Hebron Etzion
_______ Bloc Betar Jerusalem
/Kiryat \ _______ ______ _____________
/ Arba \ / Efrat \ / \ / \_______
___/ \____/ \__/ \____/ Maaleh Adumim
######### #### #### # Tekoa ______
# # # # # # # # _____ / \
# # # # # ### ##### / \ / \
# # # # # # # # # _/ \____/ \_
### ## #### #### # #
"Rebuilding Jewish Life in Judea, Israel"
***********************************************************************
JUDEA ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE Vol.8, No.5 Elul-Tishrei 5760-61/Sep-Oct 2000
***********************************************************************
Website: http://www.crosswinds.net/~judea
Contents: WAR IN JUDEA
* Reports from the Front Lines:
War In Judea / A Coordinated Attack / Crowd Control Doesn't Work When
Some in the Crowd Have AK-47s / High Holidays in Gush Katif / The
Road to Negohot - Failing the Test
* Perspectives:
If They Had Cannon, They Would Fire On Tel Aviv / Realities of War /
Child Sacrifice / Palestine is No More Real than Never-Never Land
* Letter from an IZL Veteran - Setting the Record Straight
***********************************************************************
WAR IN JUDEA
The war began at the start of the Jewish New Year 5761 when Arabs
began firing on IDF outposts and Jewish homes throughout Judea, Samaria
and Gaza, coupled with riots by Arabs with Israeli citizenship who
attacked Jewish cars throughout Israel. Palestinian TV broadcast
pictures of conflict with IDF soldiers set to music, encouraging viewers
to enlist in the fight.
In Judea, most of the shooting has been directed at Jewish civilian
areas in Hebron, Kiryat Arba, and the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem, as
well as IDF outposts surrounding Bethlehem (Rachel's Tomb, Har Homa, and
Camp Shdema). There has been shooting in other locations as well,
including at or near Migdal Oz, Karmei Tsur, Tekoa, Susiya, the Givat
HaDagan neighborhood of Efrat, and other Jewish towns. There have been
nightly gunbattles at Camp Shdema, just east of Beit Sahur (Shephard's
Field), on the main road between Jerusalem and Tekoa. That road has been
closed to Jewish civilian traffic since the beginning of October, and
residents of the eastern Etzion Bloc must travel a longer route via
Efrat.
However, all Jewish traffic between Jerusalem and the Etzion Bloc
must then take the Tunnel Road -- a major construction project involving
two tunnels and a bridge, passing beneath Beit Jalla, next to Bethlehem.
The Tunnel Road is often closed due to Arab gunfire on Jewish traffic,
especially after dark. This turns the 20-minute trip between Jerusalem
and the Etzion Bloc into an arduous one hour plus drive down a winding
mountain road and then back up the mountain on another such road. In the
South Hebron Hills, the road from Negohot has been blocked. The road to
Beit Haggai and Otniel has also been closed periodically. So for most
Jewish residents of Judea, travel routes and times require careful
planning.
Most local Jewish residents have been able to adapt and continue on
with their lives, building on their experience during the previous Arab
uprising (the intifada of 1987-1991). No one is leaving, and people who
are in advanced stages of constructing their permanent homes are working
to finish and move in.
Many of us predicted this war, but in the May 1999 Israeli
elections, the party emphasizing this outlook received only 4 seats in
the 120-member Knesset. There is no satisfaction in having our
prediction come true.
We know the situation is serious when our distant friends and
relatives start to phone to see how we are. We are fine. The IDF works
hard to protect Jews living everywhere in Israel. We see this.
Soldiers can't be everywhere at every moment but are with us where we
live. In addition, many residents of Jewish villages in Judea are IDF
reservists who serve in the equivalent of the regional National Guard.
Many of us have been called up for active duty to guard our own and
neighboring towns.
On the roads, many of us have instant radio contact with the IDF
through a GPS satellite communications system in the car. Our cars have
polycarbonate windows as well, effective against rocks but not against
bullets. We drive armed. We did this through 4 years of intifada (the
intifada ended in 1991 with the Gulf War, but its end was never
announced) and it's not new to us. As was true in the mid-1990s when
the wave of city bus bombings took place, it's the people in the rest of
Israel we worry about the most.
