Menachem Begin

From Turtledove

Menachem Begin
Historical Figure
Timeline:	OTL
Nationality:	Israel (born in the Russian Empire)
Religion:	Judaism
Date of Birth:	1913
Date of Death:	1992
Cause of Death:	Natural Causes
Occupation:	Terrorist, Revolutionary, Soldier, Prime Minister of Israel
Affiliations:	Jewish Underground in Europe, the Irgun, Likud
Timeline:	Worldwar
Timeline:	"Les Mortes d'Arthur" (mentioned)

Menachem Wolfovich Begin (1913–1992) 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.

As prime minister, Begin signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Peace together with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

Menachem Begin in Worldwar

Menachem Begin (b. 1913) was a leader of Jews in Poland and Palestine in the 1940s, and participated in various political, underground and paramilitary activities involving shifting relations with the British, the Race, the Soviet Union and the Arab nationalists.

Initially supportive of the Race Begin kidnapped Moishe Russie when Russie arrived in Palestine, believing Russie to be a British puppet. However, during the time Begin held Russie captive, he soon came to realize that the Race couldn't be completely trusted, especially when it came to turning Palestine over to the Zionists. He released Russie, resolving to deal with the Lizards as best as he could, and then make them miserable.

However, after the Peace of Cairo the Race's rule over Palestine stabilized, and most Jews there preferred to rely on its protection against the threat of the increasing Arab rebellion, as well as against Nazi Germany, whose missiles targeted Palestine (but were shot down on their way) during the Race-German War of 1965. Begin was hampered in his ability to "make trouble" for the Race in pursuit of his vision of an independent Jewish state, and by the 1960s he had all but disappeared from the public view.

Menachem Begin in "Les Mortes d'Arthur"

The example of Menachem Begin, who started as the leader of an underground organization fighting the British and the Arabs and ended as the Prime Minister of the then-powerful state of Israel inspired, two centuries later, the Jewish underground seeking to restore Israel whose territory was incorporated in The Arab World.

The Twenty-Second Century Terrorists/Freedom Fighters took up the name of Begin's organization, "The Irgun" (in full, "Irgun Tzav'ai Le'umi" - "National Military Organization") and called themselves "The Second Irgun". Their leader took up the Nom de Guerre "Menachem".

The Second Irgun downplayed, however, Begin's role in signing a peace treaty with Egypt which involved territorial concessions. This was in their eyes the single mistake in and blemish on the life and career of an otherwise heroic and praiseworthy man.