. In fact, a British dossier of the day titled "The Jewish Terrorist Index" profiled him as having "a long, hooked nose, bad teeth, and horn-rimmed spectacles." Time and again the British army and police on the look-out for him would pass him by without a second glance.

Nevertheless, besides its obvious perils, leading this secret life had its ludicrous complications, as happened that day at the end of the mincha service. His fellow congregants were a hardworking bunch of pious laborers, small shopkeepers, artisans and craftsman who, over the course of time, had grown fond of him and he of them. Some were Irgunists, unbeknownst to one another because of the tightly isolated underground cells. Reb Simcha, the beadle, was a fellow traveler, too.

On the way out from the mincha service Reb Simcha accosted Reb Yisrael Sassover, and said to him with a benevolent smile, "Reb Yisrael, I have a mitzva for you to perform."

"You do? Thank you, I'll be happy to do a good deed," said Reb Yisrael returning the smile. 'What is it?"

"Our butcher, Reb Dovid, needs a favor."

"What kind of a favor?"

"In order for him to get his kosher certification renewed he needs two witnesses that he is totally Shomer Shabbos - observant in every way. Since all the other congregants are hard at work all day and you seem to have time on your hands. I want you to come with me to the chief rabbinate's office to testify on his behalf. It's just a mere formality; won't take long. The dayanim [rabbinical judges] will ask you a few questions, that's all."

Begin shifted uneasily, not sure how to answer. To be cross- examined by such sharp-eyed scholarly types could unmask him totally.

"You have a problem with this, Reb Yisrael?" asked Reb Simcha, surprised at the shilly-shallying.

"Of course not," replied Begin pulling himself together, knowing that his chief operations officer was awaiting his urgent return to approve a vital action against a British police station that was to take place in a few hours time. So he said, "I know Reb Dovid is a truly honest man with impeccable kosher credentials, but..."

"But what? All you have to do is to tell that to the dayanim. They'll believe you."

"I'm sure they will. It's just that…"

"Just that, what?" returned the beadle, baffled.

"It's just that you'll have to ask somebody else," said Begin in his distinctive husky voice, as he made for the door.

"Somebody else?" Reb Simcha called after him impatiently. "What's wrong with you, Reb Yisrael - you're so busy all of a sudden?"

Begin paused at the exit. "Yes," he said, "I am."

"With what?"

"Urgent things - things I have to attend to myself."

"What kind of urgent things?" Reb Simcha's face was a picture of skepticism and sarcasm.

"Important things," answered Begin uncomfortably, not wanting to tell a lie but unable to tell the truth.

"Bah!" huffed the beadle, and he swung on his heels in disgust.

A year later, on a lovely mid-May evening, after the Sabbath had ended, Reb Simcha was sitting at home with two of his shule goers, one a stone mason, the other a plumber, drinking a l'chayim to the new Jewish state which had been declared the day before. And as they sipped their schnapps they had their ears glued to the radio listening to Menachem Begin's husky voice declaring, "Citizens of the Jewish homeland, the rule of oppression has been expelled. The State of Israel has arisen…"

Reb Simcha's eyebrows arched into triangles. "I know that voice," he muttered. "Shah, shtil!" [Yiddish for shut up!], admonished the mason, trying to take possession of every word the Irgun commander was saying.

"The State of Israel has arisen through blood and fire," intoned Begin…"

The three sat back, incredulous.

"We Jews now govern ourselves…"

"It's him," they exclaimed in unison.

Awestruck, they listened in exultation as the man they knew as Reb Yisrael Sassover raised his voice in peroration, and declared, "The Irgun is now leaving the underground. From now on we are all builders and soldiers of Israel."

Letters in JPost on Begin Biography

Begin book that fails the reader

Sir, - Shimshon Arad's sarcasm - it was sarcasm, wasn't it? - in writing that Avi Shilon's new biography of Menachem Begin, Begin 1913-1992, "reveals quite a few unknown facts about the former prime minister" was right on the mark ("Dispassionate about Begin," UpFront, February 15). For in truth, there are many "facts" in the book of which even Begin himself wasn't aware.

