By Donald Neff

A photograph dated 1947 shows a poster issued by British police forces seeking 18 wanted Jewish terrorists from the Irgun Zvai Leumi and Stern Gang. Pictured at top left is Irgun commander and future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (AFP Photo).

AS EASY as it is to dismiss clichés as banal and misleading, the troubling problem is that they often cloak an essential truth. Scoffs and derision often greet the cliché that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Yet freedom fighters is exactly how Israelis view the early Zionists who fought in 1947 for the establishment of Israel—and how Palestinians now consider their fighters resisting Israeli occupation.

The reality is that when faced with a superior military force, such as Britain possessed in 1947 and Israel does today against the Palestinians, terror is the underdog’s only viable weapon. Once a state has been established and legitimized, however, as in the cases of Israel and South Africa, the former “terrorists” tend to gain a veil of legitimacy as well. But legitimacy is now being denied Hamas. Even though Palestinians elected a Hamas-led government in free and fair elections, Israel denies it legitimacy on the grounds that Hamas is a terrorist organization.

Sixty years ago, however, at the time of the British Mandate, it was Jews in Palestine who mainly waged terrorism against the Palestinians. As Jewish leader David Ben-Gurion recorded in his personal history of Israel: “From 1946 to 1947 there were scarcely any Arab attacks on the Yishuv [the Jewish community in Palestine].”

The same could not be said for the Zionists. Jewish terrorists waged an intense and bloody campaign against the Palestinians, British, and even some Jews who opposed them leading up to the establishment of Israel.

The two major Jewish terror organizations in pre-independence Palestine were the Irgun Zvai Leumi—National Military Organization, NMO, also known by the Hebrew letters Etzel—founded in 1937, and the Lohamei Herut Israel, Fighters for the Freedom of Israel, Lehi in the Hebrew acronym, also known as the Stern Gang after its leader Avraham Stern, known as Yair, founded in 1940.

The Irgun was led by Menachem Begin, the future Israeli prime minister who was a leading proponent of Revisionist Zionism, the militant branch of Zionism pioneered by Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky, which openly despised the Arabs and sought restoration of what it called Eretz Yisrael, the ancient land of Israel. By this was meant “both sides of the Jordan,” the Irgun slogan meaning all of Palestine and Jordan was the rightful home of the Jews.

Another belief of Begin’s was that of the “fighting Jew,” a romanticized idea expressed in Jabotinsky’s old Betar movement song of “we shall create, with sweat and blood, a race of men, strong, brave and cruel.” Israeli scholar Avishai Margalit translated the verse as “proud, generous and cruel,” adding: “Many are still waiting for the generous part to emerge.”

The Irgun was the dominant Jewish terrorist organization, both in size and the number and frequency of its attacks. Its most spectacular feat up to this time had been the July 22, 1946 blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, with the killing of 91 people—41 Arabs, 28 British and 17 Jews. Mainstream Zionists despised Begin and his Revisionists, although there was cooperation between the two on military matters. Ben-Gurion, the leader of mainstream Zionism, fought throughout his premiership with Begin.

The other major Jewish terrorist group, Lehi, was more extremist than the Irgun, claiming all the land between the Nile and the Euphrates as belonging to the Jews. When Jabotinsky declared a cease-fire in the fight against Britain and its mandate troops in Palestine during World War II, Stern broke with him and founded Lehi. Stern sought alliance with the Nazis, both because they shared an enemy in Britain and because Lehi shared Hitler’s totalitarian ideology. During the war Sternists openly celebrated Nazi victories on the battlefield.

An infamous document called the “Ankara Document” because it was found in the German Embassy in Ankara after the war, detailed Avraham Stern’s ideas “concerning the solution of the Jewish question in Europe.” It was dated Jan. 11, 1941. At the time, Stern was still a member of the Irgun, which he called by its initials, NMO. Wrote Stern: “The evacuation of the Jewish masses from Europe is a precondition for solving the Jewish question; but this can only be made possible and complete through the settlement of these masses in the home of the Jewish People, Palestine, and through the establishment of a Jewish state in its historical boundaries....The NMO...is well acquainted with the goodwill of the German Reich government and its authorities toward Zionist activity inside Germany and toward Zionist emigration plans....The NMO is closely related to the totalitarian movements in Europe in its ideology and structure.”

In the Partition period, Irgun had around 2,000 men, while Lehi had about 800. Though the memberships were comparatively small, the damage these two groups caused in inflaming animosity between Arab and Jew was considerable. When Stern was killed by British police in 1942, leadership of Lehi was shared; among the leaders were Nathan Yalin-Mor, one of the eventual killers of Count Bernadotte, and Yitzhak Shamir, another future prime minister of Israel.

