The Revolt

The Levantine Jews had to fight the British for their freedom. The war truly began when Great Britain came up with the White Paper of 1939. And Begin, who led the Irgun, one of the Jewish groups fighting against Great Britain, was instrumental in helping the Jews win that fight. The book starts with Begin being sentenced to eight years in a labor camp, on April 1, 1941. Begin's response was an involuntary "April Fool!" And the joke may have been on his persecutors, as Begin soon wound up in the Levant, where he quickly took over the leadership of the Irgun. Begin states his reaction to the problems the Jews faced at that time. If your house is on fire, you do not wait for the fire department to arrive to try to rescue your family. By the time they get there, it may be too late. Many people call the Irgun a terrorist group. But Begin explains that while both fighters for freedom and fighters for oppression may use violence to try to overthrow a regime, there is an inherent difference between them. Physical force was neither the aim nor the creed of the Irgun, which properly believed in the supremacy of moral forces. It was the British enemies of the Irgun which mocked morality. Begin tells of the British order, in 1929, that the Jews not blow notes on their Shofars at the Western Wall. And we see the consequences of this ill-advised law. After all, even the Roman conquerors had allowed Jews to blow their Shofars there. And we learn that, except during actual planned missions, the Irgun did not carry weapons. If they were stopped and searched, they were often released on the spot. Begin tells of the Irgun's exploits. And the Altalena affair, in which Begin managed to escape and convince his troops not to start a civil war. I was intrigued by the description of the battle for Deir Yassin. I've always regarded some of the wilder stories about this battle with some suspicion. Here is why. The Jews, with Jerusalem besieged, decided on April 1, 1948 to counterattack. This was really the first offensive by a Jewish army in centuries. Two key targets were Castel and Deir Yassin, vantage points which overlooked the endangered Jerusalem road. A Jewish failure to win any battles would doom Jerusalem. Thus the attacks a week later were unusual. I would have expected huge protests from the Arabs no matter what the outcome. Of course, the Jewish army was inexperienced. And Begin's Irgun was especially inexperienced at such an attack. It fell for a bogus Arab surrender. It fell for tricks such as Iraqi soldiers dressed as women (with concealed weapons). Nevertheless, the Jews won that battle. It may not have been as big a battle, in terms of casualties, as Gettysburg or Stalingrad. But it was a part of a battle for freedom and human rights that saved Western Jerusalem and I think that is worth celebrating. The author explains that the Arab complaints about the battle backfired, with many Arab civilians, believing wild stories

The story of the Irgun's revolt against British rule is told in this book by the organization's visionary leader Menachem Begin. Begin was a modest, courageous leader dedicated to achieving freedom for the Jewish people in the land of Israel. Time and again he made decisions which overcame his own narrow interest and served the people of Israel. One was in his decision not to fight back after the attack on the Atalena. Years later in events outside the scope of this book Begin in opposition backed the government fully in decisions of great weight and moment, such as the taking of the Old City in 1967 or the operation in Entebbe in 1976 . Here he tells of a troubled time in Jewish history when a desperate people struggled to realize a two thousand year old dream of restoring Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel. This is a highly readable work by a leader who the people of Israel loved perhaps more than any other in modern times.

A fascinating account of the role of the underground army of Eretz Israel, known as the Irgun Zvai Leumi, by its commander-in-chief, and late Israeli statesman and Prime Minister, Menachem Begin. A story known by relatively few, a first hand account of one side of the resistance movement that resulted in the birth of modern Israel. The Irgun was considered by many Jews and non-Jews alike to be a terrorist organization. After reading this book, one will find out why Israel would probably not have been created without the controversial efforts of the Irgun. One will similarly discover the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist (even though Begin actually refers to himself as a "terrorist" in the book; possibly a result of no proper equivalent translation from the original Hebrew. Hint: a freedom fighter does not attack civilian targets. After a brief introduction of Begin's earlier life as a prisoner of the Bolsheviks before the Nazi invasion of Poland, Begin recounts the history of the Irgun as its leader from 1943, until the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. The "resistance movement" consisted of David Ben-Gurion's Jewish Agency for Palestine, the semi-legal Jewish army known as the Haganah, and the underground movement of the Irgun (and a smaller break away underground army known as the Stern Group. Although the former and latter were at times allies, and at other times bitter enemies, the message of the book is how each group needed the other components to accomplish the goal of a free Israel. With the fervor of a brilliant statesman, and the eloquence of a lawyer (which he was), Begin writes a gripping account of the history of the Irgun and its methods. The Irgun worked primarily by audacious "confiscation" of British arms and attack of military and British police installations with its primary weapon, dynamite. Included are separate chapters of the most famous exploits of the Irgun, including the Altalena affair, Operation Chick, the blowing up of the south wing of the King David Hotel (which served as the seat of the civil and military British occupation authority), the battle for Jaffa, the counter-floggings and counter-hangings of British officers in retaliation for the same of Irgun Freedom fighters, An especially fascinating chapter entitled "Meetings in the Dark" recounts Commander Begin's meetings with various dignitaries (such as Dr. Ralph Bunche) which were litterly held in a darkened room, so Begin could not be identified (he had a high price on his head by the British). One cannot help, after reading this book, to appreciate the role of Begin (and his organization, the Irgun) played in ejecting the British from Eretz Israel, to form the modern State of Israel, and the stupidity of the infighting between the various components of the resistance movement (whose methods complemented each other). Although the primary subject of the book is the history of the Irgun, the reader will no doubt become inter

This book takes you into and underground with the Irgun Zvi Leumi. The jewish freedom fighter organization led by Begin during the years leading up to the establishment of the state of Israel. It was very interesting getting Begin's view on the contraversal organization on subjects such as Ben-Gurion and Dier Yassin. Begin takes you into this underground world that reads with the excitment of a ficticious novel. Every reader will come away inspired by the charasmatic leader. However, to get a true prospective on Begin himself, this is not the book. Begin is very modest about his leadership and focus's more on the organization rather than himself. Although, some is lost in the translation from Hebrew to English, you won't come away dissapointed

The revolt is the Menachin Begins personal account, as the leader of one of the Jewish underground factions, of the founding of the state of Israel. Those who discount the idea of Zionism (Jewish nationalism) as nothing more than western colonialism need to read this book. Perhaps Begin in later years said it best: When asked to give up Jerusalem (the capital of Israel) in the same manner that the French gave up Algeria, Beign replied that the French would not give up Paris and the British would not give up London.