Trudy Gold
Palestine, Britain and the Jews, Part 2

Trudy Gold - Palestine, the British, and the Jews, Part 2

- Good evening, everyone, from sunny Britain. And today, I’m continuing what is going to be a three-parter now on Britain, the Jews and Palestine because it’s such an important issue that I think it was crazy to try and rush it. So I’ve managed to put in another lecture. I’ve put my lectures around so that we will have Part 3 next week. Anyway, can we have the first slide? And this is Lord Moyne and he is the Secretary of State for the Middle East and a very close friend of Churchill. Just to recap a little bit, one of the big problems and when I talked about the aftermath of the Shoah, I said that one of the issues in Palestine, Israel and amongst all Zionists and amongst many Jews after the war was this terrible notion that whilst Jewish life was being extinguished in Europe, the Allies had so much knowledge and did very, very little to help. And it’s this kind of background that is really going to lead to the explosion in Palestine post-war. Now, if you remember, there was a minute’s silence in the House of Commons on December 17, 1942 for the murdered Jews of Europe. So much evidence have come through that it was actually the Polish government in London, Sikorsky, who was the one who was most responsible for alerting the Allies. And then the nine allied governments in London put together this declaration and Sydney Silverman, the Jewish member of Parliament, called for a minute silence and when the announcement was made about what was happening in Europe.

And of course the Zionist organisation was incredibly well-placed to receive information. They had their office in Geneva and more and more evidence was coming through. Now, what about the British? In the war years, you’ve got to remember that the Mufti had played a brilliant game. Back in 1937, when he created the Pan Arab Congress, he made it quite clear that in any future war, the Arabs would have no cause but to side with the Germans unless the British stop immigration. And of course in the end, the British do give in to those demands, they have a war to fight. And even during the war, and this is going to be such a problem for later relations, even during the war, as you know, they stopped many of the ships and thousands of lives were lost. And then of course we come to the story of Lord Moyne who is going to be the most important minister in the Middle East. And he is going to be assassinated by the Lehi which is going to cause an open sore between Britain and the Jews of Palestine. Now, in order for you to understand why Lord Moyne was such an important character to the British, don’t forget I’ve already pointed out he was a very close friend of Churchill’s. And in many ways, he’s the kind of character of whom heroes are made to the British. Those of you who live in London will of course know Kenwood and they will know Kenwood House, which was given to the British. It was given to the people, to the National Trust by in fact the Guinness family of which Lord Moyne was a part. It was actually his father who gave the house to the British.

And in this house of course, it’s a wonderful collection of art. It includes a Vermeer, it includes a Rembrandt. And they are seen as great benefactors. Their fortune came from brewery. Again, you see the British are a nation of shopkeepers. A British hero, his great grandfather may have made money in trade, but it’s still acceptable, far more acceptable in Britain than it was on the Continent. So who is this man? He’s the third son of the Earl of Iveagh. He was educated at Eton, Eton of course, the major British public school that has provided many of the prime ministers of Britain. He was head of the Pop Society. Now, in my very, very strange career, I taught six formers at Eton for five years. They actually gave me a term with one group of boys, then a term with another. It was an option subject and I usually had about 15, 16 boys in the class. And I may have told you this, one of the most interesting questions I ever had, it was my first question. I should tell you there were at least 50 options for the boys, but every year, every term, I had a group who studied Jewish history. And one boy said, “I want to find out "why my grandfather was on the England hit list.” But anyway, some of the boys wore brocade waistcoats and I always said, what’s that about? And it was for the elite society. It’s known as the Pop Society. And in fact, he was actually head of the Pop Society.

That’s about as popular as you get at Eton. He was captain of boats, of course he made a society wedding. He married the third daughter of the 14th Earl of Buchan. Now, this is really serious lineage, 14 generations. They had three children. Their eldest son, Bryan, was the first husband of Diana Mitford. And of course Diana Mitford went on to marry Oswald Mosley. He had a very good military career. He was commissioned in the Second World War. Evidently, he was one of these brave, devil may care characters. They made lightning raids on Africana positions. He was in Gallipoli in the First World War, he was in Passchendaele. He won the Distinguished Service Order. He is a real British hero. Goes into politics, paternalistic politics, the wealthy. in the 19th and early 20th century, MPs were not paid. Of course people in the House of Lords were not paid. He goes into politics because he has a duty of care. And by 1907, he’s on the London County Council and then from 1907 to 1931, he becomes a conservative MP for Bury St. Edmunds. So he is in the British Parliament. And although he and Churchill at first were politically opposed, later on, they’re going to work very, very closely together. And he was a cousin of Churchill’s wife Clementine. So not only are they close politically, but they are part of the same circle. Between 1925 and 1929, he’s the Minister for Agriculture. 1932, he becomes Baron Moyne. He had a very important business career. You see, that’s what I’m trying to get out to. He is a great British hero.

He becomes a director of the Guinness breweries. That firm had been established by his great grandfather. As I said, he’s the fifth generation. He also goes into property. He establishes the British Pacific Properties in Vancouver. He commissioned the Irongate Bridge, which was opened by George V, who of course was a family friend of the Guinness’. He was the trustee of so many charities, the Guinness Charity, the Iveagh Trust. And as I said, he was involved in arranging his father’s gift of Kenwood to the nation. He was also a very keen yachtsman, social cruises often with the Churchills and in December 1934, he brings the first living Komodo dragon back to Britain. So let me reemphasize he is an adventurer, he is a businessman, he’s a politician. He is a British hero. Now, Moyne and Churchill were both members of something called The Other Club, which Churchill had founded back in 1911. And he was actually present at the club when Chamberlain came back with that ridiculous speech of his. Having spent time with Hitler, he said, “I bring you back peace and peace with honour.” Now, in his political career, he was in Kenya in 1932 overseeing the finances. 1933, he chairs the parliamentary committee on slum clearance. Then he becomes the Vice Chancellor of Durham University. ‘36, he’s working with the British film industry. '38, he’s Chairman of the West Indies Royal Commission on British Governance in the Caribbean.

