Menachem Begin

Menachem Begin, born in 1913 in Brest, Poland, died in 1992 in Tel Aviv. A Pole of Jewish descent, he was a Zionist activist and a Polish soldier [in Anders’ Army], and, following an unofficially sanctioned desertion, a terrorist responsible for the deaths of several hundred people; he was behind, amongst other things, bomb attacks and the massacre of the Palestinian population. He ended his terrorist career as a respected Israeli politician, prime minister and Nobel Prize laureate.

Begin studied law at the University of Warsaw. He was active in the [revisionist movement] and in 1938 became the leader of [Beitar] in Poland. Even then, he was preparing for armed struggle in Palestine to establish a Jewish state, against the Arabs and the British.

During the Second World War, he arrived in Palestine as a corporal cadet in the Polish Army in the East. In Palestine, around 3,000 of the 5,000 Polish soldiers of Jewish origin deserted from the Army. Despite this, General Władysław Anders issued a confidential order to the Polish military police not to pursue the deserters – he had no realistic means of apprehending such a large number of traitors, he did not want a conflict with the British or the Jewish community, and he was keen to maintain an efficient army. It should be noted that Begin himself was exempted from the military oath. This was a deliberate decision by the command, primarily to avoid tensions. He was therefore not a formal deserter, as his departure had been sanctioned. His story, however, is a clear example of the fact that for him and those like him, the struggle for an independent Israel was a priority that outweighed loyalty to the Polish uniform and his superiors.

In Palestine, Begin became the leader of the far-right terrorist organisation [Irgun]. He was an advocate of the use of terror. His organisation carried out around 40 terrorist attacks, in which several hundred Arabs, British people and Jews themselves were killed. Other acts of violence, in similar numbers, included minor shootings, sabotage of infrastructure, failed attacks and operations without casualties. Between 1937 and 1948, he was the most wanted man in Palestine; he lived under several aliases and often grew a beard.

Initially, the media avoided calling him a "terrorist", using euphemisms such as "underground fighter". However, as further facts came to light, the term became increasingly common. As early as 1948, Albert Einstein and other Jewish intellectuals had described Begin’s party (Herut) as “Nazi and fascist”, and the Irgun as a “terrorist organisation”.

Following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Begin embarked on a political career.

In his memoirs, [Eliezer Sudit] (a Jewish terrorist active in the Lehi organisation, who was also associated with the Irgun) wrote that Begin was involved in the failed assassination attempt on Konrad Adenauer — the then Chancellor of West Germany, who publicly acknowledged Germany’s responsibility for Nazi crimes and declared his willingness to make reparations to the Jews and the State of Israel. The Chancellor’s death was intended to derail negotiations on a Holocaust reparations agreement. Begin was opposed to accepting reparations from Germany for the Holocaust, as he believed that blood could not be quantified in monetary terms, and that accepting money would amount to a moral acquittal of the genocide.

Throughout his time in office, Begin was an advocate of the military suppression of the [Palestine Liberation Organisation]. As part of these efforts, in 1978, the Israeli army carried out Operation Litani, during which Israeli forces killed approximately 1,000–2,000 Lebanese civilians and forced some 100,000–250,000 people to flee their homes. As a result, the UN adopted resolutions calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Lebanese territory and the establishment of a peacekeeping mission (UNIFIL). According to Israel, Operation Litani was an act of retaliation and an attempt to ensure security in the face of terrorist attacks carried out by Arabs. However, from the Western world’s perspective, it was an invasion and a violation of a foreign state’s sovereignty, resulting in heavy civilian casualties on the Lebanese side.

Despite this, a year later, in 1979, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize alongside President Anwar Sadat for negotiating the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. However, such a prestigious award did not prevent him from further escalating military action against sovereign states and the massacre of civilians.

In 1981, he took the controversial decision to bomb an Iraqi nuclear facility near Baghdad. The target was the Osirak nuclear reactor, which was being built in collaboration with France. Begin carried out the attack despite opposition led by Shimon Peres. Ten people were killed in the attack.

