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When Menachem Begin was elected prime minister of Israel in 1977, he vowed to bring a Jewish style of leadership. He appointed relatively few Herut members to his first cabinet. One of his first appointees was Ariel Sharon, who was not a Herut man and whose party, Shlomtzion, won only two seats in the election. Another controversial move made by Begin was his selection of Moshe Dayan as foreign minister. Begin's decision to pass over his fellow party members stemmed in part from his notion of “civil servants.” During his tenure, the Reversal belonged to Begin himself and not to the Likud.

Born on August 16, 1913, into an era of world wars, Menachem Begin was influenced by romantic Polish nationalism and the Italian figure Giuseppe Garibaldi. His character was shaped within the confines of a home that combined Jewish tradition with the early buds of Zionism. Begin's political activity started in 1925, when he, together with his two siblings, joined the Shomer Hatzair, the only Zionist youth movement in Brest-Litovsk at the time. Brest-Litovsk, known by the Jews as Brisk, was a town geographically situated between Russia and Poland. At the age of twenty-six, Begin almost gave up politics when he met his future wife, Aliza Arnold. During World War II, his parents and brother were murdered by the Nazis. When Begin became the prime minister of Israel, he avoided elaborating on the effects of Polish nationalism on his concepts of Jewish nationalism.

Following the United Nations's proposal for the partition of Palestine, a civil war erupted between the Arabs and the Jews of Palestine, signaling the first phase of the War of Independence. Etzel captured Deir Yassin and Jaffa, sparking great controversy. Deir Yassin, a relatively small Arab village west of Jerusalem, symbolized the historic relations between Jews and Arabs throughout the twentieth century and was valued by the Jews because it was adjacent to a flat spread of land on which an airfield was supposed to rise. In early April 1948, David Ben Gurion launched Operation Nachshon—the breach of the siege of Jerusalem. Although Menachem Begin continued to oppose the principle of partition, he declared support for a declaration of independence. On May 14, 1948, David Ben Gurion announced the creation of the State of Israel. In the January 1949 elections for the legislative assembly, Begin suffered his first defeat in politics when Herut received only fourteen Knesset seats and became the fourth largest party in the country.

In the 1980s, Israel's Lebanese population was made up of Sunnis, Shiites, Druze, Christian Maronites and Catholics, and more than 300,000 Palestinian refugees with no civil rights. Taking into consideration the composition of the Lebanese population, David Ben Gurion saw an opportunity to form an alliance with the country's Christians. The histories of the Christians in Lebanon and the Jews have many similarities, yet the historical analogy had no effect on the relations between Lebanon and Israel. When Menachem Begin rose to power, he expanded Israel's relations with the Christians that had begun to develop at the time. Ariel Sharon insisted that invading Lebanon would accelerate the desired political changes in the country. Between 1977 and 1981, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorists increasingly penetrated Israel's northern border, prompting the Israel Defense Forces to launch shellings, raids, and aerial bombings throughout Lebanon.

This chapter examines the charge that their inflexible stand against territorial concessions allies Christian Zionists with Jewish religious nationalists who embrace the concept of a Greater Israel. It notes Menachem Begin’s role in establishing Israel’s alliance with evangelicals and traces these ties prior to that time. It discusses Begin’s association with Jerry Falwell. The chapter examines the Christian Zionist belief that God will punish anyone who attempts to divide the Land of Israel and Pat Robertson’s claim that this accounted for Ariel Sharon’s disabling stroke. It goes on to consider Robertson’s relationship to the Jewish state. The chapter also discusses the pulsa denura, a kabbalistic curse on anyone who gives away part of the Land of Israel.

In September 1945, the Haganah, Etzel, and Lehi discussed the creation of a common resistance movement. Despite Menachem Begin's refusal to merge Etzel with the Haganah, the Jewish Resistance Movement was born. On July 22, 1946, however, an Etzel operation that went awry resulted in the permanent dismantling of the movement. On that fateful day, Jerusalem was rocked by a huge explosion, killing 91 people and wounding 476 others. After this incident, the Haganah continued to work to bring Jews into Israel, while Etzel and Lehi continued to fight the British. Ernest Bevin, the British foreign minister, proposed the Morrison-Grady Plan that would divide Palestine into four cantons, but the Arabs rejected the offer. On September 1, 1947, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) issued a report recommending the partition of Palestine into two states—Jewish and Arab—and the enforcement of an international trusteeship over Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

After four years of solitude in Etzel, Menachem Begin enjoyed public exposure. Although Herut was only the fourth largest party in the Knesset, Begin attained a special position in the assembly based on his uncompromising stand on two main issues: Etzel's role in the establishment of Israel and the need to expand the state's borders. In the first Knesset, Begin was engaged in a struggle against David Ben Gurion, but he was also mocked the independent newspapers. Amid this hostile public environment, Begin chose to radicalize his position. In the first years after the Declaration of Independence, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union influence Israel's foreign policy. Begin opted for a neutral approach, even though the Revisionist movement was clearly oriented toward the West. When Herut failed miserably in the 1951 elections, Begin was dejected. He resigned from the party and retired from politics.

