Original subtitles

We want Begin!

The election campaign is on. Good morning, happy holiday.

How are you?

The summer of 1981.

Israel is in the midst of a stormy election campaign.

Is this the nation you want?

Or do you want a civilized nation?

A nation that speaks... Enough with your hatred!

A close political battle between Shimon Peres, leader of the Israeli Labor Party

and Menachem Begin, the incumbent prime minister

fighting for another term.

Buckle down, strengthen your spirit,

because in the next 7 weeks we are liable to face

provocations as well.

They know how to provoke.

This is what the nation will look like! Begin's nation!

Peres, go home!

Just days away from election day

Prime Minister Menachem Begin

launches a bold military campaign that was planned for many months.

The bombing of the nuclear reactor built by Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Saddam Hussein, that murderous tyrant,

prepared the radioactive poison for our children

that will come out of atomic bombs.

To understand Begin, his outlook on the world,

the Holocaust played a major role.

Have you ever heard of the one and a half million Jewish children

who were taken to the gas chambers and subjected to the Zyklon B cyanide?

He was a witness.

It's the most horrendous thing that happened to the Jewish people.

And now we can say to our wonderful children,

you will bear children in the Land of Israel!

Begin, King of Israel

Lives and exists...

"I often asked myself,

"were it permitted to go to Brest,

"would you go to the city where you spent your sun-filled youth?

"No. You will not enter the gates of your hometown, where you studied

"and dreamed and suffered and rejoiced...

"for it is gone.

"Perhaps the small house with its light of love and sorrowful poverty

"is still standing,

"but the home of Mother and Father is gone forever.

"No, I will not follow the shadows.

"These shadows live, they will not die.

"They are in me."

Menachem Begin: Peace and War

Rare home movies:

Menachem Begin and his wife Aliza in the early 1950s

in South Africa, celebrating with the Beitar youth movement.

In the young Israel of those days,

Begin, leader of the Israeli right, is pushed to the political margins.

Founding father David Ben Gurion deemed him the enemy of democracy,

calling him "a typical Hitlerist."

Begin surrounds himself with those resentful of the centralized leftist government

and wages a patient, persistent battle.

He ran in eight election campaigns and failed,

over and over again.

The story goes

that someone used to sit outside Metzudat Ze'ev, the party's headquarters,

shouting, "Begin to power, Begin to power!"

"Begin to power," all day long.

So someone asked him, "How much are they paying you?"

He replied: "I get one penny

"for every time I shout 'Begin to power.'"

"And shouting is worth one penny to you?"

He replied: "It's not a lot of money,

"but it's a lifelong job."

At 64, after a severe heart attack,

he runs for the ninth time and he knows,

this is his last chance.

Hello.

Who did you vote for?

Good evening.

Polling stations nationwide closed three minutes ago

and the votes that will shape

the ninth Knesset are being counted.

That night I was chairman of the ballot committee

where I lived, in Rehavia, Jerusalem.

Most of the votes in Rehavia were given to the Labor Party.

The Herut Party got very few votes.

That night I noticed that the slips we were taking out and counting

were all Herut.

I said, something's going on here.

This is the television prediction.

Again, an unauthorized prediction,

a prediction that foresees a distinct victory

to Herut over the Labor Party.

The political correspondent goes to the place

where the next prime minister is elected

and the next prime minister was supposed to be Shimon Peres.

A few minutes later I realized that I should be somewhere else.

I raced over to Metzudat Ze'ev.

It's about time.

Begin is prime minister, tears flowed,

because for us, you can't understand this,

for Herutniks like me, for Begin to be prime minister...

I saw euphoria bordering on stupor.

There was this sense of, "We, the oppressed, have finally done it."

Meanwhile the journalists felt, "What is going to happen?"

We're heading for the unknown.

After 29 years in the opposition, it's happening,

Menachem Begin takes up leadership

and he has a well-arranged action plan

that will completely change Israeli reality

and the Middle East.

Tagar

Through all obstacles and enemies

Whether you go up or down in the flames of revolt

Carry the flame to kindle, never mind.

Hello!

How are we? Look how the TV is filming you.

Don't open your mouth, smile.

Look at the television.

Let's all be filmed together.

Look at the television. That's it.

They got their report cards, practically all A+.

Ravit is a straight As student,

Ayala got an outstanding report card.

And this one is starting school.

This year she'll be going to school.

Three days after the elections,

the newly elected prime minister goes to Samaria

to celebrate with his settler friends.

We stood on the hill of an archaeological dig,

I remember it vividly,

the enthusiasm with which he infected the crowd

and he promised many settlements like Elon Moreh.

I want to say

that in a few weeks or months or the near future

there will be more Elon Morehs.

Did you believe him?

Not only did I believe him,

Rabbi Levinger said he was handing over the Gush Emunim settlement portfolio

to Menachem Begin.

Up to here, as expected,

Begin adheres to the image fixed in his rivals and supporters' minds,

a man of Greater Israel, a warmonger, an inciter,

and then, a few days after the visit to the Territories,

he takes everyone by surprise with a conflicting commitment.

Mr. Dayan, did you and Mr. Begin discuss

a political collaboration?

Our discussion was private,

we discussed public issues, but it was private.

In this private discussion they agreed, Moshe Dayan, former political rival,

revered general whose glory was dulled due to the Yom Kippur War debacle,

would be foreign minister in Begin's government.

They agreed that

though the Israeli government has the authority to apply Israeli sovereignty,

it would not do so during peace talks.