So the point is he has hugely diverse interests, he’s a very capable individual. And from the outbreak of war, he really petitions to have his daughter-in-law Diana Mosley actually imprisoned as a traitor. September 1939, when war breaks out, he chairs the Polish Relief Fund and gave his London home, 11 Grovenor Place, over to Polish officers. And under Churchill’s wartime leadership, he had various posts. He’s Secretary of State for the Colonies between August '42 and January '44, he’s Deputy Minister of State in Cairo and from January until his death, he’s Minister Resident for the Middle East. So he has not just control over Palestine, he has control over Persia, the whole of the Middle East, Palestine and Africa for the British government. Now, he was always opposed to a specific Jewish Army in Palestine. He was very worried about Arab sensibilities. Remember, he is a British officer and his main interest was the interest of Britain. And of course the tragedy of the ships, the illegal ships being one, the 12th of December, Salvador was sunk and 200 refugees died. And Tim Snow, head of the Refugee Section of the Foreign Office, tragically, his horrible remark, there could be no more opportune disaster. And Moyne informed Eden, the undersecretary at the Foreign Office, the landing of 700 more immigrants will be formidable and additions to the difficulty of the high commissioner. It will have a deplorable effect throughout the Balkans in encouraging further Jews to embark. Now, February the 7th, any relaxation of our deterrent measure is likely to encourage further shipments of the same kind. March 5, 1942, to the war cabinet, all practical steps should be taken to discourage illegal immigration.

And of course after the terrible incident of the Struma, it was Lord Cranbrook, the Secretary of State for the Colonies who said, “Under the present unhappy situation, "it is inevitable we should be hardened to horrors.” Now, Alec, can we have a look at the next slide? This is Alec Randall. Now, Alec Randall, here you see him with Niels Bohr actually because he’s later on going to become an ambassador to Denmark. Now, he’s head of the liaison department of the Foreign Office and then he’s head of the refugee department, '41 to '45 and ambassador to Denmark '45 to '52. Now, this is what he wrote. And remember, he is the head of the refugee department. The extreme Zionist campaign for recognition of a distinct Jewish nationality is part of the propaganda for a Jewish sovereign state in Palestine, a point of extreme delicacy for the Jews. And now, this is from the work of Louise London who wrote Whitehall and the Jews. She said, he was unable or unwilling to acknowledge that the destruction of the Jewish presence in Europe made it necessary to abandon outdated policies. And Randall actually stated as head of the refugee, remember he’s head of the refugee department, “When the war is over, we should use our influence "to see that Jewish nationals of various countries will sort "of be given a haven of refuge by various neutral countries "could be repatriated to their native lands.”

Let me repeat this, this is absolutely crucial. “When the war is over, we should use our influence "to see that Jewish nationals of various countries "will sort of be given a haven of refuge "by various neutral countries, "governments could be repatriated to their national home.” He also stated that Sikorski, of course the Polish government in exile, had already declared that after the war, all Polish Jews will be welcomed back to Poland. Tragically, we already know what happened because Stalin, very, very cynically there was civil war in Poland at the end of the war. And basically Jews who were returning, thousands of them tragically were murdered by Polish fascists. And if you’ll remember, it culminated in Kielce in the Kielce pogrom. Now, Josiah Wedgwood, who I’m going to do a special session on probably in August now, as a hero, he said, “It’s conduct worthy of the Middle Ages "and it’s conduct worthy of Hitler "and it’s carried out by the British government.” Now, I want you to bear Alec Randall in mind because now I have to come on to a terribly painful or difficult issue. Can we please turn to the next slide? And this is Joel Brand. I assume that many of you will have quite a lot of knowledge of this. Those of you who’ve been with us a long time will know that I’ve lectured on this at depth when we lectured on Hungary, and the website will be out by the end of June.

But I know also, and I don’t know if Mr. Komoly is listening today because in fact, his uncle was head of the Rescue Committee. Now, who is Joel Brand? And it’s going to tie up with the assassination of Lord Moyne. Joel Brand was one of those fascinating Jewish adventurers and he’d actually been born in Transylvania. His father had founded the Budapest Telephone company. The family had moved to Germany and then by the time he was 19, he was living in America. He became a member of the Communist Party. He worked for the Comintern. He saw the world as a sailor. He went to Hawaii, he went to the Philippines, he travelled in South America, he travelled in China and in Japan. And then he returned back to Germany. Remember, he’s a communist and he’s working in Germany. And then of course Hitler comes to power. And on the 27th of February 1933, he is arrested as a communist. This is the Reichstag fire, a lot of communist were rounded up. He is actually released in '34 when he moves back to Budapest where he works for his father’s company. He joins Poale Zion, he is a very left wing Zionist and he’s a very charismatic character. He’s a great leader. He becomes the vice president of Budapest Palestine office. In 1935, he married a woman called Hansi Hartmann who they had together a very successful knitwear company. They decided they wanted to go and live in Palestine, but his father was dead and his mother and three sisters had fled to Budapest from Germany. Remember Hitler had a yield in Rhine policy.