On page 16, Shilon writes that Begin was born on a Friday, when he was born on Shabbat, August 16, 1913. On page 32, he informs us that Menachem Begin married Aliza Arnold in 1937 after a three-month courtship. Actually, they married in 1939 after a two-year courtship. On page 52, he writes that Begin heard about the split in the Irgun in 1940 while he was in Poland. Begin was really in Vilna.

On page 87, Shiloh asserts that Begin wrote in The Revolt that 1,500 Irgunists were handed over to the British during the Saison. In truth, Begin wrote that Richard Crossman noted that number, but he estimated a good few hundred only. On page 168, when the Begins leave for a month's vacation in Europe, their children, Benny and Hassia, are left with a friend, Shilon claims. What happened to their sister Leah?

Apropos being left out, Shmuel Tamir's 2002 autobiography is not mentioned - which is quite amazing. For anyone looking for dramatic tales, Tamir has them.

In my reading of Shilon's book I found an error of date, name or place, as well as false footnotes, on average, every second page. The are also numerous typos. Moreover, he leaves much out of Begin's life, incidents that other biographers such as Eric Silver, Ned Temko, Amos Perlmutter and others thought important.

For example, Shilon makes much of Begin's love-hate relationship with Amichai Paglin, but fails to note that in summer and fall 1948, Begin ordered Paglin to return from Europe, where he was engaged in underground activities. Begin had decided to end any independent existence of the Irgun and heed the laws of the state. Paglin refused until late November. The correct thing would have been to highlight Begin's democratic behavior and explain that perhaps this was the undercurrent of antagonism.

Shilon fails the reader. His omissions are as bad as many of his commissions.

YISRAEL MEDAD
Shiloh

Sir, - Shimshon Arad referred to Menachem Begin's being influenced by the Polish nationalist and militarist legacy, as exemplified by his standing up and saluting whenever a general entered the room. Based on personal experience, I would suggest that this was an example of his well-known gentlemanly behavior.

When Mr. Begin was a patient in Shaare Zedek Hospital for major surgery, I was the cardiologist responsible for overseeing his cardiac condition. I visited him twice daily, and on every occasion that I entered his ward, he stood up out of his chair and extended his hand to greet me.

MONTY M. ZION
Tel Mond

Begin's Governments and Jerusalem

Excerpted from an article by Nadav Shragia, Yet another decision about Jerusalem

What happened to the more than 330 decisions on Jerusalem that Israeli governments have made over the past 30 years? With the Annapolis conference behind us and negotiations on Jerusalem in the offing, along with the big dispute over the division of Israel's capital, there seems to be particular interest in a new study by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, which attempts to answer this question.

Reuven Merhav, a former Foreign Ministry director general, and Guy Galili, a research assistant, visited the government archives to find all such decisions from the years 1975-2005. Not surprisingly, they found that alongside the decisions that were implemented, many other decisions that could have changed Jerusalem's status were left to gather dust on the shelves.

...The record-holder for decisions on Jerusalem was the first government led by the late Menachem Begin, which served from 1977 to August 1981. It made 74 such decisions, averaging 17.5 a year. The second Likud-led government (August 1981-October 1983) made fewer decisions on Jerusalem than any other government during the period examined, averaging only five per year.

Even so, numbers are no indication of content, importance or implementation. In order to analyze the 330 decisions, Merhav and Galili divided them into sub-categories: declarative decisions; decisions on the status of Jerusalem; decisions on the Old City and East Jerusalem; decisions on land development, construction, industry, financial incentives, tourism, education, culture and welfare; and decisions on security matters.

The most decisions in any category - 122 - concerned development, land use, construction and incentives. Another 97 decisions addressed the status of Jerusalem. These hovered between being declarative and having a practical impact, such as transferring budgets or setting clear objectives. Several decisions in this category concerned the transfer of government offices to Jerusalem. These ostensibly could have affected hundreds of employees, who would then live in Jerusalem, strengthen the population and improve the Jewish side of the demographic balance, but Merhav and Galili call these decisions a "continuing saga."

In January 1977, for example, the government decided to bring all national ministry offices to Jerusalem. In late 1977 and early 1978, the Begin government demanded a timetable for the move, which would include shutting down Hebrew University dormitories in order to turn them into offices. Students are still living there to this day.