************************************************************************
Reports from the Front Lines:
A COORDINATED ATTACK
Jack Kelly
Ayosh Junction between Ramallah and Beit El, 20 October 2000 -
Laughter and singing coming across the radio is suddenly
interrupted. "Snipers! Snipers!" screams an Israeli Army scout atop a
nearby building. A second later, a barrage of bullets shatters the
windows of an Israeli Army Jeep, inches from the head of Lt. Erez
Winner, 31, who controls the Israeli ground forces in Ramallah. More
bullets ricochet off the side of his Army Jeep, the street and a nearby
building. Simultaneously, 200 Palestinian youths, yelling "Allah
Akbar," charge down the street throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.
One of the fiery explosives lands under the hood of a Jeep and
appears to set it on fire. The Israeli soldier reverses the Jeep so fast
that another soldier, leaning against the side of the Jeep for
protection, is knocked to the ground. About 60 Palestinians, who are
within 25 yards, pelt him with rocks. He is hit in the forehead and
starts to bleed. Still another soldier jumps from the Jeep to help him,
but he is shot in the right hip by one of the Palestinian snipers. He
limps into the back of the Jeep, bleeding. The crowd of Palestinians
cheers.
Palestinians have begun attacking Israeli soldiers in what appear to
be well-planned and coordinated ambushes involving not only youths but
Palestinian Authority policemen and civilian ambulance drivers.
Ambulances are delivering stones, and sometimes fighters, to the front
lines, despite official denials. The Palestinians are not only throwing
rocks at the soldiers but are shooting at them.
[Winner] adamantly denies international claims that IDF troops are
being too aggressive. His rules of engagement are straightforward, he
says in English: Soldiers on the front lines are to shoot only tear gas
canisters, stun grenades and, if they feel their lives are in danger,
rubber-coated steel bullets. And they are always to shoot below the
waist, preferably at the knees, he says. Only the Israeli snipers on
the rooftop of the nearby City Hotel can shoot live ammunition, and
their shoot-to-kill orders must come from Winner, a 13-year IDF veteran.
Winner disputes reports that Palestinians are throwing only rocks by
pointing out bullet holes on the hood of his green Jeep that he says
were shot by Palestinian snipers last week. "These weren't made with BB
guns," Winner says. "The Palestinians are starting to engage us in full-
scale war. That's why we're firing back."
Palestinian ambulances, their horns blaring and lights flashing,
begin racing toward the front lines to pick up the wounded. But before
picking up an injured youth, one ambulance can be seen dropping off two
buckets of rocks and a crate of bottles to be used as Molotov cocktails.
Seconds later, another ambulance races onto a nearby hill, its horn
blaring and lights flashing. But there are no youths on the hill. The
driver gets out and fires two shots at the tank in a vain effort to hit
the Israeli soldiers before jumping back in and driving off.
Winner is then interrupted by an Israeli sniper atop a nearby hotel.
"Erez, they are shooting from atop four different buildings. One of them
is the PA building," the sniper says. Then an Israeli military video
cameraman and a sniper, both on different rooftops, radio in at the same
time that a Palestinian man in his 20s appears to be carrying "a
missile." Through binoculars, the man can be seen removing what appears
to be a hand-held rocket launcher from the trunk of a car and, with the
help of some youths, hiding it behind a rock. Just then, automatic
gunfire erupts from four buildings to the right as if to distract the
Israelis. Soon after, six car tires and a Dumpster are set afire in an
effort, Winner says, to block the view of the Israeli soldiers with the
smoke. As the smoke builds, an Israeli scout atop one of the buildings
reports that Palestinian cars are driving to the right of the frontlines
to unload semi-automatic weapons. Then a pickup truck displaying the
Hamas flag races toward the front lines pulling the first of several
abandoned car frames. Palestinians youths untie the frames and stand
them up to use as shields against the bullets.
This is a coordinated attack," Winner says. "First the snipers, then
the kids, then the fires, then the cars. The kids and smoke provide
cover for the gunmen."
(_USA Today_, "Street Clashes Now Deliberate Warfare," 23 Oct 2000)
************************************************************************
"CROWD CONTROL" DOESN'T WORK WHEN SOME IN THE CROWD HAVE AK-47S
Mark Helprin
If the aims of the Palestinians are a state on the West Bank and
Gaza, a presence in Jerusalem, and peaceful coexistence with Israel, why
have they taken in such numbers, with such ferocity, and at the cost of
so many lives, to the streets that soon would have been theirs
absolutely? Why have they unleashed anguished and accusatory rhetoric
sufficient to whip up not one but half a dozen wars?
