Howard Epstein
The Israeli Civil War: The Altalena Revisited
Howard Epstein - The Israeli Civil War: The Altalena Revisited
- A very warm welcome to all our participants who are joining us from all over the world. And today, we have a very special guest joining us, presenting to us, Howard Epstein, who is a Commercial Lawyer practising in the City of London. He has written books in four different genres. Most relevantly this evening, he has written, “ISRAEL AT SEVENTY-FIVE: In Weizmann’s Image”, a biography focused on the diplomatic, educational, and scientific achievements of Chaim Weizmann. Without which, he argues, there would be no Israel and certainly, no success on the scale that Israel enjoys today. Howard has also written and produced two plays on Israeli themes, “The Weizmann Dialogues” and “The trial of David Ben-Gurion”. David has written extensively for the website, israelscene.com and writes a weekly column, “Israel Letter” for the Jewish Telegraph, a weekly newspaper circulating in the British cities of Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds. So, Howard thank you so much for joining us today and we are so looking forward to hearing you talk about the Israeli Civil War and Altalena Affair. Thank you, so over to you.
- It’s my great pleasure. Thank you very much. And it’s a great honour for me to present this talk under the auspices of Lockdown University, who I thank for the opportunity to share with all of you this, one of the most important events of modern Jewish history. In fact, we are all honoured this evening by the participation of a real life survivor of the Altalena. His family contacted Trudy Gold last week, and I spent some invaluable time with them. Michael Brecker, now 91, was an intrepid 17-year-old who left his comfortable home in London to travel to Europe in 1948 to make a contribution to the future of the Jewish people in the Zionist project. He found his way to Germany, where impressed by the commitment of the right wing people he met, he went on to France, the Altalena and Israel. Little did he appreciate that he was destined to be at the epicentre of the Israeli Civil War. So Michael, we salute you and I dedicate this talk to you. Now, ladies and gentlemen, wherever you are in the world, come with me to a different place and time. To the Israel of Sunday the 21st and Monday the 22nd of June, 1948 for those are the days of the Israeli Civil War. The Jewish state is merely five weeks old and Israeli soldiers are shooting live rounds and indeed, shooting to kill other Israeli soldiers. In all, 19 Jewish boys were killed by other Jewish boys. You have often heard it said, that where it not for our external enemies, the Palestinians, the Iranians, and in the past, the whole Arab world, we might destroy ourselves. The story of the Altalena is the prime example of that nightmare, that fear, that threat, the threat of the Jewish all now, an Israeli civil war. There was an earlier example of this between 67 and 63 BCE, the Hasmonean Civil War.
What began as an intra-Jewish conflict, fratricidal war, ended with Roman involvement and the loss of Jewish independence for 2,000 years in 70 CE. Well, you may say that was a very long time ago and indeed it was, but the trauma of the Altalena occurred within the last 75 years. Altalena is unimportant except it’s the Italian word for swing or seesaw and was a nom de plume of Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Can we have slide two please? He’s known to history as a revisionist Zionist, but he’s little known. His profile suffering from his death having occurred eight years before the birth of the state of Israel and arguably also, from his being on the wrong side of history. What do we mean by revisionist? Weizmann and Ben-Gurion envisioned a Jewish state in some parts of Palestine in part of Eretz Yisrael. Weizmann and Ben-Gurion were visionaries and for them something was better than nothing. But the Palestinian Arabs whose policy always was and remains today unremittingly Maximalist, it always was and still is a matter of all or nothing. Slide three, please. The revisionist two wanted no less than the whole of Eretz Yisrael meaning, all the territory covered by the League of Nations mandate for Palestine including trans-Jordan. That is today’s Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, but it was fanciful. There have been times when it’s been hard enough to maintain the borders of Israel as we know them. Imagine the problem magnified with thousands of kilometres ordering Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Winston Churchill did us a great favour when he gave trans-Jordan to the Hashemites. Slide four, please. Throughout the mandate years, and in the fateful year of 1948, the main political actors were the dominant socialists.
