Menachem Begin was the perfect leader for the last Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem M. Schneerson, who died in 1994. Schneerson, who settled in Brooklyn after escaping from France during the Holocaust, waited 29 years for an Israeli candidate for prime minister who, instead of asking “what will the goyim say?” said “we strive to do what is good and right for the Jews.” Begin consulted Schneerson frequently, even after becoming premier. However, Schneerson took issue with Begin’s decision to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, in exchange for a peace treaty. Without blinking an eye, the rebbe demanded that Begin resign if he was unable to withstand the pressure to sign a peace treaty. [...]
They were all his followers. Sometimes rebuking, sometimes advising, the faces change but the path to 770 Eastern Parkway — the world headquarters of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement — continues to be well-worn. When Jacob Perry, now a Knesset member for Yesh Atid, was the head of the Shin Bet security service, he held a long meeting with Schneerson. The rebbe sent Joseph Ciechanover, the legal adviser for the defense establishment, to Moshe Dayan to tell him to conquer Damascus during the Yom Kippur War. The head of military intelligence, Aharon Yariv, shared classified army plans with Schneerson. When Netanyahu was Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, he was a regular guest in the rebbe’s court and consulted with him many times. “I see the rebbe as a modern-day prophet. ... the things the rebbe told me about the need to stand up for the truth guide me everywhere,” Netanyahu said in an interview for the book. [...]
The Lubavitcher rebbe believed he could do more for the Jewish people from Brooklyn than he could if he were in Israel. He had a right to his opinion, of course, but the Zionist idea argued that the greatest benefit to Jews is to be found here. People living in Israel, not Chabad emissaries in Alaska, paid the terrible price of the wars with Egypt. It is easy to sit in New York and demand war. Chabad is a wonderful movement. If it wants to be part of life in Israel, the place to do it is Kfar Chabad. Let the advice from New York go to Bill De Blasio.
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