Not "peace negotiations," rather "peace talks."

As we ascended to the heights of joy

whereby the right had risen to power,

thus we plummeted into the depths of despair when we realized

that a rightist rose to power, but not the right-wing ideology.

When Begin rose to power, did you expect him to annex the Territories?

Since he's an ultra democrat,

he will never be willing to apply sovereignty

without granting full citizenship to the Arabs of Judea and Samaria,

therefore, there's nothing to expect from him.

Is it bad that he's an ultra democrat?

When you have a set of values,

national, Jewish, liberal, democratic values,

you must organize them based on your priorities.

Mr. Begin, could you tell us

what kind of prime minister you will be?

A good, Jewish prime minister.

Let her...Let her come

To the secular, Sabra Israel,

Begin brings loyalty to the Jewish tradition and its symbols.

Begin is a Jewish prime minister, from the Holocaust and Revival generation,

striving to find the balance between supposedly conflicting values,

between a Jewish state and a democracy,

between the national and the liberal,

between pursuing peace and keeping the homeland whole.

July 4th, 1977, American Independence Day,

there's a reception for U.S. Ambassador Lewis,

and he is introduced to the Romanian ambassador, Jon Kovac.

Begin took Kovac by the elbow, moved him aside

and said, "Mr. Ambassador,

"if President Ceausescu were to invite me, I would gladly oblige."

The target of pursuit is Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

The matchmaker is the Romanian tyrant, Nicolae Ceausescu.

Begin took advantage of every channel he had

to meet with Sadat

and he sent him messages through Ceausescu

that he is willing to talk.

Today, just before 2 p.m.,

the Egyptian and Syrian armies launched an attack against Israel.

In the winter of 1973, Israel was surprised by a joint Arab attack.

The toll was heavy. 2,222 Israelis dead.

15,600 Egyptians. 4,000 Syrians.

The death toll of another round of battles between Israel and the Arab countries.

For the Israelis this was another reminder

as to how fragile Israeli existence is in the Middle East.

On the other hand, Egyptian President Sadat

came out of the war convinced that he'd restored his country's honor.

After Begin, Sadat also visits Ceausescu.

Dan Patir, Begin's spokesperson,

brings firsthand testimony from Sadat himself.

Sadat said to me,

"I asked Ceausescu two questions.

"Is the Begin you saw last month

"prepared to make peace with the Arabs?"

"To that," he said, "I got a positive answer from Ceausescu.

"And the second question, is Begin strong enough after the elections

"to go ahead with this peace process?"

To that Ceausescu also implied that the answer is yes.

Among the attendees, a guest, Yasser Arafat,

the Palestinian leader that Begin called with scorn,

"The one with the hair on his face."

Sadat speaks for two hours.

Just before the end he goes off script

and surprises with an unusual statement.

Israel will be surprised

to hear me say now

that I am prepared to go to their parliament, the Knesset,

and talk to them.

You hear this story

and your journalistic senses light up.

You have to get the prime minister's comment.

I called his home and Mrs. Begin picked up,

I said I want a word with the prime minister

and she said, "He's shaving."

So I said, "Please, it's very urgent."

He comes to the phone and says, "What happened?"

"I read the report about what Sadat said, how do you comment?"

This is my personal written invitation to President Sadat to come to Jerusalem

to visit our country.

This is the letter, and don't show it to the journalists. -Yes, sir.

Thank you.

We, the Israelis, stretch out our hand to you.

It is not, as you know, a weak hand.

No more wars, no more bloodshed.

Peace, real peace, and forever.

On Saturday, before Sadat's arrival, Begin asked to see me.

His office was on the 12th floor of Metzudat Ze'ev.

Begin looked around

at the skyscrapers coming up in Tel Aviv in those years

and said, "Aryeh, we will make peace."

"Do you know how long I've been dreaming of this day?"

I asked, "How long?"

"Since November 29th, 1947,

"that the day may come and we'll talk face to face

"to the Arab leaders about peace."

But he hid it for many years...

He always said it, but no one noticed,

and not without reason, because he said other things as well.

He says he wants peace

but he's talking about keeping the homeland whole as well.

How do these two desires go together?

As early as the spring of '44, from his place of hiding,

Begin publishes a statement to our Arab neighbors.

"Our Arab neighbors," not "our Arab enemies."

"Our Arab neighbors,

"we extend our hand to peace and brotherhood.

"Do not dismiss it.

"The Hebrew government will grant you full equal rights.

"The Hebrew and Arabic languages will be the languages of the land.

"The Hebrew state will be a home to all of us

"and peace and neighborly relations will reign between it and the independent Arab countries."

Hello, how are you? -Do you know me?

Of course I remember you, and how.

The sheikh's son, of course.

I visited you in your tent, I drank coffee.

"However, take heed,

"do not attempt to raise a hand on Jewish lives,

"for if you do, we will have to cut it off."

A strong hand is extended in peace,

this is Begin's version of the "Iron Wall" of the spiritual father,

Beitar leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky.

The Iron Wall as a means to realize the utopian vision.

The first time Begin "stumbled upon" Jabotinsky

was when he was 15.

Jabotinsky came to Brest, Begin's hometown, to make a speech.

"The provincial theater is full to capacity.

"For you, the boy, there is no room.

"You barely made your way in to the orchestra pit.

"You're sitting down there listening to the man,

"sensing in all your bones how he lifts you up and up.

"Are you captivated?

"No. Beyond that.

"You have been consecrated.