David Ben-Gurion was head of the Sochnut, the Jewish agency had become the undisputed leader of the Yishuv the Jews of Palestine. His politics were socialist and well to the left of centre. His party was Mapai. Slide five, please. Ben-Gurion’s main ideological competitor was Menachem Begin, a revisionist whose credo is expressed through the “Ha-Irgun Ha-Tzvai Ha-Leumi”. Politically, they were represented by Betar, firmly on the right wing of Zionism. We shall see how far the mutual antagonism of these two men stretched the integrity of the emerging Zionist state. Now, Zionism, where to start with Zionism? Time pressures dictate that we start no earlier than the United Nations General Assembly vote on the 29th of November, 1947 to partition Palestine between the Palestinian Jews and the Palestinian Arabs, what would today be called a two-state solution. The UN vote for partition was carried by 33 votes to 13 with 10 abstentions. Immediately, the Palestinian Arabs attack the Jews in British control, Palestine. The War of Independence had begun and the British sat idly by, doing nothing to restrain the Arabs. On the 7th of April, 1948, the British finally declared that they would give up the mandate they had acquired from the League of Nations in 1920. At midnight on the night of Friday the 14th/15th of May, 1948, a provisional government and a provisional cabinet would be formed and as expected, Ben-Gurion would assume the role of provisional prime minister. Yet, even as the prominent Zionist he was, Ben-Gurion did not have the field to himself.
Quite apart from Begin, there were other great actors. Slide six, please. Notably, Chaim Weizmann, the President of the Zionist organisation for over 30 years and destined to become Israel’s first president. And in the United States of America, an unsung hero of Zionism, Hillel Kook. Born in Lithuania in July, 1915, he arrived in Eretz Yisrael in 1924. By the age of 15, he joined the Irgun and at 22, in 1937, he was already a member of the Irgun general staff. The Irgun sent Kook to pursue their work firstly, in Poland and later with the war clouds gathering in America. There he went as Peter Bergson. It was Bergson who brought the 60-year-old Jabotinsky to America in 1940. Jabotinsky, however, had a weak heart and died aged 60 within a few months leaving Bergson as the de facto leader of the Irgun in America. Now whilst in your mind the Irgun may be firmly, perhaps exclusively associated with what is referred to as Jewish terrorism. Slide seven, please. The destruction of the South wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in July, 1946 being their most notorious enterprise during World War II led by Bergson, the American arm of the Irgun, his other much more constructive work. First, they campaigned for the formation of a Jewish army to fight under allied command.
The news of the wholesale slaughter of the Jews of Europe began to filter through. They worked assiduously to publicise and hopefully to degrade to some extent, the ongoing Shoah. The so-called Bergson group or Bergsonites included brilliant author and screenwriter Ben Hecht, an equally brilliant cartoonist, Arthur Szyk. In 1942, Hecht and Szyk set up the Joints Emergency Committee on European Jewish Affairs. Despite, by the brilliance and genius of Hecht and Szyk they placed full page newspaper advertisements. Slide eight, please. Throughout the United States proclaiming, Jews fight for the right to fight. And in February, 1943, a full page advertisement in the New York Times, “FOR SALE to Humanity 70,000 Jews Guaranteed Human Beings only $50 each.” On Tuesday the 9th of March, 1943 at Madison Square Garden, to a sold out crowd of 40,000 in two performances that day, they staged the huge pageant entitled, “We Will Never Die”. Memorialising the 2 million European Jews who it was already known had been murdered in the Nazi horror. Later, performed in Washington DC. It was attended by First Lady, the Redoubtable, Eleanor Roosevelt, six Supreme Court judges and 300 congressmen. The following year, Bergson learnt of the full extent of the horrors of The Shoah and the Auschwitz protocols. Slide 10, please.
A compilation of three detailed reports by five eye witnesses from 1943 to 1944 about the mass murder that was taking place inside Auschwitz-Birkenau. Ominously, they warned of the impending destruction of the Jews of Hungary. The Bergson group began to lobby furiously for the allies to bomb Auschwitz and the railway lines leading to it in the hope of degrading what we now know to have been the work of Adolf Eichmann. Slide 11. The transportation by rail of whole communities of Jews from all over Europe to the guest chambers and the . On the 26th of November, the full tech– you could only get this in America. It certainly didn’t happen in the Yishuv and it didn’t happen in the UK. The full text of the Auschwitz Protocols was published in the United States by the United States War Refugee Board. The Bergson Knight Emergency Committee pestered people in the Pentagon and President Roosevelt to bomb the machinery of the Holocaust. But they were unable to reach the president, himself who was ailing. Roosevelt died in April, 1945 before his wife, Eleanor, could arrange for the Bergsonites to meet him. After that they found the position hopeless for the operational military men in Europe refused point blank to bomb the camps. They said they were too far away for their bombers to reach even though– Slide 12, please. They were bombing the I.G. Farben works in truth part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. World War II over, with independence or certainly a war for independence looming. The Bergson group redoubled their efforts. Now they were working for the future of the Jews in the context of the Zionist enterprise. They raised funds for the purchase of a ship. What they found was an LSC, the US Navy’s designation for landing ship tanks that indicates a big ship if it’s going to land tanks. Slide 13, please.
