Menachem Begin

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Israel is still the only country in the world against which there is a written document to the effect that it must disappear.

Menachem Begin (16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before Independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on February 1, 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was opposed by the Jewish Agency. He played a significant role in Jewish resistance against the British control in the waning years of the mandate, leading the more militant faction within Zionism.

Quotes

To my wife Aliza, 'and I remember to you the benevolence of your youth, the love of your nuptials, your following Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.' (Book of Jeremiah, 2:2; victory speech, May 17 1977)

The Partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized .... Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for Ever.
- Iron Wall, p. 25 & Simha Flapan, p. 32

Israel will not transfer Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza District to any foreign sovereign authority, [because] of the historic right of our nation to this land, [and] the needs of our national security, which demand a capability to defend our State and the lives of our citizens."
- Iron Wall, p. 356)

Israel is still the only country in the world against which there is a written document to the effect that it must disappear.
- Address in Washington D.C. (22 March 1978)

They are beasts walking on two legs.
- In a speech to the Knesset (24 June 1982), quoted in "Begin and the 'Beasts" ivy Amnon Kapeliouk, in The New Statesman (25 June 1982); some accounts claim that Begin was referring to Palestinians in general, others that he refers only to Palestinian fighters. begincenterdiary)

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