The Man Who Changed Israel’s History | Upheaval: The Journey of Menachem Begin | Documentary
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Jun 22, 2026 #fullfreemovies #StashFreeDocumentaries #freeyoutubemovies
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A proud yet scarred leader haunted by the Holocaust and decades of war, former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin struggles to balance history and heroism to make peace with his greatest enemy and cement a legacy long misunderstood.
Stars: Menachem Begin, Michael Oren
Directed by Jonathan Gruber
Produced by Jonathan Gruber, Rob Schwartz
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Transcript
0:088 seconds[ominous music]
0:1212 seconds- [officer] 315, hold the perimeter, we're under fire. We're under fire!
0:1616 secondsHe's got an automatic weapon and he's firing out of the front of the synagogue. - [officer 2] Sergeant 410, please send the medics up here!
0:2323 seconds- [reporter] Four people, including three children, have been shot dead at a Jewish school in southwestern France.
0:3030 seconds[gunshots blast]
0:3131 seconds- [reporter 2] Jewish leaders say the gunman tried to get inside and even threw hand grenades.
0:3636 seconds- [news anchor] Deadly violence at a house of worship in San Diego. - [reporter] The gunman opened fire on the Chabad of Poway.
0:4141 secondsBe'eri was one of the first villages targeted by Hamas in its surprise attack on October 7th. It left over 1,200 Israelis dead.
0:5050 secondsBrace yourselves, strengthen your spirits.
0:5555 seconds- right now, I think Menachem Begin uniquely speaks to Jews. He believed in the need for the Jews to seize their future.
1:051 minute, 5 seconds[crowd shouting]
1:061 minute, 6 seconds- he was a realist about human nature.
1:081 minute, 8 secondsAnd the antisemitism he faced in Europe, he knew it was not over. - [Yossi] Begin was very much a survivor.
1:181 minute, 18 seconds- nobody is going to bring Israel to her knees. The Jews do not kneel but to God.
1:271 minute, 27 seconds- [Ron] His basic assumption were that the Jews were alone and needed to take the actions alone to defend themselves.
1:351 minute, 35 seconds- I can make mistakes. I can be mistaken and surely I made mistakes.
1:401 minute, 40 seconds- [Yossi] He was a man of profound contradictions, which is part of what makes him so fascinating.
1:471 minute, 47 seconds- Menachem Begin, with all his faults, belonged to a different class of leaders.
1:551 minute, 55 seconds- he's a symbol of reconciliation. - we yearn for peace, we pray for it.
2:062 minutes, 6 seconds- oh, Menachem Begin, it's a big story. - people are looking back and missing him.
2:212 minutes, 21 secondsThere’s no one like him. He’s special. - his life was for Israel.
2:292 minutes, 29 secondsAshkenazi! Iraqi! Jews! - it doesn't matter where you come from.
2:372 minutes, 37 secondsCome, I love you. - he didn't see our color.
2:412 minutes, 41 seconds- his whole vision for Israel was for Jews to come here, feel like it's a safe haven. - but what he wants to say, he say straight.
2:502 minutes, 50 seconds- he's very different from my political views, but I think he was one of the greatest leaders that Israel had.
2:572 minutes, 57 seconds- [Ron] He understood that he was a link in this great chain, that went all this way back to history.
3:053 minutes, 5 seconds- [crowd] Begin! Begin! Begin!
3:093 minutes, 9 secondsBegin! Begin! Begin! [tense music]
3:213 minutes, 21 seconds[gentle music]
3:393 minutes, 39 seconds- I was a child. I started with Jewish or Hebrew education. Our parents were very devoted parents.
3:543 minutes, 54 secondsOur father was a very educated man, mainly a sage in Judaism.
4:014 minutes, 1 secondAnd our mother was, as any son can say, perhaps the best in the world.
4:094 minutes, 9 seconds- [daniel] Begin grew up in a home where Zionism was absolutely part of the ether, part of the fabric of life.
4:154 minutes, 15 secondsHe also met Ze'ev Jabotinsky relatively early in his life, and Jabotinsky is one of the foremost Zionist thinkers of the time.
4:224 minutes, 22 secondsWhat Begin really inherits from Jabotinsky more than anything else was the profound loving, loyal dedication to the foremost purpose of Zionism, which was the creation of a Jewish state.
4:354 minutes, 35 seconds- [jabotinsky] And anyone who says that this is just a dream we answer – let us freely build and we will
4:434 minutes, 43 secondsimmediately prove to you that this is a reality. - I was really conquered by Ze'ev Jabotinsky for his ideas.
4:544 minutes, 54 secondsAnd since then, I didn't change my mind.
4:574 minutes, 57 seconds- Zionism has always had youth movements in all of its facets. Jabotinsky's youth movement was called Betar.
5:075 minutes, 7 seconds- [begin] I was the chairman of Betar, which was ready to suffer, to fight, even to die for a Jewish state.
5:165 minutes, 16 seconds- Jabotinsky's contribution was his understanding of the need for the Jews to defend themselves.
5:255 minutes, 25 seconds- we used to be beaten up by our colleagues.
5:305 minutes, 30 secondsThere were clashes almost every day between the majority of the antisemitic students and the Jewish minority.
5:385 minutes, 38 seconds- his father told him something like, "Look at your fingers.
5:425 minutes, 42 secondsEach and every finger of yours is very weak alone, but together you can punch everyone."
5:495 minutes, 49 seconds"This is how the Jews should act."
5:545 minutes, 54 seconds[gentle music]
5:565 minutes, 56 seconds- [Daniel] Begin met his wife, Aliza, when he was traveling all around going to the homes of people trying to raise money for Betar.
6:036 minutes, 3 seconds- They met when they were very young. He fell in love with her immediately. - I found her when she was a very young girl, 17.
6:126 minutes, 12 secondsAnd at the age of 19 we married.
6:146 minutes, 14 secondsSeveral months later, the second World War broke out, and the whole of our world collapsed.
6:226 minutes, 22 seconds- [Reporter] The German foe begins its ruthless march of conquest.
6:266 minutes, 26 seconds[shells exploding] [ominous music]
6:346 minutes, 34 seconds- [Begin] So we became again refugees, fleeing the Nazis. And then came the Russians from the East.
6:436 minutes, 43 secondsI was arrested for my cause in which I believe with all my heart. No judge ever saw me, there was no trial at all.
6:526 minutes, 52 secondsMy crime was called Zionism. I was sentenced to eight years in a labor camp.
7:067 minutes, 6 secondsConcentration camp in the Soviet Union is one of the most horrifying institutions. It is hell on Earth.
7:157 minutes, 15 secondsStarvation, the harshest work, no day of rest. In winter, 40 centigrade below zero.
7:267 minutes, 26 secondsIt's very difficult to survive there. What can we do under such circumstances?
7:327 minutes, 32 secondsLie down on the wave and believe that somehow it will bring you to the land.
7:467 minutes, 46 seconds- Menachem Begin actually did write a will to Aliza while he was in prison, because he did not know that he was going to become free at any point.
7:547 minutes, 54 secondsAnd she actually smuggled a bar of soap into his cell, and it had three letters written on it, O-L-A.
8:028 minutes, 2 secondsIt was a Hebrew word, "Ola," which means, "I'm immigrating to Israel." So it was her way of telling him, "When you get out, if you get out, don't look for me here,
8:118 minutes, 11 secondsI'll already have gone to Palestine."
8:158 minutes, 15 seconds[gentle music]
8:208 minutes, 20 secondsWhile Begin is in the Soviet gulag, his family is essentially destroyed.
8:288 minutes, 28 seconds- And my own father, as I heard from eyewitnesses, led 500 Jews to the river, where they were machine gunned by the Germans around.
8:398 minutes, 39 secondsAnd he lead them singing, the Hatikvah, and that song, (speaking in foreign language).
8:468 minutes, 46 seconds"I do believe in full faith in the coming of the messiah." - The experience of his own family
8:558 minutes, 55 secondsin the Holocaust and the Jewish people in general affected him throughout his entire life.
9:009 minutes[gentle music]
9:089 minutes, 8 seconds[planes buzzing]
9:119 minutes, 11 seconds- Faith, destiny, it's something that is fascinating. Menachem Begin was saved because he was Polish.
9:209 minutes, 20 secondsBecause of the invasion of Nazi Germany to Russia, the Soviet Union changed their direction and became part of the Allies.
9:319 minutes, 31 seconds- And so the Soviets need manpower, and they essentially take these prisoners that they have who are willing to fight the Nazis, and they take them and assign them to various units.
9:419 minutes, 41 secondsThe army marches down south through Jordan, and eventually Begin will cross into Palestine at the age of 29.
9:499 minutes, 49 seconds- I came back home, in other words, to Eretz, Israel in 1942. There I found my wife.
9:569 minutes, 56 seconds- [Naor] When he was released from the army, he became the commander of the Irgun and declared a revolt against the British administration of Palestine.
10:0710 minutes, 7 seconds- We decided to start our fight late in 1943.
10:1210 minutes, 12 secondsWe couldn't wait because in those days the process of exterminating our people went on daily.
10:2310 minutes, 23 seconds- The British were acting here as colonial overlords and doing everything that they could to prevent a Jewish state from being established.
10:3410 minutes, 34 seconds- Begin said, "As long as the British don't allow the Jews to immigrate to the land of Israel,
10:4210 minutes, 42 secondsthey are the continuation of the Nazis themselves." When the war came to an end,
10:4910 minutes, 49 secondswe started to fight also against British military installations.
10:5510 minutes, 55 seconds[dramatic music]
10:5710 minutes, 57 seconds- [Reporter 2] In the Holy Land, violence continues.
10:5910 minutes, 59 secondsMembers of underground organizations blow up the Cairo-Haifa express, carrying 250 British troops among its passengers.
11:0611 minutes, 6 seconds- I just turned 15 when I first heard the name of Menachem Begin and he's fighting the British.
11:1311 minutes, 13 secondsAnd I said, "Wow, we need some fighters." Because we were, I'm saying it mildly, depressed, right after World War II, and we were actually a defeated people.