Over 1000 LSCs were laid down in the United States during World War II. And the ship the Irgun acquired, prosaically named LST 38, was US Navy having been deployed in the Pacific War with the invasion of a succession of Japanese-held islands. Slide 14, please. Next, they found a captain for their ship or rather, he found them. Monroe Fein had commanded just such a vessel as LS 138 in the Pacific. On returning to– from the far east to his family in Chicago, he learns of the destruction of the Jews of Europe. Fein was shocked to the core and wanted to achieve something for the survivors. His father took him to Washington DC to meet Bergson. And Fein committed himself to what had become the main effort of the Irgun in America to supply Irgun fighters and meaningful quantities of armaments to the Yishuv. Slide 15, please. In April, 1948, age 25– these people are so young, he’s 25 and our hero, Michael Brecker was 17. In April, 1948, age 25, Monroe arrived at Port Dubuque, a small harbour about 30 miles northwestern Marseilles there he saw that the Irgun had acquired just the short– sort of craft he knew so well. As he arrived at the quay side, they were painting on her new name, “Altalena”. The ship would be loaded with large quantities of weapons and ammunition, a gift of the French government and nearly a thousand young men and women of the Irgun boarded. The Altalena was originally to sail in mid-May with a number of Irgun luminaries on board.
Abraham Stavsky, Eliyahu Lankin, Bezalel Amitzur and none other than Peter Bergson, Hillel Kook himself. These people are seriously committed. Meanwhile, at the other end of the Mediterranean Sea, British Mandatory, Palestine, was becoming Israel. David Ben-Gurion was nervous about declaring independence. He was all too aware that five Arab armies were just waiting for the British to leave whereupon they would invade the fledgling state. As late as the 11th of May, 1948, Ben-Gurion cabled Weizmann saying that, the and the provisional council were uncertain what to do. Weizmann cabled back . “What are they waiting for, the idiots? It’s now or never.” In the event the vote to declare independence was won by six to four in favour, what would’ve happened had the vote been five all and Ben-Gurion had had to cast the chairman’s vote? History has spared us. On Friday the 14th of May, Ben-Gurion proclaimed the Declaration of Independence. Slide 16, please. And the members of the People’s Council signed it. Slide 17, please. At midnight, Israel would be born and be at war. The armies of distant Iraq and the neighbouring Arab states of Egypt, trans-Jordan, Lebanon and Syria invaded the newborn state. The Egyptians with the largest of the Arab armies, attacked from the south on the 15th of May that met fierce resistance from the few and lightly armed defenders. On the 19th of May, the Egyptians reached their Yad Mordechai.
Presumably, many of you have been there and seen the setup in the field where 100 Israelis held up a column of 2,500 Egyptians for five days. The Egyptians took heavy losses while the losses sustained by the defenders were comparatively light. On the 26th of May, crucially, the Israel defence forces are established. Menachem Begin, the leader of the Irgun in Israel agrees there should be one military under a sole central command and the Irgun fighters are absorbed into the IDF. The state is now 12 days old. The Egyptians renew their northerly advance on the 28th of May. Stopped at the destroyed bridge just north of Isdud, later to become Ashdod. This is, as you may know, 40 kilometres, 27 miles to the south of Army headquarters in Tel Aviv. The state is two weeks old. Things were going badly further north. Operation Bin Nun Alef in the first battle of Latrun on the 24th and 25th of May was widely regarded as a disaster with the IDFs losses estimated of anywhere between 310 and 1,500 men. The situation uphill to the east in Jerusalem is dire and in the old city only Irgun fighters are still fighting and barely holding on. A truce is declared by the UN on the 29th of May and both sides accepted, effective 11th June. A central condition is a mutual embargo on the importation of armaments.
The state is 28 days old. Now, you will remember that the Altalena was carrying a large quantity of weapons of ammunition, but where was she? On the said 11th of June, with communication somewhat inferior to those that we enjoy today, the Altalena set sail from France. She was headed for a country at war, which unbeknown to those on board, had just agreed as part of the truce not to import arms. On the 15th of June, Menachem Begin learns the Altalena is on its way. Its sailing time would be around a week so, allowing for the fact that it might have to run the gauntlet of the Royal Navy, which was deployed to enforce the conditions of the truce was estimated it would reach Israel’s shores by the 20th of June. Begin, who you will recall, had agreed the Irgun fighters be absorbed into the IDF, meets with representatives of the Israeli provisional government to inform that the Altalena set sail from France. Begin seeks to insist that at least 20% of the arms and ammunition on board be transferred to the Irgun units in Jerusalem. The risks, he concedes, will go to the IDF but with a preference to the Irgun units that have been integrated into the IDF. Ben-Gurion agrees that the ship should proceed without haste. And appears to prove the transfer of some of the arms to the Irgun units in Jerusalem that demands that the rest be transferred immediately and without any preconditions to the IDF. We can safely say, that the meeting ended with many matters left wide open. The Altalena was told by radio not to go to the port of Tel Aviv where nothing could be kept secret, but to go instead to Kfar Vitkin Beach, a name that will resound an infamy, I suggest.