"Someone whispers in your ear, you are consecrated to my ideology forever

"and you say, yes, I am consecrated forever."

It was an extraordinary event.

The atmosphere was...

not merely festive, it was surreal. You couldn't believe it was happening.

The happiest moment in my career was at Ben Gurion Airport,

the door opened and I said the words:

"Now President Sadat is on the air-stair

"waving hello."

A man comes down, dressed tip-top, in a tailored suit,

smiling, standing tall,

this mysterious Arab, dark complexion, tall.

It was like a scene from... it was like a fairy tale.

We were the generation that saw the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War

and the War of Attrition.

Thinking "Anwar Sadat is coming to Israel" was inconceivable.

You always call me "an old lady," Mr. President.

Oh my god, this can't be!

You see? Peace.

Sadat traveled the routine routes in Jerusalem past the cheering crowds,

a speech in the Knesset, Yad Vashem, a meeting with the president and so forth.

The trip to Jerusalem was set for the day of the Muslim Festival of the Sacrifice,

Eid al-Adha.

Sadat's prayer at Al-Aqsa during the holiday

was geared at the Muslim faithful,

in an attempt to convey,

"If we make peace with the Israelis we'll be able to pray at this holy site."

Sadat's message was rejected.

The Arab world united against the peace initiative.

Anwar Sadat was marked as a traitor.

The next morning I broadcast from the prime minister's office,

Begin came out of a meeting with Sadat

and said to me, "Mr. Kittal, you can tell the listeners

"that the Egyptian president and I agreed...

"no more war."

This was extremely dramatic.

After a meeting of a few hours, before the principles were agreed on,

there's an agreement that no matter what, no more war.

A few days after the meeting with President Sadat,

Begin arrives in London. An official visit, historically charged.

The tragic scene is like a serious incident during the Blitz.

Casualties were very heavy.

July 1946,

the Irgun, led by Menachem Begin,

blows up the British administration in Jerusalem's King David Hotel.

65 deaths are reported, nearly 50 others were injured.

Jewish terrorist organization, "Irgun Tzva Leumi,"

openly admitted responsibility for the bombing.

Age: 38. Height: 1.75m.

Build: Thin.

Peculiarities: Long hooked nose, bad teeth.

This is how public enemy no. 1 is described,

Irgun leader Menachem Begin.

To our last day on earth we will take pride

in having fought for the liberation of the Jewish people.

We weren't terrorists, we were freedom fighters.

Following one meeting with the Egyptian president,

the former public enemy is crowned by the British as a man of peace.

Begin isn't fazed.

He is troubled by a major issue.

How to make peace without renouncing the historic rights

in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

He declares a health issue, dodges the diplomatic agenda

and shuts himself in his room.

He summoned Yechiel Kadishai, a longtime aide,

and dictated a proposal for an arrangement regarding the Palestinians,

the first draft of the Autonomy Plan.

The Autonomy Plan was Begin's flagship plan.

The plan is based on separation:

Separation between the holy land and the Palestinian citizens

that live their lives on this land.

"We won't be Rhodesia." Meaning, no apartheid.

His words.

In internal discussions he even called it South Africa.

He proposes autonomy for the Arab residents.

They will establish a government, an administrative council

that they will elect in free elections

and it will have authority in all areas of life,

ministries, finance, trade, transportation, police, you name it,

but security and public order will be under Israel's authority.

And what about sovereignty over the Territories?

Begin suggests leaving this issue open.

Instead of applying sovereignty, preventing foreign sovereignty.

I won't apply sovereignty, me, the Israeli,

and you, the Arab, King Hussein, won't apply sovereignty.

The PLO wasn't part of the discourse.

And that is Begin's greatest sin

against his own ideology.

Any autonomy ultimately leads to an independent state.

But when he wanted a peace treaty with Egypt,

he was willing to pay by granting autonomy to Israel's Arabs,

knowing this is liable to lead to a state

and he hopes he'll be able to drag his feet and the Autonomy Plan

will simply evaporate.

Begin viewed the autonomy as the only alternative to partitioning the country

and the establishment of a Palestinian state,

that's why he wanted it so badly. It was his idea.

We are on our way to Egypt

to negotiate a peace treaty

as equals. Only mutual respect and willingness

will bring peace.

It was terribly hot.

I see Sadat going like this, a servant comes

and he says, "Open the window."

Angry. Always somewhat sweaty.

I lean into the prime minister and say, "He's very tense."

He looks at me and says, "So am I."

I said, here we go!

Begin is convinced that the Autonomy Plan

is the perfect solution for the Palestinian issue.

Sadat is not thrilled, to say the least.

The negotiations are stuck.

Is there any possibility this meeting could be a failure?

Maybe, maybe. Why not?

The delegations of Egypt and Israel discussed the Palestinian problem.

The position of Egypt is that in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip

a Palestinian state should be established.

The position of Israel is

that the Palestinian Arabs residing in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district

should enjoy self-rule.

Citizens are requested

MARCH 1978, COASTAL HIGHWAY to leave the area,

MARCH 1978, COASTAL HIGHWAY move to the other side of the road.

A lethal attack on the Coastal Highway

leading to Tel Aviv.

The number of fatalities: 35.

This was the first time since the establishment of the state

that Jewish citizens were subject to a curfew.

All citizens were asked to remain at home and not go to work.

The lethal attack was carried out by terrorists from Lebanon

where the Palestinian Liberation Organization is gaining power,

headed by Yasser Arafat.