11:2611 minutes, 26 secondsBut when I heard someone in Palestine is fighting, I said, "Wow, that's my person." And he became a hero at that time.
11:3511 minutes, 35 seconds- He had charisma. He had the faith in his convictions.
11:3911 minutes, 39 secondsAnd he had a very clear worldview of the way that things are supposed to go.
11:4611 minutes, 46 seconds- There was a battle within the Zionist movement about what was the best way to gain sovereignty, and one camp was more accommodationist.
11:5511 minutes, 55 secondsLet's work with the British and as we get power transferred to us by them.
12:0212 minutes, 2 secondsBegin believed that the Jews were gonna have to fight and win their own sovereignty.
12:0712 minutes, 7 secondsAnd he didn't think it was gonna be given to them by the British. - There was a big poster called Wanted, everywhere.
12:1512 minutes, 15 secondsMenachem Begin was the first picture on the poster.
12:2012 minutes, 20 seconds- [Begin] And then I went underground to fight our own battle for freedom.
12:2412 minutes, 24 seconds- He changed addresses, changed his image, he changed his name. - So they made him Rabbi Yisrael Sassover, a Rabbi.
12:3512 minutes, 35 secondsAnd I called him Uncle Yisrael, and he was a wonderful uncle.
12:3912 minutes, 39 secondsHe helped me to do my homework and we played, sometimes, chess.
12:4812 minutes, 48 secondsMenachem Begin had a room in our apartment, and in the room there was a table.
12:5512 minutes, 55 secondsAnd around this table, he used to meet the commanders. The table had four legs.
13:0213 minutes, 2 secondsBut these legs were hollow and in the legs there were all kinds of documents of the underground.
13:1213 minutes, 12 seconds- During that time, the British government took over the King David Hotel
13:2013 minutes, 20 secondsand it was the central headquarters of the government of Palestine. So they were ordered to bomb the hotel.
13:2913 minutes, 29 seconds- [News Anchor] The hotel housed the British Army headquarters and the Palestine government offices, and casualties were very heavy.
13:3613 minutes, 36 seconds- [Begin] We never wanted to cause any casualties, that we gave an early warning for half an hour to evacuate the hotel.
13:4213 minutes, 42 secondsIf that warning had been heeded, none would have been hurt at all.
13:4813 minutes, 48 seconds- I think it was one of a series of things that made the British feel like staying in Mandatory Palestine wasn't worth their trouble anymore.
13:5813 minutes, 58 seconds- Acts like the blowing up of the King David Hotel proved to be instrumental in breaking the British will to remain in Palestine.
14:0814 minutes, 8 seconds- [News Anchor] The British Mandate in Palestine was about to end, and the United Nations was debating the partition of Palestine between the Jews and the Arabs as a solution to the turmoil in that country.
14:1814 minutes, 18 seconds- The resolution of the Ad Hoc Committee for Palestine was adopted by 33 votes.
14:2714 minutes, 27 seconds[audience applauding]
14:3014 minutes, 30 seconds- A civil war between the Jews and the Arabs broke out immediately, a day after the UN decision.
14:3714 minutes, 37 seconds- The Arabs would not agree and they started riots, which turned into a whole scale war.
14:4614 minutes, 46 secondsIn the beginning, the Jews were in a very bad situation.
14:5214 minutes, 52 seconds- [Reporter] The Arabs control the strategic heights dominating Jerusalem.
14:5514 minutes, 55 secondsThey command all roads of access to the modern city, including the essential road leading to Tel Aviv.
15:0215 minutes, 2 seconds- Deir Yassin was an area close to Jerusalem which was seen of having strategic value in the effort to go continue the fight and to make sure that Jerusalem would be secure.
15:1215 minutes, 12 seconds- The operation was a joint operation of the Haganah, which was technically under Ben-Gurion's control and the Irgun, which was technically under Begin's control.
15:2015 minutes, 20 seconds- In war, bad things often happen.
15:2315 minutes, 23 seconds- Deir Yassin is a massacre in which a number of civilians, men, women, children, were killed in cold blood.
15:3115 minutes, 31 seconds- Begin took responsibility about Deir Yassin, although he tried to explain it was a mistake.
15:3815 minutes, 38 secondsIt was a chain of mistakes that led to these tragic results.
15:4615 minutes, 46 seconds- Ben-Gurion was very adept at ducking out when things went wrong and leaving all the blame on Begin.
15:5315 minutes, 53 seconds- Ben-Gurion decided to blame the Irgun. The Arabs blamed the Irgun. The international arena blamed the Irgun.
16:0316 minutes, 3 seconds- But Begin took the blame.
16:0416 minutes, 4 secondsBegin was one of these people who for the rest of his life, by the way, would take blame for things that went wrong on his watch.
16:1416 minutes, 14 seconds- [Reporter] Tel Aviv, their first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proclaims the independent Jewish state. British rule is at an end.
16:2216 minutes, 22 seconds- We hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in the land of Israel to be known as the State of Israel.
16:3216 minutes, 32 seconds[audience applauding]
16:3316 minutes, 33 seconds- Statehood was the biggest miracle that happened to the Jewish people.
16:3916 minutes, 39 seconds[gentle music]
16:4216 minutes, 42 secondsAlmost an unexpected miracle. - Ben-Gurion, he was charged more than any other person to establish the Jewish homeland.
16:5316 minutes, 53 secondsAt that point almost all the world was against it, and he rose to the occasion and declared a state.
16:5916 minutes, 59 secondsAnd immediately, five Arab armies invaded Israel.
17:0517 minutes, 5 seconds[gunfire blazing]
17:1117 minutes, 11 seconds- The Jews assumed that they were out-armed and outgunned, and as far as they knew, they were out-trained.
17:1717 minutes, 17 seconds[gentle music]
17:1817 minutes, 18 seconds- [Avi] The Altalena was a ship which the Irgun organized to bring into Israel weapons and Holocaust survivors.
17:2917 minutes, 29 seconds- They got from the deputy minister for defense the announcement that the ship should come as soon as possible.
17:3717 minutes, 37 seconds- And Begin and Ben-Gurion have a huge battle over what's gonna happen to the arms on that boat.
17:4217 minutes, 42 seconds- Eventually, when the Irgun and Begin refused to obey the order of the government,
17:4917 minutes, 49 secondsBen-Gurion decided that, "We should bomb this ship." - Part of it was a turf war.
17:5617 minutes, 56 secondsAnd Ben-Gurion opted to blow up the ship with all of the ammunition, with all of this desperately needed weaponry, rather than empower his political rivals.
18:0918 minutes, 9 seconds- They started shooting at us. We laid down. Begin was running, he said, "Don't fire back!
18:1718 minutes, 17 secondsThere won't be a war between us." And we didn't fire back.
18:2018 minutes, 20 seconds- Yoske Nachmias said, "You are the commander of the Irgun not of the ship, and the ship is burning.
18:2518 minutes, 25 secondsYou have to go away." - I took a few guys, three, four guys. He struggled with us.
18:3218 minutes, 32 secondsWe put on him by force a life vest and we threw him overboard.
18:3818 minutes, 38 seconds- The most extraordinary thing about the Altalena affair was the order given by Menachem Begin when the Altalena was literally under fire, not to return that fire.
18:4818 minutes, 48 seconds- There are some people, including soldiers that I've personally spoken to, who were on the shore at that time who said they were shooting at Begin,
18:5518 minutes, 55 secondsand they were trying to shoot at the ship, but kill Begin also.
18:5918 minutes, 59 seconds- Young Jewish men and volunteers were killed by a gun used by another Jew at the command given to him.
19:1219 minutes, 12 seconds- And what goes down in Israeli history, generally, as an act of vision, of courage, of humanity,
19:2119 minutes, 21 secondsof Jewish solidarity, not to begin a civil war among Jews.
19:2819 minutes, 28 seconds- [Begin] But on that day I cried, because of the horrible event.
19:4519 minutes, 45 seconds- From day one, from the underground and from the beginning, there was incitement against Begin, unprecedented.
19:5319 minutes, 53 secondsBen-Gurion, the prime minister, was very effective in a very, can I say ugly way, in delegitimizing Begin personally and the party.
20:0620 minutes, 6 seconds- Begin and Ben-Gurion were like the biggest enemies of the Israeli politics.
20:1320 minutes, 13 secondsBen-Gurion was afraid of Begin, why? He grasped immediately Begin's political potential.
20:2220 minutes, 22 seconds- I remember reading about how intransigent he was and what kind of a fascist, terrorist, and a right-wing fanatic and all the descriptions about him.
20:3420 minutes, 34 seconds- Menachem Begin never bent a knee.
20:3720 minutes, 37 secondsHe never bent a knee in his personal life, but also in representing Israel, he would never have Israel bend the knee to the powers of the world.
20:4920 minutes, 49 seconds- [Begin] And your money, do we need it?
20:5320 minutes, 53 secondsThank God, there are proud Jews here that could have received this compensation, and yet they refused! We do not want German money!
21:0221 minutes, 2 seconds[audience applauding]
21:0421 minutes, 4 seconds- He didn't wanna take reparations from Germany. And he was right as far as I'm concerned. We paid with blood.
21:1321 minutes, 13 seconds- Begin said, "That is an insult" to the memory of the Holocaust victims.
21:2021 minutes, 20 secondsTo sit down as equals with the Germans, "that's immoral."
21:2821 minutes, 28 seconds- We were all thrilled to see this man speaking from this deep place of pride and wound
21:3721 minutes, 37 secondsand the sense of unfinished business that Jews had with Europe.
21:4221 minutes, 42 seconds- This is very much in contrast to Ben-Gurion, who believed that this money was essential for building the state of Israel at a time when Israel had no money, the early '50s.
21:5121 minutes, 51 secondsLiterally, there was no food in this country. Food was rationed. And Ben-Gurion thought that there was historic justice.
21:5721 minutes, 57 secondsThat money from Germany would help rebuild the Jewish people in their homeland after the Holocaust. And Begin lost the battle.
