Terror Out Of Zion: The Shock Troops of Israeli Independence

510 Pages·1985·9.6 MB·English

by  J. Bowyer Bell

DR. J. BOWYER BELL has taught at Harvard
and MIT, and is presently associated with
the Institute of War and Peace studies at
Columbia University. He is the author of a
standard book on the Irish Republican
Army, and his writings cover virtually every
aspect of political violence in such countries
as Lebanon, Spain, South Africa, Ethiopia,
and Cyprus. As an internationally renowned
scholar and expert on terrorism, he is re­
peatedly consulted for advice and comment
by the media.

TERROR OUT OF
ZION
IRGUN ZVAILEUMI, LEHI,
AND THE
PALESTINE UNDERGROUND,
1929-1949
J. BOWYER BELL
A DISCUS BOOK/PUBLISHED BY AVON BOOKS
For Virginia Oliver Bell, 1892-1972, who had a moth­
er’s misguided optimism that eventually I would settle
down to something substantial. While Jewish revolu­
tionaries are probably not what she had in mind, I hope
that when this comes to her attention it will be regarded
as substantial, in size if nothing more.
This book was written under the auspices of the
Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University.
Unless otherwise indicated, all photos are courtesy of the
Jabotinsky Archives and Library
Published in U.K. by St. James Press
For information, write: St. James Press Ltd., 3 Percy Street,
London, WIP 9FA
AVON BOOKS
A division of
The Hearst Corporation
959 Eighth Avenue
New York, New York 10019
Copyright © 1977 by J. Bowyer Bell
Published by arrangement with St. Martin’s Press.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-26172
ISBN: 0-380-39396-4
All rights reserved, which includes the right
to reproduce this book or portions thereof in
any form whatsoever. For information address
St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, New York 10010
First Discus Printing, August, 1978
DISCUS TRADEMARK REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. AND IN
OTHER COUNTRIES, MARCA REGISTRADA, HECHO EN
U.S.A.
Printed in the U.S.A.
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Prologue 1
PART 1 THE RISE AND DECAY
OF THE IRGUN:
The Jabotinsky Years 11
PART 2 THE NIGHTS OF DESPAIR:
Avraham Stern and the
Men Without Names 75
PART 3 THE REVOLT:
Menachem Begin: "We
Fight, Therefore We Are" 127
CHAPTER 1 The Impact of
Insurrection, 1943-1945 129
CHAPTER 2 The United
Res i stance, 1945-1946 174
CHAPTER 3 A War of
Attrition, 1946-1947 220
CHAPTER 4 From the
Great Prison Escape To
Lake Success, May-
November 1947 255
V
vi Contents
PART 4 THE UNDECLARED WAR 317
CHAPTER 1 The Arabs
Attack, December 1947-
March 1948 319
CHAPTER 2 The Jews
Attack, March 1948-May
1948 364
PART 5 THE WAR FOR ISRAEL 395
Epilogue 435
Sources 444
Index 447
FOREWORD
What now seems a very long time ago, I became quite
innocently involved in Middle East matters while pursuing
quite conventional spoors in military history. It then seemed
to me, on most limited evidence, that the Irgun Zvai Leumi,
the militant Zionist underground army, had a dispropor­
tionate effect on Palestinian events, so much so that I con­
sidered at some later date focusing on that one small aspect
of Middle Eastern history. When, however, the opportunity
arose, I discovered that there had been very little dis­
interested investigation of the Irgun. Many of the available
conventional sources were in Hebrew, and most of the
former members—clearly the most fruitful source—lived,
naturally, in Israel. Since I did not really want to learn
Hebrew or live for an extended pèriod in Israel, I turned
my attention to another set of contemporary revolution­
aries, the Irish Republican Army, who spoke a relatively
comprehensible variant of English and lived somewhat
nearer to hand.
In Ireland I discovered similarities in the experience Of
the IRA and the Irgun sufficient to warrant an extensive
research proposal. Under the auspices of the Harvard
Center for International Affairs, with the aid and comfort
of Tom Schelling, in 1963 I began to investigate all those
who revolted against the British from 1944 until the end of
empire at Aden. Later a further chapter had to be added on
Ulster, where my Irish friends resurfaced as has been their
wont for generations. Thus I finally arrived in Israel to
interview the old members of Irgun and LEHI, the Stem
Group. Many of them were hospitable and charming. I de­
veloped a special interest in the Palestine underground, for
they were also articulate and had been most efficient. This
had seldom been the case with the underground, where the
vii
viii Foreword
articulate are often irrelevant, and, more often than not,
incompetence is all but institutionalized. The result was that
I spent too much time on the Irgun and in Israel over the
