Begin: Judaism is both national and universal

M. Begin: Judaism is both national and universal by nature....That is why the vision of the end of days speaks of all the nations streaming to the mountain of the Lord. That is why the philosopher and historian, Professor Klausner, spoke of Judaism and humanism. We cannot remain on the sideline; nothing human is alien to us.


Session 442 of the Ninth Knesset
11 May 1981

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I thank all those who shouted out interjections. They have helped me overcome my tiredness....



Session 206 of the Ninth Knesset
20 March 1979

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Historical View of the Begin Center Location

Area of the Begin Center, from the roof of the David (Daud) Brothers Building currently at the corner of Jabotinsky and Keren HaYesod Streets in the late 1930s (thanks to Lenny Ben-David):-

Netanyahu on Yechiel Kadishai

Prime Minister Netanyahu made the following remarks at today's Cabinet session:

"Yechiel Kadishai was in this room many times. He was the right-hand man and close and dedicated assistant of the late Menachem Begin. He was direct, a man of integrity, very witty and had a great Jewish soul. 

Yechiel was dedicated to the Zionist idea, the Jewish People and the Land of Israel and had a very realistic but always optimistic perspective. Until today I have not found someone who did not love him; it was impossible not to love, appreciate and honor Yechiel. While he was an organic part of the national movement, of our movement, the Likud and its Herut predecessor, he had a great heart and love that opened paths for him throughout the political spectrum. On behalf of the Cabinet, I would like to send our condolences to his wife Esther and to all members of the Kadishai family. May his memory be blessed".

Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau eulogizing:

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Begin's "Provocative Nature"

From Ian Black's "CIA spills Camp David secrets on 1978 Egyptian-Israeli agreement": Declassified documents reveal how US intelligence helped Jimmy Carter strike a Middle Eastern bargain.

...it's still interesting to get even a sanitized glimpse of what the CIA was up to as it helped prepare for one of the triumphs of US Middle East diplomacy in the 20th century...information the agency put together for President Jimmy Carter on the eve of the Camp David summit in September 1978...[a]"briefing book" includes perceptive and quotable personality profiles of the protagonists - Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president.

Looking at the Israeli leader the CIA observed "growing oppositional properties in Begin's personality." It pointed too to his "facility for statements of a provocative nature, often precipitated by reporters' questions."
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter's national security adviser, told the president before the summit at the Maryland retreat:

...Begin probably believes that a failure at Camp David will hurt you and Sadat, but not him. He may even want to see Sadat discredited and you weakened, thus leaving him with the tolerable status quo instead of pressures to change his life-long beliefs concerning Judea and Samaria. (the biblical Hebrew names for the West Bank.)

The declassified records offer few clues about the part of the Camp David agreement that failed completely — the plan for Palestinian autonomy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip...

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Sarid Appropriates Begin

So are there or aren’t there judges in Jerusalem? There are, but they’ve disappeared.

Yossi Sarid

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Brest's Monument to Begin

Monument to Menachem Begin to be unveiled in Brest
 

BREST, 30 October (BelTA) – The 100th anniversary of Menachem Begin, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, will be celebrated in his hometown of Brest, BelTA learnt from the Israeli Embassy in Belarus.

The celebrations will feature a ceremony to unveil the monument to the outstanding Israeli politician and statesman on 31 October. Attending the ceremony will be representatives of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, local authorities, Jewish organizations, Israeli diplomats, and sponsors of the project. Herzl Makov, the Head of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, will arrive in Brest to attend the ceremony. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Israel to Belarus Yosef Shagal will read out a welcome letter from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The erection of the monument to Menachem Begin in his homeland is an unprecedented event,” the embassy said. This is the first monument to an Israeli politician in a post-Soviet country. The monument has been built in the Brest historic downtown near the house that used to be the school which Menachem Begin attended. The monument was created by a group headed by architect Leonid Levin, winner of the Lenin Prize, President of the Union of Belarusian Jewish Associations and Communities (UBJAC).

The celebrations will also feature a presentation and the First-Day-of-Issue dedication ceremony for the souvenir stamps “National Leaders of Israel Born in Belarus”. The set of souvenir stamps were prepared by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Belarus on the initiative of the Israeli Embassy. They are dedicated to the outstanding Israeli politicians who were born in Belarus: Chaim Weizmann, Zalman Shazar, Yitzhak Shamir, Menachem Begin, and Shimon Peres.

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Yossi Sarid Contra Begin (and Netanyahu)

Here:-

Netanyahu is a master of the art of Shoah business, a true disciple of Menachem Begin, who was the first to release the genie of the Holocaust from the bottle. David Ben-Gurion tried to keep that bottle sealed so that Israel’s Jews would not go mad: They have already been so wounded by the Holocaust, why pour fear on their wounds? But Begin remained in Polish exile, haunted and persecuted. Brisk is here, and the memory is still alive, still terrifying. In death, he left us the legacy to live in the shadow of death. Netanyahu is fulfilling that legacy as a true one-man Shoah.

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