And he decided he had to stay in Hungary in order to support his mother and his three sisters. And he becomes involved in smuggling Jews into Hungary from Austria and from Germany and from the Czech lands. Now, this is one of the great ironies of history. Even though Admiral Horthy had a very punitive regime, Jews could still survive in Hungary. And ironically, you had Jews fleeing from Germany and Austria into Hungary, maybe 30,000 of them. And he was involved in that rescue work. And he becomes involved in the Rescue Committee of which Komoly was the chair, his wife was on it and so was a man called Rudolf Kessler. And of course in March 1944, Hungary is allied to Germany. It had been in Hungary’s interest in the early days because Hungary after the dismemberment of the Habsburg Empire, Hungary had lost an incredible amount of territory. She was a trading partner of Germany in the '20s and '30s and it was in her interest. She got a lot of territory back. And consequently went on the sly and Horthy was violently anti-communist. And particularly after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, he’s quite happy with that alliance and Hungarian troops are involved. But then of course by 1944, it looks like Germany’s losing the war, he wants to get out of the alliance. And that’s when of course the Germans march into Hungary.

And who goes with them? Following them behind goes Adolph Eichmann. And it’s at this stage, the Rescue Committee who’d worked with, believe it or not, they worked with people like Schindler and they had already been informed by a Slovakian rabbi called the wonderful Rabbi Weissmandl, he managed to bribe some SS. And they knew that Wisliceny, who was one of Eichmann’s aides, he was always partial to money. And they bribed Wisliceny to arrange a meeting. And Eichmann then sends forth members of the Rescue Committee, including Kessler and Brand. And he offers them the mad blood for goods deal. He offers to save Hungarian Jewry in return for huge concessions. Kessler stays behind and of course negotiates the famous blood for goods deal, which is so controversial, and we spend a lot of time on the Kessler trial later on. Brand meanwhile goes off to negotiate with the Allies and he goes with a very sinister character, another Jew called Bandi Grosz, who we know now works for the Germans. Now, he is arrested, Brand is arrested by the British. He is very much, he’s interrogated. He does see members of the Jewish Agency. He’s then interrogated and he hears during his interrogation the phrase is used, “What on earth?” because what on earth could we do with a million Jews? In fact, Shlomo Aronson, an historian, traces the remark now back to the head of the Refugee Section, Alec Randall. And during Brand’s incarceration, we know that both Brand and Moyne were interviewed by Ira Hirschmann. Roosevelt had set up a refugee board and Ira Hirschmann was the refugee delegate for Roosevelt in Turkey.

Now, according to Hirschmann, Moyne suggested sending him back with a noncommittal reply which would allow the talks to continue. The British release him and Brand makes his way to Palestine where he joins the Lehi. Now, who are the Lehi? The Lehi are the Stern Group. Just to remind you of this, the situation in Palestine had become very fractured. In the war years, when war broke out… In 1939 in May when the White Paper had been issued by the British restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine, the Irgun had declared war on the British. When war breaks out, the Irgun and the Haganah decide they’re going to have to fight with the British. A group led by Avraham Stern said the British were as bad as the Nazis because they are stopping the rescue of Jews. They continue the war against the British. Stern is killed in British custody and other people have taken over the group and it’s called Lehi. And he joins the Lehi. And he passes on the information that the statement was made by Lord Moyne. We now know the evidence says it was actually made in fact by Alec Randall. Now, what happens to Brand after the war? Of course he lives in Israel and he gives evidence at the Eichmann trial. Now, later on, Shamir, he takes over the Lehi. He said that they are going to murder Lord Moyne and they said there were three reasons for the murder, to show the world that the conflict was not between a government and its citizens but between citizens and foreign rule.

The conflict was between the Jewish people and British imperialism, and they needed to take the war of liberation. Lehi stated, “We accuse Lord Moyne "and the government he represents with murdering hundreds "of thousands of our brethren. "We accuse him of seizing our country "and looting our possessions. "We were forced to seek justice and fight.” Now, what happens? Let’s have a look at these two young men. Two young members of Lehi are sent to assassinate Lord Moyne. He was born in 1922, he came from Mizrahi background. His family had been in Palestine for five generations. In fact, his father was the postmaster of Tiberias. He was fluent in both Hebrew and Arabic, and as a child, he had been a runner for the Haganah. He went to the Hebrew university. It’s important to know that all these young characters whatever side they were on, they tended to be young intellectuals. He joined the Irgun, but later on, he split to join the Lehi. Of course, they do assassinate Lord Moyne and they kill his chauffer. They are captured and they’re put on trial in Egypt. And this is his speech at his trial. “We do not recognise England "and its right to give us Palestine "or take it away from us. "Let me make it clear to the court, "my ideas are not Zionist ideas, we do not fight "to uphold the Balfour Declaration, "we don’t fight for the sake of our national home. "We fight for our freedom. "In our country, a foreign power rules, millions sunk "in a sea of blood and tears, "but the British skipper did not lift them to a ship. "And if a few of the survivors hold onto the bow, "the British skipper pushed them back into the sea.

