(מְנַחֵם בְּגִין, August 16, 1913 – March 9, 1992) was an Israeli politician, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the first Likud Prime Minister of Israel. Prior to the organization's dissolution at the founding of the State of Israel, he was also head of the Zionist underground group Irgun.
Though revered by many Israelis, Begin’s legacy remains highly controversial and divisive. As the leader of Irgun, Begin played a central role in Jewish military resistance to the British Mandate of Palestine, but was strongly deplored and consequently sidelined by the mainstream Zionist leadership. Suffering eight consecutive defeats in the years preceding his premiership, Begin came to embody the opposition to the Ashkenazi Mapai-led Israeli establishment. His electoral victory in 1977 not only brought to an end three decades of Labor Party political hegemony, but also symbolised a new social realignment in which hitherto marginalized communities gained public recognition. However, the extent to which this symbolic change was translated into government policy remains highly debatable.
Despite having established himself as a fervent nationalist ideologue, Begin’s first significant achievement as Prime Minister was to negotiate the Camp David Accords with President Sadat of Egypt, agreeing on the full withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from the Sinai Peninsula and its return to Egypt in 1978. Yet in the years to follow, especially during his second term in office from 1981, Begin’s government was to reclaim a nationalist agenda, promoting the expansion of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories. As retaliation to attacks from the north, he authorized a limited invasion into southern Lebanon in 1982, which quickly escalated into full-fledged war. As Israeli military involvement in Lebanon deepened, Begin grew increasingly depressed and reticent, losing grip on the IDF’s operation in Lebanon and the unstable economy which was gradually spiraling into hyperinflation. Mounting public pressure, exacerbated by the death of his wife Aliza in November 1982, increased his withdrawal from public life, until his resignation in September 1983.