Kfar Vitkin Beach about 10 minutes drive north out from Netanya today. Close to Mikhmoret then a small fishing village. Monroe Fein drops anchor at 3:30 hours on Friday the 19th of June, about a kilometre from the beach. The weather is foul and the sea very rough. Nothing can be done until the following day, Shabbat 20th of June. By and by, people arrive from Mikhmoret small boats. They are used, together with the Altalena’s lifeboats, to offload cargo. Fein records in the ship’s manifest, that they fared to the beach, 2,000 rifles, 2 million rounds of ammunition, 3,000 shells and 200 Bren guns, about 20% of the cargo. You will recall, however, that the ship had cargo even more valuable than the weapons and ammunition. There was a lot inconsequential matter of the volunteer fighters. During the day, during that day, Shabbat, their hero, Menachem Begin, arrives and boards the ship. There is great excitement with much singing and dancing. In the evening, however, the young volunteer fighters disembark. This is unlikely that they knew much before that of the agreement that Begin had reached with Ben-Gurion on the 26th of May for all Irgun fighters to be absorbed into the IDF. In any event, some 900 of them are driven off in a convoy of IDF trucks and thereupon conscripted into the Israeli army. I now know from Michael Brecker, that around 40 others from Britain remained on board. This is detail I couldn’t get anywhere else.
He remains on board and some 40 others. Also by the evening, Shabbat many Irgun in IDF uniform arrive and are milling around on the beach. Meanwhile, back in Tel Aviv, the cabinet is in session and there is a heated discussion about how to handle the Altalena. In the end, there was a decision to give the IDF authority to launch, listen to this, a counter attack. A counter attack provided they coordinate enough manpower by the appointed time. The commander must try to control the situation without the use of force but, if his command is not obeyed, then with the use of force. The first of two fatal days is about to dawn. It is Sunday morning, the 21st of June, 1948. The state is 38 days old. The army sent to the beach at Kfar Vitkin. The Alexandroni Brigade blooded in the first battle of Latrun. From the Altalena could be seen a great deal of activity, beyond the shoreline, in the trees. Suddenly the beach is full of soldiers and looking menacing. There are also milling around on the sounds that people from Mikhmoret and the Irgun guys, they’re all Jews yet perhaps no one has remarked upon that. A soldier is dispatched to the ship in a rowing boat carrying an Israeli flag and a white cloth on a bare nip tipped rifle. He hangs up a note saying Menachem Begin. The soldier is told that Begin is not on board. He’s gone to Netanya to try to negotiate with the army. The rowing boat returns to the shore but the note is studied by the Irgun leaders, Stavsky, Lankin, Amitzur and Hillel Kook. I should read it next to you. It’s quite long.
I’ll read it next. “To M. Begin, by special order from the Chief of the general staff of the Israel Defence Forces, I’m empowered to confiscate the weapons and military materials which have arrived on the Israeli coast in the area of my jurisdiction and the name of the Israel government. I have been authorised to demand that you hand over the weapons to me. If you do not agree to carry out this order within 10 minutes, I shall use all the means at my disposal in order to implement the order. Signed, Dan Evan, Brigade Commander.” This, ladies and gentlemen, is a story that began when the Altalena left France on the 11th of June, 10 days earlier. And no more than 10 minutes are being allowed before Evan is prepared to resort to force. The American leaders of the Irgun are discussing the ultimatum. When someone’s nerve snaps, there is an exchange of fire. Jewish boys firing on Jewish boys. Or to put it another way, Israeli soldiers shooting to kill other Israeli soldiers. Two Irgun die on board. Four more on the beach. The IDF suffered two dead. That’s eight Jews dead. Eight fewer to fight off the Arabs. Begin returned from Netanya to the shore raving the hail of bullets jumps into a launch to be piloted to the ship. Then two Israeli navy corvette standing off behind the Altalena, open fire. Monroe Fein manoeuvres the Altalena so as to place it between the corvettes and Begin’s boat enabling him, enabling him to board safely. Yaakov Meridor, Begin’s deputy, with the help of the people from Mikhmoret negotiates a ceasefire with Dan Evan. Begin who had failed again to establish contact with the state’s authorities in Netanya decides the Altalena should sail for Tel Aviv, where he hopes the people will see that he has no ill intent.