22:0622 minutes, 6 seconds[gentle music]
22:1122 minutes, 11 seconds- You can have the truth from both sides.
22:1322 minutes, 13 secondsBegin was talking in the name of those who were killed and Ben-Gurion was talking about those who survived.
22:2222 minutes, 22 seconds- The reparations were essential for building Israel as a modern economy, for defending Israel, and for absorbing Jewish refugees from 70 countries around the world.
22:3222 minutes, 32 seconds[gentle music]
22:4322 minutes, 43 seconds- Menachem Begin spent 29 years in the opposition.
22:4522 minutes, 45 secondsThe Prime Ministers up until then were basically, all from the same side of the political map.
22:5422 minutes, 54 seconds- He did not want to change his basic principle in order to get elected. He had a vision for the country, for the people.
23:0123 minutes, 1 secondAnd if he can't get this vision through an election, he would stay in the opposition. - Hello, my friend, hello. It's good to see you.
23:1023 minutes, 10 secondsHe is holding up well. He is a young man!
23:1523 minutes, 15 seconds- During the time that Begin was in the opposition, he very strongly advocated for the civil rights of Israeli Arabs, and to stop what was military rule over Israeli Arabs.
23:2623 minutes, 26 seconds- God willing, peace and security will come soon and there will be no differences between the Arabs and Jews.
23:3723 minutes, 37 seconds- Asserting your sovereignty doesn't mean that it has to come at the expense of people who are not Jewish who live with you.
23:4323 minutes, 43 secondsIt means that you give them the same respect as you give to the Jews.
23:4723 minutes, 47 secondsAnd that was always something that was very clear inside of Begin's idealism and the way that he viewed the world.
23:5523 minutes, 55 seconds- Begin represented an inclusive Israel.
23:5923 minutes, 59 seconds- We will build our country together with love, faith, and devotion with God’s help.
24:0624 minutes, 6 seconds[crowd applauding]
24:0824 minutes, 8 seconds[upbeat music]
24:1124 minutes, 11 secondsOne of the great turning points that he brought about is to bring the large Sephardic, North African population of Israelis into the mainstream of Israeli political life.
24:2524 minutes, 25 seconds- Many of the Middle Eastern Jews saw a certain arrogance from the point of the European Jews.
24:3024 minutes, 30 seconds- Those who speak of "two cultures" imply that their culture is superior to other cultures. This is a major insult.
24:3924 minutes, 39 seconds- You had this big segment in Israeli society that felt disenfranchised throughout Israel's political history.
24:4524 minutes, 45 secondsAnd here we have someone who they felt addressed them, who they felt empathized with their plight, who felt, gave a voice to their plight.
24:5324 minutes, 53 seconds- He becomes the champion of the Israeli underclass. - We lack nothing at all. We are happy. We lack nothing, thank God.
25:0225 minutes, 2 secondsWe hope it will continue like this. Why are you filming me? Film the beautiful women!
25:0925 minutes, 9 seconds[people laughing]
25:1025 minutes, 10 seconds- Jews from these Eastern countries viewed Begin as a father figure. They loved him. To this day, they love him.
25:1725 minutes, 17 seconds- Menachem Begin is pure. He is the purest Prime Minister that ever was.
25:2225 minutes, 22 seconds- He was special man that loved people whatever they are and whoever they are.
25:3125 minutes, 31 seconds- What is this? We are one nation. That’s it!
25:3825 minutes, 38 seconds- It really changed Israeli society for the better, by embracing the multiculturalism of the Jewish people.
25:4525 minutes, 45 seconds- Begin was the conduit for healing the deepest wound within Jewish Israel.
25:5225 minutes, 52 secondsWithout Begin, we would have really ruptured into two Israels.
25:5825 minutes, 58 seconds- We are a people, who, at the beginning of our history, thousands of years ago, were ordered,
26:0626 minutes, 6 seconds"Justice, justice, you should pursue."
26:1026 minutes, 10 seconds[upbeat music]
26:2026 minutes, 20 seconds- [TV announcer] One Force. The Likud Party.
26:2326 minutes, 23 seconds[crowd cheering]
26:2626 minutes, 26 seconds- 1977 was the big opportunity of Begin and he understood it, he said before the election,
26:3426 minutes, 34 seconds"If I'm going to lose again, it's going to be the last time that I will be a candidate." - Nobody believed that he would win this election.
26:4526 minutes, 45 secondsNobody. Not the reporters not the people close to him. He believed. I didn’t believe.
26:5226 minutes, 52 seconds- I told my wife, Simona the night before, that tomorrow, our friend Menachem Begin will be the Prime Minister of Israel.
27:0327 minutes, 3 seconds- Israel voted today in a crucial national election, one that could determine the future course of a Middle East peace.
27:1027 minutes, 10 secondsAnd early returns indicate a stunning upset. - And the results start streaming in. I kept calling on the phone and excited.
27:1727 minutes, 17 secondsAnd "you know what's happening?" and he said "Yonale, relax.
27:2127 minutes, 21 secondsWe'll have to wait after midnight to see the real results."
27:2527 minutes, 25 seconds[gentle music]
27:3227 minutes, 32 seconds- [TV announcer] This is a special broadcast for the election results of the 9th Knesset [Parliament].
27:4027 minutes, 40 secondsWell, apparently this is nothing less than an upheaval.
27:4527 minutes, 45 seconds[ominous music]
27:4827 minutes, 48 seconds[crowd cheering]
27:5827 minutes, 58 seconds- Menachem Begin pulled off the greatest coup in Israeli political history, overthrowing the decades rule of the Labor party.
28:0728 minutes, 7 seconds- My first thanks go to my wife to whom these eternal words apply to more than anyone else on earth.
28:2128 minutes, 21 seconds- And I remember so many times when she was present when he gave speeches, and he would always, always introduce his wife, first thing.
28:3428 minutes, 34 secondsAnd he would quote from the prophet Jeremiah.
28:4028 minutes, 40 seconds- These eternal words in a different way.
28:4828 minutes, 48 seconds"And I remember the devotion of your youth how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness…" through a land littered with mines.
28:5928 minutes, 59 seconds- And now the party whose roots lie in Jabotinsky and in Begin is the dominant party.
29:0329 minutes, 3 seconds[chanting]
29:0629 minutes, 6 secondsIn that one moment, Israeli politics are changed forever.
29:1129 minutes, 11 seconds- With a heart full of gratitude and appreciation, knowing that we are about to serve our nation with all of our heart and soul…
29:2429 minutes, 24 seconds- [Reporter] After 29 long years in the political opposition, Menachem Begin admitted that he himself was surprised by the size
29:3229 minutes, 32 secondsof the vote that suddenly made his right-wing party the biggest party in Israel.
29:3729 minutes, 37 seconds- I was on Air Force One coming back with the president from a trip, and I went to see President Carter in his cabin,
29:4629 minutes, 46 secondsand I said, "I think we have a very different situation in the Middle East.
29:5129 minutes, 51 secondsWe have a very different Prime Minister coming up." - [Reporter] Chances are the Americans will learn to deal with Begin once they understand that he is a very tough man, who has waited a long time to get where he is.
30:0230 minutes, 2 seconds- The Arab states saw this as disaster, saying negotiations with him would be impossible and they predicted more war.
30:1130 minutes, 11 seconds- For me and for most Jordanians, Begin was just another Israeli prime minister, one who is defined to a large extent by his history, his history in the pre-state militias that existed.
30:2430 minutes, 24 secondsHis history that included a lot of violence against Arabs and against the Brits. So his image was extremely negative.
30:3230 minutes, 32 seconds- He was described as being a fascist, as being anti-democratic.
30:3830 minutes, 38 seconds"Beware if he becomes prime minister, it's the end of the State of Israel as we know it." Yeah, but actually he proved to be the most democratic of all.
30:5130 minutes, 51 seconds- My friends and I showed, really, the greatest patience possible. Oppositions for such a long period usually disintegrate.
31:0131 minutes, 1 secondWe did not. And so, ultimately, the people gave us their confidence.
31:0831 minutes, 8 seconds- He was really for many years the guarantor that Israel remained a democracy.
31:1331 minutes, 13 secondsAs a head of the opposition party in Israel, he was the one essentially keeping the ruling party honest.
31:2131 minutes, 21 seconds- In what style will you be Prime Minister? In a good Jewish style.
31:2831 minutes, 28 seconds- He always referred to himself, I'm just a simple Jew.
31:3331 minutes, 33 seconds- The founding generation of Zionists was primarily secular and not religious.
31:3931 minutes, 39 secondsAnd Menachem Begin was the first Prime Minister, that I was aware of, who wore a kippah, not just at, sort of, ceremonial events.
31:4831 minutes, 48 secondsAnd it seemed to fit naturally on his head, as if he had worn it quite often. - He was a man who was deeply respectful of the tradition.
31:5831 minutes, 58 seconds- I have asked for the blessings of the Rabbi, of our great teacher.
32:0632 minutes, 6 secondsRabbi Schneerson is a great man in Israel. All of us respect him.
32:1432 minutes, 14 seconds- Begin always saw himself as a son of the Jewish people, a son of a 4,000 year people carrying history and suffering and dignity.
32:2732 minutes, 27 secondsBegin, I think, saw himself as the bridge between Jewishness and Israeliness.
32:3432 minutes, 34 seconds- I was asked whether I am a man of destiny, I rejected it. God chooses everybody to do his work.
32:4332 minutes, 43 secondsI cannot say that I was chosen. I can say, simply, that I was elected by the people.
32:5132 minutes, 51 seconds- [Michael] You could disagree with him, you could even hate him, but you could never say he was a hypocrite.
32:5632 minutes, 56 seconds[gentle music]
33:0633 minutes, 6 seconds- After the Six-Day War, there was a disagreement among Israelis about the future of the territories that we took from the Arabs.
33:1833 minutes, 18 seconds- The first settlements in what you call the West Bank, or even on the Golan Heights, were created by the Labor party. So Begin simply accelerated the process.
