Hauma: Reinforcing Menachem Begin's Heritage
by Staff Reporter
Israel did not forget the legacy and heritage of its great statesman and leader, Menachem Begin. Many memorials and remembrances took place in Israel to mark a decade of life without Begin who died in 1992. Hauma, published by Misdar Jabotinsky in Tel Aviv, edited by Yossi Ahimeir, a writer and ex-member of the Knesset, dedicated its last issue to the heritage of Menachem Begin.
Moshe Nissim pointed out that Begin was a genius, a prophet when he sent the Air Force to destroy the Iraqi nuclear plant in 1981. Even Shimon Peres objected to this holy mission and the U.S. protested. Today, all the Western world says: Thank you to Begin. But Iraq might control nuclear bombs in 2005!
The famous Israeli writer, Shlomo Nakdimon, revealed his original research as to the issue of Jabotinsky's burial in Jerusalem. Jabotinsky died in August of 1940 in New York. He was buried in Montefiore Cemetery in Queens. But he left a famous will in which he asked to be buried in Israel, a Jewish state. In his famous speech in October 1938 in Warsaw he said: ""A Jewish State will be established in the same way that the sun will rise tomorrow," Jabotinsky stated. He was very specific in his will. Only an Israeli government officially must activate this will. He asked for a national ceremony. But Ben-Gurion refused to execute this will. He was rude: 'Israel needs live and not dead people.' He hated Jabotinsky. He called him a 'fascist' and even: 'Vladimir Hitler.'
Many people in Israel since 1951, Nakdimon revealed in Hauma, pressed Ben-Gurion, in vain. The change came when Levy Eshkol became prime minister. Eshkol expressed openness but a huge lobby had to push him. On March 15, 1964, the government decided to activate the will from November 3, 1935. The coffins of Zeev Jabotinsky and his wife, Yohama, landed in Lod on July 5, 1964. Justice was done to one of the Zionist movements' great leaders, the father of the Revisionist Zionism, the father of Beitar and the Irgun. Nakdimon wrote: "Begin never forgot the memory of Eshkol. Never forgot Eshkol's gesture. And, therefore, defended Eshkol's legacy."
Begin influenced the history of Israel. He was a leader, a statesman, a man with vision, a thinker, a symbol of nationality, an example for anyone, a fountain of hope to the nation" said Moshe Katsav, Israel's President (quoted in Hauma). Dr. Yossi Alfassi discussed, in Hauma, the unique love affair between Begin and Jerusalem. In his introduction to this issue the editor, Ahimeir, tries to dismantle Israel's new loss of hope, feelings of despair, but also prayer for a new 'Churchill' kind of Israeli leadership.
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