But this terrorist, Menachem Begin,

and you, the British, know him.

It is his mentality - terrorism.

Facism, Nazism. It's very important.

With terrorist attacks and global political activities,

Arafat reminds Begin and Sadat,

"We, the Palestinians, are here. You can't ignore us."

What happened to you, Mr. Begin?

Internally, attempts to bring peace are met with aggressive resistance.

"The Base," the loyal allies,

cannot accept the price of peace.

You don't have to renounce your ideology for peace.

Peace is not the final objective.

Implementing the ideology is the objective.

The purpose is that the people of Israel live securely in its land

and that's what we must strive for and pay for, if need be,

or others have to pay for it.

Were you afraid of peace?

No, we were afraid of its price.

The price that Begin is required to pay is heavy:

Returning the Sinai to Egypt,

including the uprooting of towns in the Rafiah Plain

and recognition, even partially, of the Palestinian nationalism.

Autonomy, a supposed administration,

which every moderate Arab knows

is the onset of a Palestinian state.

This is a deception of the Land of Israel.

The opponents, loyal to Greater Israel,

Gush Emunim members, the settlers,

do their best to fail the treaty in the making.

Begin's relationship with Gush Emunim was complex.

On the one hand, he sensed this emotional affinity.

Begin wanted settlements everywhere

and they're willing to comply,

in true pioneering conditions.

He respected that very much.

On the other hand...

We will keep settling.

That is our answer to the Israeli government.

Begin said the Gush Emunim members had a Messiah complex.

They saw themselves linked to some historic process

that is divine,

that has a cosmic, Messianic meaning.

There is a great Zionist process

that no power can oppose.

The bulldozer can vacate the rocks,

but these "rocks" can't be evacuated

and ultimately they determine a fact.

They don't have to heed government instructions.

They can present the government with a done deal.

He has an ideology he wants to fulfill

and ultimately he did.

Right after the '77 elections

there were 38 settlements with 1,900 settlers in the West Bank.

In the mid '80s, under Begin's government and his successors,

the number of settlers spiked to 50,000.

As of 2019, 450,000 Jews live in Judea and Samaria,

4% of the Israeli population.

Good week to you, Israeli citizens.

Tonight I want to talk to you

about several political, economic and social issues.

Let's start with the Camp David conference.

A very important meeting.

At Camp David we will protect our people in the Land of Israel

because in this cruel world, from Czechoslovakia to Lebanon,

not only can we say, we must say,

if we are not for ourselves, then who will be for us?

Compromises will be mandatory.

Without them, no progress can be expected.

The points of debate remained the same:

The nature of the Palestinian autonomy

and the fate of the towns in the Yamit district.

The idyllic atmosphere of Camp David

couldn't soften the two leaders.

Jimmy Carter took upon himself the role of aggressive mediator.

It's the president of the United States. I was nervous.

The situation was hard for me,

sitting with the U.S. president, drafting texts with him.

Often I had to say,

"No, Mr. President, this is a no, this is a no..."

At times he was very angry and lashed out.

"You don't want peace, this will ruin everything,"

statements of that nature.

Weizman thought that Begin is liable to torpedo the whole thing.

He feared that Begin's hesitation

and insistence on a few formal issues

could impede the peace treaty.

Another major party in the Israeli delegation

is Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan,

in charge of the creative solutions.

Dayan was ill by then,

he was in severe pain.

He didn't sleep well at night.

He would wake me up,

not to discuss professional matters, rather worldly wisdom,

he quoted Shlonsky and Alterman by heart.

And you listened.

I listened attentively.

I respected the man very much.

He wasn't the Dayan of the Six Day War,

he was the Dayan of the Yom Kippur War,

but he had many ideas,

he was very independent in thought, very creative.

When you read the statements of the people who attended Camp David,

you understand that the wording was paramount, not the meaning.

And the meaning was that Begin paves the way

to a Palestinian state!

The meaning was that Begin uproots towns in the Sinai.

Therefore his leadership was hollow.

The Egyptians, and Carter,

claimed that Begin is stubborn, focusing on minute details,

but it was those minute details that gave us the detailed peace treaty

that is in place to this day.

Following 13 days of intense discussions,

harsh crises and President Carter's headstrong pressure,

white smoke billows over Camp David.

The architects of peace are welcomed home with love and cries of joy.

The opponents are thrust to the sidelines,

accumulating strength to continue the struggle.

The Knesset is asked to approve the Camp David Accords.

MKs, please be quiet!

The performance was in Camp David, not here!

I will not let the prime minister

say things to the Israeli people that will raise false hope...

MK Geula Cohen, I call you to order for the third time.

Begin clearly presents the options,

a peace treaty or retaining the settlements in the Rafiah Plain.

Those are the options.

Those are the two options.

There is no third.

And I declare that this is the path to peace,

it's the supreme national interest

of my friends the settlers as well.

The result: 13 MKs oppose, 17 abstain,

84 vote in favor.

Over six months after the Camp David conference,

the historic moment arrived.

The peacemakers convened to sign the treaty on the White House lawn.

It is, ladies and gentlemen,

the third greatest day in my life.

The first was May the 14th, 1948

when our independence in our ancestors' land was proclaimed.

The second day was when Jerusalem became one city.

This is the third day in my life:

I have signed the treaty of peace with our great neighbor, with Egypt.

The heart is full and overflowing.

A few days after the signing, Israel hosts the Eurovision contest...

Israel, 12 points.

And believe it or not, it wins.