The answer is that they are shaking off the uncomfortable fiction
that for years has been the face they have presented to the West. In the
Arab world they speak without ambiguity: "Occupied Palestine" means all
of Palestine. The "occupied territories" means all the territories of
Palestine. Palestine will not coexist with Israel but, rather, will
replace it.
Why then doesn't Israel take steps to reduce Palestinian casualties
and block the world's tendency to equate one side with the other?
Because they cannot. They are not faced with American university
students or European Greens with an uncontrollable animus for
McDonald's. At the world's insistence, the Palestinians are armed. There
are probably 100,000 or more AK-47s in the hands of the police and
militia, and countless others stockpiled by civilians and secret
organizations, not to mention heavier weapons such as grenade launchers
and rockets. Every day, from the periphery and from within the rock-
throwing and gasoline-bomb-tossing crowds, automatic weapons fire is
directed at the Israelis. The Israelis cannot deal with the Palestinians
as if they were discontented university students, because the
Palestinians who fight them on the street are backed by gunmen who daily
use their weapons. That is why the horrific toll mounts.
(_Wall Street Journal_, 24 Oct 2000)
***********************************************************************
HIGH HOLIDAYS IN GUSH KATIF
Moshe Sapirstein
[Moshe and Rachel Sapirstein made aliya after the Six-Day War. A few
years ago they "retired" from Jerusalem to Neve Dekalim in Gush Katif.
Moshe lost an arm in the Yom Kippur War.]
Sorry to be melodramatic, but we are under siege. Even as I write
this - Rachel is off at a meeting of the Emergency Committee - shots can
be heard in the distance, and the night sky is marred by black smoke
from burning tires and trash glowing just beyond our fences.
Shabbat morning our services were interrupted by the announcement:
"All the settlements are under attack. Go home, get your weapons, and
come back to shul." Within minutes the shul was awash in M-16s, Uzis,
Galils, and a variety of handguns including your trusty correspondent's
Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum.
While most of the women and girls rounded up loose children and took
them home for safekeeping, groups of men with rifles went to pre-
assigned positions at points along the fence separating us from Khan
Yunis. I, whose pre-assigned position -- assuming infirm old geezers
like myself were to have pre-assigned positions -- is hiding under my
bed, stayed in shul with most of the congregation. Clearly visible
through the shul windows was the sky blackening with smoke.
This morning black smoke again rose along the fence, and there was
an unreality to seeing the smoke and hearing occasional shots while
children played in the shul courtyard. Perhaps it was the revolver under
my tallit, but I found myself thinking back to Yom Kippur 1973 when men
disappeared from shul singly and in small groups. Some never came back,
others like myself came back physically and emotionally altered. I was
seized with the irrational belief that the Arabs, having failed to
finish me off then, were going to do so now. And I prayed for the
strength to foil them now as I had then.
This evening we listened to all the broadcasts and are stunned at
how widespread the disturbances are. We have learned that several of the
settlements in our area were hard hit, and that the road out of Gush
Katif is closed, as are many of the roads in Judea and Samaria and, to
our amazement, within the old green line in areas with a large Arab
population. First we were told that we could travel only with an army
escort, then, after the first convoy was fired upon, that no travel was
to be permitted until further notice.
I must say that the people here have been splendid. Lots of good
humor in a situation likely to turn dangerous very quickly. Despite all
the uncertainty, and the increasing feeling that we are going to be
sacrificed on the altar of appeasement, Ruch and I are proud to be here.
*********************************************************************
In the South Hebron Hills:
THE ROAD TO NEGOHOT - FAILING THE TEST
Nadav Shragai
Seven months ago, the Israel Defense Forces transferred the area of
the villages of Dura and Dahariya to full Palestinian Authority control
in "the third stage of the second redeployment," including the main road
to the new Jewish village of Negohot - located in the southern Mount
Hebron area [of Judea; see "Along the Road to Negohot, Judea Magazine
8.2].
The access road to Negohot passes through the heart of the newly
acquired Palestinian area, through the center of the village of Harsa.