In February 1983 the second Begin government voted to act immediately to implement previous decisions on transferring national government ministries and government company offices to Jerusalem.

Video Clip from the New Peace Exhibit

Yehuda Avner of the Sadat Visit

Bygone Days: The night Sadat came

Yehuda Avner , THE JERUSALEM POST

Nov. 17, 2007

At 7:58 on the Saturday night of November 19, 1977, a 72-man guard of honor, drawn from officer cadets of every branch of the IDF, dipped its flags and presented arms while buglers sounded a fanfare signaling the arrival of the president and the prime minister of Israel. The chatter among the multitude of the other high-ranking dignitaries lining the unusually long red carpet clanked with animated anticipation until all eyes turned to watch in silence the two approaching white lights suspended in the sky. The roar of the descending aircraft drowned out the scattered applause as the plane touched down, slowed, turned, and taxied toward the waiting throng.

The presidential Boeing arrived exactly as prescribed - eight o'clock - and on its fuselage were emblazoned the words ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT. Even the dourest beamed with delight at the sight of it, like Mona Lisa breaking into a grin.

A marshal's voice barked, "ATTENTION! PRESENT ARMS!" and the officer cadets froze with choreographic precision, their weapons clasped rigidly upright as the aircraft drew to a halt at the red carpet's floodlit edge.

Never had Ben-Gurion Airport been more embossed and festooned than on that Saturday night, a sea of light and of color, hung with a hundred flapping flags, Israeli and Egyptian. Deep rows of parading troops, their regimental ensigns aloft, framed the tarmac, and at one end was arraigned a military band, its brass instruments flashing in the floodlights. (The conductor, unable to find a copy of the Egyptian national anthem, had hastily transcribed its notes from an end-of-day Radio Cairo broadcast).

A RAMP WAS quickly rolled into position and an expectant hush settled on the assembly. Even the air seemed to be holding its breath. For reasons unknown, however, the aircraft's door failed to be opened and the anticipatory adrenaline gradually gave way to people leaning their heads together along the length of the red carpet, their faces faintly unsettled, muttering softly about the inordinate amount of time passing by.

Might something untoward be afoot? A few knowing eyes cast speculative glances at the chief of staff, General Mordechai (Motta) Gur, who had publicly suggested that the Egyptian president's sudden impulse to visit Jerusalem might be a ruse, a subterfuge for an advantageous starting point for the next Israel-Arab war.
Might Egyptian commandos be poised behind that door readying to mow down the entire Israeli cabinet? (Four years later President Sadat himself would be assassinated in a not entirely dissimilar fashion when his own commandos mowed him down while taking the salute at a parade).

Notwithstanding, prime minister Menachem Begin stood stolidly at the foot of the ramp looking up at the sealed door with no hint of restiveness in his demeanor, his face as impassive as a Sphinx. Unbeknown to most, it was he, Begin, who had initiated the steps, overt and covert, that had brought Sadat to Israel and he knew it was no ruse.

AND THEN the door swung ajar and out of it burst an unruly horde of journalists who jostled each other for strategic positions at the base of the ramp. This caused the mass of correspondents, television crews and photographers contained behind the barriers of the official press pen to holler their frustration, their line of vision of the impending first handshake of the first meeting between the leaders of Egypt and of Israel being entirely blocked by the just-landed Cairo crowd. So they surged forward through the police barrier causing such a crush along the red carpet that numerous VIPs were pushed back into the second and third rows of the receiving line.
But still, the plane's doorway remained empty and dark, and the hubbub continued to swell, until, like a dazzling firework, a thousand camera shutters sliced the night with a blazing light engulfing the lone figure who had just stepped into it.

Tall, erect, groomed, mustached, hair short and black on a balding brown skull, nose Semitic, cheekbones sharp, eyes black and deep-set, president Anwar Sadat stood there blinking in the glare and basking in the fanfare of trumpets and fervent applause which greeted him.

As if in extreme slow motion he descended the steps amid the popping camera bulbs, like paparazzi at a premiere, accompanied by the chief of protocol, Rehavam Amir, who formally introduced the president to president Ephraim Katzir and prime minister Begin, waiting at the foot of the ramp.