"We and our homeland have no choice "but to fight or surrender.” And can we see the next slide, please? Here you see his friend Eliyahu Hakim. He’d been born in Beirut to a Lebanese Jewish family. He moved to Haifa in 1933. He’d volunteered for the British Army because of course he had perfect Arabic. He’d been posted to Cairo, but he joined the Lehi and he’d already been involved in a failed assassination attempt on Harold MacMichael. Part of this operation was actually masterminded by Yitsak Shamir, who of course later on became the Prime Minister of Israel. And he studied law at the University of Warsaw and he cut short his studies to actually go on to Palestine. And the point about Shamir, his parents and his two sisters died in the Shoah and Shamir claimed they were killed by Polish visitors who had once been friend. And Shamir had told a friend that it’d been reported to him that his father said just before he was murdered, “I have a loyal son in the land of Israel. "He will exact for me my revenge.” And he joined Lehi. And after, he was one of the later leaders along with Eliyahu Giladi. And so he was one of those who planned the assassination of Lord Moyne. So let me reiterate, the reason they assassinate Lord Moyne, A, they believed he was responsible for the Struma, which was decided during his time as colonial secretary and also because he believed that Lord Moyne had made that terrible comment.

Now, later on in an interview he gave in 1993, he said this, “Lord Moyne was the highest British official "in the Middle East and because we fought "against the British in this area, we took him for a target. "This was the main reason. "Certainly we knew about his hostile attitude "towards Zionism, towards the ingathering "of the Jewish people. "He was against aliya, any Jewish immigration. "He didn’t believe that there existed such a thing "as a Jewish nation or a Jewish people "and therefore we decided on the operation.” So the two young Lehi are killed and they are executed in Cairo and they sing the Hatikvah on the gallows. So can we see the… Yes, here you see the assassination of Lord Moyne. And this is remember Churchill has lost one of his best friends, Churchill that had always been pro-Zionist. And this is what he said in the House. “If our dreams for Zionism are to end in the smoke "of the assassin’s pistol and all our labours "for the future are to produce a new set "of gangsters worthy of Nazi Germany, "then many like myself will have to reconsider "the position we have maintained consistently "for so long and in the past.” Now, this of course was an incredible blow. This is a review in The New York Times. It’s actually a letter printed in The New York Times from a reverend because of course you can imagine that the majority of British press were completely hostile.

This is a hero of Britain who has been assassinated. In fact, his body was brought back to London. He’s buried ironically in Hoop Lane in Golders Green where he lies alongside so many famous East Middle Europeans including Sigmund Freud. But this great friend of Churchill’s assassinated and this is when Churchill changes, by the way. I’ve done an awful lot of reading on this. Remember Martin Gilbert has written his wonderful book, Churchill and the Jews, and he can see no fault in his hero. And basically, and I’ve got to be very careful of all my words, but Churchill after the war, Weizmann tried to see him and he would never see him because of course he’s Prime Minister after the war. And Randall of Churchill, who was also a Zionist, he said, “My father was very tired, "my father was very upset.” But it was in my view and in the view of most historians, it’s the assassination of Lord Moyne. And of course he should’ve completely distanced himself. Ben-Gurion is horrified. He said, this puts us back so many years with the British. So again, what is happening is the Jews of Palestine, the Jews of the world, there’s this terrible tragedy because once the camps are finally liberated, and I’ve already discussed the aftermath, and this terrible catastrophe, the design is it’ll all come together if you remember at the Biltmore Hotel.

They have said, “What we need is a Jewish state now, "but how do we achieve that state?” And there were many who believed that the assassination of Lord Moyne was totally counterproductive. And of course these ideas are going to dog Israeli politics, still do, in my view. If you think about it, Ben-Gurion and the left are going to be in power and then Begin becomes prime minister and after Begin, Shamir. And what were their roles of course in this period? They were all fighting to save the Jews, but they all fought in different ways. Now, this is one positive letter from in The New York Times. From the Reverend Jeremiah Berman, in its conduct towards Palestine, the hands of the British government have not been clean. By shutting the doors of the promise lands in the face of the homeless and driven refugees, we’d of course got tens of thousands of Jews to perish, the British government cannot pursue a policy that drives men to desperation and then pretend outraged innocence when confronted with the inevitable consequences of the policy. Now, you’ve got to remember that where are the decisions coming from? They’re coming from Cairo. And this assassination of Lord Moyne is a terrible saw. And then of course the war is over. Can we go on, please, with the slides? Here you see Yitzak Shamir as a young man. Winston Churchill, yeah, the beautiful, beautiful Winston Churchill. You know, it’s interesting because he was a hero.

To me, he’s a hero. Of course like all heroes he had feet of clay, but it was his brilliance that held the people together. And during the war years, he was very positive about Jews. And I’m going to do a little more on that next week. And then an extraordinary thing happens in Britain. Can we just see the next slide because Ben-Gurion who spent much of the war years in Britain, by the way, at the end of the war, the Victory Over Europe Day, he was there and he said he felt nothing but horror because what will happen to the Jews now? And then there’s a huge change. The Labour Party come into power. Let’s see, Labour Party victory. Ironically, think about it, Churchill, the great war hero and in the new elections, what do they do? The British public vote the Tories out of power. There’s a total landslide. What did they vote for? They voted for the health service, they hoped for a new kind of Britain. They wanted a Britain where the working man would have his say in the world. Also, women flocked to the Labour Party because women had worked during the war. Things have completely changed and Churchill the old warhorse, although he’s going to come back, the old warhorse, he fought a campaign based on empire and the empire was crumbling.

