history is an important tool leaders israel’s new prime minister should take time and at past prime ministers’ successes and failures.
with respect to israel’s modern landscape, there is one prime minister in particular to study. he was a principled leader. as a result, he is know for significant accomplishment. he was menachem begin.
while he was controversial and experienced some failures as a leader, prime minister menachem begin successes transformed israel and middle east. his successes are still relevant today.
three of his greatest achievements are as follows:
first, operation opera: mr. begin, after using various means to derail the iraqi nuclear power plant, ordered and successfully destroyed it. his action was universally condemned. history, however looks favorably on this action. without this attack, it is possible that sadaam hussein would have had nuclear weapons capability when he invaded kuwait. without those weapons, a multi national force led by the us, without much resistance, freed kuwait in the gulf war.
second, ethiopian jewry: mr. begin famously demanded “bring me the ethiopian jews.” he ordered israel’s intelligence agency to act. he started a process in 1977. this began the the long and arduous immigration process over multiple operations such as moses and solomon. today, mr. begin’s request has nearly been completely fulfilled. israel has almost the entire beta israel tribe relocated to israel with over 130,000.
third, the camp david accords. along with president anwar el-sadat of egypt, and through the assistance of president carter, mr. begin was a participate in the long standing peace treaty. this treaty has created stability in the middle east. cooperation between egypt and israel has often been a source of often brokering and resolving regional disputes.
with respect to these three great accomplishments, mr. begin was an individual who brought his principles to the table.
a good example mr. begin’s approach was when he encountered the then senator joseph biden.
when mr. begin had a 1982 clashed with senator joe biden in the foreign relations committee, mr. begin, is reported as responding to a threatening mr. biden with “don’t threaten us with cutting off aid to give up our principles,” begin went further: “i’m not a jew with trembling knees,” he reminded mr. biden. ” wsj.com
begin’s response supposedly continued: “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.” wsj.com
thus, leaders must understand while they may come and go, principles are the true constant in the universe.
be well!!
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