Menachem Begin - The Revolt

This book made available by the Internet Archive.

XXVI A New Threat 430

XXVII The Spirit of Freedom 439

XXVHI The Agreement 444

XXIX The Conquest of Jaffa 449

XXX Dawn 478

XXXI We Bow Our Heads 485

Index r 489

AUTHOR'S ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I wish to express my gratitude to Mr. Ivan M. Greenberg, former editor of the London "Jewish Chronicle" who generously placed at my disposal his experience and wisdom and rendered invaluable help in the preparation of the English EditionM.

Editor's Preface

This book has been written by the man who, probably more than any single one of his contemporaries, was responsible for the emergence of the sovereign Jewish State of Israel. It is a document of considerable historical and political importance. Amongst several profound truths which it teaches are lessons derived from that noblest process in the story of Man, the triumph of spirit and mind over seemingly hopeless odds.

Mr. Begin has been at pains to stress that this book is NOT a history of the Hebrew revolt. He has deliberately confined himself to matters with which he personally was intimately concerned. It is a book of personal memoirs. His deductions and his opinions he makes clearly as such; his recorded facts have been so faithfully and fairly set down that despite the critical light which some of them shed upon influential groups in the reborn State of Israel, not one of his facts has been successfully disputed since the book was published some time ago in Israel in the original Hebrew.

The appearance of an edition in English affords the serious-minded citizens of this country the first opportunity they have had to acquaint themselves with the truth about the Hebrew revolt against British Mandatory rule in Palestine. Clearly, if democracy is to work, the people of a nation upon whom rests ultimate responsibility must at least have the opportunity of studying both sides of any controversy in which their nation becomes involved. Yet, this is precisely what did not happen in the case of the Hebrew revolt, more especially during those later critical years from the

summer of 1946 to the survival of the State of Israel in the face of Arab military aggression in 1948-49.

A kind of conspiracy of silence, inspired by diverse and often irrelevant motives, barred all effective publication in the United Kingdom of the case of the Jewish "rebels," who were nevertheless so serious a challenge to British authority that they were able in a short while to create conditions which compelled Britain to withdraw her regime from Palestine. Nor was ignorance concerning the "rebels" and their case confined to the general British public; the debates in Parliament at the time bore melancholy witness to its prevalence even in high political circles. The withholding of such knowledge from a democratic nation points to a very dangerous breach in the always insecure defences of democratic liberty.

Political leaders have complained that a special responsibility rested upon those Jews in Britain who had opportunities for knowing about these things and whose duty it was to disseminate this knowledge so far as lay in their power. It is not fair, however, entirely to blame even those Jews who had the means to correct the public's ignorance, at least to a limited extent, and who shrank from this more difficult exercise in patriotism. They were profoundly embarrassed; and to sustain them they had neither the vision nor the courage of their brothers in Palestine who were actually fighting for the future of Jews everywhere.

This book was originally written in Hebrew, a highly inflected and compact language. To bring the English version within the compass of a single manageable volume, considerable condensation has been required. In the actual translation, Mr. Samuel Katz, working with the author, cut out a good deal of matter of a more limited and local interest. It may be that the result has caused local politics to seem even more complex and peculiar than they are. In the editing, further reductions have had to be made; but the endeavour has been to do this so as not to unbalance the message or the emphasis or in any way to impair the book's essential value.

Menachem Begin is probably one of the best known personalities in Israel, amongst his political opponents no less than amongst his followers in the Freedom Party which he leads in the Israel Parliament. Politically, he is best described as a patriotic Jew with a taste for practical, common-sense policy. Passionately devoted to the liberal ideas of individual freedom and justice, Mr. Begin is repelled by "the new idolatry," by political systems of both Right and Left which, in spite of their sugary promises, inevitably lead to the crushing of the individual beneath the ruthless, and in practice irresponsible, machinery of the deified State.

The author's modesty conceals in these Memoirs the decisive part which he himself played in the success of the struggle he led, the unfailing courage with which he accepted and endured almost unbearable responsibility, and the vital importance of the absolute trust which his fortitude, wisdom, and high moral principles inspired throughout the Irgun ranks and amongst all its supporters.

Historical irony chose one of the gentlest, kindest, most selfless of men to lead a rebellion against stupendous odds, and to dominate the forces which he led by the sheer strength of his moral influence. That he should have been cast by his opponents in the role of an ogre of all iniquities is merely another example of human stupidity, "with which," as Schiller so truly wrote, "the gods themselves struggle in vain."

Ivan M. Greenberg,

London

March, 1951

Preface to the Revised Edition

Early in the morning of the 18th of May 1977, 29 years after the renewal of our independence, it became clear that the party that had ruled uninterruptedly in Israel was now relegated to the opposition benches by the decision of the people. The Likud finally won a mandate from the people to form a new Coalition Government.

This was a momentous change for Israel. It took place 29 years after the liberation of our people and 46 years after the Seventeenth Zionist Congress (when Mapaithe Labour partywon the status of the first party). It is enough to note the passage of timetwo generationsin order to understand the significance of the change brought about by the democratic decision of hundreds of thousands of free citizens of Israel. It is in this context that, as Prime Minister of Israel, I am writing a Preface to the Revised Edition of The Revolt.

A well-known journalist recently asked me the following question: "How does it feel to be in power?" I answered him in accordance with the facts: "I don't use power; in this task there is only one instrument I am using: moral influence." But there is great responsibility, and I can even add, grave responsibility. And I will continue to do my best, limited as it is, to bear it.