Stampeded by the crush of the pressmen I ended up at the side of Golda Meir, who remarked sarcastically to Yitzhak Rabin, "Now he comes! Couldn't he have come before the Yom Kippur War and save all those dead, his and ours?"

Rabin's reply, whatever it was, was drowned out by applause as premier Begin introduced his guest to his ministers lining the carpet. Reaching Ariel Sharon - the commander who led the Israeli counter attack across the Suez Canal in the Yom Kippur War - the Egyptian president paused, and bantered, "Aha, here you are! I tried to chase you in the desert. If you try to cross my canal again I'll have to lock you up."

"No need for that," laughed Sharon. "I am glad to have you here. I'm minister of agriculture now," and they shook hands warmly.

To foreign minister Moshe Dayan I heard him say, "Don't worry Moshe, it will be alright." But someone in earshot claimed he had also quipped, "You must let me know in advance when you are coming to Cairo so that I can lock up my museums" - a dig at Dayan's penchant for helping himself to ancient relics.

To the chief of staff General Motta Gur, he grinningly said, "See, general, it is no trick. I was not bluffing," The general's response was a formal salute.
And now he stood face to face with Golda Meir. They looked at each other solemnly, he half bowing as he took her hand. "I have wanted to talk to you for a long time," he said. "And I have been waiting for you for a long time," she answered. "But now I am here," he said.

"Shalom. Welcome," she said.

HE CONTINUED along the carpet, shaking the hands of the rest of the ministers and of the other notables, until, at a given signal, a young captain of the guard, head high, chest out, marched forward, and with a whirling salute reported to the president that the guard of honor was ready for his review. Walking with measured steps, president Sadat inspected the serried ranks, semi-bowed to the flag, and then, side by side with president Katzir and premier Begin, heard the band play his national anthem followed by "Hatikva," their discordant notes punctuated by the thumps of a twenty-one gun salute.

A burnished black armored limousine pulled up alongside the Egyptian president, but yet again, a pack of pugnacious newsmen of every sort mobbed the vehicle, overwhelming president Katzir, Sadat's intended traveling companion. He, being an elderly, genteel man, slow of gait, was pushed aside and almost left behind, had it not been for the quick wittedness of a security agent trotting alongside the car who saw him safely inside.

And thus did the presidential motorcade set off for the drive up to Jerusalem where excited, flag-waving, cheering crowds were gathered along the route.

A WEEK later, in an address to the Knesset, prime minister Begin summarized his personal initiatives which led to Sadat's 36-hour historic visit and which would, in time, culminate in a peace treaty. Elucidating why eight o'clock was deliberately chosen as the hour for the Egyptian president's arrival, he explained: "President Sadat indicated he wished to come to us on Saturday evening. I decided that an appropriate hour would be eight o'clock, well after the termination of the Shabbat. I decided on this hour in order that there would be no Shabbat desecration. Also, I wanted the whole world to know that ours is a Jewish state which honors the Sabbath day. Deeply moved, I read again those eternal biblical verses, 'Honor the Sabbath day to keep it holy…' These words echo one of the most sanctified ideas in the history of mankind, and they remind us that once upon a time we were all slaves in Egypt.

"Mr. Speaker: We respect the Muslim day of rest - Friday. We respect the Christian day of rest - Sunday. We ask all nations to respect our day of rest - Shabbat. They will do so only if we respect it ourselves."

Ehud Olmert Quotes Menachem Begin

In his address to the Kneest's Winter session opening, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said:-

However, the responsibility which rests on our shoulders does not relieve us of our duty to move forward, with patience, taking into consideration all the risks and uncertainties, but also knowing that the road to peace will always be strewn with risks, and bearing in mind the possibility of deterioration, G-d forbid, into additional confrontations. Like Menachem Begin Z"l, our great leader, who set a marvelous example which will forever illuminate our historic horizon, I prefer the risks of peace over the agonies of war.

