Einstein's Warning About Menachem Begin

Albert Einstein warned America about Menachem Begin.

In 1948, he signed a letter in The New York Times.

It said Begin's party was like the Nazi and Fascist parties.

Twenty-nine years later, Begin was Israel's prime minister.

Begin commanded the Irgun, an armed Zionist militia.

In April 1948, the Irgun and another militia attacked a

Palestinian village near Jerusalem,

Deir Yassin.

The village had stayed out of the fighting.

It had even turned away armed men who wanted to use it as a base.

The attackers killed more than a hundred villagers.

Many of them were women and children.

That November, Begin came to America.

New York's mayor welcomed him.

While he was there, Einstein's letter appeared.

Twenty-seven others signed it with him.

They called Begin's militia terrorists.

Their main example was one village,

Deir Yassin.

They wrote that the attackers were not ashamed, quote, "Proud of this

massacre, publicized it widely."

They asked Americans not to support him or his party.

The warning did not stop him.

In 1977, Begin became Israel's prime minister.

Within a month, the President of the United States met him

in Washington.

The next year, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with

Egypt's president.

Today, a Jerusalem neighborhood and a forest stand on

Deir Yassin's land.

A few of its stone houses are part of an Israeli mental hospital.

Einstein's letter named Deir Yassin.

Israel built over it.