A message Begin delivered to the membership drive of the World Zionist Congress. After the Six Day War Israel liberated Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. This fits with the ideology that the Herut Movement has always preached. Herut has also won a long-standing ideological victory on its consistent stance that there should be a massive aliyah from the Soviet Union.
A statement by Begin at the Ninth Convention of the Herut Movement in Jerusalem. He declares that the right of the Jewish people to the whole of Eretz Israel is unalienable. The Jews were exiled nearly 2000 years ago, but they never lost their connection to Eretz Israel. The other nations of the world also recognized the right of the Jews to Eretz Israel, though they also tried to institute illegal and colonialist partitions of the land. Israel must extend its sovereignty over all of its rightful territory. The Jews recently suffered the destruction fo a third of their worldwide population, and Israel remains surrounded by enemies who want to destroy it. Israelis want peace with the Arab nations, through peace treaties, but for its security as well as for its rights it must retain control of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. Israel will provide equal right to all Arabs and citizenship to any Arab living under Israeli sovereignty who desires it.
Article by Begin for Yom Haatzmaut (Israel Independence Day) 1968, recounting the events that had transpired since the previous Independence Day. On Yom Haatzmaut 1967, even as Jews were both mourning the Holocaust and celebrating the resurgence of their people Israel, Colonel Nasser of Egypt ordered his troops to go into the Northern Sinai Peninsula. Soon the combined forces of three large Arab armies from Egypt, Syria, and Jordan surrounded Israel. Israel still won and took the Suez Canal, but Nasser was still spouting the same rhetoric a year after the war. Other Arab leaders made similar declarations about their intent to destroy Israel, in Syria, Iraq, and Jordan. Israel is in a state of “magnificent emergency” where it is under threat but has great opportunities to settle and claim its land. To this end Israel needs another mass aliyah from western Jewry and to initiate economic reforms to ensure a free market and economic growth that westerners expect.
Excerpts from a speech Begin gave at the World Conference of Zionist leaders after the Six Day War. Begin questions why the conference has not properly addressed the “urgency of the revolutionary hour” after the Six Day War, when Israel’s existence was threatened by the massive build-up of Arab Armies on its borders and won a great victory, taking back the land of Western Eretz Israel. He questions those who accuse Zionists of ‘chauvinism’ when Frenchmen and Poles are allowed to love their lands and express joy that they have reclaimed lost territory. Begin then says that although Israel has a large Jewish majority, a mass aliyah from countries like the USA is necessary to maintain that majority. Israel’s future depends on such an aliyah.
An op-ed in the Jewish chronicle by Begin about the purpose of and need for an opposition in a democracy. So-called ‘one-party democracies’ are just autocracies called by a nicer name in the west for political expediency. Herut has had to do more than just oppose the government because of the unique threats and challenges Israel faces. Herut took the lead in several important policy initiatives, such as Israel’s alliance with France, the issue of Arab refugees from the War of Independence, and the issue of German scientists helping the Egyptians produce powerful and destructive weapons. It is also important for Herut to constantly seek to replace the government because otherwise it would allow Israel to become a “one-party democracy.” It is imperative that another party eventually win control of the government to allow democracy to work as it is supposed to.