33:2633 minutes, 26 secondsHe made it much more public and he cloaked it in Zionist virtue. - Until '77, we used to call them the Occupied Territories.
33:3833 minutes, 38 secondsIt was Begin that demanded that the name be changed to Judea and Samaria.
33:4533 minutes, 45 seconds- For him, Judea and Samaria are the lands where the most central stories of the Bible take place.
33:5533 minutes, 55 secondsAnd so he saw those as lands that lay at the very heart of Jewish existence.
34:0534 minutes, 5 seconds- It would be an absolute inconceivable and incomprehensible paradox
34:1134 minutes, 11 secondsthat the Jew has a right to live in Tel Aviv or in Jaffa, or, for that matter, in London or in New York, but he's not entitled to live in this part of the land.
34:2434 minutes, 24 seconds- [reporter] Does that mean formal annexation? - [Begin] No, we don't use the word annexation. You annex, under international law, foreign land.
34:3134 minutes, 31 secondsYou don't annex your own country.
34:3334 minutes, 33 secondsThere is room here for the Jews to settle, for the Arabs to live, in equality of rights together in peace and human dignity.
34:4234 minutes, 42 seconds- When Begin started the settlement policy, he faced strong opposition from two sides.
34:5034 minutes, 50 secondsOne side was the Labor Party, who believed in partition of the country between Jews and Arabs.
34:5734 minutes, 57 secondsThe second opposition was the United States President, Mr. Jimmy Carter.
35:0335 minutes, 3 seconds- We do favor a homeland or an entity wherein the Palestinians can live in peace.
35:1135 minutes, 11 seconds- He was the first American leader to declare a policy like that.
35:1835 minutes, 18 seconds- This is our land, the land of our forefathers. We didn't take anything away from anybody.
35:2435 minutes, 24 secondsPresident Carter, who knows by heart the Bible, should know to whom this land belongs.
35:2935 minutes, 29 seconds- Under the previous governments, they were presented as a security measure.
35:3535 minutes, 35 secondsUnder Begin, we started seeing more of a messianic view on settlements, a view that the whole of the land is the land of Israel.
35:4335 minutes, 43 seconds[crowd singing in foreign language]
35:4635 minutes, 46 secondsI have no doubt that this place was destined for you your sons
35:5235 minutes, 52 seconds[dramatic music]
35:5335 minutes, 53 secondsand their sons that will come after you.
35:5535 minutes, 55 seconds- If you take the settlement enterprise of today and if you're right wing and support it, Begin won.
36:0336 minutes, 3 secondsThis is Begin's achievement.
36:0536 minutes, 5 secondsIf you look at it from the liberal or left wing perception, this is the problematic heritage that Begin left to us.
36:1436 minutes, 14 seconds- How many settlers do we have in the West Bank? About half a million? This was what Begin wished to have.
36:2536 minutes, 25 seconds- So we are stuck now in a situation that is not resolved, and it has the illusion, created an illusion, that it can stay like this forever, it can't.
36:3836 minutes, 38 seconds- [reporter] Israel simply couldn't say no, but a number of other countries did.
36:4336 minutes, 43 secondsThese 66 refugees were in peril off the Vietnamese coast in a sinking fishing boat with no more food or water.
36:5236 minutes, 52 seconds- We shall give them all the hospitality to which we are used since the days of old Abraham, our father.
37:0037 minutes[gentle music]
37:0137 minutes, 1 second- Menachem Begin was himself a refugee, and he definitely saw part of Israel's role in helping refugees, mainly Jewish refugees,
37:1037 minutes, 10 secondsbut you could see in the example of the Vietnamese boat people that he reached out to other people as well with his humanitarian vision.
37:1837 minutes, 18 seconds- He said that Jewish people around the war, second war, they also in other countries that nobody wants them.
37:2737 minutes, 27 secondsSo he thought that they should be taking us. - He was maybe colorblind. He didn't care about, really, what is your origin.
37:3837 minutes, 38 secondsOne of the first things he did as a Prime Minister was to bring the Ethiopian Jews to Israel, just like that.
37:4637 minutes, 46 seconds- We always talk about him.
37:4837 minutes, 48 secondsHe was a hero in my home, in my house, for my parents, for all the Jewish Ethiopian community.
37:5737 minutes, 57 seconds[gentle music]
37:5837 minutes, 58 seconds- And here you have, Ethiopian Jews, that seemed to have been cut off from much of world Jewry.
38:0438 minutes, 4 secondsAnd Begin is reaching out to help them fulfill their dream of return.
38:1038 minutes, 10 seconds- He was the first Prime Minister that recognized the Ethiopian Jew as a brother,
38:1938 minutes, 19 secondsas a sister, as a part that will never be separated from Am Yisrael. - We say a mensch, you know mensch?
38:2938 minutes, 29 secondsI don't know how to translate that into English. Mensch is a real human being. He cares about others.
38:4138 minutes, 41 secondsHe cares about others. You see, I am three years already a refusenik.
38:4938 minutes, 49 secondsIt means that for three years already, I’ve been fighting for my right to leave for Israel.
38:5338 minutes, 53 seconds- The State of Israel had an ongoing effort to keep the Jewish flame burning among Russian Jews.
39:0739 minutes, 7 secondsAnd Begin was part of it.
39:1139 minutes, 11 seconds- I have to think if there was another Israeli Prime Minister who spent time in a Soviet prison. Probably not.
39:1839 minutes, 18 secondsHe connected to that struggle to free Soviet Jews in a very deep and profound way.
39:2439 minutes, 24 secondsThe Soviet Union is accusing my husband of being a U.S. spy.
39:2839 minutes, 28 secondsFive years ago, he wanted to immigrate to Israel, but he was refused an exit visa. He has been repeatedly arrested and persecuted.
39:3439 minutes, 34 secondsBeing Jewish and wanting to make Aliyah to Israel was such a libel. A false libel.
39:4039 minutes, 40 secondsWhich affected all the Jews in the Soviet Union and was a danger to the Jews.
39:4639 minutes, 46 secondsSo we started to organize and prepare for a long struggle against this accusation.
39:5339 minutes, 53 seconds- So I called upon parliaments, governments, to intervene and to flood the Kremlin with cables demanding the release of Sharansky.
40:0440 minutes, 4 seconds[chanting]
40:1040 minutes, 10 secondsAnd when a person such as Menachem Begin, who is a highly respected and admired figure,
40:1840 minutes, 18 secondsa big personality, once he joined the struggle and started to push matters, it gave great momentum to the struggle.
40:3340 minutes, 33 seconds- [Reporter] For Anatoly Sharansky, a lifetime's dream come true. Freedom in Israel.
40:3840 minutes, 38 secondsWith him, his wife Avital, who fought for 12 years to bring her husband to the West.
40:4440 minutes, 44 secondsMenachem Begin was a friend and a person who really took care of us.
40:5340 minutes, 53 secondsAnd he also was my Prime Minister.
41:0241 minutes, 2 seconds- I do believe and hope that there will be peace with all our neighbors, because what I want to achieve before I go is that our people have peace for an historic period of time.
41:1641 minutes, 16 seconds- Leadership is not doing what your voters like. This is easy. This is being led by the voters.
41:2241 minutes, 22 secondsLeading the people means taking them where you think is right, convincing that it's right, even if they wouldn't have done it otherwise. The peace with Egypt is such a great example.
41:3141 minutes, 31 seconds- For Begin, the idea of having peace with Egypt was extremely important,
41:3841 minutes, 38 secondsbecause Egypt was the strongest and most dangerous country to Israel.
41:4541 minutes, 45 seconds- They didn't want to attack us anymore. It was destroying their economy.
41:5041 minutes, 50 secondsThey were completely dependent on the Soviets, and they wanted to get out of that. So the path to doing that was through peace with Israel.
41:5841 minutes, 58 secondsIsrael will be surprised to hear me say that
42:0542 minutes, 5 secondsI am ready to go to their Parliament, to the Knesset and debate with them.
42:1242 minutes, 12 seconds[audience applauding]
42:2042 minutes, 20 seconds- And Begin said, "I have wonderful news," he says.
42:2342 minutes, 23 seconds"The President of Egypt is coming on Saturday night."
42:2942 minutes, 29 seconds[plane engine roaring]
42:3542 minutes, 35 seconds- They had doubts until the very last second.
42:3742 minutes, 37 secondsThere was an Israeli security unit that was in Ben-Gurion Airport preparing for the possibility that Sadat would not be on the plane,
42:4542 minutes, 45 secondsbut rather a suicide group that will come and shoot the Israeli receiving committee. - And then the doors open and he stood there.
42:5442 minutes, 54 secondsIt was… It was unbelievable, what can I tell you? It's a once in a lifetime experience.
43:0443 minutes, 4 seconds- Our military guard saluted him and the trumpet was played in honor of him.
43:1443 minutes, 14 secondsIt was like the footsteps of the Messiah. This is what we waited for.
43:2343 minutes, 23 secondsWe prayed for it. - This visit is a real success for both countries.
43:3343 minutes, 33 seconds- Sadat surprised all of us by offering to go to Israel.
43:3843 minutes, 38 secondsAnd that shook things up, generally in a positive way, because he broke a taboo.
43:4643 minutes, 46 secondsIn diplomacy, breaking taboos can sometimes open up possibilities. - It is a momentous visit.
43:5643 minutes, 56 secondsFor President Sadat to come to Jerusalem, I suppose, it is your feeling as well, as you see, we sit together, as good neighbors, as friends.
44:0644 minutes, 6 secondsWe talk to each other. We even try to answer your questions.
44:1044 minutes, 10 seconds- Do you think that because of this historic visit, that events have been set in motion in the Middle East which would survive you, sir, and survive you.
44:2244 minutes, 22 seconds- We are mortals, and we are going to do our utmost to make sure that our nations will live forever in peace.
44:3144 minutes, 31 seconds- Let us praise the slogan, "No war and security." - Why did Sadat make the dramatic move to go to Jerusalem?
44:4444 minutes, 44 secondsSadat took an enormous personal and political risk. He was advised by all of his advisors not to do this.