He intends to negotiate with Ben-Gurion as to what will happen to the rest of the cargo. Then a minor miracle occurs, the Corvette signal to the ship as it is required to make for Tel Aviv. The Altalena set sail at 21:35 hours. On the way, the corvettes fire at the vessel that are answered with Bren guns mounted on the deck of the Altalena and they cease fire. The ship arrives off Tel Aviv at midnight at the section of the beach opposite the end of David Frischmann Street, almost opposite and slightly to the north of where the Dan hotel stands today. Unfortunately, when Monroe Fein tries to stop the ship, just off shore, by reversing the propellers, it suffers some mechanical difficulty. And in a rather embarrassing end, to finds Naval Korea, the Altalena runs aground. It is Monday the 22nd of June. The state is 39 days old. And given the death toll so far of eight, one can confidently say, that civil war has already broken out. How will it end? At daybreak, Begin still wishes to secure Ben-Gurion’s agreement that part of the weaponry, and ammunition still on board the ship will go to his former Irgun boys who’ve been absorbed into the IDF. He goes off to try to arrange a meeting but returns to the Altalena frustrated at not having engaged anyone in discussion. Both sides have seen Jewish boys killing one another the previous day. Begin cannot know what the deliberations of provisional government would be on the morning of the 22nd of June. What were they, indeed? You were wondering. The discussion had started when the Altalena was still in Kfar Vitkin.
The next day, with the Altalena in Tel Aviv, the cabinet convenes again. Ben-Gurion had no interest in negotiations. It is an attempt to destroy the army, it is as an attempt to murder the state. Never one for shrinking from hyperbole, Ben-Gurion. These are the two questions and with both of them, there cannot be, in my opinion, any compromise. And if to our very great tragedy, we need to fight for it, we must fight. The moment the army and the state surrender to another armed force, we are done for. Yigal Yadin, the acting head of the IDF draughts an order for military action against “the enemy” as he called the Irgun. The aim was unconditional surrender by all means and by all methods. By a majority of seven to two, the cabinet results that the ship be turned over to the authorities. Ben-Gurion orders Yadin to act. By the afternoon, a large part of the population, Tel Aviv has gathered on Tayelet, promenade, and an army unit is forming up with field guns trained on the Altalena. The officer in charge is Lieutenant General Yigal Allon. With him, according to most accounts, is Yitzhak Rabin, Commander of the Harel Brigade. I am bound to tell you, however, the Rabin Centre, in Tel Aviv denies his presence or participation. Conversely, Michael Brecker seems to have no doubt that Rabin was there. This is history, folks. It’s not certain. In any event, the Harel Brigade digs in on the beach. This is not exactly what you would call ordinary troops. There’s a Palmach unit, the elite fighting force of the Haganah. They have mortars and field guns.
The Altalena has somewhat less firepower with its Bren guns. Now, do not think that Ben-Gurion was about to send in a negotiator. He’s under pressure to end this standoff in the very centre of the then effective capital of the new state, in the shortest time possible. How long should he wait for Begin to disarm? The previous day, eight minutes– eight men died when a 10-minutes ultimatum was ignored. This is now day two of the confrontation. It is now 16:00 hours. There is no agreement on who fired first, although it might have been the beach party because we know that Allon had to issue the order to fire three times before he found someone who would obey it. But it is perfectly possible, that the first shot was fired from the ship and that is what persuaded Rabin or whoever was really there, if it was not him, to accept the third issuance of the order. Perhaps it matters not because the gunfire was not one way. IDF troops on the shore, direct intense small arms fire towards the Altalena followed by heavy machine guns with armour piercing rounds that puncture the super structure of the ship. The Irgun came on board with the Bren guns hoping to discourage the army instead, escalation, heavier fire is directed at the Altalena. Mostly falling to the starboard side into the sea.
You all have in mind, that the ship has on board, most of its original cargo, weapons and ammunition. It is a veritable powder keg. The provisional government and the IDF must be assumed to know this, but are they deterred? Here, is the answer. A cannon shell or a mortar round hits the Altalena amid ships and the fire breaks out. Several on board are killed, including Stavsky. Israeli War of Independence is now well and truly complicated by the Israeli Civil War. Michael Brecker reports that he saw his best friend, the son of the chief rabbi of Cuba, cut to ribbons by machine gunfire. If like me, you’ve never got any close-up to a real life war situation than seeing “Saving Private Ryan” you could be sure that for Michael Brecker it was wholly traumatic and I believe is so to this very day. At this point, however, Menachem Begin shouts, “No civil war. No civil war.” And urges his men on the Altalena to show white flags. They are duly flown and the most disastrous of outcomes, widespread bloodshed, is averted. This time, 10 Irgun fighters and one IDF soldier are killed. The aggregate number of Jewish losses over the two days is 19. Begin later said, “My greatest accomplishment was not retaliating and avoiding civil war.” Well, maybe. But it was his ego or his naivety that had driven the action to that point. Everything we know about Begin points to a highly intelligent man with little, if any, ego. So, go figure. Perhaps he was just obsessed with not letting down his former Irgun fighters, now in the IDF. Hillel Kook was arrested with four other senior Irgun commanders and held for over two months before being released. Kook later became a member of the first Knesset. Michael Brecker was interviewed by the Haganah and an Irgun man– by Haganah and an Irgun man, both in the army.