Arab terrorists carried out some major operations as well, including the bombing of the Jewish Agency and the Palestine Post. But in contrast to Jewish violence, it was unorganized and episodic. As historian Michael C. Hudson noted: “Organized Jewish violence against the British and Arabs (exemplified by the Irgun’s bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946), however, was far more systematic and successful than that of the Palestinians, and the latter were unable to play a significant role in the final years of the Mandate.”

The Jewish Agency, as the official representative of the Jewish community, repeatedly denied any responsibility for the acts of the Irgun and Lehi, maintaining they were underground terrorist groups operating outside the law. However, there was close cooperation among Irgun, Lehi and the Haganah underground army under an agreement called the Hebrew Resistance Movement and aimed specifically against the British Mandatory government. It went into force in the fall of 1945, when “Irgun and Lehi accepted Haganah discipline in the conduct of all armed operations,” in the words of historian Noah Lucas.

By December 1947, British High Commissioner Alan Cunningham reported to London: “...the Haganah and the dissident groups are now working so closely together that the Agency’s claim that they cannot control the dissidents is inadmissible.”

Donald Neff is the author of the Warriors trilogy, Fallen Pillars: U.S. Policy towards Palestine and Israel, and Fifty Years of Israel, all available from the AET Book Club.

WOW hypocrite,

In all your 'christian' concern, not a single word about an OCCUPIED and  BLOCKADED Palestinian 'right to exist'?

Let's rephrase your 'argument' a bit....

Let's say that China decides that to relocated the Taiwanses will have a Homeland in the US, and millions of Chinese worldwide send money to relocate millions of Taiwanese and Chinese and their displaced family from all over the world, to arm them militarily, yes even with Nuclear Weapons, and once they were here in the US, they continued to grab land and OCCUPY not only the lands given by China but YOUR lands, or maybe just the water to your lands, your livelyhood, put up massive fences, military roadblocks and denied you voting rights, civil rights and treated you as a third class citizen in your own lands.

And everytime you revolted (rashly assuming that you would, lol) they not only take more land, but bomb 100 for every 10 you bomb, of course with Chinese laser guided missles, fired from Chinese aircraft along with Chinese bunker busters, Chinese bullits, etc...and then start systematically starving you off....

I think EVEN YOU can get this picture....

Once again the World decries the "disproportianate" response of Israel. Never mind the lobbing of missiles by the Hamas cowards who hide amongst the civilian population hoping for civilian deaths they can show to the Jew hating world.

Then dumbasses like Cynthia McKinney think they can sail into a war zone. No wonder dumbasses like Adam support dumbasses like McKinney.

Looking forward to another cut & paste response dumbass.

cro-mag man,

Nevermind that they are OCCUPIED....

I look forward to a balanced and RATIONAL debate....rotflmao....

I can appreciate that HISTORY of the Terrorists Zionist at the heart of this matter have little concern for you, after all most of the Palestinians are .......dare I say it.......impoverished MUSLIMS living on their own lands.

I understand well, that panty wetting cowards like you, would join in with the OCCUPIERS and kill your fellow OCCUPIED, as the enablers you are....

So YES, I will take Cut and Paste over your ignorant, baseless, OPINIONS

The Truth About Those Hamas Rockets

By Dennis Rahkonen

January 01, 2009 "Online Journal" -- Five years ago, the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass destruction to dupe us into supporting an illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq.

A few days ago, Israel trotted out only an infinitesimally more credible excuse -- the Hamas rockets case -- as justification for its own murderous shock and awe in Gaza, a long-planned campaign perniciously aimed at ousting a “regime” that came to power via popular, democratic vote.

Yes, such rockets exist, but they’re little more than slingshots against Israel’s incredible military might, and they’re used out of desperation by Palestinians who’ve never been accorded the democratic space within which to gain redress of their eminently just grievances.

Israeli apologists have presented absurd propaganda about those devices.

We’ve been asked, for instance, what would we do if rockets were being launched on our homes in New York or Texas, from Canada or Mexico?

The proper answer is that, if those two nations had been unlawfully occupied or embargoed by the United States for 60 years of relentless oppression and repression, and if all attempts at peaceful change had been forcefully prevented or scuttled by the U.S., then such attacks would be an understandable, indeed a justifiable attempt at gaining intolerably deferred liberty.

Our appropriate response wouldn’t be to bomb the hell out of the nearest Canadian or Mexican city, but to collectively look into mirrors and earnestly ask ourselves, “What have we done wrong to incur their wrath?”

And then act to correct the situation.

