Winston Churchill on the Irgun and Stern Gang

If our dreams for Zionism are to end in the smoke of assassins' pistols and our labours for its future to produce only a new set of gangsters worthy of Nazi Germany, many like myself will have to reconsider the position we have maintained so consistently and so long in the past.  If there is to be any hope of a peaceful and successful future for Zionism, these wicked activities must cease, and those responsible for them must be destroyed root and branch. 

The primary responsibility must, of course, rest with the Palestine authorities under His Majesty's Government.  These authorities are already engaged in an active and thorough campaign against the Stern Gang and the larger, but hardly less dangerous, Irgun Zvai Leumi.

~ Winston Churchill, speech in the House of Commons, November 17, 1944, delivered shortly after the assassination of his friend Lord Moyne by Lehi (Stern Gang) members 

Promised Land on the first Irgun attacks

In Righteous Victims: A history of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001, Benny Morris writes that the Irgun Bombs of 1937 and 1938 “sowed terror in the Arab population and substantially increased its casualties. The bombs do not appear in any way to have curtailed Arab terrorism, but they do appear to have helped persuade moderate Arabs of the need to resist Zionism and to support the rebellion.”

The first Irgun attack occurred on November 11, 1937. Morris writes that the attacks were responsible for “killing two Arabs at a bus depot near Jaffa Street in Jerusalem, and wounding five. Three days later, on November 14, a number of Arabs were killed in simultaneous attacks around the country—a day that the Irgun thereafter commemorated as the ’Day of the Breaking of the Havlaga (restrain).’”

Morris also describes the events on July 6, 1938, when “an Irgun operative dressed as an Arab placed two large milk cans filled with TNT and shrapnel in the Arab market in downtown Haifa. The subsequent explosions killed twenty-one and wounded fifty-two. On July 15 another bomb killed ten Arabs and wounded more than thirty in David Street in Jerusalem’s Old City. A second bomb in the Haifa market—this time disguised as a large can of sour cucumbers—on July 25, 1938 killed at least thirty-nine Arabs and injured at least seventy. On August 26, a bomb in Jaffa’s vegetable market killed twenty-four Arabs and wounded thirty-nine.”

~ "The Beginning of the Israel-Palestine Conflict," Promised Land: The Jewish Museum of the Palestinian Experience

Wanted by the British government: Menachem Begin

Neil Rogall on the British defeat of the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

But by the summer of 1939 the British had crushed the uprising.  The infamous Munich agreement, between Nazi Germany and Britain was signed on the 30th September 1938.  More Imperial troops were now available to send to Palestine to put down the rebels.  By 1939 the authorities had 30,000 trained soldiers fighting the insurgents.  The RAF bombed Palestinian villages.  A policy of collective punishment was implemented.  If one member of a village was involved in armed rebellion the whole community was punished.  The Israelis of course, continued this vicious policy. 

Throughout the rebellion the settler community, the Yishuv collaborated with the British.  The Mandate authorities formed the Jewish Settlement police.  By 1939, one in twenty of the settler community was a member, some 21,000 people in all.  Orde Wingate, a British officer, organised a counter-insurgency force of Jewish fighters, the Special Night Squads.  They terrorized villagers and guarded the oil pipeline.  Internally the Yishuv expanded the Haganah, secretly imported arms and set up factories to manufacture weapons. 

The revisionist militia, the Irgun, began a terrorist campaign in May 1938.  They threw bombs into crowded Palestinian market places or left them hidden in carts.  Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa were all targeted.  Some estimates suggested that up to 250 Palestinians were killed in these barbaric attacks.  When Zionists talk about Palestinian suicide bombers, it is worth remembering who began bombing civilians in Palestine. 

[...] 

There were up to 6,000 Palestinians killed in the uprising, and 6,000 more in detention.  2,000 homes had been destroyed.  The British hanged 100.  The Palestinians had suffered an enormous defeat, any leadership they had was dead, in exile or driven out of politics.  They could no longer play an independent role.  In future they became disastrously dependent on other Arab states for leadership.  They still had not recovered from the defeat when the crisis of 1948 hit.  It wasn’t until the 1960s that an independent Palestinian leadership was to re-emerge with Yasser Arafat and El Fatah.

~ Neil Rogall, "The birth of Palestinian Resistance and the 1936 uprising," rs21, September 12, 2014

British soldiers and Palestinian prisoners during the 1936 revolt

Major James Larry Fields on how Irgun ideology influenced the Herut (now Likud) party

With the state of Israel secured, and the inclusion of the Irgun into the ZAHAL, there was no longer a need for the tactics of terrorism which had served the Irgun, and seemingly the Jewish people, so well.  However, the ideology of the men involved in the leadership of Irgun was perpetuated by the establishment of a political party, the HERUT which was based on the same zeal and ideals upon which the Irgun had thrived.  The new State of Israel would respect those ideals through incorporation of Irgun leadership in the new legitimate state.