next year or so. And when the time came to write one case
study of many, it was only with great anguish and a cruel
hand that I cut down the chapter on the Irgun. All those
splendid adventures, amusing old war stories, and the
horror and terror of the underground which had no real
part in academic analysis ended on the cutting room floor.
I noted to my indefatigable agent, Ollie Swan, that I would
only have to double the chapter to have a book—not that I
had time for an Irgun book. Soon thereafter Tom Dunne
of St. Martin’s Press agreed that it might, indeed, make a
book, even if I had to postpone beginning it until after my
annual tour of small wars, coups, and basement bombs. So
the book, like Topsy, just growed—far longer and in far
greater detail than I had blithely assumed during the course
of a quite splendid editorial lunch.
What evolved out of the extended series of interviews in
Israel, England and elsewhere was an authoritative but
hardly definitive work on a most neglected aspect of
Zionism—at least in English. All the old views, personal
vendettas, frozen postures and outraged indignation col­
lected over generations of political feuding have tended to
obscure the role of the Revisionist Zionists. The orthodox
version of David Ben-Gurion, the Jewish Agency, Haganah
and others has largely dominated the written word, espe­
cially in the diaspora, where the dissidents are relegated to
a minor role as terrorists and the unsavory and unproduc­
tive policies of the orthodox hidden away. It appears that
Irgun-LEHI were considerably more important than com­
mon wisdom would allow. Their analysis was often far more
accurate than that of the recognized institutions, and their
relative present obscurity—not to mention théir deserved
reputation as a terrorist group—has been a conscious re­
write of history. The orthodox view of Irgun-LEHI has
only begun to erode under disinterested scholarly attack
and the shifting tides of Israeli political fortunes. Thus, as
an account of the adventures of the underground, this book
is in a small way revisionist history—with a small “r” of
course, since as an innocent Episcopalian with slightly
Foreword ix
liberal leanings and a bias in favor of efficiency, I have no
niche in the jungle of Zionist politics.
Many who have been kind and helpful will be dis­
appointed that I have strayed from a reality they took such
pains to reveal. Memory is selective; and, over a generation,
a careful, if often unconscious, filtering process goes on by
necessity, since those dimming adventures have great
present import. The Middle East abounds in myths, and
they are often not too distant from reality. Even today what
happened at Deir Yassin—massacre or military operation,
or at the King David Hotel—intentional murder or no, has
a considerable importance to people not then bom. In the
heel of the hunt, I have written my way, and hence take all
the blame for error and misrepresentation, for following
too readily the devices and desires of my own heart rather
than the testimony of the witnesses to the real deeds.
I would like to thank all those witnesses whose names
are hidden away at the end of the book, thus separating
them as far as possible from any responsibility. In a few
cases special thanks are warranted: to Sir John and Lady
Shaw—after its years in gestation I suspect Sir John doubts
the existence of this work; to Dr. Ely Tavin, who seemingly
commutes from Israel to New York, thus making himself
readily available for consultation and query; to Dr. Yehuda
Ben-Ari of the Jabotinsky Institute in Tel Aviv, whose
patient and scholarly advice has been most welcome, as has
the assistance of the institute secretary, Edna Zamir; to Lee
Winograd, who on my last trip to Israel was more than
kind; and finally to Jerachmiel Romm. Several individuals
have over the years been kind enough to send me written
comments: Sir John Shaw, David Niv, Eliahu Lankin,
Yehuda Ben-Ari, Samuel Katz, Nathan Yellin-Mor, Yisrael
Eldad, and Menachem Begin. Tavin and Yellin-Mor visited
me at Harvard, where the former was involved in a seminar
that included an Irish counterpart.
Finally, in New York, my work on a variety of revolu­
tionary topics has been made possible by a grant from
the Ford Foundation, where Craufurd Goodwin and
Alessandro Silj have always been more than helpful. The
Institute of War and Peace Studies has been a warm and
effective base. Its director, William T. R. Fox, is genial,
x Foreword
concerned and ever on call; Anna Houri is a paragon of
charm and efficiency, and everyone is delighted that I like
to do my own typing. Tom Dunne of St. Martin’s has been
an ideal editor, although he may have destroyed my liver
in efforts to be supportive.
J.B.B.