Menachem Begin affected the Jews, the Middle East, Great Britain, and the world at large. Starting at his earlier years he was enrolled in several armies, a member of Zionist and Nationalist groups. Menachem was a right-wing extremist who promoted violent acts towards the Arabs and Great Britain due to their threat to him and Israel. The peace treaty between Israel and Egypt which Menachem Begin signed is still in effect today. This treaty is very beneficial for Israel. The boldness and fortitude used in bombing the nuclear reactor in Baghdad, that was at first criticized, in retrospect was extremely positive for Israel, America and the rest of the world.
             A native of Brest-Litovsk Menachem Begin learned his parents and brother had perished in the flames of the Holocaust. His father was among the 5,000 Brest Jews rounded up by the Nazis. They were taken outside the city limits and shot or drowned in the river. His mother died in a Jewish hospital in Brest, while his brother Herzl passed on without a trace in the Holocaust. "Begin was a man driven to feats of courage and the depths of despair. His vision was forged from the Holocaust and love for the Jewish people." (Web Site #1,g Page 3) Understanding what his family went through, together with the rest of the European Jews at that time, Menachem began yearning for the freedom and redemption and for Jews to have a state to be protecting them, to rely on, live in, and support- that was his vision. Growing up in Brest-Litovsk, Menachem was educated in traditional orthodox Jewish schools and graduated in law at Warsaw University. Menachem was a serious student who was intri!
             gued by books. He read the Bible, Herzl's Judenstaat; Leon Pinsker's Autoemancipation; Moses Hess's Rome and Jerusalem, which all presented ideas of not waiting for others to grant freedom and Judaism can only prosper if they regain their homeland Israel-Palestine at that tim...