1-152-990 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Menachem Begin (1913-1992), Polish-born Israeli statesman, 1978. In the 1940s Begin was leader of the Irgun, a paramilitary organisation fighting for the establishment of an independent Jewish state in Palestine. In 1946 he ordered the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, a terrorist attack that killed 91 people. Begin became the 6th Prime Minister of Israel in 1976. The following year he negotiated the Camp David Accords with President Anwar El Sadat of Egypt, which led to the historic Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty signed in 1979. For their efforts, Begin and Sadat shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. Begin retired from politics in 1983, disillusioned with the war in Lebanon ordered by him the previous year to make northern Israel safe from cross-border terrorist attacks. Photograph courtesy of The Nobel Foundation.