He was given three options, to be repatriated to the UK, to go to Jerusalem to fight with Irgun or to join an artillery unit with the Haganah and fight in the south. He chose the last and saw heavy action around . This is a true hero. The Altalena was not completely removed from the scene until after 1965, according to eyewitness evidence provided directly to me. Think about it. That’s almost 20 years later. Do you think Ben-Gurion is in no hurry to let the people forget how close the nation came to disaster. As I do. Those then are the facts about as close as we can get to them and close enough for our purposes. But what we are left with is the analysis of what happened, who was at fault, and how Israel can make sure it never goes down that route again. I have to be, I have to synthesise a lot of what I’ve written. The reality is this, it’s all about party politics. The story of the Altalena as a symbol of the gulf between Begin’s Betar and Ben-Gurion’s coalition is not the only example of fragmentation. A month before the British were to leave, Ben-Gurion was confronted by, indeed, he himself catalysed what became the General’s Revolt. He tried to sack them all because they were Mapam members, not Mapai. Mapam was pro-Soviet until 1952 with the show trials in Prague. He wanted to replace them. He tried in 1948 but gave up and now on the eve of war he thinks he’s got a better chance. He didn’t have. The army faced him down. Galili, the head of the general staff said, “My dismissal from my post immediately undermined the Army’s General Staff in a difficult and dangerous way. The Chiefs of the General Staff found themselves suddenly without coordination, without synchronisation, without command and without knowing why.”
Of course, Ben-Gurion had to back down. But, there is more. This explains the visceral hostility between the General’s left wing affiliations and the infinitely– infamously right wing Irgun. Not everybody approved of Jewish terrorism, as they called it. If they did, they would never admit to it. And there came a point towards the end of the second World War when the Irgun decided they would go after the British. What did the left wing do? They decided to go after the right wing. This was called la Saison the hunting season. And the the Sochnut worked assiduously for the British giving them lists, disclosing the whereabouts of members of the, of the Irgun. This is just something you’ll have to study the greater length, yourselves. It is quite frankly horrendous. Then the last straw was about to be laid on the back of the camel. Walter Edward Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne, DSO & Bar, PC better known as Lord Moyne, was British Minister of State in the Middle East based in Cairo. According to the Irgun, and as amplified by Lehi propaganda, Moyne was hostile to Jewish settlement in Palestine. He supported an Arab Federation, the Middle East and he made speeches concerning– containing antisemitic language, including one in the House of Lords, in which he suggested the Arabs should have sovereignty over Palestine. As the Arab race was purer than the mixed Jewish race. On the 6th of November, 1944, Lord Moyne was assassinated in Cairo by Lehi members, Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet-Zuri. This was indeed the last straw for the Sochnut not least because they knew of Moyne’s multifaceted proximity to and friendship with Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The transfer of intelligence on the Irgun directly to MI6, the overseas secret intelligence service, was mostly carried out by Teddy Kollek. There is also evidence suggesting that the agency used the Saison for political motives with the British complaining that the Irgun was giving them lists of people who were not terrorists in any way. Merely right-wing politicians or sympathisers. Begin went into hiding, was never discovered. Nevertheless, the Irgun was greatly weakened by the season and– by the Saison. And by the end of 1945, the Sochnut’s objective closing down the Irgun as an active force against the British was achieved. Now, however, there were protests from within the Yishuv against the Saison. And by the end of March, it was aborted. By the time the end of the war came, they were ready to work together. Can I have slide 23? We might have missed a few. Slide 23, please. You see that they worked together on a number of very important operations, but the most significant was the bombing of the King David Hotel in which 91 people were killed, including 28 British citizens, 41 Palestinian Arabs, 17 Palestinian Jews, 2 Armenians, a Russian, Egyptian and a Greek, mostly civilians. In the wake of the King David bombing Chaim Weizmann, President of the Zionist organisation appealed to the movement to cease all further ministry activity until a decision could be made. In fact, they merely went their separate ways. So you see, the serious Jewish capacity of fragmentation and intra-communal conflict and the mutual resentment ordering on hatred between the two extremes. With that tortuous and tortured background, let us return to the Altalena. Ben-Gurion effectively the Prime Minister of the fledging state was naturally not on the beach. That’s what you have an army for. There’s a government high command, the general staff, the operation general– operational generals, battalions and their brigades. And how many removes must the command of the Harel Brigade have been from the Prime Minister.