The Broadcasting Authority gave me two tickets to the Eurovision

where Gali Atari and Milk & Honey won with "Hallelujah."

It was five days after signing the peace treaty

and the next day we went to Cairo.

Begin can now tick off the box.

The peace treaty with Egypt shattered the Arab unity,

eliminated Israel's existential fears.

September 1st, 1939,

the day the Nazis invaded Poland,

Begin and Beitar leaders convened at the site of the movement's newspaper,

"Der Moment."

Uri Zvi Greenberg burst into the room,

looked at them and said, "You're insane, what are you doing here?

"Run, you shouldn't be here."

Begin and wife Aliza flee east,

find refuge with friends, Batya and Israel (Scheib) Eldad,

in a small village outside Vilnius.

Begin and my father were playing chess in that house in the village.

The NKVD arrives, the Russian secret police,

and arrests Menachem Begin.

My mother burst into tears and Begin reassured her,

"Everything will be alright,

"they said I'd be back after the interrogation."

They both knew, they all knew that...

one doesn't get out of Russian prison that easily.

"My wife and I exchanged a few words,

"there was no time for more.

"I told her I think I'll be back,

"anyway she mustn't arouse pity.

"A few minutes later, her waving hand vanished from sight."

Begin was imprisoned in a labor camp in Siberia for nine months,

a bitter memory that he took with him to the prime minister's office in Jerusalem.

When he becomes prime minister

within a week or two he summons

the director of the Shin Bet, Avraham Ahituv

and said, "I forbid you to use force or violence during interrogations."

This was a novelty.

He asked, "What then?"

"Only the wisdom of the interrogator."

Around two years later President Carter said to Begin

that he's getting complaints about the Shin Bet using force, beating someone.

He summons Ahituv again

and says, "I said no use of force.

"This is not the Inquisition.

"You don't use force or violence,

"no beatings during interrogations."

This is the same Begin who dedicated his book,

"White Nights" to the unknown victim of torture.

36 months after the joyous moment

came payment time,

the uprooting of the towns in Yamit.

The new defense minister Ariel Sharon was appointed the man in charge.

The fear of civil war intensifies.

Menachem Begin accepts Defense Minister Ariel Sharon's plan

to vacate the residents of Yamit by force

and raze the town.

I arrived in Yamit with 150 students.

That day Channel 1,

the only Israeli channel,

was reporting on the arrival of the students in Yamit.

Shut up! No one's filming!

You either!

Are you nuts?

And I was asked by the correspondent,

"What will happen if you're driven out by force?"

As a 25-year-old radical at the time,

I replied aggressively,

"We will meet force with force."

The next day there was a Knesset discussion

and Prime Minister Begin argued with my statement.

"Tzechi, Tzechi, my son..."

Whenever he wanted to offend someone he'd distort their name,

I assume he knew my name is Tzachi,

but he called me Tzechi.

"Ask your mother who we applied force against.

"We applied force against the British, not against IDF soldiers."

We are fighting for peace.

We should be thankful.

Yes, peace comes with difficulties.

Yes, peace comes with pain.

Yes, peace comes with victims.

They are all better than the victims of war!

This I declare,

the man who lead a freedom organization.

I will tell the Knesset about a very simple human thought.

Why shouldn't I share it with them?

I broke my leg

and one day or night, I don't know,

a thought came to me...

Oh no, if war breaks out,

dozens, perhaps hundreds of our young men will lie in bed

with a broken leg or with no leg at all, God forbid.

War must be prevented!

In retrospect, was this peace a mistake?

No.

I thought this peace could be a trap and Egypt would use it

to build military bases in the Sinai and attack us from there,

that didn't happen.

In retrospect, that peace wasn't a mistake.

All people standing by the windows, please go to the shelters.

A few days after Begin was elected

as prime minister for a second term,

a war of attrition breaks out in the north.

For 12 days, PLO artillery bombards Kiryat Shmona, Nahariya, Metula.

We will protect our children!

If a hand of a bipedal animal is raised against them, that hand will be cut off.

Just a little while more

and not one more Katyusha will land on Kiryat Shmona!

The target was marked: The PLO,

the Palestinian Liberation Organization and its leader, Yasser Arafat.

On the way to the target, tragedy.

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood assassinate the partner to peace,

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

After Sadat's funeral, and I was there,

Menachem Begin met with

the American Secretary of State

Alexander Haig

and to his astonishment

Haig said, "Now we must assure

"we establish a Palestinian entity."

As he perceived the peace treaty with Egypt, Begin thought,

"I give the Sinai, I get the West Bank."

Then he finds out, "No, you don't get the West Bank."

Once he realized that the world would insist he talk to the PLO,

the idea was to destroy the Palestinian option.

In November 1981, a health incident suspends the urgent national tasks.

68-year-old Menachem Begin slips in the bathtub.

21 days of painful hospitalization

left much time for thought.

Begin returns home with new insights.

He's convinced. This is the time for momentous moves.

The first trial balloon:

Applying Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights,

Syrian territory seized by Israel during the Six Day War.

Immediately. Tonight.

"Gentlemen,

"this is obviously a bold step and we will have problems.

"I am sure the United States will protest.

"What will Egypt do?

"Militarily, I don't think it can wage war against us.

"Syria...

"it knows that if it attacks, it will collapse.

"Russia? It is dealing with a coup in Poland,

"it has Afghanistan, so will it deploy aircrafts against us?

"Will it deploy tanks?"

