Menachem Begin

Menachem Begin (1913-1992) served as prime minister from 1977- 1982, the first prime minister who did not come from the socialist-Labor movement, and signed the peace agreement with Egypt, Israel's first with any of its Arab neighbors. Begin negotiated the Camp David Accords with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, for which they jointly received the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize.

Begin was born in Brest-Litovsk, a city that was then in the Russian empire but is today part of Belarus.

He was an ardent Zionist, and in his teens joined Ze'ev Jabotinsky's Betar youth movement, where he quickly gained leadership positions.

By 1936, he was in charge of Betar Czechoslovakia and two years later he became head of Betar Poland, which had 100,000 members and was involved in arms training to defend the Jews of Poland and the transport of illegal immigrants to Israel.

In 1940, the Soviets imprisoned Begin in a Siberian labor camp, but after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, he was set free due to his Polish citizenship. He then joined the Free Polish Army, which in 1943 made its way to Palestine, which was then under British rule, for training.

There Begin contacted the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the dormant Jewish underground, and began plans for a Jewish uprising against the British authorities, which began in 1944 and continued until late 1947. Begin ordered many of the Irgun's operations, including a breakout from Akko prison and the bombing of British offices in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. After the state of Israel was established in 1948, Begin disbanded the Irgun.

From 1948 to 1977, Begin headed the Knesset opposition to the governments led by David Ben-Gurion and other figures from the socialist-Zionist movement. He also led an unsuccessful fight against Israel accepting German reparations for the Holocaust.

In 1965, Begin's Herut party merged with the Liberals to form Gahal, which would later be the foundation for the modern Likud party.

In 1977, Begin was elected prime minister, in an upset victory over Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres.

During his tenure, Israel signed a peace agreement with Egypt. In 1981, Begin ordered the Israel Air Force strike that destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq.

In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon as part of Operation Peace for the Galilee, in response to PLO terror attacks from across the northern border. This would lead to a 22 year Israeli military presence in Lebanon.

Following the death of his wife, Begin resigned as prime minister and spent the rest of his life in seclusion. He died on March 9, 1992.