Conscientious Israelis acknowledge that the Hamas rockets rationale is fraudulent. For instance, Jerusalem Post writer Larry Derfner has noted, “We don’t want to see how people in Gaza are living, we block it out of our minds -- which, I suppose, is natural for a society at war, but which also keeps that war going longer than it might if we would recognize that Gaza is getting so much the worst of it.

“The [Palestinian] Kassam [rockets] have terrorized the 25,000 people in Sderot and its environs, but have caused very, very few deaths or serious wounds. By contrast, Israel has terrorized 1.5 million Gazans, locked them inside their awfully narrow borders, throttled their economy, and killed and seriously wounded thousands of them . . .

“This is crazy. Israel is the superpower of the Middle East, but because we still think we’re the Jews of Europe in the 1930s, or the Israelites under Pharaoh, we spend a lot more time fighting our enemies than we might if we looked at the whole picture, not just our half of it . . .”
_{^{link:[www.informationclearinghouse.info]}}

You know, in a sense you are right,

Exposing the ignorant to a side of the argument that they will never be exposed to by the empty political propaganda that seeks to hide the truth from them for power and profit, is in my book a noble cause.

I can tell your limited exposure by the silly unsubstantiated attack posts you have made, and your inabiliity to differientiate between truth and political bulls***....

You attack, attack, attack, because.....well you got nothing else.....

So why don't you 'correct' my data?

Just show where my 'progressive' information is incorrect.

I remember just a short time ago, you made similar claims about my sources from government websites, and YOU HAD.... NOTHING but your infantile attack, attack, attack me personally.

Funny, how ignorant political shills can ultimately ONLY resort to unsubstantiated personal attackes, they must be too STOOPID to be able to actually research and THINK FOR THEMSELVES....

But thanks for playing and showing what you are really all about.....

SadMan writes

So why don't you 'correct' my data?

After SadMan cut & pastes...

-- Five years ago, the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass destruction to dupe us into supporting an illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq.

 So heres your cut & paste reply........tool

Did Bush lie? A short quiz

By Charles Bloomer
web posted August 2, 2004

Did Bush lie about WMDs in Iraq? Did Bush make up this story to justify going to war with Iraq? Was the story about WMDs in Iraq a right-wing-conservative-republican-warmonger conspiracy designed to mislead the American people?

Who made the following statements? (Answers given below)

1. "[W]e need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime. We all know the litany of his offenses. He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation. … And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction. That is why the world, through the United Nations Security Council, has spoken with one voice, demanding that Iraq disclose its weapons programs and disarm. So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real, but it is not new. It has been with us since the end of the Persian Gulf War." 

2. "We owe it to America's parents and our country's troops … to have our decision on going to war with Iraq informed by the latest threat assessment that cross-analyzes agency intelligence about Saddam Hussein's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction." 

3. "I think all of us are deeply concerned about the degree to which certain countries seem to be contributing to the potential of instability in the world. Obviously, there is nothing more destabilizing or threatening than weapons of mass destruction. We have spent an enormous amount of time and energy focused on Iraq …"

4. Saddam Had Used WMD And Intended "To Do So" Again.  "Saddam Hussein has already used these weapons and has made it clear that he has the intent to continue to try, by virtue of his duplicity and secrecy, to continue to do so.  That is a threat to the stability of the Middle East.  It is a threat with respect to the potential of terrorist activities on a global basis.  It is a threat even to regions near but not exactly in the Middle East." 

5. "Americans need to really understand the gravity and legitimacy of what is happening with Saddam Hussein. He has been given every opportunity in the world to comply. The president does not control the schedule of UNSCOM. The president did not withdraw the UNSCOM inspectors. And the president did not, obviously, cut a deal with Saddam Hussein to do this at this moment. Saddam Hussein has not complied. Saddam Hussein is pursuing a program to build weapons of mass destruction."

6. "One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line."

7. "Earlier today I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq… Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors… The international community had little doubt then, and I have no doubt today that, left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will use these terrible weapons again… I have ordered a strong sustained series of air strikes against Iraq. They are designed to degrade Saddam's capacity to develop and deliver weapons of mass destruction and to degrade his ability to threaten his neighbors… The hard fact is that so long as Saddam remains in power he threatens the well being of his people, the peace of this region, the security of the world… He will make war on his own people. And mark my words; he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them and he will use them."

8. "Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal here, for the risk that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face, and it is a threat against which we must and will stand firm."

9. "When I vote to give the president of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security…."

10. "We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction."

11. "In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al-Qaeda members ... It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."

12. "There is no doubt that ... Saddam Hussein has reinvigorated his weapons programs. Reports indicate that biological, chemical and nuclear programs continue apace and may be back to pre-Gulf War status. In addition, Saddam continues to redefine delivery systems and is doubtless using the cover of a licit missile program to develop longer-range missiles that will threaten the United States and our allies."