44:5244 minutes, 52 seconds"What I want," said Sadat, "is to get all of the Egyptian Sinai back." - He wanted to restore Arab,
45:0045 minutesand particularly Egyptian pride, by getting back the land that had been taken. He tried to do it diplomatically. He realized that there was no alternative.
45:1045 minutes, 10 seconds- Through negotiations, round the table, rather than starting wars, we have enough.
45:2145 minutes, 21 seconds- It was clear that his coming to Israel is the first stage. It's not the last stage.
45:2845 minutes, 28 secondsBecause it's one thing that one wants peace, or both sides want peace.
45:3345 minutes, 33 secondsIt's another thing to agree about the content, about the details of the peace.
45:3945 minutes, 39 seconds- It may be that a conservative like Begin, was the one that ultimately had the credibility to make the first breakthrough peace for modern Israel with an Arab nation.
45:5145 minutes, 51 secondsAnd not just any Arab nation, but Egypt. Really in some sense, the historic center of the Arab world.
45:5845 minutes, 58 seconds- We hope and wish that the day will come, and may God bring it very, very soon,
46:0946 minutes, 9 secondsthat my grandchildren will play in Cairo and Sadat's grandchildren in Jerusalem.
46:1846 minutes, 18 seconds[audience applauding]
46:2146 minutes, 21 seconds- The problem was when Egypt and Israel got together to try to concretize that concept, it was fruitless.
46:3046 minutes, 30 secondsThey were not able to agree.
46:3246 minutes, 32 seconds- The State of Israel will not be dictated to.
46:3746 minutes, 37 secondsThe State of Israel will conduct negotiations.
46:4146 minutes, 41 seconds- Events have proven that the great ideal of peace is unfortunately fragile and vulnerable.
46:5246 minutes, 52 seconds- Sadat was pretty fed up with the lack of progress. Sadat then said to the President.
46:5646 minutes, 56 secondsHe said "Mr. President, the only way we can make any headway is if you Americans make a proposal,
47:0347 minutes, 3 secondsand then we can both react to it." So that was the beginning of thinking that maybe getting the two leaders together with Carter at Camp David would be the way to move forward.
47:1647 minutes, 16 seconds[chopper whirring]
47:1847 minutes, 18 seconds- We entered Camp David, we didn't think that, we were very skeptical that an agreement could be reached there, 'cause there was a gap.
47:2747 minutes, 27 seconds- [Begin] What are we going with to Camp David?
47:3047 minutes, 30 secondsWe go to this summit with the best intentions.
47:3447 minutes, 34 secondsWe will reach an agreement that will allow us to continue thorough and serious negotiations for a permanent peace in the Middle East in order to end all wars between us and the Arabs.
47:4947 minutes, 49 seconds- There is the issue with peace with Egypt, and there is the issue of the Palestinian question.
47:5747 minutes, 57 seconds- I'm quoting him directly, "Israel will be in mortal danger"
48:0448 minutes, 4 seconds"if Samaria and Judea becomes a Palestinian state." - He would always talk about Judea and Samaria.
48:1348 minutes, 13 secondsAnd he would very dramatically say, "My right hand will wither before I would ever sign anything that gave away any part of Eretz Israel."
48:2448 minutes, 24 secondsThere's something called autonomy for the Palestinians that is poorly defined.
48:3148 minutes, 31 seconds- Our plan of autonomy is based on two legs.
48:3548 minutes, 35 secondsOne, complete autonomy or self-rule for the Palestinian Arabs, in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza district.
48:4148 minutes, 41 secondsSecurity for the Palestinian Jews, and that means the presence of our defense forces.
48:4748 minutes, 47 seconds[soft music]
48:4848 minutes, 48 seconds- Autonomy means that you will be able to govern yourselves in your municipal affairs or cultural affairs, your educational system.
48:5848 minutes, 58 secondsWe won't interfere with your way of life, but all of this land will be under our governance.
49:0749 minutes, 7 seconds- So the idea was to give Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, some self-rule authorities without recognizing their national rights.
49:1649 minutes, 16 seconds- [Quandt] But at the end of the day, Begin made decisions on the big issues based on his own sense of negotiations, his own strategy, and his own red lines.
49:2749 minutes, 27 seconds- The Egyptians went out of their minds
49:3349 minutes, 33 secondsbecause Begin was so adamant in checking every full stop
49:4149 minutes, 41 secondsand every connecting word in the peace documents that they signed.
49:4849 minutes, 48 secondsThe Egyptians were notorious in that respect too, but compared to Begin, they were pussycats.
49:5949 minutes, 59 seconds- He tended to lecture constantly on the Holocaust or the history of Jews, on the oppression of Jews, on the history of Israel.
50:0950 minutes, 9 secondsCarter was very patient, but I had known him well enough. He was biting his tongue an awful lot.
50:1650 minutes, 16 seconds- I think that the events of World War II generally, and the Holocaust especially, is a factor that influences every Israeli.
50:2750 minutes, 27 secondsEvery Israeli. And of course, every Israeli leader. All of us are operating under this shadow.
50:3750 minutes, 37 seconds- There is no Menachem Begin without the Holocaust.
50:4150 minutes, 41 secondsAnd Begin in some sense never left Europe, never left those whom he had tried to save.
50:5850 minutes, 58 seconds- We waited at the Blair House for him to come out of Camp David, and he was there 13 days.
51:0751 minutes, 7 secondsHe said he felt like in prison.
51:0951 minutes, 9 secondsHe said, "How many times do I tell the president, ‘Mr. President, Jerusalem is not negotiable.’"
51:2051 minutes, 20 seconds- Jerusalem is one city, the capital of Israel, indivisible, and this position of Israel is not going to be changed.
51:2851 minutes, 28 secondsBut Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the state of Israel, and so it will be. Whether recognized or unrecognized.
51:3751 minutes, 37 seconds[gentle music]
51:3751 minutes, 37 seconds- At a time of very high tension between Carter and Begin, they sort of brought the worst out from each other.
51:4551 minutes, 45 secondsCarter oftentimes was very tough and confrontational.
51:4851 minutes, 48 secondsBecause of the advice that our very wise ambassador, Sam Lewis gave, and that is, we would get more out of Begin with honey than with vinegar.
52:0252 minutes, 2 secondsThat embracing him, making him understand we appreciated where he was coming from was more likely to produce, with less tension, success than being tough and confrontational.
52:1852 minutes, 18 seconds- There was a deal to be had with Egypt, but it would probably be at the expense of any movement on the Palestinian West Bank issue.
52:2852 minutes, 28 seconds- The real focus in the Camp David Accords, was not the Palestinian.
52:3252 minutes, 32 secondsThe real focus and the real game was the Egyptian-Israeli side of it.
52:3652 minutes, 36 secondsAnd once that was resolved, I think neither the Israelis nor the Egyptians nor the Americans were willing to jeopardize that for the sake of the Palestinian component.
52:5052 minutes, 50 seconds- On the last day when we thought all of the pieces had fallen into place, Carter had a final meeting with Sadat.
52:5752 minutes, 57 secondsAnd so we went in to see Carter immediately after.
53:0153 minutes, 1 secondWe said, "Did he accept?" And he said, "I think so.
53:0553 minutes, 5 secondsI think we now have an agreement." - Good evening, the Mideast summit at Camp David is over, and Israel and Egypt have agreed to two documents,
53:1553 minutes, 15 secondstaking a giant step toward achieving peace in their troubled corner of the world.
53:1953 minutes, 19 seconds- Mr. President, we the Israelis thank you from the bottom of our hearts, for all you have done for the sake of peace
53:2853 minutes, 28 secondsfor which we prayed and yearned more than 30 years.
53:3353 minutes, 33 seconds[audience applauding]
53:3653 minutes, 36 seconds- I had this real sense of, I'm never gonna do anything else in my career that is nearly as important or as exhausting, or as consequential or as interesting as this.
53:4853 minutes, 48 seconds- He wanted to have peace more than anything else.
53:5153 minutes, 51 secondsThat's why he signed a peace treaty, which he was very proud of.
53:5553 minutes, 55 secondsAlthough he was criticized by his own friends, his own people in the Knesset who didn't vote for it.
54:0454 minutes, 4 secondsWe didn’t need you to get elected in order for you to return the land!
54:0854 minutes, 8 seconds- [Barbara] Mr. Prime Minister, do you have any fear that the Knesset may vote against the withdrawal of the settlements in the Sinai? - I really can't say.
54:1654 minutes, 16 secondsEverybody will decide.
54:1854 minutes, 18 secondsWhatever the parliament or the Knesset decides, we shall carry out their will. This is democracy.
54:2454 minutes, 24 secondsShe wants to be like a prophetess! - People did not wanna give up the Sinai.
54:3254 minutes, 32 secondsThere were huge protests. It was a political dispute within the right wing in Israel. It was a very divisive time in Israeli history.
54:4054 minutes, 40 seconds- The man was criticized, Begin.
54:4354 minutes, 43 secondsYou give Sinai, two and a half times Israel in terms of land, for a piece of paper. What are you doing?
54:5154 minutes, 51 seconds- Believe me, that question of settlements in Sinai, to decide to remove them, is perhaps the deepest pain in my heart.
54:5954 minutes, 59 secondsI will carry it with me to the last day of my life.
55:0355 minutes, 3 seconds[crowds clamoring]
55:0555 minutes, 5 seconds- [Reporter] Yamit was doomed. Yamit became a symbol of the price of withdrawal.
55:1555 minutes, 15 seconds- I promise you that, unfortunately, Menachem Begin in history, he’ll be remembered eternally in disgrace.
55:2855 minutes, 28 seconds- He had the responsibility on his own shoulders for Israel's security. He had to get thousands of settlers out.
55:3455 minutes, 34 secondsHe had to rely on the word of Egypt and the United States to protect his security. He had to make compromises with his own philosophy.
55:4455 minutes, 44 secondsAnd he did so because he wanted peace.
55:4855 minutes, 48 seconds- It was heart wrenching for him, but this is a decision which a prime minister is elected to be, to make the hard decisions.