After Menachem Begin signed the peace treaty with Palestine, the stability of his government came under threat. Several Likud members, including Geula Cohen and Moshe Shamir, resigned in protest over the treaty and founded a secular right-wing party called Hatechiya (the Revival). Another member, Yigal Horowitz, the Minister of Trade and Tourism, also resigned. Meanwhile, Dash began to disintegrate due to internal conflicts, highlighted by the resignation of Meir Amit, the minister of transport. Begin had to make several changes in the government. The Mafdal also went through changes. The ministers clashed during cabinet meetings. Begin vowed to stabilize the ranks, but found the conflicts, which he called “breakdowns,” difficult to resolve.

The death of his wife Aliza Arnold in Israel while he was away on an official visit to Washington exacerbated Menachem Begin's mounting depression. Begin disagreed with U.S. President Ronald Reagan over the peace plan proposed for Israel and Lebanon. On February 8, 1983, the Kahan Commission released its report regarding the massacre of more than 800 Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. The commission concluded that members of the Christian phalanges were responsible for the massacre and rejected Begin's claim that the threat of a massacre was completely absent from his mind, but did not call for his resignation. On May 17, after lengthy talks with Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz finished a draft agreement that required Israel to withdraw from Lebanon in exchange for a peace treaty between the two warring countries. Begin resigned as prime minister in October.

Only three months after being named Etzel commander, Menachem Begin declared a military revolt against Britain. Despite having few trained fighters and weapons, Begin was confident that they can drive the British out of Israel. He believed that the younger members' spirit of nationalism would make the rebellion a success. The declaration of rebellion, encapsulated in Begin's emotion-laden manifesto, should be understood as an attempt to alter the image of the Jews in exile. The manifesto also included a demand to establish a Jewish state. Etzel's relations with the Jewish Agency, led by chairman David Ben Gurion, took a turn for the worse but began to strengthen ties with Lehi. The Haganah launched an operation known as the Saison to crack down on Etzel members. The Saison policy ended in March 1945.

At the outbreak of World War II, Menachem Begin made a proposal in Beitar headquarters in Poland: that a Hebrew youth brigade be formed with the help of the Polish Army. However, the Polish leadership avoided the issue. Begin and his wife Aliza Arnold, along with several other members of the Polish Beitar commission, soon fled Warsaw for fear of the Nazis. In October 1939 Menachem and Aliza boarded another train in Lvov and headed for Vilnius (Vilna), where he was publicly humiliated for the first time since becoming a leader by Shimshon Yunichman, a Beitar commissioner in Palestine. On August 4, 1940, Ze'ev Jabotinsky died from a heart attack in New York, leaving Begin without a higher authority to lean on. In late 1941, Aliza, who was in Israel, learned that her husband had been sentenced to eight years of imprisonment with hard labor in Vorkuta in the northern Soviet Union. Upon his release from prison, Begin learned that his parents and brother died at the hands of the Nazis.

After Menachem Begin withdrew from politics, Israel and West Germany initiated talks over a compensation agreement for Holocaust survivors. The negotiations began on March 12, 1951, when the Israeli government filed a claim seeking reparations from West Germany and culminated in the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1965. David Ben Gurion's purpose in filing the claim was to make Germany extend economic aid to Israel without evoking a public dialogue about a possible agreement. Begin, whose views of the Holocaust differed from those of Ben Gurion, made his first public appearance since his retirement on January 5, 1952, two days before the Knesset was scheduled to convene for a vote on the approval of the negotiations. In front of 10,000 demonstrators at Mugrabi Square in Tel Aviv, Begin warned Ben Gurion that accepting the treaty would have serious repercussions. He would go on to secure his first political success in the third legislative elections held on July 26, when Herut won fifteen Knesset seats compared to the Mapai's forty seats.

On October 28, 1956, Israel, working with France and Britain, launched Operation Kadesh to attack Egypt. Earlier that month, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, which David Ben Gurion feared was a result of Egypt's strengthened ties with the Communist bloc. The operation was successful, with the Israelis gaining control of the entire Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip by November 6. Israel eventually withdrew from the conquered territories after the Russia and the United States threatened military action and sanctions, respectively. In the fourth elections, Herut won seventeen mandates, an increase of two seats from the previous Knesset. Herut received the same number of seats in the fifth elections. The “Gush [bloc (Hebrew)] Herut-Liberalim” (Gahal), formed by Menachem Begin, also suffered a surprising defeat in the sixth elections.

