Editing Menachem Begin (section)

===Jewish underground===
[[File:MENAHEM BEGIN IN POLISH ARMY UNIFORM WITH WIFE ALIZA IN TEL-AVIV. COURTESY JABOTINSKY INSTITUTE. מנחם בגין במדי הצבא הפולני עם רעייתו עליזה , בתל אביבD705-085.jpg|thumb|150px|Begin in his Polish Army uniform with his wife Aliza in Tel Aviv, December 1942.]]
Begin quickly made a name for himself as a fierce critic of the dominant [[Mapai|Zionist leadership]] for being too cooperative with the British, and argued that the only way to save the Jews of Europe, who were facing extermination, was to compel the British to leave so that a Jewish state could be established. In 1942 he joined the [[Irgun]] (''Etzel''), an underground Zionist paramilitary organization which had split from the main Jewish military organization, the [[Haganah]], in 1931. Begin assumed the Irgun's leadership in 1944, determined to force the British government to remove its troops entirely from Palestine. The official Jewish leadership institutions in Palestine, the [[Jewish Agency for Israel|Jewish Agency]] and [[Jewish National Council]] ("Vaad Leumi"), backed up by their military arm, the [[Haganah]], had refrained from directly challenging British authority. They were convinced that the British would establish a Jewish state after the war due to support for the Zionist cause among both the Conservative and Labour parties. Giving as reasons that the British had reneged on the promises given in the [[Balfour Declaration]] and that the [[White Paper of 1939]] restricting Jewish immigration was an escalation of their pro-Arab policy, he decided to break with the official institutions and launch an armed rebellion against British rule, in cooperation with [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]], another breakaway Zionist group.

Begin had also carefully studied the tactics of the [[Indian independence movement]]. Even more importantly, during multiple meetings with [[Irish Jew|Jewish]] [[Lord Mayor of Dublin]] and senior IRA veteran [[Robert Briscoe (politician)|Robert Briscoe]], who jokingly described himself as the "Chair of Subversive Activity against England",<ref>{{Cite web|last=O'Dwyer|first=Thomas|date=2006-07-28|title=Free Stater: Just for interest: A story of Dev, Bob Briscoe and Israel/Palestine - "Son of a gun"|url=http://freestater.blogspot.com/2006/07/just-for-interest-story-of-dev-bob.html|access-date=2021-05-21|website=freestater.blogspot.com}}</ref> Begin had also carefully studied the highly successful use of [[guerrilla warfare]] tactics by [[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]] during the [[Irish War of Independence]]. While planning the rebellion with Irgun commanders, Begin accordingly devised a highly similar strategy that he believed would force the [[British Empire]] out. He proposed a series of [[guerrilla warfare]] attacks that would humiliate the [[British Empire]] and damage their prestige; this would cause the British Cabinet, as they had with the [[Black and Tans]] and the [[Auxiliary Division]] in Ireland, to unleash indiscriminate [[total war]] tactics against the whole Jewish civilian population, which would completely alienate the [[Yishuv]]. Similarly to Michael Collins, Begin banked on the international media being attracted to the action, which he referred to as turning Palestine into a "glass house", as the whole world looked inside. He knew that British total war and civilian repression would create both global sympathy for the Irgun's cause and international diplomatic pressure on Britain. Ultimately, the British Cabinet would be forced to choose between further escalating the repression or complete withdrawal, and Begin was certain that in the end, the British would leave. Further, so as not to disturb the Allied war effort against [[Nazi Germany]], only British civilian administration and [[Palestine Police Force]] targets would be attacked at first, while [[British armed forces]] personnel would only be attacked after [[Adolf Hitler]] had been defeated.<ref name=Bell>Bell, Bowyer J.: ''Terror out of Zion'' (1976)</ref>