All in favor, raise your hands. Please count.

In a quick procedure the Knesset agrees with Begin

and authorizes the annexation of the Golan Heights.

The time is 9:30 a.m.,

U.S. Ambassador Lewis is summoned by the prime minister

to hear Israel's reaction to the U.S. sanctions

following Knesset confirmation of the Golan Heights law.

Reality complied with the political analysis.

The U.S. was angry, it reproached and that was that.

The time is 10:30 a.m.,

the U.S. ambassador ends his discussion with the prime minister.

IDF generals, commanders of the various forces, headed by the chief of staff, arrive.

The other actors, Russia, Egypt, Syria,

evidently didn't respond.

The game can be stepped up.

Begin demands the ministers agree that the IDF enter Lebanon

and cleanse it of terrorist bases.

Defense Minister Arik Sharon presents the big military plan:

attacking the PLO, weakening the Syrians,

reinforcing the Christians before the Lebanese presidential elections.

The defense minister presents the plan

and Begin grants the ministers the floor.

He lets Erlich speak, Burg,

this one and that one and they all have their reservations.

Then Begin says to Sharon, "You see, Arik?

"It's not the time yet."

With that it was off the table

and never reintroduced,

not to the security cabinet, not to the Knesset plenum.

Despite the resistance, Begin and Sharon proceed.

Sharon goes to Lebanon to meet with the Christian leaders, the Gemayel family.

On the way back from Beirut

Sharon called me at home in the middle of the night

and uttered the zinger,

"Tonight I tied their legs,

"I agreed on the order of actions with the Christians.

"They are with us."

Begin is in Washington

preparing the political groundwork,

obtaining American agreement for an Israeli military campaign

if the latter is attacked and distinctly provoked.

And here it comes, the necessary distinct provocation.

Gunfire fatally wounded Israel's ambassador in London, Shlomo Argov.

The Israeli government has decided to charge the IDF

with removing all the Galilee towns

from the line of fire of terrorists, their headquarters and bases,

which are in Lebanon.

The name of the operation: Peace for Galilee.

Our armored corps races in.

The guys wave hello and give the thumbs up.

"Leave it to us," they smile, and we are all hopeful.

Operation Peace for Galilee is not a military campaign forced upon us.

The terrorists didn't threaten the existence of the State of Israel.

They just threatened the lives of the citizens of Israel.

Begin and Defense Minister Sharon join the forces raiding Lebanon.

They visit command headquarters and remain overnight in Safed.

I wake up in the morning in the Rockenstein Hotel in Safed,

I go to the war room with first light

and the war room commander tells me that the Beaufort fell.

I go to Arik

and say, "Arik, the Beaufort has fallen."

We go to Begin, "The Beaufort has fallen."

Then Begin says, "Let's go up to the Beaufort."

We go up.

I am not informed what happened,

who was there, nothing.

We land first, I get out first

and I instantly see, 50-100 meters beyond the landing,

the bodies of dead terrorists.

Still pretty warm. From the night before.

I say to Arik, "There was a battle here last night."

As we're talking, Begin lands.

Six soldiers were killed in the uncalled for battle to seize the Beaufort.

Begin was not apprised.

I feel the mountain air.

It's high.

This place was... -An open wound.

A threat for years and years.

Very high.

These young soldiers took part in... -The occupation?

Where? -This young fellow.

Did you fight all night? -Not all night.

Did they have machine guns?

They had fairly large firearms around the fort

and rifles in the trench.

Did many surrender?

No one surrendered. -No one?

They were either killed or fled. -Yes?

Thank you.

Israeli prime ministers like rubbing shoulders with soldiers,

to boast the image of "Mr. Security."

There are no combat images of Begin.

The encounter on the Beaufort was embarrassing and a one off.

Begin deemed himself a path maker, an ideologist, a statesman.

From that narrow perspective, Begin can chalk up a success.

He warded off international pressure and enabled his warlord, Arik Sharon,

to wage weeks of war.

It is said that Begin revered generals.

That's not completely true and not completely untrue.

There were three generals whom Begin revered very, very much.

Moshe Dayan, Ariel Sharon and Rafael Eitan.

Three bold fighters, heroes, in fact,

three farmers, men of the soil,

qualities that Begin greatly respected

and they were the complete opposite of himself.

Two wars were essentially waged in Lebanon.

One against PLO terrorists and one against the Syrian army.

A blitzkrieg

that according to initial statements, Israel didn't want.

If we reach 40 km from our northern border,

our work will have been done and the fighting will stop.

I want the Syrian president to heed my words,

act in this spirit in Lebanon

and your Syrian soldiers will remain unharmed.

Just a few hours after this placatory statement,

war is on.

The IAF set out to apply nine years of planning, training and advanced systems

to destroy the Syrian air defense

that caused great damage to the Israeli air force

during the Yom Kippur War.

I see a MiG!

Okay, I have eye contact.

I'm taking it out.

Victory was swift.

19 missile batteries were destroyed.

During the air combat that day

29 MiGs were shot down.

This is what I think Operation Peace for Galilee did for us -

it cured the nation's trauma from the Yom Kippur War.

In my opinion, completely.

We shot down 85 MiGs.

We destroyed 19 batteries.

The people and the world realized

that if you have superior technology developed by the Jewish mind,

then it triumphs.

The military success led to a ceasefire agreement with the Syrians.

Israel is convinced of its power

and sets its sights on destroying PLO headquarters in Beirut.