55:5555 minutes, 55 secondsNot to build his next coalition or to see how he's going to win the next elections. You are chosen to take, make decisions, popular or not.
56:0356 minutes, 3 secondsThat's your responsibility. And that's what he did. - Yes. There are difficulties in peace, there are. There are pains in peace, there are.
56:1256 minutes, 12 secondsThere are victims for peace, there are. All of these are preferred to the victims of war.
56:1956 minutes, 19 secondsI declare this as someone who served as a head of a fighting organization. Our deepest desire is peace.
56:2956 minutes, 29 seconds[building crashing]
56:3556 minutes, 35 seconds- These are difficult decisions that required someone of both deep conviction and a degree of political credibility to go to his own base and to say,
56:4456 minutes, 44 seconds"I am almost abandoning part of your narrative for the sake of the future." We require a special kind of leader for that.
56:5156 minutes, 51 seconds[gentle music]
56:5456 minutes, 54 seconds- Good evening to you, Mr. President.
56:5556 minutes, 55 secondsI wish to congratulate you on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize. - Thank you very much.
57:0357 minutes, 3 seconds- And now, Mr. President, we both know that the real prize is peace itself.
57:0957 minutes, 9 seconds- It adds a new obligation on both of us to achieve peace in no time.
57:1557 minutes, 15 seconds[gentle music]
57:2157 minutes, 21 seconds- A nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore.
57:3257 minutes, 32 secondsNo more war, no more bloodshed. We shall negotiate and reach agreement.
57:4157 minutes, 41 seconds[audience applauding]
57:4557 minutes, 45 seconds- A lot of the Arab world was not ready for the Camp David Accords. Sadat knew that.
57:4957 minutes, 49 secondsIn an extraordinarily courageous principle, and I'd say wise act of leadership, Sadat nonetheless went forward and broke the barriers between Egypt and Israel.
58:0258 minutes, 2 seconds- Right after Camp David, Egypt was boycotted by all of the Arab countries.
58:0758 minutes, 7 secondsThe Arab League headquarters was moved from Egypt to Tunisia. He faced tremendous domestic opposition.
58:1458 minutes, 14 secondsYes, many supported it in Egypt, but many opposed it, particularly the Islamists. And ultimately he paid the ultimate price.
58:2158 minutes, 21 seconds- Anwar Sadat, dead at the hands of assassins who attacked him and his official party on a reviewing stand of a military parade in a suburb of Cairo this morning shortly after 7 o'clock.
58:3258 minutes, 32 secondsIn Israel, Prime Minister Begin has issued a statement saying, "I lost not only a partner to the peace process, but a friend as well." Prime Minister Begin said the peace process will continue as Sadat would have wished.
58:4458 minutes, 44 seconds- President Sadat was murdered by the enemies of peace.
58:4858 minutes, 48 secondsThe people of Israel share in the mourning of the people of Egypt.
58:5758 minutes, 57 seconds[gunshots blasting]
58:5958 minutes, 59 seconds- When Sadat was murdered, many people in Israel were frightened that the peace would collapse.
59:0559 minutes, 5 seconds- But ultimately, why did the Camp David Accords last to our time?
59:1259 minutes, 12 secondsBecause really it was in the interest of both countries.
59:1759 minutes, 17 seconds- A peace treaty that many Israelis were very dubious about has proven to be much more resilient than anyone might've imagined back then.
59:2759 minutes, 27 seconds- Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine.
59:3459 minutes, 34 secondsIt is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family.
59:4659 minutes, 46 secondsIt is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth.
59:5759 minutes, 57 secondsPeace is all of these and more and more.
1:00:101 hour, 10 secondsThere won't be another Holocaust in the history of the Jewish people. Never again, never again.
1:00:201 hour, 20 seconds- Begin deeply believed that the Jewish people faced existential threats, that the threats to Israel's existence were real,
1:00:291 hour, 29 secondsand that as the prime minister of Israel, he would reserve the right to defend Israel at extreme costs against such existential threats.
1:00:401 hour, 40 seconds- When Saddam Hussein comes to power, he's very open that he's gonna destroy Israel.
1:00:441 hour, 44 secondsSaddam Hussein understands that he's not gonna be able to destroy Israel with conventional weapons.
1:00:481 hour, 48 secondsSo he decides that he will get a nuclear weapon to destroy the Jewish state.
1:00:531 hour, 53 seconds[ominous music]
1:00:541 hour, 54 seconds- We had some experts, which tried to assess, what does it mean, the reactor?
1:00:591 hour, 59 secondsAnd the conclusion what, it can be one which can produce plutonium for military purposes.
1:01:071 hour, 1 minute, 7 seconds- The option was either to accept the existent of a nuclear weapon or to bomb it.
1:01:171 hour, 1 minute, 17 seconds- There were many risks.
1:01:181 hour, 1 minute, 18 secondsThe risks that it could go wrong, and that our pilots could get shot down. They could be tortured by them. It could have been a disaster.
1:01:281 hour, 1 minute, 28 seconds- I was the leader of that mission, and the feeling, it's very heavy on your shoulder. Surprise looked impossible.
1:01:391 hour, 1 minute, 39 seconds- We launched eight F-16s with bombs and six F-15s for air cover.
1:01:471 hour, 1 minute, 47 seconds- It was around 90 minutes low altitude.
1:01:501 hour, 1 minute, 50 secondsWhen we turned on our radars approaching Baghdad, we saw nothing on the radar scope.
1:01:541 hour, 1 minute, 54 secondsEach of us thought that his radar was malfunctioning because it was too good to be true. Nothing, no plane over Baghdad?
1:02:011 hour, 2 minutes, 1 secondNow, nothing can prevent it and you dive.
1:02:081 hour, 2 minutes, 8 seconds[beeping]
1:02:181 hour, 2 minutes, 18 seconds- Then we got the call sign, which said Charlie, means all of us safe, the target destructed, we're on the way home.
1:02:281 hour, 2 minutes, 28 seconds- The Iraqi atomic reactor which was about to make atomic bombs no longer exists!
1:02:381 hour, 2 minutes, 38 seconds[crowd cheering]
1:02:401 hour, 2 minutes, 40 seconds- Taking the decision to strike at the Osirak nuclear reactor, Begin not only took on elements within his own cabinet,
1:02:461 hour, 2 minutes, 46 secondsbut he also took on the United States of America, the Reagan Administration.
1:02:551 hour, 2 minutes, 55 seconds- Nothing in recent memory has so strained relations between the United States and Israel as the Israeli attack on a nuclear reactor in Iraq.
1:03:031 hour, 3 minutes, 3 seconds- On the face of it, they all opposed it very strongly. - Israel has nothing to apologize for.
1:03:121 hour, 3 minutes, 12 secondsWe decided to act now before it is too late.
1:03:181 hour, 3 minutes, 18 seconds- But they understood that a dictator like Saddam Hussein should not be allowed to produce nuclear bombs.
1:03:271 hour, 3 minutes, 27 seconds- In destroying the Osirak reactor, Begin established a foreign policy doctrine which no Israeli Prime Minister has ever veered from.
1:03:361 hour, 3 minutes, 36 seconds- The Begin doctrine is that you take preemptive action when it comes to an existential threat,
1:03:421 hour, 3 minutes, 42 secondsweapons of mass destruction, that Israel will not allow a regime that calls and works for its destruction to develop the weapons to achieve that goal, period.
1:03:541 hour, 3 minutes, 54 seconds[somber music]
1:04:001 hour, 4 minutes- [reporter] Eight Israelis in the northern border town of Kiryat Shemona were treated for shock and minor injuries this morning after Palestinian gunners for the fifth straight day, fired salvos of Katyusha rockets from positions in Lebanon.
1:04:141 hour, 4 minutes, 14 seconds- The PLO is established by a few people, Yasser Arafat, most famous among them.
1:04:181 hour, 4 minutes, 18 secondsIt stands for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and its expressed goal is the destruction of the state of Israel. - [man] Long live PLO!
1:04:261 hour, 4 minutes, 26 seconds- [crowd] Long live PLO! - [man] Victory for PLO! - [crowd] Victory for PLO!
1:04:321 hour, 4 minutes, 32 seconds- The PLO had set up a state within a state inside of South Lebanon.
1:04:361 hour, 4 minutes, 36 secondsAnd there was a Lebanese government that wanted Israel's help in getting the PLO out, and the PLO was attacking Israel.
1:04:481 hour, 4 minutes, 48 seconds- There had been long standing tensions between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon.
1:04:521 hour, 4 minutes, 52 secondsBegin had a hope that the Israelis and the Christian Lebanese under Bashir Gemayel would be able to unify together to kick the Palestinians out of Southern Lebanon.
1:05:041 hour, 5 minutes, 4 seconds- There was this kind of idea that we were gonna be able to contribute to the, sort of, revolutionizing of Lebanese society.
1:05:131 hour, 5 minutes, 13 seconds- And the feeling that we may have another treaty of peace after Egypt with Lebanon now, it was very promising.
1:05:221 hour, 5 minutes, 22 seconds- He always told me, "Listen, we'll make peace with Lebanon and then I'll retire and write my memoirs."
1:05:291 hour, 5 minutes, 29 seconds[ominous music]
1:05:311 hour, 5 minutes, 31 seconds- I promise my people, as soon as I arrive to Jerusalem with them, where we will establish our state and to live.
1:05:421 hour, 5 minutes, 42 seconds- Both sides were really engaged in an existential fight.
1:05:461 hour, 5 minutes, 46 secondsAnd that in many ways defined Begin's legacy when it comes to the Palestinians.
1:05:511 hour, 5 minutes, 51 secondsA little longer and there will be no more Katyusha rockets in Kiryat Shemona.
1:05:581 hour, 5 minutes, 58 seconds[crowd cheering]
1:06:001 hour, 6 minutes- There were letters he wrote to the leaders of the world, saying, "We will not be able to continue accepting this, and if there is an attack on us, we will attack."