The head of the Central Command at the time (now the deputy chief of
staff), Major General Moshe Ya'alon, explained to the residents that it
was preferable for the road to be defined as part of Area A (full
Palestinian control) and not Area B (Palestinian civilian and Israeli
security control, as is the case in the isolated Netzarim settlement in
the Gaza Strip). Ya'alon said that the PA would have to assume full
responsibility for events on the road to Negohot and would therefore not
be able to blame Israel for security infringements. He said that the
decision to hand over the road to the Palestinians would be a test case.
Their worst fears began to materialize when, in the first months
after the transfer of the area, there were a number of serious incidents
and the road was closed on a few occasions. Still, as time passed, the
situation stabilized and the army's precedent-setting decision appeared
to have been justified.
At the end of September, however, with the start of the Rosh
Hashanah violence, life for the settlers of Negohot changed drastically.
In contrast to other roads, which were flanked on both sides by Area A
territory, while the roads themselves (including the "security
shoulders") continued to remain as Area B, the road to Negohot was the
only one in the territories leading to a Jewish settlement that had been
transferred to full Palestinian control. In the past few weeks, IDF
patrols have repeatedly tried to drive along the road, but have been met
by gunfire.
Therefore, the IDF barred residents of Negohot from using the access
road to get to Kiryat Arba and Jerusalem. As a result, the settlers
could not get to work or to school; since the onset of the fighting,
they have rarely left the settlement at all. Some of them are going to
lose their jobs; others are considering the possibility of finding
alternative jobs or places of study.
Negohot, home to 14 families, is located only four kilometers from
the pre-1967 borders of Israel. It lies very close to Shekef, a
settlement inside Israel, but is not connected to it. The road to the
west is only partially paved and partially a dirt road. But the settlers
are oriented toward the northern direction of Kiryat Arba, the urban
settlement adjacent to Hebron, and to the southern Mount Hebron and
Jerusalem area, rather than toward the south or the west.
According to local resident Oren Shefer, some of the Negohot
settlers are caught in a dilemma. "For the time being, people are
willing to try and get through this thing, somehow," he said. "It is
clear to us all that this is a time of testing, in which we are called
upon to make an extra effort and to make sacrifices."
In the meantime, two recently married couples informed the
settlement that they would come to live at Negohot as they had planned.
All in all, though, the settlement - established 18 years ago as a Nahal
paramilitary outpost and "civilianized" two years ago with the help of
the students of yeshivas who combine army service with religious studies
- is now fighting for its future. The residents, young people in their
twenties, still live in mobile homes. As in other settlements close to
the Green Line, the communications and battle trenches that served the
Jordanians until 1967 still exist at Negohot.
(_HaAretz_, 29 Oct 2000)
**********************************************************************
IF THEY HAD CANNON, THEY WOULD FIRE ON TEL AVIV
Thomas Friedman (New York Times)
It has become clear that the true hardship faced by the
Palestinians, what is bothering them, is Tel Aviv no less than Beit El.
Tel Aviv, in their eyes, is like every other settlement. If they had
cannon, they would fire on Tel Aviv. We see that the Muslims are not
able to accept the Jews unless they rule them. They cannot except the
Jews as independent or sovereign. Arafat signed agreements but taught
his children to hate.
(Interview by Amnon Lord, _Makor Rishon_ Magazine, 3 Nov 00, p. 6+)
**********************************************************************
REALITIES OF WAR
Charles Krauthammer
As Israel awakens from the mirage of the past seven years and to the
nightmare of the murderous ethnic war it has invited into its very
heart, it searches for a way out. Yasser Arafat has now scorned the
Sharm el-Sheikh agreements brokered by President Clinton and refused
to order a cease-fire. He repeats his demands for Jerusalem and the
"right of return" of the Palestinian refugees, which means the
demographic extinction of Israel.
What to do? First, self-defense. The Palestinians have armed gunmen
shooting into Israeli neighborhoods all over the country. This is no
spontaneous uprising. This is war. In war you fight back, or you die.
The tragedy is that fighting back means that yet more Palestinians
will die. But that is hardly Israel's military objective. When
Palestinian civilians got their hands on two Israeli reservists who
had made a wrong turn into Ramallah, they tore them limb from limb.
However, when Israel retaliated with helicopter attacks that blew up
half a dozen buildings in densely populated areas, not one person was
killed. Why? Because Ehud Barak gave Arafat three hours' warning,
precisely so that he could evacuate the buildings.
