10 hours ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Netanyahu Passes the Begin Test
The world owes a debt of gratitude to Israel's prime minister—not Benjamin Netanyahu but Menachem Begin, who conceived Israel's nuclear nonproliferation strategy.
Begin served as Israel's first right-wing prime minister, from 1977 to 1983. Three years into his tenure, he learned that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was building a nuclear reactor. 'I am tormented by this,' Begin told Parliament. 'I see before my eyes my two young nephews murdered in the Holocaust, and all the children of Israel. Back then it was gas; now it's radioactive poison.'
