ABSTRACT
Menachem Begin has never had a good press outside Israel but this has done him little harm at home, although even there his foreign policy has been critized, and his domestic record considered undistinguished. Some of his appointments have ranged from the ludicrous to the absurd. It has been argued that Israel's prime minister came to power too late in life, and that plagued by illness, he is no longer able to cope with a punishing job which might have proved too much even for a man in the prime of life. But he still seems to be firmly in the saddle, a phenomenon among contemporary politicians: a true believer in an age of pragmatists and opportunists. Begin came to power as the result of something akin to a cultural revolution and because of demographic change. Mr. Begin's government is now trying to make amends for the alleged conspiracy of silence, and the history of the years gradually being rewritten.
