Four decades ago, late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin told then-Senator Joe Biden: I am not a Jew with trembling knees.

By Ronn Torossian, Special to World Israel News

Any country, any relationship, indeed anything in life has its good and bad. There are good days and there’s bad days. There are good decisions and bad decisions.

Regardless of how one feels about judicial reform – and how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handled the situation – the Jewish State of Israel, with the challenges it faces worldwide on a daily basis, must always be protected.

Against this backdrop, U.S. President Joe Biden said he would not invite Netanyahu to the White House “in the near term,” and media reports indicate that there are tense relations between the Biden administration and the Israeli government at the moment due to the initiative for judicial reform.

While many Israelis – and friends of Israel – have concerns over the reforms, for the American president to refuse to meet the democratically elected prime minister of Israel – and to scold him in public – is wholly inappropriate.

In a world where Iran continues its activities to build a nuclear bomb, with the Russia-Ukraine situation, with Saudi issues, for the Biden administration to decide to play hardball with Israel is a lot.

History often repeats itself.

On June 22, 1982, Biden – a senator from Delaware at the time – confronted then-prime minister Menachem Begin during his Senate Foreign Relations committee testimony, threatening to cut off aid to Israel. Begin forcefully responded:

“Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”

Biden reportedly banged the table with his fist, and Begin retorted, “This desk is designed for writing, not for fists. Don’t threaten us with slashing aid. Do you think that because the US lends us money, it is entitled to impose on us what we must do? We are grateful for the assistance we have received, but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three thousand years of culture are behind me, and you will not frighten me with threats. Take note: we do not want a single soldier of yours to die for us.”

Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the leader of the Zionist Revisionist movement, whose philosophy both Begin and Netanyahu have embraced, stated in 1940: “We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmed agree with it or not.”

There have been some very scary scenes coming from Israel this week, yet no matter what, the State of Israel is more important than solely the (very important) issue of judicial reform.

Ronn Torossian is an entrepreneur writing from Tel Aviv.

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Who will protect the Jewish State?

By Ronn Torossian, FrontPageMag

Just like that, the world is a different place. It’s scary times ahead.

As a 47-year old, in my lifetime I cannot remember a more serious time of conflict. Like many worldwide praying for Ukraine, I worry about what Russia’s action means for the State of Israel.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett avoided condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine — or even mentioning Russia by name – saying “The world order as we know it is changing. The world is much less stable, and our region too is changing every day.”

And while the world has changed, Ukraine is fighting alone. Not America and not NATO will be coming to its rescue. Against this backdrop, surely many realize that Israel was created so that never again would Jews be dependent on anyone else for their security.

It is also fitting to remember that so many worldwide blamed tensions between Israel and the United States as a “personality” issue of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Yet, with a different government now in place, Iran remains a major problem for Israel.

And Israel alone must determine Israel’s security.

‘We were granted the right to exist by God’

Against that backdrop, it’s fitting to remember some quotes through the years from various government officials.

As Menachem Begin stated many years ago:

“Our right to exist – have you ever heard of such a thing? Would it enter the mind of any Briton or Frenchman, Belgian or Dutchman, Hungarian or Bulgarian, Russian or American, to request for its people recognition of its right to exist?

“We were granted our right to exist by the God of our fathers at the glimmer of the dawn of human civilization four thousand years ago. Hence, the Jewish people have a historic, eternal and inalienable right to exist in this land, Eretz Yisrael, the land of our forefathers.

“We need nobody’s recognition in asserting this inalienable right. And for this inalienable right, which has been sanctified in Jewish blood from generation to generation, we have paid a price unexampled in the annals of nations.

“Because our Jewish state needs no American affirmation of our right to exist. Our Hebrew Bible established that right millennia ago. Never, throughout the centuries, did we ever abandon or forfeit that right. Therefore, sir, we alone, the Jewish people – no one else – are responsible for our country’s right to exist.”

Today, surely Israel’s leaders are facing sleepless nights remembering that responsibility.