Before his designated successor as prime minister of Israel could be known, Menachem Begin appointed his third finance minister, Yoram Aridor, on January 21, 1981. Aridor's appointment was a turning point for the economy. As part of his economic policy, Aridor increased the range of services offered to the public, lowered taxes and prices, and increased the subsidies on basic products. As a result, the public's purchases increased, along with the state's revenues, although inflation rose and the value of the Israeli currency fell. Meanwhile, Begin declared during a gathering in Kiryat Malachi that Israel will strike the terrorists in their bases and denounced German chancellor Helmut Schmidt for his statement that Germany had a moral obligation toward the Palestinians because of the injustice they had suffered upon the establishment of the state of Israel. In October 1979, Begin instructed Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan to prepare an operation to attack the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq, ignoring the psychological impact such an offensive would have upon the Arab world.

In February 1967, Menachem Begin was reinstated as chairman of Herut after an inquiry committee, formed at the request of his loyalists, found that a slanderous letter against him that was published in Haaretz was written by a Tamir supporter named Shimshon Rosenbaum. If the 1952 Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany was the catalyst for Begin's rise to politics, it was the Six-Day War in 1967 that saved him. In 1968, Begin participated in the ninth Herut conference in Jerusalem for the first time as a member of government. The elections for the seventh Knesset, planned for November 28, 1969, provided an opportunity for Begin to redefine Gahal and its leader by taking advantage of the postwar spirit of nationalism and his seat in the cabinet. The elections saw Gahal retain its power with twenty-six seats while Hamaarach (a coalition of Mapai, Achdut Haavoda, Poalei Tzion, and most members of Rafi), won fifty-six seats.

Three months prior to the 1981 elections, public opinion polls showed that Menachem Begin's Likud party would lose to Hamaarach by more than twenty-five percent. Three weeks before, the two parties were expected to figure in an extremely tight race. Begin launched a tirade against Hamaarach, the Arabs, and the Gentiles, especially the Germans. A week after Israeli forces bombed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq, Begin spoke at a meeting in Netanya and was greeted by more than 10,000 enthusiastic fans who chanted “Begin, King of Israel.” He talked about the missiles deployed by Syria in the Lebanese Beqaa Valley and the efforts of American mediator Philip Habib to settle the dispute between Israel and Syria.

In July 1941, the Soviet Union formed the Anders Army after an attack by Germany. Named after its commander, General Władysław Anders, the Anders Army had 70,000 soldiers, including 5,000 Jews. In January 1942, Menachem Begin was recruited into one of the army's four brigades. Later that year, the army joined the British forces in the Middle East and marched toward the Western Desert to invade Sicily before joining the Allied forces in the battle of Monte Cassino and other battles on the Adriatic coast. The Anders Army provided an opportunity for many Jews not only to fight the Nazis but also to leave the army and assimilate into the local population. The army was also used by Revisionist activists in Israel initially to free Begin from prison and then to bring him to Israel. Seventeen months after he arrived in Palestine, Begin was appointed as commander of Etzel. Britain did not allow the Jewish refugees of the Holocaust to enter Palestine, a move that Begin saw as a reason for intensifying the struggle against the British.

When Arie Ben Eliezer, Menachem Begin's deputy and confidant in Herut, died of cancer in January 1970, Begin found himself with no more old allies. As a result, he decided to retire once again, citing the Rogers Initiative, designed to end the conflict between Egypt and Israel in Sinai, as the reason. The Rogers Initiative, proposed by United Nations mediator Gunnar Jarring, called for an immediate ceasefire in Sinai, where Israel had been engaged in the “War of Attrition” with Egypt and other Arab nations. U.N. Resolution 242 demanded that Israel withdraw from the occupied territories. Begin's decision to retire after the Israeli government agreed to negotiate the Rogers Initiative angered the Liberals within Gahal. In August 1970, Begin returned to the opposition, a move that harmed his status in Gahal.

The Yom Kippur War started with a surprise attack on Israel by Egyptian and Syrian military forces. The Israeli government was caught off-guard, since it imposed a ceasefire in the Suez Canal without surrendering its political positions. Israel also disregarded Egypt's military capabilities after President Gamal Abdel Nasser died and his deputy, Anwar Sadat, took over. Despite being in the opposition, Menachem Begin showed remarkable knowledge about the war and the various tactics employed, and it eventually became clear that his source was Major General (Reserve) Ariel Sharon, the commander of Division 143 in Sinai. Begin would lead a new political party, the Likud, established by Sharon and Chaim Weizmann. In June 1974, Golda Meir resigned as prime minister and was replaced by Hamaarach candidate Yitzhak Rabin, who served as Israel Defense Forces chief of staff during the Six-Day War and former Israeli ambassador to the United States.