And now you have the Labour Party in power now and you have as the new colonial secretary Ernest Bevin. Now, the prime minister is Clement Atlee. Can we see his face, please? Fascinating man, Atlee. In fact, he’d hosted a Jewish child refugee and for four months up to the run in World War II and never public he spoke about it. He sponsored a German Jewish woman and her two children. One of them, poor Willer, 10 years old, was invited to stay at his Northwest London home. And in 2018, Willer, now 90, he said, “Atlee was a modest man. "He didn’t try to glorify himself in any way.” His attitude towards Jews, this is Christopher Andrew in his history of MI5. It’s important to remember, he’s talking about the Jews, potential recruits into the Security Service had to be seen within the context of low level antisemitism which even after Auschwitz was still common in British public life. Atlee during a discussion on new ministerial appointments in 1951 said there were two who were always recommended to us knowing about industry, Mikardo and Austen Albu. But they both belonged to the chosen people and he didn’t think he wanted any more of them. Neither alas did the Security Service. And at the jobs at the Ministry of Labour, no Jews required, which led to a question from Sydney Silverman. So although in many ways, he was a great prime minister for Britain, however, he on the issue of Jews now, this is the problem.

When we’re dealing with antisemitism, I sometimes think that terrible phrase coined by an Israeli historian, antisemitism is to dislike Jews more than is reasonable. And then of course we come on to the character of Ernest Bevin. Let’s have a look at the man because Ernest Bevin is going to be the new colonial secretary and he’s going to rely very, very heavily on his advisors. So who was he because in many ways, he was a hero to the British working man. He’d been born in Somerset to a woman called Diana Bevin. She described herself as a widow. Probably he was illegitimate. After his mother’s death, he moved to live in with his half-sister’s family in Devon. He had very little formal education, he left school in 1892. He had a very, very hard early life. Aged 11, he went to work as a labourer. Then he was a lorry driver in Bristol. I need to get out to you how he’s going to be seen as a hero to many Brits. He joined the British Socialist Society. In 1910, he was secretary of the British branch of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers’ Union. He is up to his neck in labour politics, in trade union politics. He becomes the national organiser of the union. 1922, founder of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, which is Britain’s largest trade union. He becomes the general secretary, he’s one of the country’s leading labour leaders and their strongest advocate in the Labour Party. He’s a hero to the workers.

He’s horrified by communism, so he’s to the right of the paper. He did believe that communism was a Jewish plot. I’ve said this to you many times. The reason that communism was seen as a Jewish plot to many on the left at this stage and later on. In fact, my next session I’m going to look at antisemitism ironically in the communist east after the war. Ironically because so many of the leadership of the communist parties from country to country to country were born Jewish, it was seen as a Jewish plot. That’s how you get to that crackers notion of Jewish world conspiracy. It’s the Marx Rothschild axis. Don’t try and be logical about this because there is no logic in race hatred. So basically, he actually refers to communism as a Jewish plot. He did take part in the 1926 general strike, but he wasn’t enthusiastic. Sorry, I get so crossed I lose words. He fought for British Central as a Labour Party candidate, he was defeated. 1931, he was persuaded to again stand for Parliament. And he said he would stand provided he could still remain secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union. He loses, but he works very hard again for the union. He fought for Holiday with Pay Act, extending entitlement to paid holidays to 11 million workers. That’s why he’s a great hero. He was strongly against appeasement. He was a great opponent of fascism. And in 1940, he is in the all-party coalition government. Churchill was impressed by him. He becomes Minister of Labour and Minister of Military Service. So the point is he is a nationalist, he is a socialist, be careful about those words. He was not an MP at the time, so he was given an unopposed seat in Wandsworth. And he had complete control over the labour force and allocation of manpower.

He diverted 48,000 workers to the coal industry. They were known as Bevin’s Boys. And he used his position to improve the lot of working people. And in 1945, in Atlee’s government, he’s appointed foreign secretary and at that time, all the diplomats working for him were in verdict almost Eton and Oxford. One of the opponents to him, a man called Richard Crossman said, “Bevin’s outlook corresponded roughly to the protocols "of the elders of Zion.” And he’s going to rely very, very highly on all of his advisors. So what does he have to face? What’s the situation with the world at the end of the war and now you have a Labour government in power? Basically, the empire is falling apart and Britain is bankrupt. Ironically, it was not long ago that Britain finished paying back America the great loans because of course America rebuilds Europe but it doesn’t rebuild Britain. And I can remember as a child, I remember my mother. I was born in 1948, I can remember my mother’s Russian book which went on till the early ‘50s. I can remember the bomb site. London was a very, very dark place. And here you have in power a man who is committed to helping the working classes. He’s working with advisors basically as foreign secretary and colonial secretary. And where do they come from? They come from Eton, most of them come from Eton and Oxford. And as you know by the '40s, the Foreign Office is full of people who are Arabists. And in 1945, the League of Arab States have come into being with its headquarters in Egypt. Think oil, oil had been discovered in Saudi in 1938, very important we have good relations with the Saudis. I’ll come on to Ibn Saud in a few minutes.

It’s very important that all these characters are going to be useful. And the headquarters of the Arab States is now in Cairo under Faisel. And the British had actually sponsored the league as anti-Soviet and an anti-French body. The British don’t want any French involvement in the Middle East, but the Arab members, remember the Mufti, what had he done? He had managed to make the issue of Palestine the issue of the Arab world and later on, the issue of the Muslim world. He’s till in charge, believe it or not, at the end of the war, even though he’s a wanted war criminal. Remember he fled to France, but the Foreign Office, they’re advice, he’s the only person who can control the Arabs. So basically, he’s still in charge of the league’s Palestinian department. And he dispatched his people to London and Washington to pressurise against the alteration of the White Paper. So you have Bevin, very much advised, needing his advisors and they convinced Bevin that a stable Near East was absolutely vital for Britain’s strategic interests. So despite the collaboration of some Arabs with the axis powers, think about the revolt in Iraq which had led of course to that terrible pogrom and think about the uprisings. Nevertheless, it’s in the interest of Britain to still keep friendly with the Arabs. And don’t forget that in this stage, Jordan is still very close to Britain under the MA Abdullah. His brother Faisal of course his dynasty is roaring in Iraq. Now this you have to listen to very carefully. Some of you will know this. The father of the Hashemitic dynasty had been destroyed by the Saud dynasty who is now ruling in Saudi. The Hejaz is now Saudi Arabia.

