The revolt [Hardcover]

Menachem Begin (Author), Founder of the JDL Rabbi Meir Kahane (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 386 pages
• Publisher: Nash publishing; 1st Nash edition (January 1, 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0840212704
• ISBN-13: 978-0840212702
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful story that receives little recognition today, July 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Revolt (Paperback)

The revolt is the Menachin Begins personal account, as the leader of one of the Jewish underground factions, of the founding of the state of Israel. Those who discount the idea of Zionism (Jewish nationalism) as nothing more than western colonialism need to read this book. Perhaps Begin in later years said it best: When asked to give up Jerusalem (the capital of Israel) in the same manner that the French gave up Algeria, Beign replied that the French would not give up Paris and the British would not give up London.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inside the Irgun, February 25, 2000

By 

Ari Ingel (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Revolt (Paperback)

This book takes you into and underground with the Irgun Zvi Leumi. The jewish freedom fighter organization led by Begin during the years leading up to the establishment of the state of Israel. It was very interesting getting Begin's view on the contraversal organization on subjects such as Ben-Gurion and Dier Yassin. Begin takes you into this underground world that reads with the excitment of a ficticious novel. Every reader will come away inspired by the charasmatic leader. However, to get a true prospective on Begin himself, this is not the book. Begin is very modest about his leadership and focus's more on the organization rather than himself. Although, some is lost in the translation from Hebrew to English, you won't come away dissapointed

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for those interested in the birth of Israel, December 5, 2004

By 

Sandor J. Woren "Freedom Fighter" (Glendale, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Revolt: Story of the Irgun (Hardcover)

A fascinating account of the role of the underground army of Eretz Israel, known as the Irgun Zvai Leumi, by its commander-in-chief, and late Israeli statesman and Prime Minister, Menachem Begin.

A story known by relatively few, a first hand account of one side of the resistance movement that resulted in the birth of modern Israel. The Irgun was considered by many Jews and non-Jews alike to be a terrorist organization. After reading this book, one will find out why Israel would probably not have been created without the controversial efforts of the Irgun. One will similarly discover the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist (even though Begin actually refers to himself as a "terrorist" in the book; possibly a result of no proper equivalent translation from the original Hebrew. Hint: a freedom fighter does not attack civilian targets.

After a brief introduction of Begin's earlier life as a prisoner of the Bolsheviks before the Nazi invasion of Poland, Begin recounts the history of the Irgun as its leader from 1943, until the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. The "resistance movement" consisted of David Ben-Gurion's Jewish Agency for Palestine, the semi-legal Jewish army known as the Haganah, and the underground movement of the Irgun (and a smaller break away underground army known as the Stern Group. Although the former and latter were at times allies, and at other times bitter enemies, the message of the book is how each group needed the other components to accomplish the goal of a free Israel.

With the fervor of a brilliant statesman, and the eloquence of a lawyer (which he was), Begin writes a gripping account of the history of the Irgun and its methods. The Irgun worked primarily by audacious "confiscation" of British arms and attack of military and British police installations with its primary weapon, dynamite.

Included are separate chapters of the most famous exploits of the Irgun, including the Altalena affair, Operation Chick, the blowing up of the south wing of the King David Hotel (which served as the seat of the civil and military British occupation authority), the battle for Jaffa, the counter-floggings and counter-hangings of British officers in retaliation for the same of Irgun Freedom fighters,

An especially fascinating chapter entitled "Meetings in the Dark" recounts Commander Begin's meetings with various dignitaries (such as Dr. Ralph Bunche) which were litterly held in a darkened room, so Begin could not be identified (he had a high price on his head by the British).

One cannot help, after reading this book, to appreciate the role of Begin (and his organization, the Irgun) played in ejecting the British from Eretz Israel, to form the modern State of Israel, and the stupidity of the infighting between the various components of the resistance movement (whose methods complemented each other).

Although the primary subject of the book is the history of the Irgun, the reader will no doubt become interested in the biography of the author, who later served in the Knesset, in the cabinet (as minister without portfolio), until he finally rose to power as Prime Minister of Israel in the late 1970's, and death in relatively obscurity shortly after his wife's death in the late 1980's.

My copy of "The Revolt" is the 9th English Edition, published in Israel by Steimatsky. It is personally autographed by Begin's late wife Aliza, January 1979.