Barbara Walters interviews Prime Minister Begin on “ABC” about the progress of the peace process with Egypt, the meaning of Palestinian Arab autonomy, reactions to the Iranian hostage crisis and the Olympic Games in Moscow. He closes with how he wishes to be remembered.
I declared at Camp David that we should bring the issue before the Knesset and the Knesset will get this time complete freedom of vote. It means that no party discipline will be put into operation as the usual case is in any democratic parliament. And so, every member of the Knesset will vote in … Continued
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Begin emphasized the need of an opposition in a democracy, and described the voting process to condemn the PLO’s invitation to the Geneva conference. Later, he discussed how the Holocaust shaped his national security view and how it affected mankind, and addressed his failure to reject the Reparations Agreement. He then responded to the claims that he was an ex-terrorist, stating that the fight for liberation and the underground’s military operations are not similar to the PLO’s acts of terrorism. Finally, he discussed the relationship between Israel and the Soviet Union over the years, as well as Herzl’s aim of ending anti-Semitism.
An interview Begin gave to the American newspaper “The Stars and Stripes”. After doing well in the 1974 election but not winning the press reports that Begin’s influence over Israeli policy has grown. Begin says that the wars of 1948 and 1967 were wars of self-defense and that Judea and Samaria are integral parts of Israel that cannot be given up. He supports Israel’s participation in the Geneva Peace Conference. He would be willing to give back Egyptian and Syrian land Israel captured in the Yom Kippur . Many regular Israelis agree with him on the issue of territory. He also says that it would be a security risk, and the interviewer gives facts about Jordan and Egypt’s military capabilities that support Begin’s assertions. Kissinger acknowledges the security risks and says the answer is international guarantees. Begin cites the cases of the Sudetenland and the Sinai Campaign to show why international guarantees are worthless.
A speech Begin gave at the Knesset after the Munich Massacre. All of Israel is in mourning. Nothing like this has happened before in the more-than-1000 year history of the Olympics. The government must abandon the philosophy of just retaliating when Israelis and Jews are attacked. It needs to take offensive action against the terrorists so that they are unable to kill again. After the Holocaust, Jews need to be sure that Israel is defending them and that they can defend themselves. An international convention is a good idea, but it would take years to be ratified and implemented by the various countries of the world, and as the terrorist threat exists now, it must be dealt with now militarily. Gahal also asks the government to rescind the ban on the death penalty in Israel. Eretz Israel belongs to the Jews, and Israel cannot give concessions to or make peace with terrorists who only want to destroy it.
