Recording of Menachem Begin's "Proclamation of the State" Speech on "Kol Tzion HaLochemet" Radio Station – May 15 ...

Recording of Menachem Begin's "Proclamation of the State" Speech on "Kol Tzion HaLochemet" Radio Station – May 15, 1948 – First Publication of the Recording Archived Immediately Following the Broadcast

Unique recording, never published, of Menachem Begin's speech on 6 Iyar 1948, one day after the establishment of the State of Israel.

On Saturday night, 6 Iyar (15 May) 1948, the evening of the first day of Israel's independence, Menachem Begin delivered a speech on the Irgun's underground radio station, "Kol Tzion HaLochemet" ("Voice of Fighting Zion"). In this speech, which constitutes a kind of alternative "Declaration of Independence" instead of the one delivered by Ben-Gurion, Begin addresses the dismantling of the paramilitary groups, the need for a strong and well-trained army, the essential foreign policy with the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., repatriation of Jews, and more. In fact, in this speech he laid down the ideological foundations of the party he was about to form – the Herut Movement.
This was Menachem Begin's first public speech since he had gone underground, and the last broadcast of the "Kol Tzion HaLochemet" station (after Begin's speech it was immediately changed to "Kol HaHerut" – "The Voice of Freedom").
Due to reasons that have yet to be clarified, Begin's associates decided to archive the recording of the speech immediately after its broadcast. The text of the speech familiar today (the "Reddening Sunrise" speech) is based on an early draft that is different from the broadcast speech. The current recording was preserved, though it was believed to have been lost, and it allows us to hear the words of one of the most prominent leaders in Israel's history, as broadcast in an emotional speech to the citizens of Israel at the establishment of the State.
In his time Begin was considered a masterful speaker. Throughout his political career he delivered speeches that became etched in the Israeli national consciousness, such as his speech against the agreement to receive reparations from Germany, the speech during an election rally in 1981 (in response to the "Riffraff Speech"), the speech following Anwar Sadat's visit to Israel and other speeches.
The present recording constitutes an example of Begin's captivating style and great talent. Though he was not speaking before a crowd but rather into a microphone in a closed room, the pathos and excitement in his voice are palpable, unlike the recording made years later in which he reads the speech in a merely informative manner.
At the beginning of the speech Begin makes a kind of "second proclamation" of the state's establishment: "The State of Israel has been founded, and it has been founded 'only thus' ["Only Thus" was the slogan of the Irgun]: with blood and fire, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with suffering and sacrifice"; further on Begin speaks of the Hebrew army and the Jewish fighters: "The Hebrew army can and must be one of the best-trained and excellent armies in the world… what is the spirit of our fighters? This was shown by all of the Hebrew youth, the youth of the Hagana, of Lehi and of the Irgun… the likes of which no generation in the generations of Israel, from Bar-Kokhba to the Bilu'im, had ever seen"; and of the dismantling of the Irgun: "The National Military Organization [Irgun] now leaves behind its underground existence in the boundaries of the independent Jewish state… in the State of Israel we shall be soldiers and builders. We shall observe its laws, since they are our laws. We shall respect its government, since it is our government. Only beware of the Hebrew government… lest it itself create… a new underground movement".
Begin often deviates from the written text for emphasis, repetition and expansion, and in certain places he even adds entire paragraphs that were not printed in the known published version – such as the role of the Hebrew mother in founding the state: "Heroic daughter of Israel, who shall tell of your heroism. For we have known your tears in the night… Hannah and her seven sons is no longer a legend, you are Hannah, thousands of Hannahs…"; the historical suffering of the Jewish people: "This mighty event has transpired after seventy generations, seventy generations of dispersion, disarmament, enslavement, of endless wandering and persecution…"; the contribution of the United States to the state's founding; and more.

