The Opposition Years and Begin’s Election—1953-1977

As the Knesset leader of the opposition for so many years, Menachem Begin was able to stake out principled positions on a wide variety of issues, and in so doing, generate a political alternative to the dominant voices from the Israeli Left. In public debates over the military rule of Israeli Arabs, an Israeli constitution, the Robert Soblen affair, the Six-Day War, and other seminal questions of Israeli public life, Begin showed himself to be rooted in Western principles of political thought and practice, and at the same time, dedicated always to doing things "in the style of a good Jew."