The last thing Israel wanted was this war. The last thing Israel
wants is casualties. Israelis know how Arafat uses "martyrdom,"
especially children's deaths, to advance his aims. But when a mob
attacks Israeli checkpoints, the soldiers know exactly what awaits them
if it is overrun--lynching, and mutilation, as the world saw in
Ramallah. They have to fight back.
Arafat knows he started it. Israel knows he started it. The United
States knows he started it. And we all know why: to be able to dictate
terms whenever the fighting stops.
For 52 years, Israelis have been ready to talk peace. But the idea
of a final peace is for dreamers. We've just been there. Barak offered
Arafat a generous final peace--and Arafat told him to go to hell. Right
now, the best one can aspire to is an armistice. This is not a counsel
of despair. It is a return to realism. There was an armistice in 1949.
In 1956. In 1967. In 1973. And Israel survived.
Of course everyone wants that final peace, but that will happen only
when the Arabs decide that Israelis are not weak, are not temporary
(like the Crusaders: a century or two is temporary in that neighborhood)
and have a right to be there. One day's exposure to Palestinian media
calling for death to the Jews tells you how far we are from that day.
And until that day dawns, Israel's only alternatives are
counterstrike and deterrence to force an armistice--or start building
boats for the sail back to Europe.
(_Washington Post_, 27 Oct 2000)
**********************************************************************
CHILD SACRIFICE
Gerald M. Steinberg
According to the Palestinians, over 40 children have been killed
in the waves of violence and confrontations that began at the end of
September. They have been killed in the front lines, providing cover
for the armed Palestinian militias with machine guns and other weapons
seeking to overwhelm isolated Israeli guard posts. The tragic images of
these young victims provide first-rate propaganda to use against Israel.
Interviewed by journalists after these tragedies, some parents of
these young victims refer to their children as "shaheeds" (martyrs),
whose lives were given willingly and proudly to the Palestinian cause in
fighting the hated Zionist enemy. In a scene that was unbelievably
shocking, one mother boasted that she bore her son precisely for this
purpose, and the father proudly claimed credit for providing the
training. (The parents will also receive a sizeable financial "reward"
from the Palestinian Authority.)
For a people who count Abraham (or Ibrahim) among their ancestors,
this willful child sacrifice violates the fundamental tenets of morality
and ethics. The message of Abraham's non-sacrifice of Isaac was and
remains first and foremost the absolute rejection of such practices.
This prohibition, for the children of Abraham -- Jews, and later
Christians, and Moslems -- stands in sharp contrast to the paganism and
idolatry that existed at that time, and apparently still exists in some
cultures.
Child sacrifice was the most fundamental expression of idolatry, and
forms the basis for the central biblical message, prohibiting any
contact with or tolerance for such practices. That the Palestinian
leadership could encourage such behavior as part of their political and
military campaign against Israel, or for any other purpose, is beyond
belief or explanation. The dispatch of children to the front lines, in a
brutal war that has no purpose or justification, will haunt Palestinian
society for generations.
************************************************************************
PALESTINE IS NO MORE REAL THAN NEVER-NEVER LAND
Joseph Farah
Palestine is no more real than Never-Never Land. The first time the
name was used was in 70 A.D. when the Romans committed genocide against
the Jews, smashed the Temple and declared the land of Israel would be no
more. From then on, the Romans promised, it would be known as Palestine.
The name was derived from the Philistines, a Goliathian people conquered
by the Jews centuries earlier.
Palestine has never existed -- before or since -- as an autonomous
entity. There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct
Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine
governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from
Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc.
The Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel
represents one-tenth of 1 percent of the landmass. But that's too much
for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what the
fighting in Israel is about today. Greed. Pride. Envy. Covetousness. No
matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be
enough.
What about Islam's holy sites? There are none in Jerusalem. In fact,
the Koran says nothing about Jerusalem. It mentions Mecca hundreds of
times. It mentions Medina countless times. It never mentions Jerusalem.
With good reason. There is no historical evidence to suggest Mohammad
ever visited Jerusalem.