You see that distant mountain

and the valley in front of it,

in the valley between the distant mountain and the ridge before us,

is the Beirut-Damascus Highway.

To convince government ministers that it's imperative to reach Beirut,

Arik Sharon takes them on a trip to the city outskirts.

I joined the Israeli government

that went to the war zones in Lebanon,

and Sharon explained the maneuvers,

they were very pleased,

got on the two choppers that brought them

and then I heard Defense Minister Sharon

giving orders to open massive fire on Beirut.

Menachem Begin committed to a brief campaign.

48 hours to remove PLO artillery

to a distance of 40 km from the northern towns.

48 hours turned into weeks.

The 40 km guarantee was violated.

IDF soldiers reached the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

The price was heavy.

Dozens of soldiers were killed. Hundreds were wounded.

Come down to us, airplane

Take us to Lebanon

We will fight for Sharon

And return in a coffin

We wanna go home, come on.

You may be aware that parts of the population,

I can't gauge how many,

fear that Defense Minister Sharon caused the government

to deviate from the originally planned operation.

Excuse me, Yaakov, I don't say this to you, rather to the journalists

it's a malicious lie. That is not the case.

It's idle talk.

Despite the explicit denial, the narrative took root in Israel.

Defense Minister Sharon is the driving force behind the war

and he didn't always tell Begin and the ministers the whole truth.

No one deceived anyone.

You ministers who attended all the government sessions,

you were informed that three divisions were entering Lebanon from various directions.

Didn't you ask yourselves,

if it's 40 km, if it's 24 hours, why three divisions?

The objective was to reach Beirut.

We'll drop a one-ton bomb on any target we decide on,

we'll cut off the power, we won't provide them with fuel.

Let's see who'll last longer.

Was one of the objectives to capture PLO leader Yasser Arafat?

No.

Perhaps prevent him...

from commanding over his armies.

We wanted to bring an end to his command and two other Abus,

Abu Iyad and Abu Zayyad.

As Israeli bombing continues in a futile pursuit

after Yasser Arafat,

U.S. envoy Philip Habib is running back and forth

trying to promote a political solution,

voluntary withdrawal of the terrorists from Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the residents of Beirut are paying the painful price

of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

An image was published in the media,

TV, press,

of an Arab girl who lost her hands in the bombings.

Begin was in his office in the Knesset

where he had this niche with a bed

and he went for a nap.

Suddenly his secretary asked me,

"Azriel, what do I do?"

I asked, "What happened?"

"The White House wants the prime minister."

I went in, woke him up

and said, "President Reagan wants you."

It was a harsh conversation.

I think Reagan even mentioned the word "Holocaust."

He said something like, "What you're doing in Beirut is a Holocaust."

"Mr. President, you don't have to teach me what a Holocaust is."

That's the first time I grasped that you can't ignore the media,

not because I'm a bleeding heart, but because war takes place on the screen as well.

If you lose the war on the screen, you lose the war.

The American reproach led to a stormy government session.

The defense minister complained,

"It's impossible to explain to every minister what's going on in every house."

The frustrated ministers express their lack of confidence in Sharon

and demand his authorities be restricted.

Begin, though he knows the war is about to end,

raises his hand in favor of the unprecedented decision.

Was this a strategy on Begin's part to assuage the ministers and the U.S. president

or was it a red card to Defense Minister Sharon

who many thought deceived the government and its leader?

I had a longstanding argument,

for many years after I left my office,

with the late Yechiel Kadishai.

He'd listen to my opinions, I never hid them,

that, to put it mildly,

Begin was duped.

He said, "Azriel, you don't understand.

"Begin wanted it, Begin supported it,

"you're all clueless."

We see the first ship sailing

with 400 terrorists on board.

As they leave Beirut, we have completed

the objective for which we set out for this war,

removing the terrorists.

Under the supervision of an international force,

dozens of ships take the PLO members out of Beirut.

I promised them that this march will continue

till we'll be able to establish our independent state,

with its capital, Jerusalem.

Forgive the Sabra expression,

Arafat is a big show-off.

A horrible man, a professional killer,

he merely wanders the world, lives in fancy hotels.

Unlike him, no comparison intended, we too fought in the underground,

none of us left this country, not even for a day, and fought.

Again, no comparison at all.

The last of the exiled is Yasser Arafat.

For Menachem Begin, this is a joyous moment.

Without Arafat in the picture, he is convinced

he can revive the negotiations for the autonomy,

his flagship plan to ensure that Judea, Samaria and Gaza remain whole.

And it doesn't end here.

While PLO members are exiled from Beirut,

in the city's parliament, Lebanon elects a president,

Bashir Gemayel, commander of the Christian Phalange Party,

our man.

We helped Bashir get elected just by being there.

We brought voters? -Could be.

Perhaps people who couldn't make it,

I'm trying to recall,

couldn't make it without us.

To herald the new era,

Begin and wife Aliza went on vacation in Nahariya.

It is there, in the peaceful north

that the shaky house of cards starts to collapse.

In August '82, Bashir Gemayel

is brought to a Rafael facility outside Nahariya

to meet Menachem Begin

and Begin says, "I expect you

"to sign a peace treaty with us"

and Bashir Gemayel looks at Begin and says,

"I can't sign a peace treaty with you"

and Begin realized it was all built on a lie,

that Israel made good on its deal with the Christians in Lebanon

and will get nothing.

Removal of the bodies from the rubble

of the Phalange headquarters in Achrafieh lasted all night.