On 1 February 1944, the Irgun proclaimed a revolt. Twelve days later, it put its plan into action when Irgun teams bombed the empty offices of the British Mandate's Immigration Department in [[Jerusalem]], [[Tel Aviv]], and [[Haifa]]. The Irgun next bombed the Income Tax Offices in those three cities, followed by a series of attacks on police stations in which two Irgun fighters and six policemen were killed. Meanwhile, Lehi joined the revolt with a series of shooting attacks on policemen.<ref name=Bell/>
[[File:AJI view 846.TIF|thumb|[[Palestine Police Force]] wanted poster of Irgun and Lehi members. Begin appears at the top left.]]
The Irgun and Lehi attacks intensified throughout 1944. These operations were financed by demanding money from Jewish merchants and engaging in insurance scams in the local diamond industry.<ref>[[Yehuda Bauer]], ''From Diplomacy to Resistance: A History of Jewish Palestine'', Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1970 p.325.</ref>

[[File:Menahem Begin during his "Rabbi Sassover" period with wife Aliza and son Benyamin-Zeev in Tel Aviv.jpg|thumb|Begin in the guise of "Rabbi Sassover" with wife Aliza and son Benyamin-Zeev, Tel Aviv, December 1946]]
[[File:בגין (במרכז) עם משוחררי אצ"ל, 1948.jpg|thumb|Begin with Irgun members, 1948]]
In 1944, after Lehi gunmen assassinated [[Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne|Lord Moyne]], the British Resident Minister in the Middle East, the official Jewish authorities, fearing British retaliation, ordered the Haganah to undertake a campaign of collaboration with the British. Known as [[The Hunting Season]], the campaign seriously crippled the Irgun for several months, while Lehi, having agreed to suspend their anti-British attacks, was spared. Begin, anxious to prevent a civil war, ordered his men not to retaliate or resist being taken captive, convinced that the Irgun could ride out the Season, and that the Jewish Agency would eventually side with the Irgun when it became apparent the British government had no intention of making concessions. Gradually, shamed at participating in what was viewed as a collaborationist campaign, the enthusiasm of the Haganah began to wane, and Begin's assumptions were proven correct. The Irgun's restraint also earned it much sympathy from the Yishuv, whereas previously it had been assumed by many that it had placed its own political interests before those of the Yishuv.<ref name=Bell/>

In the summer of 1945, as it became clear that the British were not planning on establishing a Jewish state and would not allow significant Jewish immigration to Palestine, Jewish public opinion shifted decisively against the British, and the Jewish authorities sent feelers to the Irgun and Lehi to discuss an alliance. The result was the [[Jewish Resistance Movement]], a framework under which the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi launched coordinated series of anti-British operations. For several months in 1945–46, the Irgun fought as part of the Jewish Resistance Movement. Following [[Operation Agatha]], during which the British arrested many Jews, seized arms caches, and occupied the Jewish Agency building, from which many documents were removed, Begin ordered an attack on the British military and administrative headquarters at the [[King David Hotel]] following a request from the Haganah, although the Haganah's permission was later rescinded. The [[King David Hotel bombing]] resulted in the destruction of the building's southern wing, and 91 people, mostly British, Arabs, and Jews, were killed.

The fragile partnership collapsed following the bombing, partly because contrary to instructions, it was carried out during the busiest part of the day at the hotel. The Haganah, from then on, would rarely mount attacks against British forces and would focus mainly on the [[Aliyah Bet]] illegal immigration campaign, and while it occasionally took half-hearted measures against the Irgun, it never returned to full-scale collaboration with the British. The Irgun and Lehi continued waging a full-scale insurgency against the British, and together with the Haganah's illegal immigration campaign, this forced a large commitment of British forces to Palestine that was gradually sapping British financial resources. Three particular Irgun operations directly ordered by Begin: the [[Night of the Beatings]], the [[Acre Prison break]], and the [[The Sergeants affair|Sergeants affair]], were cited as particularly influencing the British to leave due to the great loss of British prestige and growing public opposition to Britain remaining in Palestine at home they generated. In September 1947, the British cabinet voted to leave Palestine, and in November of that year, the United Nations approved a resolution to partition the country between Arabs and Jews. The financial burden imposed on Britain by the Jewish insurgency, together with the tremendous public opposition to keeping troops in Palestine it generated among the British public was later cited by British officials as a major factor in Britain's decision to evacuate Palestine.<ref name=Hoffman>Hoffman, Bruce: ''Anonymous Soldiers'' (2015)</ref><ref>Charters, David A.: ''The British Army and Jewish Insurgency in Palestine, 1945–47'' (1989), p. 63</ref>