They all loathe each other, but the point is, they all loathe the Mufti, but it’s going to be in their interest to try and work together. So Britain needs the Arabs. They need the oil, think the Iraq Petroleum Company. They need the good will of the five Arab States and the 40 million Arabs. The quote is, “The good will of five Arab States "and 40 million Arab citizens cannot be jeopardised. "Britain,” he declared, “could not accept the view "that the Jews should be driven out of Europe.” Now, back in 1939, the Labour Party had nearly unanimously voted against the White Paper. And Atlee at the time had said, “A base betrayal, "the filing of a petition in political and moral bankruptcy. Let me repeat, this is Atlee who is now prime minister. He had said, "The White Paper is a base betrayal, "the filing of a petition "in political and moral bankruptcy.” This is another statement of Bevin. “If Jews with all their sufferings want to get too much "to the head of the crew, you have the danger "of another antisemitic reaction through it all.” Bevin decides that the Jews could not jump to the top of the queue. This is an MI5 briefing at the beginning of 1946. Present trends in Zionism, the Stern Group in 1944 when they assassinated Lord Moyne, they had at least 600 followers, most of whom are desperate men and women who count their own life cheap. They have been selecting members overseas for the purpose of assassinating prominent British personalities. Our Jerusalem representative, this is from MI5, our Jerusalem representative has received information that the Irgun and the Stern have decided to send five-star sailors to London to work along IRA lines. Beat the dog in his own kennel. Now, basically Bevin is already anti-Jewish.

And now he is going to be advised by individuals. Some of you who watched that brilliant programme of Rex Bloomstein’s Auschwitz of the Allies, some of the characters advising Bevin were those people who did absolutely nothing to help the Jews of Europe. So let’s have a look at some of them. Let’s have a look at Harold Beeley. Harold Beeley, these are the men who advised Bevin. Bevin is a man of the people, he is an antisemite, but he’s now going to be advised by Civil Service, Foreign Office and characters who… Well, let me just tell you their stories. So this is Harold Beeley, upper middle class family, educated in English public school, then at Oxford. He had an academic career, he was a lecturer in history. In fact, he wrote a biography of Israeli, not a good one, he didn’t serve in the war because of poor eyesight, Chatham House with Arnold Toynbee, which is the Royal Institute of International Affairs, mission to offer global solutions to global challenges, he was one of the founders of the Chatham House Rules. Then he goes to the research department at the Foreign Office. He actually helped to design the UN Trusteeship Council.

He was chosen to serve as secretary of the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry on Palestine, which I’ll come onto next time. He believed that the creation of Israel would forever complicate relations between Britain and the Middle East. He was a noted Arabists. In an article in The New York Times, The New York Times editorial, his views influenced Bevin. Now, just to give you a few of his later escapades on behalf of the British, he negotiated the British withdrawal from Iraq, the joint British and Iraq defence board to oversee Iraq’s military planning. And after the independence of Iraq, he made sure Britain was still in control of its foreign affairs. He wanted very much a block against the Soviets. He later convinced the Egyptians and the Syrians and the Iraqis to come together. In the war of 1948, he made sure that Iraqi divisions were armed with modern British weapons to join the Arab Legion to take over what will become the state of Israel. And so he is a man who is already there. And now, this interesting. This is all later information that comes out onto these 50-year rules. This is the Iraqi Foreign Minister Muhammad al-Jamali. It was agreed that Iraq, now remember this is after the war, that Iraq would buy for the Iraqi police 50,000 Tommy guns. We intended to hand them out to the Palestinian Army volunteers for self defence. Great Britain was ready to provide the Iraqi Army with arms set out in a list prepared by the Iraqi general staff. The British undertook to withdraw from Palestine gradually so that Arab forces could enter every area evacuated by the British so that the whole of Palestine should be in Arab hands after the British withdrawal. We were all optimistic about the future of Palestine.

In 1955, Harold Beeley was first ambassador to Saudi Arabia. In 1961, he was ambassador to the United Arab Republic, that is when Egypt and Syria became one nation. He was very close to NASA. He later returned to academia. He was very much involved in all Middle Eastern affairs. He becomes a lecturer at Queen Mary’s College. He was president of the Egypt Expiration Society. He was chairman of the World of Islam Festival Trust in 1996. He was chairman of the Egyptian British Chamber of Commerce, also vice chairman of the Middle East international. So basically, he is one of Bevin’s advisors and I don’t have to go much further. Can we go on to the next one, please? Arnold Toynbee, the great historian. He came from a family of intellectuals. He’s best known for his 12-volume study of history. He believed that every civilization had its spring, summer, autumn, winter. He found the Jews terribly irritating because they didn’t fit in to anything. Scholarship to Winchester Balliol College, Oxford British School in Athens, tutor at Balliol, began working for the intelligence department at the Foreign Office. He was a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference. He was professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at UCL. He was director of studies at Chatham House. In 1936, he addressed the Nazi Law Society in Berlin. He had a private interview with Hitler. He believed Hitler wanted a deal with Britain. Originally, he had a certain sympathy for Zionism.

