Chicago Tribune · Chicago, Illinois · 18 May 1977

CP-1977-005

Under friendly exterior—an ex-terrorist

Jonathan Broder, Special to The Tribune, Tel Aviv

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Transcribed from the clipping

“TEL AVIV—It’s hard to believe that underneath the warm, friendly exterior of Menahem Begin lies the past of an underground Jewish terrorist leader.

Despite Begin’s gracious European manners and an eloquence that marked his 29 years as leader of the right-wing parliamentary opposition, there is a fierce nationalism forged by Nazi persecution and the turbulent days before Israeli statehood… Speaking to the nation, Begin set down tough terms for peace with the Arabs and declared that his party was unwilling to withdraw from the occupied Jordanian West Bank under any circumstances and was unwilling to allow a Palestinian state in the West Bank to become a belligerent Soviet satellite… BORN IN POLAND, Begin emigrated to Palestine in 1942 after three years under Nazi rule.

He preached a militant philosphy that placed him at odds with the Palestinian Arabs, the ruling British authorities, and the Labor leaders that ruled the Palestinian Jews. He founded the Irgun underground guerrilla group which carried out brutal attacks on Arab villages and British installations and blew up Jerusalem’s King David Hotel in 1946, killing 91 persons.

The aim of the Irgun was to establish a Jewish homeland on both sides of the Jordan River, according to biblical prophecy. Begin still dislikes being called a former terrorist. During a visit to Britain three years ago, he told newsmen, ‘You call me a terrorist, but I call myself a freedom fighter.’

HE GAINED respect as the leader of the right-wing Herut Party in Parliament after Israel won its statehood in 1948. But he revived his reputation for militancy by leading violent clashes against the government of Premier David Ben-Gurion over Israel’s decision to accept reparations from West Germany for the Nazi holocaust.”

Context added by this archive

The morning after the election, in the paper’s own headline: ex-terrorist. The word is not in quotation marks and is not attributed to anyone. Begin’s answer is printed in the same column. The same paragraph uses Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews of the 1940s, and the phrase in Begin’s policy sentence is the occupied Jordanian West Bank.

“philosphy” is the paper’s.

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• Disabled Palestinians, and the warning that becomes the defense

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