WHERE HAVE YOU GONE MENACHEM BEGIN?

Menachem Begin has always been and in all likelihood will remain my hero. I miss him more than one can imagine. In response to the resolution passed by UNESCO last Thursday which charged Israel with a long list of violations regarding Haram al-Sharif and al- Aqsa Mosque and  purposely omits the sacred connection that exists between  the site of the two Jewish Temples in Jerusalem and  Jews, I can hear Menachem Begin standing up and proclaiming: “The people of Israel have existed 3,700 years without defamatory resolutions passed by UNESCO and will continue to exist far beyond 3,700 years with or without defamatory resolutions passed by UNESCO.” After delivering the proclamation in a fashion typical of an orator of his caliber, in all likelihood Mr. Begin would have turned to his trusted aide Yehuda Avner and exclaimed in Yiddish: “Hairst a Myseh (have you ever heard of such Chutzpah)!”
Menachem Begin would have also considered the source. Drafted by seven Arab countries, Mr. Begin would have understood that the resolution was purely to bolster the Palestinians and was in all likelihood authored by Palestinians. For only Palestinians could author a resolution containing such a ludicrous claim, given that less than twenty four hours earlier, hundreds of thousands of Jews throughout the world attended Yom Kippur services, where a reenactment of the one day a year service by the Kohen going into the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. Being an anti-Semite is one thing; being a stupid anti-Semite is quite something else. If the Palestinians want to insist that Jews have no connection to the two Jewish Temples in Jerusalem, then they would be well advised to make their claim in January or February, but not on the heels of Yom Kippur.
Menachem Begin would not have been surprised that the resolution passed twenty-four to six, with twenty-six abstentions. If anything, he would have been mildly surprised that Britain, Germany, Estonia and Lithuania were among those who voted against the resolution. Given his formative years in pre-war Poland where anti-Semitism all too often reared its ugly head, he saw the need for an independent Jewish country precisely because Jews could not nor should not count on others for support or friendship. It was a young Menachem Begin who led a massive demonstration in the early years of Israel, damning the government for negotiating with Germany on the matter of reparations or “blood money” as he called it. His attitude was, as Jews in a Jewish State, we will focus our energies on that what is moral and proper; we will not waste our time worrying about the censure of the rest of the world nor will we concern ourselves to seek its approval.
Menachem Begin in all likelihood would have grabbed his tallis and tefillen and shown up at the Kotel for Shacharis. No stranger to the Shacharis service – or any prayer service for that matter, Mr. Begin would have offered a lengthy explanation to the news media how Jerusalem and the holy Temple were integral parts of Judaism and that no Muslim should even think of making statements that would impugn the historic and religious connection between the holy Temple and Jews. Why, Mr. Begin might even have added, that as a gentleman he refrains from making any negative or incendiary remarks about Moslems and Mecca. Hopefully what he did not follow up with, would have been heard loud and clear by the Palestinians.
When all is said and done however, Menachem Begin would have stood before the Knesset and excoriated Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian Authority for instigating the resolution. After telling members of Knesset that given the life he lived and the suffering he endured, he fears no one and that he is prepared to speak out and give anyone a piece of his mind, especially a Palestinian leader who incites hatred.  Mr. Begin would then have concluded his tirade by borrowing from a Yiddish maxim which could be best translated as follows: And if Mahmoud Abbas gets his nose out of joint from what I have to say to him, then let him walk around the rest of his life with a disjointed nose.