He actually worked with Louis Ranou, but gradually he became very, very pro-Arab and believed it would be against any British interest for the Zionist endeavour to succeed. He was totally against the formation of the Jewish state, another very important advisor to Bevin. Can we go on, please? So Christopher Mayhew, I had the misfortune to meet the man at one time. He came from a very Aristo background, clever, an exhibition to Christ Church Oxford as was don’t forget that all these advisors, intellectually, they were very clever. President of the union, he was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps, became a major. He was the undersecretary of state for Ernest Bevin. And during, he represented the Labour Party on television. He becomes a great spokesman. And he was very much against any Zionist endeavour whatsoever. In 1973, he… Oh, by the way, I should mention that he had lots of positions in the Labour Party. He was Minister of Defence for the Royal Navy. He actually resigned under the very pro-Israel Wilson government. In 1973, he offered 5,000 pounds to anyone who could produce evidence that NASA had stated in which to drive all the Jews into the sea. October 1973, he repeated the offer in the House of Commons. He broadened it to include any statement of genocide by any Arab leader. And he reserved for himself the right to be the arbiter.

He received many letters with quotes from Arab leaders. He said they were all fabricated. Warren Bergson took him to court in 1976 and he unfortunately couldn’t prove it. He moved to the liberals, he became a life peer. This is a man who crossed from anti-Zionism to antisemitism. This is his obit in The Independent. The Foreign Office was confronted by the need to handle as successfully as possible Britain’s declining role in the world and to negotiate to withdrawal from parts of the old empire where her supremacy no longer made any sense. One of these, Palestine, was whose future both Bevin and Mayhew became closely concerned. Bevin’s attempts to navigate even-handedly between the claims of immigrant Jews and those of Indigenous Palestinians was shipwrecked by the opposition of America under strong Zionist pressure. Remember, this is The Independent. Mayhew remembered vividly for the rest of his life the virtual ultimatum presented through him to the British government by the American ambassador Lou Davis for the immediate admission of 100,000 Jews into Palestine. In his autobiography, Time to Explain, in 1987, Mayhew records that when he objected that this would cause a war, the ambassador replied if we would help him over this, it would enable our friends in Washington to get Marshall aid appropriation through Congress. In other words, we must do as the Zionist wish or starve. Bevin surrendered, but he was understandably very bitter and angry. He was very much part of the fight against communism. He linked later on, he very much linked Israel to South African apartheid. He’s one of the few characters that led to the accusation that Israel was an apartheid state.

He established the Middle East International in 1970 and he remained president of it until his death. So what am I telling you? The characters that are around Bevin are anti-Zionists and I’m suggesting many of them toppled into antisemitism. What I’m going to talk about next week is the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry. And I’m going to talk about the reasons behind it. So this is such a complicated tale that I’m going backwards and forwards. I’m sure most of you know exactly what I’m talking about. Can we now go on to Sir Frank Roberts, yes. Another clever man, fact, he again come from a very upper middle class background, he went to Trinity College, he got a first in history and won first place in the Foreign Office exams. He finished up in Cairo. And in 1937, he was involved in much of the diplomacy with Nazi Germany, based in London till '45. And he was posted to Moscow. He was actually PPP to Ernest Bevin. He later became Deputy High Commissioner to India. He was very much one of those characters when he was in London, he was the one who dealt with the requests from the Jews. And he basically was the man who said, “We spend far much time dealing with these wailing Jews.” He was in my view an antisemite. And I think I’m going to stop there and can we have a look at questions, please?

Q&A and Comments:

I hope I haven’t gone too fast. Tell me if I have because hopefully when we get to number three, I’m going to bring it all together.

Q: I find it disturbing to hear apologetics of British policies concerning Israel. If there had been no White Paper regulating to a million Jewish immigration, there would not have been, it can be argued, no?

A: Hold on, Mitsy, let’s be very, very careful. This is the problem. The Nazis did it. Could the British have saved more, definitely. Could more Jews have been saved if the countries of the world had had a refugee policy that opened the doors to German and Austrian Jews, sure. But be careful. It’s such an emotionally charged and loaded issue that we’re dealing here. I’m trying very hard to walk the tightrope. Of course the British in Palestine have a case to answer, but I’m not going to give them the same level of monstrosity as I’m going to give to the Nazis and their collaborators and the people who run the camps. That’s my view. Corinne, 2000 Orange Prize winner, When I lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant is about a woman who immigrates from London to Palestine in 1946. Yes, read biography, it helps so much. Lehi, which is the abbreviation of Lohamei Yisrael. Yes, thank you. Lehi is Hebrew, means fighters for the freedom of Israel.

Q: Tebol, has there been any discussion about Great Britain paying reparations, restitution, issue serious apologies to Israel and the Jewish people for all the direct and indirect crimes they committed with their actions against the survivors of the Shoah?

A: Oh, Tebol, this is so complex, isn’t it? Not as far as I know, no.

Perhaps you should mention there’s also a large Jewish cemetery in Hoop Lane. Yes, of course I should, Michael. Many of my closest people have been buried there.

Q: Would the British have done anything different about Jewish immigration after World War II if Moyne had not been assassinated?

A: It’s interesting because Churchill actually told Weizmann that Moyne was beginning to change his mind on partition, but Eden was against it. But that was before the assassination. And Churchill actually told Weizmann that he thought he could deal with Moyne. Moyne then goes back and is assassinated and I think also so was his chauffer. Now, never forget some people’s assassins, some people’s heroes, some people’s freedom fighters are other people’s terrorists. One has to choose words very carefully. Never forget what Karl Popper said, “The 20th century is all about the meaning of words.”