The three-story building

collapsed from the force of the 200-kilo bomb

that was presumably activated by remote control.

Two weeks after the meeting with Begin,

Bashir Gemayel, Lebanese president-elect, was murdered.

The terrorist, so it quickly turned out,

was Tanious Shartouni, acting on behalf of the Syrian Intelligence.

Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, whose army was defeated in battle,

succeeded in one act of terrorism

to immerse Israel for many years in the Lebanese mire,

to shatter the illusion that by brute strength

one can shape the Middle East.

This is the Voice of Israel from Jerusalem.

Correspondents in Beirut report on what they call

the slaughter of the Phalangists in the West Beirut refugee camps.

The correspondents indicate hundreds of fatalities.

During the many days that the IDF imposed a siege on Beirut,

the Israelis were not privy to the horrors documented by the foreign media.

Then, with the cruel slaughter carried out by the Phalange fighters,

the Israelis too were exposed to the horrendous toll of the war in Lebanon.

Begin is a murderer! Begin is a murderer!

Heavy public pressure was put on the government that was reluctantly forced

to establish an official inquiry commission, the Kahan Commission.

The prime minister attends the discussions as a subject of interrogation.

Worse, as the saying goes,

comes to worse

During an official visit to the U.S.,

Begin is struck by the most painful news of all.

His wife, Aliza Begin, has passed away.

"Two weeks before I left, my wife's condition was much improved.

"The doctors were optimistic.

"My son Ze'ev Binyamin was with her Saturday night.

"My wife was in good spirits and he parted with her.

"Aliza, of blessed memory, left us that night

"very suddenly

"and none of her family was with her."

What plans do you have for the future?

Me?

It is really hard to say, because, you see,

all my life I was rather satisfied with what was coming

and was never bored in my life

and sometimes it is really hard to say what you actually want.

Begin met Aliza, née Arnold, at dinner at her father's home.

"I saw you, you were 17 years old,

"and my heart said, she will be my wife.

"I wrote a letter to the young woman, a one-line letter.

"I saw you, my lady, for the first time,

"yet I felt as if I had known you my entire life."

Women don't cry.

I think that we can't afford it.

It is a luxury.

Perhaps others can do it,

but we can't cry in sorrow because we must be strong

in order to support the men and our children.

After three months of discussions,

the Kahan Commission publishes its conclusions.

A Shin Bet messenger arrived at 7 p.m.

with a brown envelope containing the Kahan report.

I leafed through it

and saw no conclusion about Begin,

but Sharon must go home.

We sat in the prime minister's office and the conclusions were clear.

Everyone said, "You have to send him packing."

"At once."

He sat there, nodded

and said, and I quote,

"Oy, kinderlach,

"it's easy for you to say, I'm the one who has to do it."

Outside the conference room where the cabinet was discussing Sharon's dismissal,

a violent conflict is taking place.

Peace Now protesters against Begin and Sharon supporters.

The windows are closed,

otherwise you can't work

with all the yelling and the noise.

Begin is a murderer!

I went over to the northern window,

opened it, looked down,

I couldn't see, I could only hear voices.

Then we heard a boom.

Yona Avrushmi, a right-wing protester, hurls a grenade.

Emil Grunzweig, a Peace Now activist, is killed.

This is a tragedy, I can't do this.

Tell them to be quiet.

What a horrible thing.

The heart cries for the young man who was murdered.

There is grave dissent among the people,

but we are free citizens in a democratic state.

We mustn't go down this cursed path of violence.

We mustn't.

The Lebanon mire continues to claim victims.

A protest guard is situated outside the prime minister's residence.

A daily, painful reminder of the tragedy.

One morning he comes to work, as usual, I entered with him

and he asks me, "Did you read Yoel Marcus today?"

Yoel Marcus, an analyst for Ha'aretz newspaper.

I said, "I did."

And he said, "He's right."

"This government embroiled the country,

"mortgaged its financial future,

"planted the seeds of civil war for generations to come

"and it cannot solve the problems that it created."

August 1983,

one year after euphoria skyrocketed

with the expulsion of the terrorists and Gemayel's election as Lebanese president,

Begin attends the government session with a decision.

The session was routine.

I'm cabinet secretary, I sit next to him, he runs the session.

Routine government matters...

Towards the end of the session he says,

"I want to make a personal statement."

"I ask for your forgiveness and pardon.

"If these will be granted, I do not know.

"I intend to resign as prime minister.

"I cannot go on any longer."

The curtain came down on dozens of years of public service

for his people, for his country.

Then the question followed, where will Menachem Begin go?

He has no home.

The man served his people, his country, for dozens of years

and he has nothing. Where will he go?

So I looked for an apartment for him,

we found one that cost $600 a month, if I remember correctly.

We signed a lease.

Not the state. He did, personally. And he lived out the rest of his days there.

With blood and sweat a new race shall arise

Proud, generous and cruel...

Begin steered the helm of power for six years and three months

that left their mark, for better or for worse, on the current Israeli reality.

Menachem Begin,

Prime Minister of Israel,

I call upon you to come to the rostrum

and receive the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize

for 1978.

Peace is the beauty of life.

It is sunshine,

it is the smile of a child,

the love of a mother,

the joy of a father,

the togetherness of a family.

It is the advancement of man,

the victory of the just cause,

the triumph of the truth.

Peace is all of these

and more... and more...

Despite the tragedies

and the disappointments of the past

we must never forsake

that vision,

that human dream,

that unshakable faith.

No more war.

No more bloodshed.