Source

Begin Recalled

From an article on state commissions of inquiry:-

Stiff-necked
By Uzi Benziman

When Prime Minister Menachem Begin and his aides discussed the demand for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, he told them that such a panel lacked any practical powers other than making recommendations to the government. However, Begin said, from an ethical standpoint, the government cannot avoid reaching the necessary conclusions from the commission's rulings. So he said, and so he did - forcing, among others, Ariel Sharon to accept the Kahan Commission's judgment and vacate the Defense Ministry. Over the past two days, Ehud Olmert has proven that ethical considerations are not part of his value system.

Letters to the Editor of the Canadian National Post

Canada's National Post newspaper published an item (see below) about a new choral production portraying Samson as an Irgun fighter about to blow up the King David Hotel in 1946.

But he will be attired with an explosive's belt, a la Arab suicide bombers.

The following two letters were published today.

1.

'Bomber' Samson not appreciated

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Re: Choir to depict bible hero as a suicide bomber, March 28.

The choice of Simon Capet -- musical director of the Victoria Philharmonic Choir -- to portray Samson as a suicide terrorist is perhaps a legitimate literary licensed decision. However, it is nevertheless invidious to link the Zionist Irgun resistance underground in 1946 to the Arab terror in Israel today. Mr. Capet is not reinterpreting the Bible, he is attempting to apply a moral equivalency: Jews in the 1940s were no better than Arabs today. That parallel is mendacious and malicious.

Irgun fighters took up arms against a regime that didn't belong to the country, as it had reneged on reconstituting the Jewish national homeland as charged by the League of Nations in 1922. They never purposefully attacked targets that were civilian.

Arab terrorists, on the other hand, are active almost exclusively against Israeli citizens. They had been killing Jews even before the 1967 war, before a presumed "occupation," their excuse for their actions.

Mr. Capet's real intention, I fear, is not a perversion of history but the maligning of Israel.

Yisrael Medad, Shiloh, Israel.

2.

'Bomber' Samson not appreciated

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Menachem Begin's Irgun gave advance warning before its attack on the King David Hotel in an effort to avoid loss of human life. Its target was not people, but information which could have been used to destroy the resistance movement. The distortion and degradation of Jewish biblical and contemporary history does not render a performance depicting Samson as a suicide bomber "relevant." It does, however, permit the use of the performance for the demonization of Jews, on the one hand, and the excuse of contemporary suicide bombers and terrorists, on the other.

What can be the motivation for that?

Lloyd Hoffer, Toronto.

==============================================

Choir to depict bible hero as a suicide bomber
Samson to be a Zionist terrorist
Sarah Petrescu, CanWest News Service
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

VICTORIA - In the Bible, Samson is a hero who used his superhuman strength to do God's will by pulling down pillars in a Philistine temple, killing thousands and himself in an act of vengeance.

But in what's sure to be a controversial interpretation of the story, a Victoria choir will next month present Samson as a suicide bomber.

Simon Capet, music director of the Victoria Philharmonic Choir, says he wanted to update Handel's Samson oratorio to be relevant to today's audiences by drawing comparisons to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

While the music will not change, the setting of the oratorio will be 1946 Jerusalem. Mr. Capet says he chose the period to draw comparisons to the bombing of the British headquarters at the King David Hotel by the militant Zionist group Irgun in that year. Menachem Begin, who ordered the attack, would later become Israel's prime minister and win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr. Capet says presenting Samson as a terrorist is not meant to offend anyone or point the finger at one group, but to challenge our notions of what a terrorist is.

"Is there any difference between pulling down a pillar or blowing a bomb?" asks Mr. Capet.

"Samson killed thousands of people. To show him in the traditional mythological sense does a disservice," Mr. Capet says.

The choir would not be the first to drawing comparisons between Samson and terrorism.

"There's a large focus on this right now, with Israel being presented as the Samson figure," says Andrew Rippin, dean of humanities at the University of Victoria and a specialist in Islamic studies. American journalist Seymour Hersh coined the term "the Samson option" in his book about Israel's development of a nuclear arsenal.

Shadia Drury, a philosophy professor and Canada Research Chair for Social Justice, recently compared Samson to World Trade Center bomber Mohammed Atta in a talk at UVic. In her book, Terror and Civilization: Christianity, Politics and the Western Psyche, she argues that terrorism is a biblical problem.

"The concept of a collective guilt is a flawed morality," she says. "The idea that 'We're on the side of God and everyone else is evil' has and always will be disastrous."

