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Menachem Begin

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:7,000.00 - 9,000.00 USD
Menachem Begin

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Auction Date:2016 Oct 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Remarkable handwritten manuscript in Hebrew, signed “M. Begin,” three pages, lightly-lined, 5 x 7, no date but circa 1951. Entitled “Shalom and Not to See You Again,” this is a final draft of an early original speech by Begin, then leader of the opposition of the Herut party, urging defeat of Ben-Gurion’s Mapai party in the election of the second Knesset, in part (translated): “Mr. Ben-Gurion feels that his aspiration for dominance—his and his party’s government of decisiveness—has collapsed and is incurable. At present the change is ‘psychological’ but when it comes to a tyrant’s spirit who cannot decapitate the heads of his opponents ‘psychology’ is the…Mr. Ben–Gurion senses that his dismantled coalition partners and the candidates for an alternative coalition—the tone of their words differs from what it used to be. They are ready to negotiate with him...The ‘balance’ of the attacker Mr. Ben–Gurion has been destroyed since the day when he succeeded to convince himself that he established the State and the result is that the head of MAPAI lost, in the meantime, his mental equilibrium. The public still assumes that all his steps are pre-calculated but the truth is that the man complicated himself and is pulling or being pushed—with closed eyes, towards further complications. Does Mr. Ben–Gurion believe that he will achieve in the coming elections an absolute majority for his party? The answer is: ‘No.’ Mr. Ben-Gurion knows that even if…MAPAI will be a minority and will need partners, in order to maintain a government. Is it not possible that this psychological change which drives Mr. Ben–Gurion crazy will become more severe during the elections campaign? How is he about to gain the rule? In his eyes there is no stable government unless it is his government! It seems that Mr. Ben-Gurion thinks about two possibilities. One is…Ben-Gurion submits his letter of resignation to the President; the President accepts his resignation but at the same time reaches the conclusion that there is no other Prime Minister except for the one that has just resigned, and Mr. Ben-Gurion who resigned continues 'to fulfill his role.' Till when?…The second option which is imagined in Mr. Ben-Gurion's disturbed soul is new elections…if in the second Knesset there is no 'solid majority' about which Mr. Ben-Gurion thinks, it is possible that he will propose to turn again to the voter, until…the voter is tired and says 'let it be, we would rather have Mapai as a ruling party than have new and unexpected elections'…Mapai destroyed the economy…If the nation wants to end the aggressive demoralization, it has to overcome Ben-Gurion's accusations. The voter has to make sure that it will be possible to assemble a government without Mapai…Ben-Gurion claims: there is no solid government unless it is my party—Mapai—who rules but the truth is that stability will only be reached without Mapai. To Mapai: 'No and Goodbye and Not to See You Again.'” In fine condition, with a few small rusty paperclip stains.

On July 30, 1951, the elections for the second Knesset, the national legislature of Israel, were held under the shade of a severe economic crisis due to the young state’s absorption of some half a million immigrants between the first and second elections. Prime Minister Ben-Gurion and his Mapai Party won convincingly with 37% of the votes, a number aided by a new law which allowed for a robust and decisive immigrant turnout; the number of eligible voters almost doubled from the first election: 506,507 in 1949, to 924,885 in 1951. Although his Herut Party failed to garner much votes or admiration, Begin’s eventual acceptance of the political center and founding of the Likud movement enabled him to become Prime Minister in 1977, subsequently halting the Labor Party’s three-decade run.