The following year, in 1982, he launched a military invasion of Lebanon, also known as Operation ‘Peace for Galilee’. The immediate cause was an attempt to assassinate the Israeli ambassador in London. Although the attack was carried out by the Abu Nidal Organisation, a terrorist group hostile to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (which Begin had joined), the pretext was sufficient. The Israeli army invaded southern Lebanon, and as a result of this invasion, between 15,000 and 20,000 mainly Lebanese and Palestinian civilians were killed.

The most controversial episode of this attack was the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Although the Israeli army controlled the area around the camps, it allowed a Christian Lebanese militia (with which it was allied) to enter in order to carry out a deliberate massacre of civilians. Several thousand people, mainly Palestinians, were murdered at that time.

As casualties mounted within the Israeli armed forces, and in the wake of the events at the Sabra and Shatila camps—for which Begin was held politically responsible—public protests against his government intensified. Nevertheless, his actions earned him international recognition, primarily for three things: making peace with Egypt, bold economic reform, and decisive pre-emptive action against Iraq’s nuclear programme.

In 1983, Begin stepped down as Prime Minister and withdrew from political life due to his deteriorating health. He was never held to account for his criminal decisions. Yet in the memory of the Jewish people, he is remembered as a great hero of the creation of the new state of Israel.

Begin’s actions constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law and the laws of war, and amount to crimes against humanity.

1. Crime against humanity: a deliberate, large-scale attack on the civilian population, a policy of punishing civilians, the Sabra and Shatila massacre. (In 1982, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution describing the massacre as an ‘act of genocide’).
2. Command Responsibility: as Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Begin bears responsibility for the actions of the allies whom he allowed to enter the camps. The Commission found him to be ‘indirectly responsible’ for failing to foresee and prevent the massacre.
3. War crimes: the deliberate bombing of residential areas, the collective punishment of civilians, and permitting allies to murder civilians in occupied territory.

SOURCES
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin
Brookings Institution, The Lebanon War: A Look Back at the 1982 Israeli Invasion (raport analityczny z 2022 r., wydanie online) – omówienie celów wojny Begina (zniszczenie OWP, ustanowienie proizraelskiego rządu w Libanie).
Dariusz Libionka i Laurence Weinbaum, Pomnik Apelbauma. Żydzi w składzie Armii Polskiej na Wschodzie 1943–1945, Warszawa 2023 (wyd. Instytut Pamięci Narodowej oraz Żydowski Instytut Historyczny) – kompleksowe opracowanie dziejów żydowskich żołnierzy w Armii Andersa, w tym kontekstu ich odchodzenia z jednostek.
Władysław Anders, Bez ostatniego rozdziału, Londyn 1950 (oraz wydania polskie) – wspomnienia generała Andersa, w których opisuje swoją decyzję o niewystępowaniu przeciwko żydowskim żołnierzom opuszczającym armię.
Raport Komisji Kahany (pełna nazwa: Komisja Badania Wydarzeń w Obozach dla Uchodźców w Bejrucie) – oficjalny raport rządu Izraela z 1983 roku. Dostępny w archiwach Knesetu i w zbiorach online (m.in. Jewish Virtual Library).
Ian Black, Israel’s Lebanon War: A Retrospective, "The Guardian" (wydanie internetowe), 7 czerwca 2012 r. – artykuł zawierający m.in. relację z wypowiedzi Begina w Knesecie ("cywile zasługują na karę").
Brookings Institution, The Lebanon War: A Look Back at the 1982 Israeli Invasion (raport analityczny z 2022 r., wydanie online) – omówienie celów wojny Begina (zniszczenie OWP, ustanowienie proizraelskiego rządu w Libanie).
Rezolucja Zgromadzenia Ogólnego ONZ 37/123 z dnia 16 grudnia 1982 roku – uchwała, w której masakra w Sabrze i Shatili została nazwana "aktem ludobójstwa" (charakter polityczny, nie prawnie wiążący wyrok).
https://www.naiz.eus/eu/iritzia/articulos/del-iii-reich-al-estado-nazisionista-de-israel
https://www.wrmea.org/1992-april-may/media-myopia-the-t-word-fit-begin-to-a-t.html