Ms. Drury says she thinks the choir's modern interpretation of Samson -- scheduled to run April 5, 7 and 8--is heroic.

But local Rabbi Itzchak Marmorstein says comparing Samson and the Irgun bombing will offend Jews and Israelis.

"It's an inappropriate comparison that promotes a shallow understanding of history," says Rabbi Marmorstein. "Israelis never supported Irgun or that kind of terrorism. They weren't heroes ... and Begin went into politics legitimately decades later. He wasn't some crazy terrorist."

One man who is already uneasy about the performance is Samson himself, played by Vancouver Island tenor Ken Lavigne.

"I'm really struggling with this," says Mr. Lavigne, 33. "I can't help but feel that a number of people will not enjoy this rejigging of a biblical hero."

Mr. Lavigne says he has warmed up to the idea of putting on an Irgun uniform and wearing a bomb-belt to sing the emotionally charged part since discussing it with Mr. Capet.

"Simon wants to get people talking about music and its relevance today," Mr. Lavigne says. "In the end I've had to accept that whoever I thought Samson was, what he committed was an act of mass murder."

Yehuda Avner on Begin and the Kotel

Yehuda Avner has published another of his reminisce essays, this one entitled The Mughrabi Gate Incident, and we reproduce it below, together with two of the broadsheets Avner mentions in his article.

Up the alleyway he ran, a white-bearded man in a black caftan, his prayer shawl billowing over his head, scampering for his life, chased by a mob brandishing clubs, sabers and daggers, and howling, "Death to the Jewish dogs!" and "Save our holy places from the Jews!" and, "Allah Akhbar! God is great!"

The fleeing Hassid, his bony face chalk white, now visible, now not, hidden at times by narrow tunnel passages, was losing ground. He stumbled, sprang up again, and incredulously turned about and, head-first, drove straight into the phalanx of the chasing mob, hollering hysterically, "Sh'ma Yisrael - Hear O Israel," as they cut him down.

This testimony was given on Yom Kippur 1928, when an improvised, collapsible screen -a mehitza, to separate male and female worshipers - was set up in front of the Western Wall for the Sabbath of Sabbaths prayers.

"Jihad! Jihad!" flashed through the bazaars. "The Jews are trying to rebuild their Temple and destroy our al-Aksa Mosque."

In the months that followed hundreds were killed, culminating in the 1929 pogrom of Hebron, snuffing out an entire ancient Jewish community - and all because of that screen. Jews were allowed no quarter at the Western Wall.

Unlike today, the sacred Wall was then but one side of a narrow alleyway flanked by a profusion of ramshackle Arab slum dwellings that extended all the way westward to the edge of the sharp rise where the Jewish Quarter began. This ramshackle quarter, which wore an air of perpetual grime, stench and sulk, was called the Mughrabi, and a roughly-paved walkway led up to a nearby Temple Mount gate - the Mughrabi Gate.

As the riots escalated the British set up an inquiry commission and, stirred by Muslim sensitivities, decreed that the Arabs were the sole owners of the Western Wall, and that, henceforth, Jews would be forbidden to blow the shofar in its precinct.

Many in the Yishuv sat up and gasped. What are we - a myth? Are our sacred texts legends? This most sacred of shrines, where prayers are ceaselessly said, tears ceaselessly shed, and the dead ceaselessly remembered - is it all a fairy tale?

Some brave hearts defied the ban. Each year, as the Yom Kippur service ended - Ne'ila - a member of Betar, the youth movement of Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Menachem Begin's Irgun underground, would surreptitiously sound the shofar, and the police would move in and hit out in every direction. Menachem Begin was witness to one such Ne'ila on the Yom Kippur of 1943.

WHAT HE saw was a battalion of British policemen, armed with rifles and batons who, in starched, ironed uniforms, brassy parade-ground belts, navy-blue peaked caps and polished boots, looked invincible. With the cool confidence of jailers taking the measure of a prison yard's inmates, they scanned the worshipers cramming the Western Wall's narrow alleyway, trying to pick out who might turn out to be the blower. And when the sun went down and the shadows lengthened they squeezed in among the pious, elbowing their way towards the Wall, weapons angled and primed.

