Menachem Begin

Menachem Begin (16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician. Originally a Zionist activist in Eastern Europe, he later became Prime Minister of Israel.

The Begin family of Brest-Litovsk Jewish community; Back row: Left to right: Herzl; Menahem; Rachel [Begin] Halpern. In front left to right: Hassia and Zeev Dov Begin 12 December 1932. Zeev Dov; Hassia; and Herzl Begin did not survive the Shoah 1933-1945

Menachem Begin מנחם בגין
6th Prime Minister of Israel
In office 21 June 1977 – 10 October 1983
President	Ephraim Katzir Yitzhak Navon Chaim Herzog
Preceded by	Yitzhak Rabin
Succeeded by	Yitzhak Shamir
Minister of Defense
In office 28 May 1980 – 5 August 1981
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Ezer Weizman
Succeeded by	Ariel Sharon
In office 14 February 1983 – 23 February 1983
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Ariel Sharon
Succeeded by	Moshe Arens
Personal details
Born	(1913-08-16)16 August 1913 Brest, Russian Empire
Died	9 March 1992(1992-03-09) (aged 78) Tel Aviv, Israel
Political party	Herut (1948-1988) Likud (1988-1992)
Spouse(s)	Aliza Arnold (1939–82)
Children	Ze'ev Binyamin Hasia Leah
Alma mater	University of Warsaw
Signature

In 1941 he joined the Free Polish army. This is how he arrived in Mandatory Palestine in 1942.

In 1942, Begin joined the Irgun, a Zionist-Jewish paramilitary organization, which was labelled as a terrorist organization in the 1940s.^[1] From 1943 to 1948 he was commander of the Irgun.

He was the founder of the Israeli political party Likud. He was the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.

Begin’s most significant acts as Prime Minister include officially declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel, imposing Israeli law on the Golan Heights, taking Ethiopian Jews out of Africa, destroying Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor in Iraq, controversially leading Israel through the early stages of the 1982 Lebanon War, and most famously, signing the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty. For that treaty, Begin and Anwar Sadat shared the Nobel Peace Prize.

Begin resigned as Prime Minister in October 1983. He died on 9 March 1992 after a heart attack. He was buried on the Mount of Olives.^[2]

Related pages

• Lehi militant group
• Irgun