~ Major James Larry Fields, USA, "Irgun Zvai Leumi: The Jewish Terrorist Element of the Arab-Israeli Conflict," Air Command and Staff College student report, April 1985

Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt et al. on the forming of the Herut party in Israel

Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.  It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine. 

The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States.  Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit.  It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin's political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents. 

Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin's behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement. 

The public avowals of Begin's party are no guide whatever to its actual character.  Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state.  It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future. 

Attack on Arab Village 

A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin.  This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base.  On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants (240 men, women, and children) and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem.  Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan.  But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.

The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party. 

Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority.  Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions.  In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model. 

During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community.  Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them.  By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute.

~ Letter-to-the-editor signed by Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Sidney Hook and others, The New York Times, December 2, 1948

Major James Larry Fields on the Stern Gang and Irgun from 1940-1948

When the Irgun first formed from Haganah B, one of its secondary leaders was Avraham Stern.  Stern did not subscribe to wartime limitations against attacking the British. During World War II, after much debate within the organization, Stern and some three hundred followers formed the LOCHAMEI HERUT ISRAEL, "LEHI" (Freedom Fighters of Israel), which became known as the "Stern Gang."  In very short time the Stern Gang was regarded as a group of murderers by virtually all other groups-- the Jewish Agency, Haganah and the World Zionist Organization.  The Stern Gang's terrorist activities (bombings, etc.) caused the British to react against all Jewish groups, particularly the Irgun.

Ideologically the Stern Gang and the Irgun were in the same camp in believing in the establishment of a Jewish state, using force if necessary.  However, the methods they chose to enforce their common beliefs were quite different throughout most of the 1940-1948 period in which they existed.  The Sternist's methods of individual terrorist assassinations of British officials and security men contrasted with Irgun resort to confiscation raids on British government and military installations for symbolic purposes.  The Stern Gang killed people at every opportunity as opposed to the Irgun's use of controlled killings.  On the other hand, the Haganah, and to some degree the Palmach (Plugot Machaz-Strike Companies) which had been formed in 1941 to help the British fight the Germans in Palestine, were similar to the Irgun in their aim to defend and support the Jewish community.  But as the military arms of the Jewish Agency, the Haganah and the Palmach were reduced to ineffectiveness.  On several occasions, despite the disparity in ideology as well as methodology, the Jewish Agency, the Haganah, and the Palmach collaborated with the British against the Irgun.  Most characteristic of this collaboration was "The Season," the period so called in 1944 in which Ben-Gurion (Jewish Agency executive) joined with the British to crush the Irgun because he felt its terrorist activities would bring world opinion against the general idea of Zionism. 

[...]

In spite of the repression of the Irgun in the 1944 "season" mentioned earlier, the Irgun and Haganah joined together in 1945 for a united resistance to the British.  For the next three years the bond between the two organizations, especially the bond between Begin and Ben-Gurion, was fragile at best. Throughout the "season," Begin had forbidden any type of retribution against the Jewish Agency or Haganah to avoid a civil war among the Jewish factions.  But later, in 1946, when the Haganah again turned on the Irgun, Begin unleashed the forces of the Irgun on the Haganah officers and men responsible for armed actions against Irgun members. 

As the British government became more determined to withdraw totally from Palestine, the Arabs became increasingly violent and dedicated to preventing the establishment of a recognized Jewish Homeland.  The destruction of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in July 1946 by the Irgun, causing more than two hundred casualties (wounded or dead), again led to the Jewish Agency's collaboration with the British against the Irgun and later to the imposition of martial law on March 1, 1947.  Throughout 1946 and 1947 the Irgun and the Haganah resolved their differences over the means of securing a Jewish state in recognition of the Arab threat.  However, the consistent terror campaign waged by the Irgun, its need for arms, and a defiant sense of independence from central authority led to the "Altalena" incident in June 1948. 

The Altalena, a ship used to transport men and arms, was sunk by the Haganah on June 20, 1948 at Tel Aviv.  Sixteen members of the Irgun were killed and forty wounded during the incident, as were two Haganah soldiers killed and several wounded.  Civil war between the Jewish elements was again narrowly averted by (1) Begin's opposition to a civil war, (2) an impending resumption of the war with the Arabs, and (3) the foresight that cohesion would be necessary for the security and survival of a Jewish state.  In September, 1948, the Irgun disbanded and joined with Haganah and Palmach forces forming ZAHAL--the Israeli National Defense Forces. 