So how did Jerusalem become the third holiest site of Islam? Muslims
today cite a vague passage in the Koran, the seventeenth Sura, entitled
"The Night Journey." It relates that in a dream or a vision Mohammed was
carried by night "from the sacred temple to the temple that is most
remote, whose precinct we have blessed, that we might show him our
signs...." In the seventh century, some Muslims identified the two
temples mentioned in this verse as being in Mecca and Jerusalem. And
that's as close as Islam's connection with Jerusalem gets -- myth,
fantasy, wishful thinking. Meanwhile, Jews can trace their roots in
Jerusalem back to the days of Abraham.
(The author is an Internet commentator; 11 Oct 2000)
**********************************************************************
Letter from an IZL Veteran
CORRECTION: SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Prof. Soormaira Haizly
[The previous issue of _Judea Magazine_ reported, incorrectly, that
former MK Geula Cohen, was the radio announcer for the Irgun Tzvai Leumi
led by Menachem Begin. In fact, Cohen was a leading figure in the radio
broadcasts of the Lehi underground - the Jewish freedom fighters led by
Yitzhak Shamir. The editors regret the error and present Prof. Haizly's
correction.]
Who was the radio announcer in the Irgun Tzvai Leumi? Some insights
by an old fighter who, sixty years later, still did not forget (one just
doesn't forget such, does one).
Sorry, but I must correct this factual error. Geula Cohen is a great
and colorful personality and there is no doubt about her having been, in
those days, couragously active as an Underground radio announcer, but
the one who broadcast for the Irgun Tzvai Leumi (the National Military
Organization in the Land of Israel) was another (then) young lady,
Shoshannah Raziel nee Spitzer.
Her mother had been the headmistress of the Spitzer Schoool for
Girls in the Bukharian neighborhood in Jerusalem, where the Spitzer
family also resided, which is how she met our great and unforgettable
commander, David Raziel, whom she eventually married. It was precisely
the Spitzer School - after hours, of course - which then served (I
should know) as the clandestine headquarters of our Underground. That is
how young Shoshannah (we were all young then) got introduced not only to
her future husband, who was our leader (and the veritable creator of the
IZL, before Begin).
Shoshannah Spitzer-Raziel's specific part - here remembered for the
record - was as the electrifying Voice of Fighting Zion. Just as Geula
Cohen (then going by the Underground name of Shoshannah Halevi, was the
Underground voice of the LeHY (Freedom Fighters for Israel, or Stern
Group), which had nothing whatsoever to do with Menachem Begin. At
certain hours, when everybody and his brother knew one of the two
clandestine Shoshannahs were broadcasting, people in the alleys, in the
neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and wherever British CID detectives and/or
their Jewish stooges and informers were not around - as listening to
those clandestine broadcasts, officially strictly forbidden and banned
by the British foreign rulers, was downright dangerous and could cost a
listener their life! - congegrated instantaneously around what few
radios were available those days, inside the houses and clinging to the
outsides, like so many swarms of bees, putting everything else down, as
that was the Day's Highlight. Unforgettable, indeed, to one who was
there (and deep-down in his heart, still is).
You don't seem to know the difference between our "Fighting Family,"
the Irgun Tzvai Leumi, and the LeHY (Stern Group). The Voice of Self-
Liberating Zion (Qol Tziyyon Hammishtachreret) was their clandestine
station; The Voice of Fighting Zion (Qol Tziyyon Hallochemet) was ours,
of the IZL!
One could not belong to both and did not. Neither did anyone else of
the LeHy have anything to do with the Irgun, for a very simple reason:
The LeHY, under Friedman-Yellin-Mor, Shamir, and Prof. Eldad/Shaib
(after Yair's assassination), came into being by splintering off from
the Irgun while severely berating our revered and beloved Commander
David Raziel. (Menachem Begin who, several years later, was to become
the successor of his successor, at that earlier time, 1940, still was
encarcerated in a Soviet slave labor camp in the Lena region of the FSU
for concluding (Raziel and the Irgun leadership, that is) an armistice
with the British, in deference to their decisive role in conducting the
all-out war against that other, and by far worse, enemy of our people,
namely Nazi Germany.
Yair (Avraham Stern) had been Raziel's best friend and half a year
before the outbreak of WW2 (February 1939) was Razi's - as we
affectionately called him - emissary to the Carpathian region of Poland
where he, Yair, headed two Irgun contingents. As planned and organized
by the head of Betar, Vladimir Z'ev Jabotinsky, the Polish Armed Forces
gave our IZL people the benefit of military training, which surely had
not been available in British-ruled "Palestine."