And how long would it have taken to seek operational instructions and receive them with the communications of 1948? This is not the White House operations room watching live the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. Hardly. As in all wars the first casualty is the truth or is it the plan? Either way, war is chaos and that is what Israel was suffering from in June, 1948. Ben-Gurion’s immediate problems with the Altalena came with his being surrounded by difficulties. Jerusalem was entirely cut off. The construction of the Burma road was not yet complete. In the South, being held just as it stood. The situation with Galileo was frenetic, so on the 21st and 22nd of June, this time was monopolised by those issues. The job of a Prime Minister is difficult enough in a mature democracy like that of Great Britain. The job was infinitely harder in a country that was but, a few weeks old. The job of a Defence Minister is tough in any war, but where the enemies are unopposed drive to the seat of government, it was nerve-wracking. Ben-Gurion, both PM and Defence Minister, had his hands so full. He could not be expected to think through Begin’s demands as to the fighting units to which vital arms should be dispatched. In ordering the army to shoot if necessary, Ben-Gurion did what he knew had to be done to bring to a swift end, an armed challenge to the integrity of the state. He may even have thought, that there was a precedent. On the 3rd of July, 1940, three weeks after the fall of France, Winston Churchill, to prevent the Vichy French fleet in Algeria from falling into the hands of Adolf Hitler ordered its destruction. It was not 19 lives that were lost, but 1,300 sailors and officers of the French Navy. He will never be forgiven by the French, but I will tell you what he achieved. He secured his own position as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, which was not merely for his own benefit.
And he sent a clear message to Hitler that Britain would fight on, come what may. Similarly, it was Ben-Gurion’s responsibility to maintain the integrity of the provisional government of which he was the leader, and send a clear message to the Arab armies that he was ruthless enough to pursue the war on the defence of the state of Israel. Come what may. Yes, the fault lies between the right and the left as seen in the hunting season were widened deep. But as we have seen for Ben-Gurion and his Mapai, Betar was not the only political opponent. The pro-Soviet Mapam was breathing down his neck and particularly because of the General’s Revolt a few weeks earlier, they were itching for the opportunity to strike back at him. All he needed to do was falter over the Altalena and it could well have been game over for him. Conclusion, the country could have gone to one extreme or the other, either to the far right that was Betar or to the communists, not to say Soviet-inclined, Mapam. Ben-Gurion is the least extreme option. Thank you. I’m happy to take questions.
Thank you very much, Howard. That was a very interesting presentation and we have questions for you. If you’d like to take them yourself or?
No, you– somebody can read them out to me. That’s fine.
Lauren, will you do that please?
Q&A and Comments:
Q: - [Lauren] Of course. One question comes from Irene who is wondering, wasn’t it more about individual personal egos than party politics?
A: - Well, I think I’ve demonstrated it’s about that party politics. And I’ll, excuse me. And I’ll tell you that in the Jerusalem Post on the 20th of December last, there was a story headline, “Former US Army General’s urge Pentagon to prepare for potential civil war. Whatever happens after the next general election, presidential election in America.” Party politics cause civil wars.
Q: - [Lauren] Eli is wondering, what happened to the rest of the cargo?
Rest of the?
[Trudy] Cargo.
A: - Oh. Well, I think most of it just sat there getting wet for a very long time. The ship was dragged out, not beyond site, but dragged away from the shore where it sat, as I say, till about 1965. And I don’t, I think it didn’t, didn’t play a role in the defence of the state, no. It was a mess. It was a complete mess up.
Q: - [Lauren] Irene is asking, didn’t Ben-Gurion have to bring all fighting under the auspices of the Haganah which morphed into the IDF? If that hadn’t happened, there would’ve been anarchy.
I’m sorry, can I, is it possible to see these questions?
[Lauren] Oh yeah. If you just click the Q & A button at the bottom of your screen.
Oh, fine. Um. Perhaps we’ll come back to that one. Okay, so I can choose from here.
Q: - [Lauren] Mm-hmm. Wasn’t bitterness leading up to the assassination of Rabin, another approach to civil war?