And how about the anti-Israeli United Nations? As Prime Minister Golda Meir said:

“I look around me at the United Nations and I think to myself we have no family here. Israel is entirely alone here, less than popular and certainly misunderstood. Why should that be? Why? Why?”

Who cares today about the United Nations’ condemnations? Surely not Russia.

No more needs to be said. Arms matter. Weapons matter. Security and self-determination matter.

‘Of two evils choose the lesser’

Today, surely Israel’s leaders must remember the words of Ze’ev Jabotinsky:

“We were not created in order to teach morals and manners to our enemies. Let them learn these things for themselves. We want to hit back at anybody who harms us. Whoever does not repay a blow by a blow is also incapable of repaying a good deed in kind.

“The Latin proverb says ‘of two evils choose the lesser. When we are in a position where – through no fault of our own – physical force dominates, only one question can be asked: what is worse? To continue watching Jews being killed and the conviction grows that our lives are cheap, and among the whole world that we are spineless?

“The blackest of all characteristics is the tradition of the cheapness of Jewish blood, on the shedding of which there is no prohibition and for which you do not pay.

“A new commandment must enter our hearts: that even where there is only one Jew, the word ‘Zhid’ must not be heard without response. Wise people will come and try to dissuade us – But it is not our purpose to win in every single incident.

“Our objective – to create about us the belief that a slur on our national feelings is no longer what it once was, a small diversion free of cost – but will rather, with absolute certainty and mathematical precision, result in a sharp and unpleasant confrontation.”

Let us pray for Ukraine, the Jews of Ukraine, the West and the State of Israel.

Thankfully the State of Israel knows its responsibility.

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Begin famously retorted, “Do you think that because the U.S. lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do?”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden once threatened Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin with cutting American aid over the settlement-building policy of the right-wing government.

The story has resurfaced as the traditional three rounds of presidential debates get underway Tuesday evening with domestic policy questions, to be followed by at least one on foreign policy. That debate will undoubtedly have a Middle East component.

Biden has positioned himself as a warm friend of Israel who has always supported the Jewish State when he was a senator and then as vice president to Barack Obama from January 2009 to January 2017.

During the Democratic primaries in October, he said that even if he had differences with Israeli policy regarding the Palestinians, “the idea that I’d withdraw military aid, as others have suggested, from Israel is bizarre. I would not do that. It’s like saying to France, ‘Because you don’t agree with us, we’re going to kick you out of NATO.’”

But in 1982, during the First Lebanon War, The New York Times reported that Biden strongly criticized Israeli settlement in Judea and Samaria, saying that it had to stop. Begin’s response, which was made public by confidante Yehiel Kadishai after the prime minister’s death in 1992, showed that it had included the threat to withdraw aid.

The story went that Begin had flown to Washington to discuss the war, and was questioned by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in what was described as a heated session that was not confined to what was happening in Lebanon.

The “bitterest exchange,” according to the Times account, was between then-Delaware Senator Biden and Begin, with Biden fiercely criticizing Israel’s settlement policy.

“Don’t threaten us with slashing aid,” Begin answered, according to Kadishai. “Do you think that because the U.S. lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do? We are grateful for the assistance we have received, but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three thousand years of culture are behind me, and you will not frighten me with threats.”

Biden has often denied having pressured Begin in this way.

According to website Mondoweiss, former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro defended Biden in an August conference call with the Jewish Democratic Council of America.

Shapiro said that Biden had told Begin “that the expansion of settlements in the West Bank was harmful to Israel’s future and harmful to our relationship and harmful to his ability to advocate for the U.S. assistance package that he believed so strongly in… and that there was a danger of over time opposition growing to that assistance package.”

Biden, he said, has held the view for decades that building in Judea and Samaria makes it harder to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This is not the first time Biden’s pro-Israel bona fides have been questioned. He has also appointed certain advisers who are seen as unfriendly to Israel. Also raising eyebrows is his endorsement by the left-wing J Street, and his statements that he would reinstate the nuclear deal with Iran.

