Menachem Begin Speech to the Israeli National Defense College

In the Wake of the Israeli Invasion of Lebanon

August 8, 1982

(Excerpts)

The Second World War, which broke out on Sept. 1, 1939, actually began on

March 7, 1936. If only France, without Britain (which had some excellent combat

divisions), had attacked the aggressor, there would have remained no trace of

Nazi German power and a war which, in three years, changed the whole of human

history, would have been prevented.

This, therefore, is the international example that explains what is war

without choice, or a war or one's choosing.

Let us turn from the international example to ourselves. Operation Peace

for Galilee is not a military operation resulting from the lack of alternative.

The terrorists did not threaten the existence of the state of Israel; they

`only' threatened the lives of Israel's citizens and members of the Jewish

people. There are those who find fault with the second part of that sentence.

If there was no danger to the existence of the state, why did you go to war?

I will explain why: We had three wars which we fought without alternative.

The first was the war of independence, which began on Nov. 30, 1947, and lasted

until January, 1949.

What happened in that war, which we went off to fight with no alternative?

Six thousand of our fighters were killed. We were 650,000 Jews in Eretz Israel,

and the number of fallen amounted to about 1 percent of the Jewish population.

The second war of no alternative was the Yom Kippur war and the war of

attrition that preceded it.

Out total casualties in that war of no alternative were 2,297 killed,

6,067 wounded. Together with the war of attrition--which was also a war of no

alternative--2,659 killed, 7,251 wounded. The terrible total: almost 10,000

casualties.

Our other wars were not without an alternative. In November 1956 we had a

choice. The reason for going to war then was the need to destroy the fedayeen,

who did not represent a danger to the existence of the state.

Thus we went off to the Sinai campaign. At that time we conqured most of

the Sinai Peninsula and reached Sharm el Sheikh. Actually, we accepted and

submitted to an American dictate, mainly regarding the Gaza Strip (which David

Ben Gurion called `the liberated portion of the homeland'). John Foster Dulles,

the then-secretary of State, promised Ben Gurion that an Egyptian Army would

not return to the Gaza.

The Egyptian Army did enter Gaza. David Ben Gurion sent Mrs. Meir to

Washington to ask Foster Dulles: `What happened? Where are the promises?' And

he replied, `Would you resume the war for this?'

After 1957, Israel had to wait 10 full years for its flag to fly again

over that liberated portion of our homeland.

In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in

the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We

must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.

This was a war of self-defense in the noblest sense of the term. The

government of National Unity then established decided unanimously: we will take

the initiative and attack the enemy, drive him back and thus assure the

security of Israel and the future of the nation.

As for Operation Peace for Galilee, it does not really belong to the

category of wars of no alternative. We could have gone on seeing our civilians

injured at Metulla or Qiryat Shimona or Nahariya. we could have gone on

counting those killed by explosive charges left in a Jerusalem supermarket, or

a Petah Tikvah bus stop. All the orders to carry out these acts of murder and

sabotage came from Beirut. Should we have reconciled ourselves to the ceaseless

killing of civilians, even after the agreement ending hostilities reached last

summer, which the terrorists interpreted as an agreement permitting them to

strike at us from every side, besides Southern Lebanon?

There are slanderers who say that a full year of quiet has passed between

us and the terrorists. Nonsense. There was not even one month of quiet. The

newspapers and communications media, including the New York Times and the

Washington Post, did not publish even one line about our capturing the gang of

murderers that crossed the Jordan in order to commandeer a bus and murder its

passengers.

True, such actions were not a threat to the existence of the state. But

they did threaten the lives of civilians whose number we cannot estimate, day

after day, week after week, month after month.

During the past nine weeks, we have, in effect, destroyed the combat

potential of 20,000 terrorists. We hold 9,000 in a prison camp. Between 2,000

and 3,000 were killed and between 7,000 and 9,000 have been captured and cut

off in Beirut. They have decided to leave there only because they have no

possibility of remaining there. The problem will be solved.

I-we-can already look beyond the fighting. It will soon be over, we hope,

and then I believe, indeed I know, we will have a long period of peace. There

is no other country around us that is capable of attacking us.