1:06:091 hour, 6 minutes, 9 seconds- The Israeli government has given the army the mission of removing all Galilee settlements
1:06:171 hour, 6 minutes, 17 secondsout of the range of terrorist fire which are centered in Lebanon.
1:06:241 hour, 6 minutes, 24 secondsThe name of the operation is "Peace for Galilee." - The goal of the operation was
1:06:321 hour, 6 minutes, 32 secondsto put distance between Israel and PLO rockets that had been shelling northern Galilee for a long time. And that was a justifiable war.
1:06:401 hour, 6 minutes, 40 secondsWe were willing to fight it, we're willing to risk our lives to defend the people of northern Israel.
1:06:441 hour, 6 minutes, 44 secondsAnd if we will get to the line of 40 kilometers from our northern border, the job is done.
1:06:531 hour, 6 minutes, 53 seconds[chopper whirring]
1:07:031 hour, 7 minutes, 3 seconds- And then word began to filter to the home front that what's happening on the actual front is different from what the government is telling us.
1:07:171 hour, 7 minutes, 17 secondsThat the government is going far deeper into Lebanon than it initially said it would.
1:07:301 hour, 7 minutes, 30 seconds- Arik Sharon, as defense minister, had basically, the perception was, that he had wound Menachem Begin around his fingers, and got him
1:07:391 hour, 7 minutes, 39 secondsto agree to a much larger operation in which Israel, in conjunction with Christian-Lebanese militias, would go all the way to Beirut.
1:07:501 hour, 7 minutes, 50 seconds[air whooshing]
1:07:541 hour, 7 minutes, 54 seconds[missiles whooshing]
1:07:561 hour, 7 minutes, 56 seconds[missiles exploding]
1:08:051 hour, 8 minutes, 5 seconds- Israel ended up attacking Beirut to get the PLO entirely out of Lebanon.
1:08:091 hour, 8 minutes, 9 secondsNot just out of the southern part of Lebanon, far beyond the 40-kilometer zone.
1:08:141 hour, 8 minutes, 14 secondsThis is gonna end up being disastrous for Israel in an array of ways.
1:08:211 hour, 8 minutes, 21 seconds[weapon booming]
1:08:301 hour, 8 minutes, 30 seconds[siren wailing]
1:08:331 hour, 8 minutes, 33 seconds[weapon firing]
1:08:371 hour, 8 minutes, 37 seconds- [Reporter] Across Israel, more than 50 families buried their dead today, as Israeli newspapers and politicians questioned the continued presence
1:08:441 hour, 8 minutes, 44 secondsof Israeli forces in Lebanon, an involvement that is increasingly taking on the rhetoric and overtones of the war in Vietnam, Israel's quagmire.
1:08:531 hour, 8 minutes, 53 seconds[crying]
1:08:561 hour, 8 minutes, 56 secondsWe all participate in the grief of the families who lost their loved ones. There are not enough comforting words.
1:09:061 hour, 9 minutes, 6 seconds"May God comfort them among the other mourners and fighters for Zion and Jerusalem." - Every casualty which fell, it was for him heartbreaking.
1:09:181 hour, 9 minutes, 18 secondsWe got to such a level that we were afraid to tell him about every casualty.
1:09:371 hour, 9 minutes, 37 seconds- We saw weekly demonstrations in Israel against the war.
1:09:431 hour, 9 minutes, 43 secondsWe saw many Israelis asking, "Why are we sending our young men and women to go and die in this war?"
1:09:511 hour, 9 minutes, 51 seconds- There was a demonstration near his home, near his official residence.
1:09:561 hour, 9 minutes, 56 secondsEvery day they changed the number of the total casualties that Israel had. - It's personal.
1:10:071 hour, 10 minutes, 7 secondsI lost my partner there.
1:10:131 hour, 10 minutes, 13 seconds- He was becoming more and more paralyzed by what was happening in Lebanon, and so the kind of oversight that you expect from a prime minister just wasn't there.
1:10:261 hour, 10 minutes, 26 seconds- Bashir Gemayel, the newly elected president of Lebanon, has been assassinated.
1:10:311 hour, 10 minutes, 31 secondsGemayel, the leader of the Christian Phalangists, died after a bomb exploded in his party's headquarters.
1:10:371 hour, 10 minutes, 37 seconds- The Syrians, with an agent they sent, were able to murder Bashir Gemayel, the president-elect of Lebanon
1:10:471 hour, 10 minutes, 47 secondsand change all the plans and dreams that we had about having peace between Israel and Lebanon.
1:10:561 hour, 10 minutes, 56 seconds- Nearly a thousand Palestinians were slaughtered by Lebanese-Christian forces as Israeli units stood guard outside.
1:11:031 hour, 11 minutes, 3 seconds- Sabra and Shatila changed everything.
1:11:071 hour, 11 minutes, 7 seconds[crying]
1:11:091 hour, 11 minutes, 9 secondsThe massacre took place as revenge for the murder of the president-elect Bashir Gemayel.
1:11:161 hour, 11 minutes, 16 seconds[somber music]
1:11:201 hour, 11 minutes, 20 seconds- Governments of the world and the international press today were scathing in their denunciation of the Beirut massacre, and Israel got much of the blame for the slaughter because of its passive role.
1:11:301 hour, 11 minutes, 30 seconds- When we agreed that the Phalangists could enter the area of the terrorist camps, they were explicitly told
1:11:361 hour, 11 minutes, 36 secondsand it was explicitly emphasized that the operation is against terrorists, and that it is forbidden to hurt civilians, and especially women, children, and the elderly.
1:11:471 hour, 11 minutes, 47 seconds- Any army that let those militias into the Palestinian refugee camps had to bear responsibility for it. We understood that.
1:11:551 hour, 11 minutes, 55 secondsOur leaders, certainly Arik Sharon, should have known that.
1:11:581 hour, 11 minutes, 58 seconds- [reporter] These demonstrators in Jerusalem question the legitimacy of a government that refuses to answer for its own actions.
1:12:041 hour, 12 minutes, 4 secondsIt's become a political issue as well as a matter of conscience.
1:12:081 hour, 12 minutes, 8 secondsWith a heavy heart this time maybe more than ever before
1:12:171 hour, 12 minutes, 17 secondsthe Jewish nation faces its conscience.
1:12:221 hour, 12 minutes, 22 secondsWe came here to demand that this will be investigated to completion by an independent judicial committee.
1:12:321 hour, 12 minutes, 32 seconds- [chanting] “Begin and Sharon. They are a disgraceful pair.” - Begin didn't want to set up a commission of inquiry, but there was a public demand.
1:12:441 hour, 12 minutes, 44 seconds- And we will not be content with anything short of a full inquiry and the dismissal of the Minister of Defense.
1:12:521 hour, 12 minutes, 52 seconds- Most of the time was devoted to receive evidence, and military evidence, what happened in Sabra and Shatila.
1:12:591 hour, 12 minutes, 59 seconds- Israeli Prime Minister Begin today absolved himself of any prior knowledge of, or responsibility for the massacre in Beirut of Palestinian civilians.
1:13:071 hour, 13 minutes, 7 seconds- [reporter] He testified that most of what he knew came from Israel's top military leaders and that sometimes, he was left in the dark.
1:13:131 hour, 13 minutes, 13 secondsTo his critics, the picture that emerges from Begin's testimony is not that of a tough-minded realist, but of someone strangely out of touch with events,
1:13:211 hour, 13 minutes, 21 secondswho did what his generals wanted and who was seemingly insensitive to the possibility of disaster.
1:13:261 hour, 13 minutes, 26 seconds- Well, the immediate blame goes to Arik Sharon, but in Israel, as in the United States, the buck ends with the leader of the country, and certainly Menachem Begin held the buck.
1:13:411 hour, 13 minutes, 41 seconds- He said, "I'm the Prime Minister.
1:13:421 hour, 13 minutes, 42 secondsI am responsible." And he stood before the committee. I cried, it was heartbreaking to see him.
1:13:491 hour, 13 minutes, 49 secondsHe was misled, but he will never say that I was misled.
1:13:521 hour, 13 minutes, 52 secondsHe said, "Sometimes I know things before, and sometimes after." - It was a terrible situation and it shouldn't have happened. We could prevent it.
1:14:011 hour, 14 minutes, 1 secondWe have not prevented it and therefore we are responsible.
1:14:041 hour, 14 minutes, 4 seconds- So they called it indirect responsibility, by not considering right what may happen.
1:14:121 hour, 14 minutes, 12 secondsIt was a sort of earthquake. - For Begin, that was devastating.
1:14:181 hour, 14 minutes, 18 secondsThis is a man who had not long before had gone to collect the Nobel Peace Prize, who understood now that his legacy would be not only Egypt
1:14:261 hour, 14 minutes, 26 secondsand peace and the Nobel, but also a war that he would probably not live to see Israel get out of.
1:14:361 hour, 14 minutes, 36 seconds[audience applauding]
1:14:421 hour, 14 minutes, 42 seconds- And the last remark, ladies and gentlemen, will be absolutely personal.
1:14:481 hour, 14 minutes, 48 secondsI spoke about survival and perseverance.
1:14:531 hour, 14 minutes, 53 secondsTonight, I would like to thank for that ability to persevere
1:15:011 hour, 15 minutes, 1 secondone human being, who is here, whom I met when she was 17 years old, my own wife.
1:15:131 hour, 15 minutes, 13 seconds[audience applauding]
1:15:191 hour, 15 minutes, 19 seconds- Aliza was, in a way, a cornerstone for Begin. She supported him.
1:15:261 hour, 15 minutes, 26 secondsShe went with him through all the hard time in the underground, in the opposition.
1:15:341 hour, 15 minutes, 34 secondsIt's not easy.
1:15:371 hour, 15 minutes, 37 seconds- He had to go on a visit to Los Angeles, and she was already in the hospital. And he said, "I'm not going.
1:15:441 hour, 15 minutes, 44 secondsI'm staying here, I'm not going." She said, "No you have to go, you have to go." And he, with a broken heart said, "Okay, I'm going." - And we were there in the room when he was in Los Angeles when she died.