13. "Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process. The responsibility of the United States in this conflict is to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, to minimize the danger to our troops and to diminish the suffering of the Iraqi people."

14. "Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power."

15. "I think Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction are a threat, and that's why I voted to hold him accountable and to make certain that we disarm him. I think we need to, but it's not September 11th, folks, and the fact is that what we've learned is that the war on terror is much more of an intelligence operation and a law enforcement operation."

This is only 15 quotes, yet there are many, many more.

If Bush lied about WMDs, how did he pull it off? How did he convince so many American people that his lie was true?

In addition to intelligence gathered by the CIA regarding, at least 3 other intelligence agencies came to the same conclusion – Britain, Italy, and Isreal. Did Bush convince the CIA and three other countries' intelligence agencies to support his lie? What about Egypt and Jordan? Both of these countries warned General Tommy Franks that Iraq possessed and would use chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons against US troops. Did Bush twist their arms?

How did Bush get Congress to authorize the use of force against Iraq? Did he coerce the members of congress, of which a majority voted to authorize force against Iraq, to go along with his lie?

Colin Powell wrote in The Washington Post,

One year ago, when President Bush brought his concerns about Iraq to the United Nations, he made it plain that his principal concern in a post-Sept. 11 world was not just that a rogue regime such as Saddam Hussein's had WMD programs, but that such horrific weapons could find their way out of Iraq into the arms of terrorists who would have even fewer compunctions about using them against innocent people across the globe.

In the interim report, Kay and his team record the chilling fact that they "found people, technical information and illicit procurement networks that if allowed to flow to other countries and regions could accelerate global proliferation." …

President Bush was right: This was an evil regime, lethal to its own people, in deepening material breach of its Security Council obligations, and a threat to international peace and security. Hussein would have stopped at nothing until something stopped him. It's a good thing that we did.

Now read the answers to the quiz. It should make you reconsider whether or not Bush lied about WMDs.

Answers:

1. (Senator John Kerry, Remarks At Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 1/23/03)
2. (Faye Bowers, "Iraq's Pursuit Of Nuclear Weapons Called ‘Unrelenting'," [Salt Lake City] Deseret News, 9/18/02)
3. (Senator John Kerry, Congressional Record, 9/11/00) In 2000, After Eight Years On Intelligence Committee, Kerry Cited Threat Of Iraq's WMD.
4. (Senator John Kerry, Press Conference, 2/23/98)
5. (Senator John Kerry, Press Conference, 12/16/98)
6. ("US: [Bill] Clinton Says Diplomatic Solution Preferable In Iraq," AAP Newsfeed, 2/5/98)
7. ("Text Of Clinton Statement On Iraq Attack," Agence France Presse, 12/17/98)
8. ("Secretary Of State Madeleine Albright, Secretary Of Defense William Cohen And National Security Adviser Sandy Berger Participate In Town Hall Meeting," Federal News Service, 2/18/98)
9. (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 10/9/02, p. S10174)
10. ("Remarks By Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) At The Johns Hopkins School Of Advanced International Studies," Federal News Service, 9/27/02)
11. (Sen. Hillary Clinton, Congressional Record, 10/10/02, p. S10288)
12. (Sen. Bob Graham And Others, Letter To President George W. Bush, 12/5/01 as quoted in Dennis Jenkins, Letter To The Editor, The Bellingham Herald, 10/2/03)
13. (Rep. Nancy Pelosi, "Statement On U.S. Led Military Strike Against Iraq," Press Release, 12/16/98)
14. ("Text Of Remarks By Former Vice President Al Gore At The Commonwealth Club, San Francisco," Federal News Service, 9/23/02)
15. (Sen. John Kerry As Quoted On NPR's "All Things Considered," 3/19/03)

Charles Bloomer is a Senior Writer for Enter Stage Right. He can be contacted at clbloomer@enterstageright.com. © 2004 Charles Bloomer

Not a SINGLE quote from Bu$h?

Come on cro-mag, cant you do any better than that?

LIE:
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." - Bu$h

Fact:
There was plenty of doubt and a total LACK OF EVIDENCE to support this statement, and these WMDs were NEVER FOUND.

Perhaps YOU believe, like the Red hypocrite that Saddam smuggled these out of his country just when he would have needed them the most?

Now if you want to discuss Democratic LIARS, that is a different subject.....I have no problem going there either.  But it is pretty ignorant of you to use TRY and use quotes from others to TRY to prove that Bu$h didnt lie, unless you are going to use quotes from others that demonstrate FACTS instead of political PANDERING, which is what you are doing.....