Top 41 Quotes & Sayings by Menachem Begin

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Israeli politician Menachem Begin.

Last updated on December 23, 2024.

Menachem Begin was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Israel, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was opposed by the Jewish Agency. As head of the Irgun, he targeted the British in Palestine. Later, the Irgun fought the Arabs during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine and its chief Begin was also noted as "leader of the notorious terrorist organisation" by the British government and banned from entering the United Kingdom.

Israeli - Politician | August 16, 1913 - March 9, 1992

Source: Wikipedia

He who threatens us will find us deaf to his threats. We are willing to listen only to rational arguments.

Menachem Begin

The people of Israel have lived 3,700 years without a memorandum of understanding with America and will continue to live without it another 3,700 years.

Menachem Begin

The framework for peace signed by Egypt and Israel is almost a peace treaty. We solved the problem for the peace treaty 98%.

Menachem Begin

We of course will say we claim sovereignty of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district. Others will come, and they will say we claim sovereignty. What can be the outcome?

Menachem Begin

We attacked selected military targets of the P.L.O. Around, civilians were hurt, I don't want to deny it. Very regrettable, very regrettable. We regret it deeply.

Menachem Begin

We want a full peace, normalization in all fields.

Menachem Begin

My colleagues and I have gone in the footsteps of our predecessors since the very first day we were called by our people to care for their future. We went any place, we looked for any avenue, we made any effort to bring about negotiations between Israel and its neighbors, negotiations without which peace remains an abstract desire.

Menachem Begin

After 1957, Israel had to wait 10 full years for its flag to fly again over that liberated portion of the homeland.

Menachem Begin

You want me to become a leaker? I'm not. I do not leak any news from the Cabinet sessions.

Menachem Begin

Operation Peace for Galilee is not a military operation resulting from the lack of an alternative.

Menachem Begin

UNIFIL was a complete disappointment. But a kind of multinational force.

Menachem Begin

In peace, the Middle East, the ancient cradle of civilization, will become invigorated and transformed. Throughout its lands there will be freedom of movement of people, of ideas, of goods.

Menachem Begin

There are those who say we must rescind the Golan Heights law that was passed in the Knesset. To rescind is a concept from the days of the Inquisition. Our forefathers were burned at the stake and would not rescind their faith.

Menachem Begin

We do not covet one inch of Lebanese territory, and the basis for the peace treaty between our two countries will be the international border, which exists now, between Rosh Haniqra and Ras en Naqura.

Menachem Begin

The ancient Jewish people gave the world the vision of eternal peace, of universal disarmament, of abolishing the teaching and learning of war.

Menachem Begin

Lebanon, of course, is a country with great problems. Traditionally, they have religious-national groups or ethnic-national groups. They have the Druses. Even the two Moslem sects, the Sunnis and the Shiites, are apart. Then they have the armed groups. Everybody's got a private army.

Menachem Begin

I come to Jerusalem. There, the sky is blue and memory becomes clear.

Menachem Begin

The Palestinian Arabs will have their autonomy, we will have our security. We shall live together.

Menachem Begin

There must be some security arrangement in the south of Lebanon so northern Israel is not threatened anymore.

Menachem Begin

Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth.

Menachem Begin

No one will frighten the large and free Jewish community of the United States.

Menachem Begin

You annex foreign land, not your own country.

Menachem Begin

We don't need legitimacy. We exist. Therefore we are legitimate.

Menachem Begin

The German debt to the Jewish people can never end, not in this generation and not in any other.

Menachem Begin

What kind of expression is this - "punishing Israel"? Are we a vassal state of yours? Are we a banana republic? Are we youths of fourteen who, if they don't behave properly, are slapped across the fingers? Let me tell you who this government is composed of. It is composed of people whose lives were spent in resistance, in fighting and in suffering. You will not frighten us with "punishments." He who threatens us will find us deaf to his threats. We are only prepared to listen to rational arguments. You have no right to "punish" Israel - and I protest at the very use of this term.

Menachem Begin

In the name of Jerusalem. If I forget the extermination of the Jews, may my right hand wither, may my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you, if I do not keep the extermination of the Jews in memory even at my happiest hour.

Menachem Begin

The difficulties of peace are better than the agony of war.

Menachem Begin

We were granted the right to exist by the God of our fathers at the glimmer of the dawn of human civilization nearly 4,000 years ago. For that right, which has been sanctified in Jewish blood from generation to generation, we have paid a price unexampled in the annals of the nations.

Menachem Begin

Goyim kill goyim and the Jews are blamed.

Menachem Begin

There will be no fraternal strife while the foe is at the gate.

Menachem Begin

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.

Menachem Begin

The Jew bows before no man only God

Menachem Begin

Poles did not like Jews and they were worse than Germans.

Menachem Begin

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.

Menachem Begin

Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And forever.

Menachem Begin

Free women and men everywhere must wage an incessant campaign so that these human values become a generally recognized and practised reality. We must regretfully admit that in various parts of the world this is not yet the case. Without those values and human rights the real peace of which we dream is jeopardized.

Menachem Begin

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

The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.

Menachem Begin

No more wars, no more bloodshed. Peace unto you. Shalom, salaam, forever.

Menachem Begin