The Story of the Present Recording
Two days prior to Begin's speech on "Kol Tzion Ha'Lochemet", an emissary on behalf of Ben-Gurion arrived at the Irgun's headquarters in the Freud Hospital in Tel Aviv and delivered Ben-Gurion's request to see the draft of Begin's speech, apparently in order to coordinate between the state proclamation speeches of the two leaders. At first Begin agreed to the request, but following the opposition of his colleagues in the Irgun command he was obliged to reject it.
This significant event is not documented in the literature dealing with the establishment of the state, nor is it mentioned in Ben-Gurion's writings. It is briefly mentioned only in Begin's book, "The Revolt":
"We decided that if the proclamation establishing a government is published on Friday, the statement of the Irgun would be delivered to the public on the following day, on Saturday night, 6 Iyar 1948. However, a day or two earlier… a personal emissary from Ben-Gurion arrived at our headquarters wishing to inform me that the Chairman of the Jewish Agency asked to see the text of the speech I was about to broadcast. We may assume – and perhaps understand – that Mr. Ben-Gurion had reasons for showing early interest in the Irgun's public statement. Also, his request was delivered in a good spirit. I had no reason to withhold our position from the future Prime Minister of the Provisional Government; I therefore agreed to provide him with the text of the speech after preparing it. However my associates thought my agreement was unjustified. I accepted their opinion. Ben-Gurion's emissary was answered in the negative, and I have no regrets about this. I do have regrets regarding another matter involving the content of my speech". ("The Revolt", Menachem Begin. Tel Aviv: Ahiasaf, 2003, pp. 504-505).
On Saturday night, 6 Iyar 1948, at 8 pm, Menachem Begin addressed the microphone, and in a live broadcast on the Irgun's radio station, delivered his speech to the nation in an excited voice. He read the speech from a draft written in advance, yet during the speech he deviated from the written version, inserting many changes and additions.
According to several accounts, Begin was tense on the day of the speech's broadcast. The reason for the tension was not only the significance of the event, but also various issues involving the content of the speech.
Apparently, Begin was angry about changes made in the version he had written in advance.
Begin's entire speech was etched on records, but after the broadcast a decision was taken by the Irgun command to archive the recording and publish only the version of the speech Begin had written prior to the broadcast. This text was printed in a booklet published by the Irgun, and about four years later a new recording was made, of Begin reading the speech from the written text. The reason for archiving the original recording remains unknown, and may have to do with the issue in the speech's content regarding which Begin speaks with regret in his book "The Revolt" (see above). In fact, the version of the speech broadcast on "Kol Zion Ha'Lochemet" has not been documented or published previously. The present copy of Begin's recorded speech, as it was broadcast on the radio, was preserved despite the decision to destroy the recording.
In the early 1970s this copy reached the hands of the present owner's father, given to him by a person who was among the operators of the radio station on the night of the speech's broadcast. This individual revealed the story of the recording and asked that his identity remain secret and that the recording be published not before 20 years had passed since Begin's death. According to the receiver, this is what the man told him: "After the speech there was an argument and the commander demanded that only the speech he had written two days earlier be published. The other members agreed to his demand and someone decided that if so, the records should be discarded… in 1948 I did something I felt I had to do and I'm not sorry, it would have been a crime not to preserve it. So I have it! And four years later, when I could and it was possible, I copied the records onto a machine with a paper spool and it was only then that I got rid of them, as I had promised to do. None of my friends knew I had the recording… To this day no one mentions the recording from '48, as if it never existed. If they knew I had it, they'd go crazy. That's why, all these years, I did not sleep well at night… take it, save what you can and preserve it for future generations. Don't tell anyone about it yet and only twenty years after Begin's passing, do what you will with it, but remember, his friends won't like it, so perhaps wait even longer".
Indeed, the recording was preserved, in secret, for 32 years, and following the request of Begin's close friends it was not published for 12 more years after they learned of its existence.

Menachem Begin and David Ben-Gurion
The rivalry between David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin, the founders of Israel's two ruling parties, was known as one of the most bitter and fundamental rivalries in the country's history. Ben-Gurion, who was hostile to the Revisionist Zionism movement for many years, first learned of Begin's existence in 1944, after the former was appointed commander of the Irgun. In a meeting meant to ease relations between the factions, held in that year, major differences of opinion were found to exist regarding the struggle against the British, and a short time after the meeting's collapse the "Saison" period began – the Hagana's operation to investigate and turn in members of the Irgun.
Tensions between the two leaders came to a head about five weeks after the establishment of the State of Israel, with the Altalena affair, which was the most violent open confrontation between IDF and Irgun forces. At the center of the affair was the ship Altalena, which reached Israel's shores with 940 immigrants and a large stash of weapons. In opposition to David Ben-Gurion's orders, Menachem Begin refused to turn the weapons over to the IDF, insisting on transferring part of them to Irgun forces in Jerusalem.
On the morning of 22 June 1948 Ben Gurion ordered the IDF's Chief of Staff, Yigael Yadin, "To take all the steps necessary… to force the ship into unconditional surrender", and after a short ultimatum the Altalena was shelled with heavy fire and burst into flames. Menachem Begin, who was aboard the ship, ordered his men to refrain completely from exchanging fire, so as to prevent a "civil war".
After the establishment of Israel the rivalry between the two men took on a political character; in addition they became personally acquainted. Their relationship was rocky, but eventually Ben-Gurion completely changed his opinion of Begin, showed appreciation of him and would even invite him to personal meetings in order to exchange opinions and ideas. On the eve of the Six-Day War Begin travelled to Sde Boker with the intention of persuading David Ben-Gurion to return to the post of Prime Minister, and at the end of the meeting Ben-Gurion said: "If I had known Begin as I know him today, history would have been different".
Begin's meeting with Ben-Gurion's emissary prior to the proclamation of the state raises the possibility that already in 1948, the opportunity for collaboration and acquaintance between the two leaders had appeared. Perhaps if Begin had agreed to the request to reveal his speech to Ben-Gurion, different political relations might have developed between them, and perhaps some of the historical consequences of their rivalry might have been avoided.

Begin's speech lasted about half an hour. The speech contains ten segments etched on five records, on both sides, with each segment about 3 minutes long – totaling about 32 minutes. Later the records were transferred to a recording spool made of thin paper, which deteriorated with time, and in the early 1970s they were transferred to a new, magnetic recording spool which was coiled inside the original metal container in which the first paper spool was kept.

This item was offered for sale at Kedem in November 2018, yet was withdrawn following an appeal to the court by Menachem Begin's heirs. An agreement has since been reached between the consignors of the item and Menachem Begin's heirs, awarding the rights to the recording to the consignors.
A photocopy of the agreement is enclosed and will be provided upon request.

Enclosed:
1. Confirmation of the transfer of the recording's ownership to the buyer of the item.
1. Digital recording of the speech.
2. Transcription of the recorded speech, with markings where additions and omissions were made in comparison to the published text.
3. The booklet "Address of the Chief Commander of the National Military Organization to the People of Zion" (Jerusalem, 1948). Hebrew.