What do you think Churchill really did feel about Nazis killing the Jews? Why didn’t he help to save Jews more? Where did he want the surviving Jews to go after the war? I’m going to be next week reading you some of Churchill’s statements during the war. Read Martin Gilbert, Churchill and the Jews. He didn’t give it top priority, although he does write to Eden about bombing the camps. He does give the order to Bomber Command, it is not received by Bomber Command. This is very much Martin Gilbert’s research. And Rex made a film, Auschwitz and the Allies. He talks about it and Rex actually interviewed the head of Bomber Command who said, “I would’ve done it.” There are some historians who say what difference would it have made if the camps had been bombed? And going back to the blood for goods deal, we now know that it was actually Himmler trying to create a smokescreen. Himmler wanted to take over Germany. He believed they were losing the war and he wanted his Germany to join in a alliance against communist Russia. And that’s why he was playing for time. This all comes out, it’s a terribly complicated tale. Yehuda Bauer has written brilliantly about it. You see, one of the problems that I’m having to deal with is I’m bringing so many threads together now.

The famous, this is from Leonard, the famous photograph of Churchill taken by Yousuf Karsh in Ottawa was recently stolen from the lobby by Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa and to date has not been returned. The great statue of Churchill in Parliament was of course sculpted by Oscar Nemon. And you will remember his daughter Aurelia Young came and talked about it a few weeks ago.

Q: Were the British government aware that returning DPs were being murdered by their country of origin and yet did not release Palestine policy?

A: Yes, they were. You know, in the end, the question you have to ask yourself is why were the British in Palestine? They were there in my view to put forward British interests and you’ve also got to remember Britain needed oil. That doesn’t excuse.

Q: Do countries have the same morality as they expect from individuals? Didn’t Churchill describe Atlee as a modest man that had much to be modest about?

A: He said he was a sheep in sheep’s clothing, I think. Look, my son-in-law who I have great opinion of actually does think Atlee is one of Britain’s best prime ministers. I’m trying to persuade him to talk on it.

Myrna, you have to love Churchill.

Q: As a Jew, should I feel embarrassed that I have a first cousin who attended Eton and then Oxford?

A: No, Michael, of course not. Look, I taught at Eton and I must admit that I was seduced by them, many of them. I must have been. What I mean was I walk into a room, they have the most perfect manners and they would say, “Good morning, Mom.” And they were absolutely charming. There is something very charming about a certain kind of Englishman. And some of them are incredibly decent, never forget that. Some of them are, to me, real heroes.

Meryl, it was inevitable that the British Civil Service would be pro-Arab. There are dozens of Arab countries and more ambassadors and embassies, far more jobs available if you’re ambitious. Also, Meryl, and I remember a colleague of mine said, very good historian, he said, “Look, the Jews made such terrible colonials.” Just think of the Zionists in Palestine and also don’t forget the British military administration in Palestine. A lot of them had come straight from fighting the communists in Russia under Churchill’s orders and they brought the protocols of the elders of Zion with them.

Tori B. wrote the Jews were the first civilization which Churchill successfully challenged him to a debate in Montreal. God, yes, that must have been incredible. Yeah, we irritated him because we should have died. If you think of his view of empire, but we come back, we keep on coming back. Wistrich always said we were the spiritual nation. I’m very glad you added an extra lecture on Britain, Trudy and Wendy, enlightenment at last.

Yeah, it’s so complicated, Joan. I hope I’m going slowly enough. It is so, there are so many threads to pull together and I’m trying to keep the balance. It’s clear that the British didn’t care about the Arabs of the Middle East, about the oil of the Middle East. The Jews were going to get into the way of this ideology, yep.

Q: What was the relationship between British Labour and the Israel Labour Party?

A: Very, very good point at the time. I’m going to come onto that when I talk about the British. And can you imagine what it was like to be a Jew in Britain of this period? And it’s going to get even worse between '45 and '48, and I’m going to talk about that. You know, there was a pogrom in Liverpool. Things went completely pear-shaped for awhile. It needs to be remembered that in opposing the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, the Foreign Office were extremely concerned that it would facilitate the growing influence of the USSR in the Middle East. Yes, of course they did. And Stalin is really going to play on that. And when I come on to… Wait till we talk about the Russians and their attitude to the Jews. It was Gromyko’s speech in the UN during the partition debate. He made an incredible speech. He said, the Jews are owed a state because of the Shoah. Later on, Stalin changes his mind, but that’s down to Stalin, isn’t it? Lehi should be considered martyrs.

James Patterson, is not Islamic jihad and Hamas say the same about their fighters? Yes, this is one of the issues. A bit of useless information, you will never use this, Monty. The daughter of, your information is never useless, the daughter of Toynbee is a journalist in Britain and writes for The Guardian. You know, it’s fascinating because of course the Manchester Guardian under C.P. Scott was a great Zionist. Scott was a great Zionist. He was the one who introduced Weizmann into government circles.

I was at the, this is Judith, I was at the Toynbee debate in Montreal. Toynbee actually said, “Some of my best friends are Jews.” We all laughed. Wow, anyway, thank you all so much for bearing we me. I’m hoping I’m going to be able to finish my number three. If not, I’m just going to have to put another one in because I think this is so important. I set myself ridiculous tasks, but I hope it’s becoming clearer. I’m trying to approach it from lots of different angles. You all have to make your own minds up about this. I hope you understand why Lord Moyne in particular was considered a great hero by the British, particularly by Churchill. And Churchill did tell Weizmann he’s changing his mind. Look, the desperation of the Jews of Palestine, Israel is founded on Jewish powerlessness. I believe that and I’m going to stop there. Thank you so much for all your help, Lauren. And I will see next week, next Tuesday.

Take care, everyone, bye.