When Egyptian President Anwar Sadat touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport on November 19, 1977, the whole world was watching. His visit to Israel, the first of its kind by an Arab head of state, was a game-changer: A harbinger of what Shimon Peres would later call “the new Middle East.”

Sadat’s arrival mesmerized Israel. Thousands of awestruck Israelis lined the route of his motorcade to catch a glimpse of the man who, just four years earlier, had been their sworn enemy. Those not gathering in the streets were glued to their television screens, ecstatically following the wall-to-wall coverage.
The photograph printed by Israel govt. presse office

צילום לחיצת יד היסטורית מנחם בגין אנואר א סדאת תהליך השלום ישראל מצרים

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When Egyptian President Anwar Sadat touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport on November 19, 1977, the whole world was watching. His visit to Israel, the first of its kind by an Arab head of state, was a game-changer: A harbinger of what Shimon Peres would later call “the new Middle East.”

Sadat’s arrival mesmerized Israel. Thousands of awestruck Israelis lined the route of his motorcade to catch a glimpse of the man who, just four years earlier, had been their sworn enemy. Those not gathering in the streets were glued to their television screens, ecstatically following the wall-to-wall coverage.

The post Rare Photograph: Menachem Begin And Anwar El-Sadat Visit to Israel, Hand-Signed by Begin November 1977 first appeared on VINTAGE ISRAELI POSTERS.

On March 26, 1979, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and United States President Jimmy Carter signed the Peace Accord. The photos from the event became the symbol of the agreement that changed the face of the Middle East.

The historic celebratory gathering on the White House lawn, in front of an enthusiastic crowd and broadcast live to millions of viewers around the world, did not even remotely hint at the great drama that had unfolded in the months preceding it. Throughout these months, those involved in the negotiation process encountered numerous bumps and obstacles, at times evoking a sense that the process was on the brink of collapse, along with all hopes for peace.

All of these challenges led President Carter to release a deep sigh of relief at the successful culmination of the process and to remark, ‘What we have achieved so far is nothing short of a miracle… God’s hand was involved in what has been accomplished thus far.

The post Rare Photograph: Menachem Begin, Anwar El-Sadat And Jimmy Carter at The White House Peace Accord Ceremony, Hand-Signed by Begin 1979 first appeared on VINTAGE ISRAELI POSTERS.

On March 26, 1979, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and United States President Jimmy Carter signed the Peace Accord. The photos from the event became the symbol of the agreement that changed the face of the Middle East.

The historic celebratory gathering on the White House lawn, in front of an enthusiastic crowd and broadcast live to millions of viewers around the world, did not even remotely hint at the great drama that had unfolded in the months preceding it. Throughout these months, those involved in the negotiation process encountered numerous bumps and obstacles, at times evoking a sense that the process was on the brink of collapse, along with all hopes for peace.

All of these challenges led President Carter to release a deep sigh of relief at the successful culmination of the process and to remark, ‘What we have achieved so far is nothing short of a miracle… God’s hand was involved in what has been accomplished thus far.

The post Rare Photograph: Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter at The White House Peace Process Ceremony, Hand-Signed by Begin 1979 first appeared on VINTAGE ISRAELI POSTERS.

The post The Jerusalem Post Newspaper Begin Sadat Peace Israel Egypt 1979 first appeared on VINTAGE ISRAELI POSTERS.

M Begin A militant Russian Zionist, Begin survived torture in Vilnius’ Lukiškės Prison and enforced labor in a Russian gulag, eventually settling in the British Mandate of Palestine, where he became a prominent leader in the Jewish uprising to force the British to withdraw from the region. After Israel’s founding, Begin became an outspoken and indefatigable member of the Likud opposition party in the Knesset until his election as prime minister in June 1977.

Between 1977 and 1982, Begin visited the United States 13 times, visits classified by the State Department as, variously, official visits, working visits, informal meetings, and private meetings with President Jimmy Carter. Carter was keenly interested in reinvigorating the peace talks between Israel and Egypt, the central topic of discussion during Begin’s first official visit to the White House, several months after his election, on July 19, 1977. Begin returned to the White House for discussions with Carter March 21-23, 1978 and April 30-May 7, 1978.

Carter’s talks with Begin famously culminated with the Camp David Accords. From September 17-29, 1978, Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat held intense negotiations moderated by Carter at Camp David, the Maryland presidential retreat. Begin returned to the U.S. for official visits on March 1-4, 1979, and March 23-29, 1979, the latter meeting finalizing the two documents, A Framework for Peace in the Middle East and A Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel. For the Camp David Accords, Begin and Sadat shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize, announced in October 1978. Begin remained prime minister until 1983 when he was succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin.