1:15:571 hour, 15 minutes, 57 secondsAnd to this day, I cannot forget the sound, the weeping.
1:16:071 hour, 16 minutes, 7 seconds[speaking in foreign language]
1:16:091 hour, 16 minutes, 9 secondsOh, why, why did I leave her? - [rabbi Solly] And he was never the same.
1:16:171 hour, 16 minutes, 17 secondsAnd he himself could not go on. Such was the depth of the bond between his soul and hers.
1:16:251 hour, 16 minutes, 25 seconds[praying]
1:16:311 hour, 16 minutes, 31 seconds- He was completely broken. They couldn't live without each other.
1:16:361 hour, 16 minutes, 36 secondsWhen she passed away, it was for him heartbreaking, absolutely. He lost a real soulmate.
1:16:451 hour, 16 minutes, 45 seconds- Now we arrived to be here.
1:16:501 hour, 16 minutes, 50 secondsLet us thank God Almighty that he gave us together, and our children and our grandchildren,
1:17:001 hour, 17 minutesthe strength to withstand all the tests which sometimes were quite difficult.
1:17:111 hour, 17 minutes, 11 seconds- She created for him an environment that supported him. When she died, he felt alone.
1:17:221 hour, 17 minutes, 22 seconds- Both of these things, his personal love to his wife, Aliza,
1:17:301 hour, 17 minutes, 30 secondsand the feeling that he made a grave mistake regarding the fate of the people of Israel,
1:17:401 hour, 17 minutes, 40 secondsof the soldiers who died, that devastated Begin.
1:17:471 hour, 17 minutes, 47 seconds- Israeli Prime Minister Begin announced his intention to resign today after seven stormy years of leading the Israeli government.
1:17:531 hour, 17 minutes, 53 seconds- [reporter] Begin reportedly said he wants to quit because he is not functioning as a man with his responsibilities should. - He was very courageous.
1:18:011 hour, 18 minutes, 1 secondHe took some steps in the Sinai that I don't think any of his predecessors would have taken. Very aggressive in pursuing Israel's goals.
1:18:101 hour, 18 minutes, 10 secondsI think he was quite unconcerned, in some ways, about world opinion if he thought world opinion conflicted with his own ideas about what was best for his own country.
1:18:211 hour, 18 minutes, 21 seconds- His last act as leader, which was to step down, was very much in keeping with his character. And I think that that's really a testament to his honesty.
1:18:321 hour, 18 minutes, 32 seconds- He was a man with a tremendous inner core of belief that you tell the truth and that you take responsibility for actions, whether you intended them or not.
1:18:411 hour, 18 minutes, 41 seconds- And he went down completely from the political scene and that's it. And vanished.
1:18:591 hour, 18 minutes, 59 secondsWhy haven’t you left your house all these years? Why? Why haven’t you left your house in eight years?
1:19:081 hour, 19 minutes, 8 secondsI did leave my house, but not often. Why? Why? There were reasons for that.
1:19:161 hour, 19 minutes, 16 secondsPersonal reasons. - I came to his last birthday.
1:19:211 hour, 19 minutes, 21 secondsAnd he was very happy to see me because I changed the color of my hair, and he noticed it, after so many years.
1:19:271 hour, 19 minutes, 27 secondsAnd I'm happy I saw him, because a few months later he passed away.
1:19:321 hour, 19 minutes, 32 seconds- He was the man who showed that Israel could make peace with an Arab enemy.
1:19:371 hour, 19 minutes, 37 secondsFormer Prime Minister Menachem Begin died after suffering a heart attack last week. He was 78 years old. - Oh my gosh.
1:19:471 hour, 19 minutes, 47 secondsI cried like a baby. That's what I feel. It was very, very sad for us. Very, very sad.
1:19:561 hour, 19 minutes, 56 seconds- [reporter] Israelis came by the thousands to Jerusalem today, clamoring to be near Menachem Begin for the last time. - [Yona] There were thousands of people there.
1:20:051 hour, 20 minutes, 5 secondsRunning, really masses.
1:20:071 hour, 20 minutes, 7 secondsAnd it was really so suitable for him that all the people, everybody who loved him. Everyday people came to the funeral.
1:20:161 hour, 20 minutes, 16 secondsThat's how he would have wanted it.
1:20:181 hour, 20 minutes, 18 seconds[singing]
1:20:281 hour, 20 minutes, 28 seconds- [Yossi] Begin is the embodiment of a servant of his people.
1:20:341 hour, 20 minutes, 34 seconds- The standard by which he measured himself was the ethical and moral standards of Judaism and the Jewish state to which he'd devoted his life.
1:20:461 hour, 20 minutes, 46 secondsBegin's Israel is an Israel of proud Jews who are not gonna take antisemitism anymore, but are gonna unite and fight.
1:20:581 hour, 20 minutes, 58 secondsAnd that's a powerful lesson from Begin's life.
1:21:021 hour, 21 minutes, 2 seconds- Begin once said, "You call me a terrorist, but I call myself a freedom fighter.
1:21:071 hour, 21 minutes, 7 secondsEverything I did was for the freedom of the Jewish people." - Here I stand in humility
1:21:161 hour, 21 minutes, 16 secondsand with pride as a son of the Jewish people, and as one of the generation of the Holocaust and redemption.
1:21:311 hour, 21 minutes, 31 seconds- Begin believed that the most important task that he carried out in his life was not the Premiership,
1:21:411 hour, 21 minutes, 41 secondsbut the revolt and the commanding of the Irgun. This was the most important thing.
1:21:511 hour, 21 minutes, 51 seconds- [Daniel] He was a man really of that fighting force, those early years of Israel.
1:21:571 hour, 21 minutes, 57 seconds- He wanted to be buried alongside two fighters from the underground, alongside Aliza's grave, as a simple Jew.
1:22:101 hour, 22 minutes, 10 seconds- [Rabbi Solly] He's buried not on Har Herzl, where most Israeli Prime Ministers are buried, but rather on the Mount of Olives, where Jews for thousands of years would go to be buried.
1:22:231 hour, 22 minutes, 23 seconds- [Daniel] And his burial place is the perfect expression of who he was, and who he remains in Israeli memory.
1:22:311 hour, 22 minutes, 31 seconds- [Begin] You rise, you struggle, you make sacrifices to achieve
1:22:381 hour, 22 minutes, 38 secondsand guarantee the prospect and hope of living in peace, for you and your people, for your children and their children.
1:22:501 hour, 22 minutes, 50 seconds[gentle music]
1:22:581 hour, 22 minutes, 58 seconds[gentle music]
1:23:211 hour, 23 minutes, 21 seconds- When the day comes, I ask that you read to my dear ones, to my friends and comrades, this request.
1:23:311 hour, 23 minutes, 31 seconds- I wish to be buried on the Mount of Olives. - Next to Meir Feinstein and Moshe Barazani.
1:23:421 hour, 23 minutes, 42 seconds- I thank you. And all those who will act. - To fulfill my request. - [boy] Yours with love, Menachem Begin.
1:24:071 hour, 24 minutes, 7 seconds[singing in foreign language]
The Holocaust
Wikipedia • The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, approximately two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.
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요약: 모순과 신념의 지도자, 메나헴 베긴의 일대기
1. 출생과 저항의 시작
메나헴 베긴은 시오니즘 신념이 깊게 자리 잡은 가정에서 성장했으며, 청년 시절 제브 자보틴스키의 사상에 매료되어 시오니즘 청년 운동 단체인 <베타르>의 의장으로 활동했다
2. 지하 무장 투쟁과 국가 수립
1942년 팔레스타인 땅으로 이주한 베긴은 유대인 지하 무장 조직인 <이르군>의 사령관이 되어 영국 식민 통치에 맞서 혁명을 선언했다
3. 야당 지도자에서 총리로: 정치적 격변
베긴은 29년 동안 야당 리더로 머물며 이스라엘의 민주주의 체제를 수호하는 감시자 역할을 했다
4. 캠프 데이비드 협정과 노벨 평화상
강경파 시오니스트였던 베긴은 이스라엘의 가장 강력한 적대국이었던 이집트의 안와르 사다트 대통령을 예루살렘으로 초청하는 결단을 내렸다
5. 레바논 전쟁의 늪과 은둔
1982년 북부 국경의 안보를 위해 시작한 레바논 전쟁(<갈릴리 평화 작전>)은 참모들의 왜곡된 보고와 개입으로 인해 베이루트까지 확대되며 이스라엘의 베트남전이라는 늪으로 변질되었다
평론: 비극적 역사관이 빚어낸 영웅주의와 한계
다큐멘터리 <이스라엘 역사를 바꾼 사람: 메나헴 베긴의 여정>은 홀로코스트라는 거대한 민족적 비극이 한 인간의 정치적 정체성을 어떻게 형성하고, 그것이 한 국가의 운명을 어떻게 뒤흔들었는지 입체적으로 조명한다
베긴의 삶을 관통하는 핵심 동력은 홀로코스트의 상흔과 수용소 경험에서 기인한 <존엄한 유대인>에 대한 열망이다
그의 가장 위대한 성취로 꼽히는 이집트와의 평화 협정은 역설적으로 그가 타협 없는 민족주의자였기에 가능했다
그러나 평화의 사도라는 영예 뒤에는 서안지구(유대와 사마리아) 정착촌 건설을 가속화하여 오늘날 중동 갈등의 구조적 난제를 심화시켰다는 어두운 유산이 공존한다
그의 비극적 종말을 가져온 레바논 전쟁과 <사브라-샤틸라 학살>은 비극적 역사관에 사로잡힌 리더가 현실 감각을 상실했을 때 발생하는 참극을 여실히 보여준다
결론적으로 메나헴 베긴은 상처 입은 과거를 영웅적 저항으로 돌파하려 했던 인물이다
추가적으로 다큐멘터리 내용이나 당시의 이란-이스라엘 관계 등 중동 geopolitics와 관련해 더 깊이 알고 싶으신 부분이 있으신가요?
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