Biden has also said that he would  restore financial aid to the Palestinians even though they have yet to give up their “pay for slay” policy. This would run counter to American law according to the Taylor Force Act, which was passed to stop U.S. funding of groups engaged in terrorism.

Also not forgotten is that it was Obama’s administration in December 2016 that failed to veto a binding UN Security Council Resolution declaring Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria to be illegal.

The Israeli government considered this a most damaging resolution. It was condemned by Israel and her allies. For example, John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the UN, criticized the move in a Wall Street Journal op-ed at the time entitled “Obama’s Parting Betrayal of Israel.”

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“It was an emotional surprise which showed how modest he was,” the director of the Begin Heritage Center told Ynet.

By World Israel News Staff 

A check made out to Prime Minister Menachem Begin, dated October 7, 1983 and totaling 102,705 old Israeli shekels, has been found “by chance” inside a book by the director of the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, Herzl Makov, as reported exclusively by Ynet.

The check, from Steimatzky Publishing, is believed to have been for royalties to Israel’s sixth prime minister for his autobiographical memoir “White Nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia,” which had been translated into English by Steimatzky.

The check was being used as a bookmark in a different book, says the Begin Center.

In January 1986, Israel moved to the New Shekel, valued at one for 1,000 of the old currency, as part of an economic plan to fight hyperinflation.

The check was found amid reorganization for renovation work to upgrade the library and marking 20 years since the center was established.

“It was an emotional surprise which showed how modest he was,” Makov told Ynet, speaking of the check which had been tucked away.

The date of the check was just a few days before Begin stepped down as prime minister on October 10, 1983, after he had already started to go into seclusion and announced his intention to resign amid what was said to be a sense of depression over the death of his wife, Aliza, the year before, and over the deadly outcome of the 1982 Operation Peace for Galilee.

In the May 1977 election, he turned the tide of Israeli politics with a victory that gave control of the national government to the right of the political establishment for the first time in the history of Israel, which was established in May 1948.

Begin died on March 9, 1992.

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To the dismay of some Jewish leaders, officials stopped short of canceling the building permit on the site where remains of other victims might still be found.

By Associated Press

Remains of more than 1,000 Holocaust victims were laid to rest on Wednesday in a Belarusian city on the border with Poland after a mass grave was discovered on a building site earlier this year.

Belarus was home to a large, vibrant Jewish community before the Second World War, and the discovery of remains of at least 1,214 people in January shocked many still scarred by memories of the Holocaust.

To the dismay of some Jewish leaders, officials stopped short of canceling the building permit on the site where remains of other victims might still be found, instead offering to bury the bones that were initially discovered.

The remains were buried in 120 coffins emblazoned with a Star of David in a ceremony at a cemetery outside town attended by city officials, Jewish community leaders, and diplomats.

Brest was one of the first Soviet Union towns to be attacked by Nazi Germany troops and fell into German hands in July 1941. Like elsewhere in eastern Europe, the Nazi administration set up a Jewish ghetto. An estimated 28,000 people were confined there until it was destroyed in October 1942 when 17,000 residents were taken out of town and executed. The fate of the others remains unknown.

Among the famous Brest natives is late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who won a Nobel Peace Prize with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978. His father was among those rounded up and killed.

Regina Simonenko, head of the local Jewish community Brisk, lamented that authorities rushed to bury the remains and continue with the building project instead of running DNA tests to establish identities.

“We were told that DNA tests are expensive and take a long time,” Simonenko told The Associated Press.

The World Jewish Congress decried the construction project as “an affront to the memories of the Jewish residents of the city who were shot and murdered in cold blood at that very site.”

City authorities insist that the apartment block’s foundation does not overlap with the burial site. Authorities have promised to put up a monument in the area and not build anything on the mass grave.

“There will be nothing but the lawn on the burial site,” Brest Mayor Alexander Rogachuk said. “We’re not even going to put up parking spaces or playgrounds there.”

To Simonenko, that promise is not enough.

“We’re talking about a large ghetto,” she said. “We’re not sure that there won’t be other burial sites discovered there.”

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