Signed in blue ink in the lower right corner of the image. Excellent condition, Framed

צילום נדיר חתום על ידי בגין שיחות השלום בארוחה בבית הלבן קרטר בגין

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The original text of Menachem Begin’s historic speech 1948

A rare article written and printed and signed by Menachem Begin in 1948 for Irgun soldiers who joined the Israel Defense Forces immediately after the Altalena affair
2 pages pamphlet that was distributed to Irgun soldiers  1948
The pamphlet was written and broadcast on Herut Radio by Menachem Begin also published in the Herut newspaper on September 2, 1948.

In the same army of liberation which raised the miracle of rebellion against the British enslaver and did not remove it except with the departure of the enslaver. And please do not face it, my brother, if not everyone acknowledges the same basic fact. The greatest truth in history is, that the truth is stronger than a lie, that the truth always wins, even if its victory is delayed […] they did not claim the individual’s credit for everything that was achieved during and after the rebellion. No, we are not claiming a monopoly. Other elements, too, have many rights in rebellion, in battle, in the building. Indeed, this is the difference between us. We do not deny the rights of others; They are trying to get our rights out of the history of our time. ”
In the last paragraph, Begin refers, albeit not explicitly, to one of the painful events during the War of Independence – the shelling of the ship “Altalena” by IDF forces: “I was told that you are good soldiers, I was happy. But this is nothing but natural. You can be nothing but good soldiers […] I know, because you will not miss your place on any front, even after what happened. You were in the Negev, you stood valiantly against the onslaught of the enemy. ”
The letter was published in the Herut newspaper on September 2, 1948.

מנחם בגין, “מכתב לחיילי האומה ומשחרריה” – חוזר משוכפל – 1948
“מכתב לחיילי האומה ומשחרריה” מאת מנחם בגין – חוזר משוכפל. [1948].
המכתב פונה לחיילי האצ”ל, אשר עם תום המנדט ועזיבת הבריטים את ארץ ישראל הצטרפו לשורות צה”ל: “במשך שנים אחרונות שרתתם בצבא היסוד של הצבא העברי, שרתתם באותו צבא השחרור שהרים את נס המרד נגד המשעבד הבריטי ולא הורידוהו אלא עם צאת המשעבד. ואל נא באפכם, אחי, אם לא הכול מודים באותה עובדת היסוד. האמת הגדולה ביותר בהיסטוריה היא, שהאמת חזקה מכזב, שהאמת תמיד מנצחת, אף אם מתמהמה נצחונה […] לא טענו לזכות היחיד על כל מה שהושג בשנות המרד ובעקבותיו. לא, אין אנו טוענים למונופולין. גם גורמים אחרים, רבות זכויותיהם גם במרד, גם בקרב, גם בבנין. אכן, זהו ההבדל בינינו. אנחנו את זכויותיהם של האחרים איננו מכחישים; הם את זכויותינו מנסים להוציא מספר ההיסטוריה של תקופתנו.”
בפסקה האחרונה מתייחס בגין, אם כי לא באופן מפורש, לאחד האירועים הכאובים בימי מלחמת העצמאות – הפגזת האונייה “אלטלנה” בידי כוחות צה”ל: “נמסר לי כי חיילים טובים אתם, שמחתי. אך אין הדבר אלא טבעי. לא תוכלו להיות אלא חיילים טובים […] אני יודע, כי לא נפקד מקומכם בשום חזית, גם אחרי שקרה מה שקרה. הייתם בנגבה, עמדתם בגבורה מול האויב המסתער.”
המכתב התפרסם בעיתון “חרות”, ב-2.9.1948.

Download the complete 1948 newspaper

Herut newspaper Menachem Begin Address to the Soldiers and Liberators of the Nation 1948

The post Extremely Rare Document Menachem Begin – Address to “the Soldiers and Liberators of the Nation” 1948 first appeared on VINTAGE ISRAELI POSTERS.

SHARON, ARIEL. (1928-2014). Israeli general and the country’s 11th prime minister. TLS. (“Ariel Sharon”). 2/3p. 4to. (Jerusalem), January 4, 1999. On Minister of Foreign Affairs letterhead, with the blind embossed seal of Israel. To American autograph collector Robert J. Cohen.

“I appreciate dearly your personal trust and faith in me and my way, and moreover I appreciate your fidelity to Zionism and to its enormous personalities as Zeev Jabotinsky and Menachem Begin.