Begin's belief in creating tension, provocation and destruction was the basis for the particular tactics used by Irgun throughout its existence.  Much of the Irgun effort was directed against the British for the purpose of achieving an independent Jewish State.  The rest of it was directed against the Arabs in retribution for attacks they had made earlier.  After the British had begun withdrawal from Palestine in 1948, the position of the Irgun with regard to the Arabs changed substantially.  The Irgun and the Stern Gang were accused on a number of occasions of instigating the Arab-Palestinian exodus.  For example, on April 1, 1948 an Irgun unit totally destroyed the Arab village of DIR YASSEN killing two-hundred and fifty people.  This act contributed heavily to the state of fear against Jewish attacks among the Palestinian Arabs. 

Although there is some debate whether the unit involved in the attack was of Irgun origin, the fact remains that terrorist acts such as those perpetrated at DIR YASSEN are partly responsible for the present Palestinian refugee situation.  Terrorist acts of such nature drive people to leave their homes to seek safe refuge wherever it may be found.  With the state of Israel secured, and the inclusion of the Irgun into the ZAHAL, there was no longer a need for the tactics of terrorism which had served the Irgun, and seemingly the Jewish people, so well.  However, the ideology of the men involved in the leadership of Irgun was perpetuated by the establishment of a political party, the HERUT which was based on the same zeal and ideals upon which the Irgun had thrived.  The new State of Israel would respect those ideals through incorporation of Irgun leadership in the new legitimate state.

~ Major James Larry Fields, USA, "Irgun Zvai Leumi: The Jewish Terrorist Element of the Arab-Israeli Conflict," Air Command and Staff College student report, April 1985

Deir Yassin, April 1948

Major James Larry Fields on how the Irgun influenced the PLO

The Irgun traces its roots to groups of individuals intent upon achieving Israeli statehood by whatever means available.  The Irgun's leaders, especially Menachem Begin, have represented a continuous force in Israel's political history.  Upon the dissolution of the Irgun organization, Begin and his cohorts entered the legitimate Israeli political system and rose to power within the Knesset.  Even though Begin formally withdrew from politics in 1983 he remains today an influential force within the major opposition party in Israel--the Likud.  Finally, this study illustrated the impact of the Irgun upon current Arab-Israeli relations. Ironically, the arch enemy of Israel, the PLO, has copied many of the tactics employed by the Irgun in their struggle for independence. 

Many authorities on the subject of terrorism and Israeli history have demonstrated that the activities of the Irgun Zvai Leumi served as a model for other subsequent terrorist movements with similar purposes.  One noted author, Albert Parry, shows how a seemingly diverse array of contemporary terrorist movements trace their roots to the Irgun model.  Ironically, the chief adversary of Israel, the Paletine Liberation Organization, could be included among those terrorist organizations that were heavily influenced by the Irgun model.  Today, a form of "Arab Zionism" has emerged within the ranks of the PLO stimulated in part by the loss of Palestinian land to Israel.

The Palestinians, especially the PLO, have in fact adopted the Irgun's symbol, methodology and tactics. These tactics and methods were proven effective during the Zionist's quest for statehood.  It is intriguing that the Palestinians, driven by fervent nationalism, have reversed roles with the Israelis.  Specifically, the PLO is to present day Palestinians what the Irgun was to the pre-independent Zionists.

~ Major James Larry Fields, USA, "Irgun Zvai Leumi: The Jewish Terrorist Element of the Arab-Israeli Conflict," Air Command and Staff College student report, April 1985

1976

Major James Larry Fields on the Irgun

Historical observers of the Irgun are unable to arrive at a consensus that Irgun members were all either heroes or criminals.  To [Menachem] Begin, the members were heroes and martyrs.  Most Israelis view Irgunists as complicating the struggle to establish Israel and tarnishing its moral posture.  From the Arab perspective, they were terrorists, brutal and ruthless, representing the real essence of Zionism.

Begin, even today, is regarded by British and Arabs as a terrorist not deserving the respect due a statesman.  Begin remains an influence on the Likud Party and a person to be reckoned with from both inside and outside the Knesset. 

The foundation and security of the State of Israel were guaranteed in part by the unavoidable terror of the underground. It is unlikely that either the British or Arabs would have voluntarily surrendered their control over what today is called Israel.  History has shown that nations are created and sustained through armed action.  The bold and aggressive actions of the Irgun serve as an effective historical example for organizations that aspire to achieve independence.  The Irgun has served as the role model for the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization headed by Yassir Arafat.

~ Major James Larry Fields, USA, "Irgun Zvai Leumi: The Jewish Terrorist Element of the Arab-Israeli Conflict," Air Command and Staff College student report, April 1985