Stern, in 1940, sent two of his fellow dissidents to Beirut to
contact the consul of Nazi Germany with the intent to initiate
collaboration between the Nazis and the LehY (Stern Group) - a
dangerous, horror-fraught initiative which ended, of course, luckily, in
failure. The Raziel-Stern friendship turned into an abrupt abyss and no
chances for reconciliation between our Underground and theirs were left
open, we having opted for fighting the Nazis first, tooth and nail,
then, after victory, the British (as indeed we did). They, the LeHY
(Stern Group), stayed aloof on the war against the Nazis, even trying to
come to terms with them, the very depth of folly.
Razi eventually, one year later, joined the British Expeditionary
Forces in Habbaniyya on the Euphrates, in Rashid Aali AlGhailani's Nazi-
infested Iraq, to destroy the Qirquq oil terminal and capture the Mufti
then hiding out in Iraq, Haj Amin Al-Husseini. He fell there in action
as a Hero in Israel, victim of a Nazi-German Messerschmidt air attack on
Habbaniyya. He was first interred there under his pseudonym of Captain
Ben-Moshe, later to be transferred to Cyprus and ultimately, due to
strenuous efforts by Begin and others, with Archbishop Makarios, many
years later, brought to eternal rest on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem.
There were quite a few other differences between Irgun and LeHY, but
our 1940 temporary armistice with the British, then fighting the Nazis,
while the Stern people opted for the very opposite, is what caused the
rift in the first place. It is therefore inadmissible, aside from being
factually erroneous, to casually mix up these two Undergrounds.
Having been part of it all for close to ten years, over the thirties
and forties (indelibly engraved!), as far as the Irgun is concerned,
though friends of mine also were in the LeHY, I need no history books to
refresh my memory on that period, but I may recommend to you, by David
Niv in 5 or so large volumes, in Hebrew, _History of the Irgun HaTzvai
Heleumi in Eretz Israel_ (Toldot haIrgun Hatz'vai HaLeumi b'Eretz
Yisrael). If you really want to read up on that period and, in its
context, on the Irgun, or for that matter on the LeHY, there is, of
course, always Makhon Jabotinsky (Jabotinsky Institute), located in
Metzudat Z'ev, Tel Aviv.
I write this as an old fighter and faithful of Commander David
Raziel (about whom I also once wrote a biography). This has allowed me
to at least temporarily "rejuvenate" by some 60 years, momentarily
transporting me from my late 70s back to my late teens, which happened
to have been the years which I and my fellow Undergrounders of the Irgun
Tzvai Leumi spent hiding in the lousiest of store rooms, while
nevertheless brimming with pride to be in the forefront of the fight to
first rid the world of the evil Nazi plague and then going on expelling
the British High Commissioner-and-Hangman from the Land of Israel
altogether, without which no Jewish State of Israel could have arisen in
1948. Unfortunately, what we thought was the fight to the finish isn't
over yet by far and the British have merely been "replaced."
***********************************************************************
*** BACK ISSUES ***
1993 - Vol. 1: Issues 1.1-1.6, 1994 - Vol. 2: Issues 2.1-2.6
1995 - Vol. 3: Issues 3.1-3.6, 1996 - Vol. 4: Issues 4.1-4.6
1997 - Vol. 5: Issues 5.1-5.6, 1998 - Vol. 6: Issues 6.1-6.6
1999 - Vol. 7: Issues 7.1-7.6, 2000 - Vol. 8: Issues 8.1-8.5
Back issues and a Subject Index are available through the JUDEA WEBSITE:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~judea/index1.htm
To SUBSCRIBE (free), send an e-mail message with "subscribe" as the
subject to: amiel2@crosswinds.net.
JUDEA Magazine is a bi-monthly electronic magazine produced and
transmitted from Judea, Israel, specializing in stories about the
rebirth of Jewish life in a tiny and unique corner of civilization. Mail
address: Judea Magazine, Yael and Mark Ami-El, Editors; Tekoa; D.N.
North Judea, Israel, Fax: 972-2-9964588. JUDEA Magazine is offered
without charge on the Internet. All material may be reprinted with
attribution to JUDEA Magazine and original source as cited. Comments are
welcome by e-mail to: amiel2@crosswinds.net
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