I am sorry I have to return your check, but upon the Israeli law I can not accept it.

Nevertheless, I thank you for thinking and writing to me… [in holograph] ‘Shalom’ …”

Born in Mandatory Palestine to Russian immigrants Schmuel and Vera Scheinerman, Sharon participated in the night patrols of his moshav as a teenager and, in 1942, joined the paramilitary youth organization Gadna, after which he joined the Haganah to fight in the 1948 War. David Ben-Gurion Hebraized his name to Sharon, and he earned a reputation as a hardened fighter who survived multiple battle wounds while ascending through the ranks of the newly formed Israeli Defense Forces and leading the newly formed special forces Unit 101 and the Paratroopers Brigade. During the early decades of Israel’s history, he led forces in the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War, the War of Attrition, and the Yom-Kippur War, and his long military career prompted Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to call Sharon the “greatest field commander in our history,” (“Israel’s Man of War,” New York, Kramer). After retiring from the military, Sharon embarked on a political career, helping found the Likud party and winning a Knesset seat in 1973. From 1981-1983 he served as Menachem Begin’s minister of defense and held several other ministerial roles before acting as prime minister from 2001-2006.

Influential Russian-Jewish, Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940) was born Vladimir Zhabotinsky in Odessa, where he received a secular Russian education before dropping out of school at 17 to become a newspaper correspondent where he earned a reputation for his dispatches from Italy. His work subjected him to the scrutiny of the Tsarist police who imprisoned him for several months after he published an anti-establishment article. Following the 1903 Kishinev pogrom, Jabotinsky became a Zionist, learned Hebrew, changed his name from Vladimir to Ze’ev and organized the militant Jewish Self-Defense Organization to help protect Russian Jewish villages against ever increasing violence. A passionate orator, he traveled widely throughout Russia and Europe advocating for Zionism and stressing the need to learn Hebrew. However, unlike more moderate Zionists, Jabotinsky was skeptical that Jews could live peacefully in the territories they had settled and focused on self-defense rather than assimilation. At the outbreak of World War I, he and Joseph Trumpeldor convinced the British military in Egypt to allow them to organize Jews deported from the Ottoman Empire into a military organization and join the British in liberating Palestine from the Ottomans. In 1915, Trumpeldor and Jabotinsky established the Zion Mule Corps, or Jewish Legion, as part of the 38th and 42nd battalions of Royal Fusiliers. Most of these volunteers, including Jabotinsky, fought heroically against the Turks at the Dardanelles during the Gallipoli Campaign. After the war, Jabotinsky settled in Palestine, where, in 1920, he was elected to the first Assembly of Representatives. That same year, the threat of Arab riots near Jerusalem led him, once again, to organize a defense organization. He was subsequently arrested by the British for illegal possession of weapons but served only a few months of his 15-year sentence. He quickly grew disillusioned with the British administration of Palestine, parted ways with Chaim Weizmann, and in 1923, formed the Alliance of Revisionists-Zionists and the related youth movement, Betar, whose goal was to establish a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan River. He continued to work toward that goal and lectured around the world despite his banishment from Palestine in 1930. His influence on Israeli politics continues to this day.

A militant Russian Zionist, Menachem Begin (1913-1992) survived torture in Vilnius’ Lukiškės Prison and enforced labor in a Russian gulag, eventually settling in the British Mandate of Palestine, where he became a prominent leader in the Jewish uprising to force a British withdrawal from the region. After Israel’s founding, Begin became an outspoken and indefatigable member of the Knesset’s Likud opposition party until his election as prime minister in 1977. Begin is best remembered for negotiating the Camp David Accords with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. From September 17-29, 1978, the two leaders held intense negotiations moderated by American President Jimmy Carter at Camp David, the Maryland presidential retreat. The result was the creation of two documents: A Framework for Peace in the Middle East and A Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel. For the Camp David Accords Begin and Sadat shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. Begin remained prime minister until 1983 when he was succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin.

The post Ariel Sharon Interesting Signed letter About Jabotinsky & Begin 1999 first appeared on VINTAGE ISRAELI POSTERS.

(The underground military fighter organization)

Israel 1975

אצ”ל לח”י מנחם בגין

ETZEL BETAR

The post Vintage Israeli poster Memory of the Irgun Fighters with Menachem Begin 1975 first appeared on VINTAGE ISRAELI POSTERS.

כרזה תנועת החרות בגין נגד בן גוריון

The post Vintage Israeli Poster of The Herut Movement Menachem Begin 1950s first appeared on VINTAGE ISRAELI POSTERS.