And then they heard it, and it drove them into a frenzy. A ruddy-faced sergeant, livid at the insolence, dashed toward a short figure clutching a shofar to his lips and, slapping the lad hard across the face, bellowed, "'Ere, stop blowing that thing." Other policemen set upon worshipers trying to defend him, clobbering them with their batons. The young blower kicked the sergeant away, and burrowed through the crush, spurting his way up the stairs trying to reach the murky warren of the Mughrabi.

"Kill him. Stop him. Kill him. Stop him," cried the Arabs.

"Keep going! Run! Run! Run!" cried the Jews.

The boy dodged and leaped through the alleyway, until an outraged beefy officer felled him with a rugby tackle and two more kicked him in the ribs and pinned him down with their boots.

Choked dumb with emotion, Menachem Begin was later to write: "Our ancient stones are not silent. They speak of the House that once stood here, of kings who once knelt here in prayer, of prophets and seers who declaimed their message here, of heroes who fell here, dying; and of how the great flame, at once destructive and illuminating, was kindled here. This House and this land, with its prophets and kings and fighters, were ours long before the British were ever a nation."

And so he resolved to confound and frustrate the knavish tricks of his people's enemies who defiled this scared site. With audacious nerve, on the New Year that followed - 10 days before Yom Kippur - he instructed his pamphleteers and poster-stickers to splash it about that any British policeman disturbing the service at the Western Wall "will be regarded as a criminal and be punished accordingly."



As the Day of Atonement drew near his warnings grew ever more strident, generating ever more grisly rumors as to what punishment Begin's Irgun men had in mind.



"Criminal lunacy!" cried the Hebrew press, fearful of innocent casualties at the Wall. "The blowing of the ram's horn at the close of the fast is a mere custom, not an obligatory act," declared a tremulous rabbinate. And British intelligence speculated as to what casualties their police at the Wall might sustain if fired upon from unseen directions.

Came the Ne'ila climax of Yom Kippur and in the ever-deepening twilight the white-clad cantor, facing the gigantic shadowy blocks of the antique Wall's weathered stones, chanted in a voice that swelled and soared, "Sh'ma Yisrael… Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One." and the whole congregation affirmed this declaration with single-minded intensity.

And then, thrice he trilled: "Baruch shem Kavod… Blessed be the name of His Glorious Majesty for ever and ever," and thrice the assembly responded in emotional and dramatic confirmation.

And now, seven times he, the cantor, in a voice that ululated higher and higher, his hands stretched out and up, intoned with trembling fervor, "The Lord is God. The Lord is God…" and seven times did the congregants avow this invocation.

And as the cantor concluded the service with the final words of the Kaddish - "Oseh shalom bimromav… He who creates peace in his celestial heights, may he create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen," the British policemen looked on, tense, edgy, crouched in confrontation, waiting for the order to pounce at the sound of the shofar.

And the shofar sounded.

Rising on tiptoe, arms stiffened, eyes closed, hands trembling in excitement, the boy who had blown the shofar the year before blew a sustained, robust, soaring, exalted, single blast, reaching heights of pure perfection - and not a policeman stirred.

"Fall out," barked the ruddy-faced sergeant to his men. "Return to barracks. At the double - one, two, one, two, one two…"

"L'shana haba'a b'Yerushalayim habenuya," hollered the crowd triumphantly after them. "Next year in rebuilt Jerusalem."

And they danced their way through the Mughrabi to their homes in the Jewish Quarter.

When Menachem Begin was told what had occurred he could not contain a smile when he said, "It was never our intention to start a clash at the Wall, for fear of inflicting casualties. Our attack was planned elsewhere - against British police fortresses in different parts of the country, and those we carried out."

That episode of 1943(*), and the one that preceded it in 1928, and the one occurring right now in 2007 over the restoration of the walkway to the Mughrabi Gate - all are a composite of the Israel-Arab conflict in a nutshell.

The Wall is the cutting edge. How goes the Wall so goes Israel. It is the heart and soul of the matter. Thus it was, thus it is, thus it shall ever be. To grasp that one does not have to be a biblical diehard or a rabid nationalist. All one has to be is a Jew.

==========

(*) should be 1944