Menachem Begin in the Years 1942-1944: Between Political Zionism and Military Zionism

Abstract

This article considers Menachem Begin and the influence of the Holocaust on his decisions and changing political-ideological approach between 1942 to 1944. A growing awareness of the dimensions of the Holocaust led Begin to abandon previous beliefs based on the political teachings of Ze'ev Jabotinsky. A new sense of urgency emerges in Begin's writings of the period with the realization that the political struggle against British rule could not be put off until the end of the war and that political action was urgently required. With the end of World War II and his dramatic ideological shift, Begin made several statements dissociating himself from Jabotinsky's ideology and positioned him as the leader of a new ideological stream of Zionism.