A: - Well, yes. It’s a very, very nasty period in Israeli modern history. Yes, it’s horrible. Yep. People are walking around with guilt on their shoulders. I mean, a truth and reconciliation commission on South African lines might be a good idea in Israel. But, I’m not sure anybody’s prepared to be that truthful about it. So shall I choose another one?
[Lauren] Sure.
Yes, and I’m sure the Egyptians bomb Tel Aviv, but, it’s sporadic. The reality is that with far inferior numbers, the Yishuv kept winning and pushing them back. It’s quite astonishing. Can–
Q: somebody called Stephen Kramer says– How are you Steve? “Can you mention the role of Begin’s to prevent a civil war a second time in the case of German reparations?”
A: Uh, no. Steven, I can’t. I’m sorry. You should have given me notice of that question. But I can, but I certainly know that there were riots on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv when reparations were accepted by the Knesset. Not everybody thought it was a good idea to accept money from the Germans.
And Steven Brecker, Professor Steven Brecker says, “Michael Brecker’s been watching with interest and he is happy to say, I’m still here today.” And we’re very happy about it too. Thank you.
What 20% of arms, no, it’s 80% of the arms on the ship were very significant if they’d been taken off, but nobody was that bright.
Q: Somebody asked me, I can’t imagine why he asked me, “What happened to Weizmann after the war?”
A: Well, Weizmann was kept at a distance by Ben-Gurion. He wasn’t allowed to sign the Declaration of Independence like many others, some of whom were in New York as Weizmann was. Weizmann had been asked to stay there by Truman and even, and, and they wouldn’t let Weizmann arrive in Israel until September and then they couldn’t find a space for him to sign Declaration of Independence. I wrote chapters on how Ben-Gurion buried Weizmann’s reputation.
I’m not going to try to answer the question about Rabin’s role because I’ve said it’s quite contentious. There’s no certainty about it.
Q: “Is there a truth to the report in the mid that an American volunteered pilot?”
A: Yes. There were not only pilots who wouldn’t bomb. Yeah, I’ll say there were non-Jewish pilots, volunteers who said, I didn’t come all this way to assist the birth of a Jewish state by bombing Jews. Quite remarkable.
Q: “What would’ve prevented the fall of the old city of Jerusalem?”
A: I suppose a massive piling in, an earlier completion of the, the Burma road and the massive piling in of troops. But I don’t think they had that many troops available. That was the problem.
It– the war, the War of Independence is worn on a shoestring of people. Yes. Church Ralph Friedman. Churchill said, “It would be ridiculous for you to try to keep the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.” I dealt with this and he was quite right. It’s been hard enough to maintain our boundaries as they’ve been since ‘67– since '48.
How on earth could we have patrolled the whole of– the whole of the frontiers of Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq? Impossible. Churchill did us a favour.
Q: Glenys Burfield says, “Would you say that the end justifies the means? We have a state we’re proud of, no country has clean hands on dealing with international strife.”
A: Totally agree with you, Glenys. Totally agree with you. When was anything ever going to be perfect? Pretty close. Came as close as it could have done.
Q: Now, this last question, “Is the Altalena mentioned in Israeli school’s syllabus today?”
A: Brings me to my final suggestion. After mentioning that even– and there’ve been a number of articles on the Times of London about the risk of civil war in America after the next election. And what I say is, in order to avoid a repetition, the Altalena and the analysis that I provided should be an object lessons for all Israelis. Unfortunately, this divisive and painful story is constantly brushed under the carpet where it never needs to be seen or considered.
How to avoid risking your repetition? Two suggestions. A massive constitutional change abolishing the proportional representation, which bestows powers on many splinted artists in the . It’s a disaster. And certainly-
This seems to be– Howard, this seems to be, this seems to be an ongoing debate.
Yeah. Can I just make my second point?
[Wendy] Sure.
Teach every Israeli school child the stories of the Hasmoneans, the Saison, the General’s Revolt and the Altalena. Are either of those suggestions achievable? Your guess is as good as mine.
Okay. Do you want to come in there, Wendy?
Oh, thank you. Sorry. Sorry to have interrupted. You know there seems to be an-
Do you want to come in there, Wendy?
Yes. I didn’t mean to-
You’ve gone, you’ve, you’ve– you’re mute.
I don’t– I have a– Okay. Lauren?
[Lauren] Yeah, we can hear you.
[Trudy] Yeah, we can hear you now.
Sorry, Howard. Well first all thanks for that brilliant presentation and I apologise, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.
It’s fine.
I just wanted to say, this seems to be an ongoing debate about the Constitution in Israel. It’s astonishing that, that it hasn’t been really addressed.
They play around with this at the margins.
[Wendy] Why?
Why? Because of, because there are too many vested interest. Too many small parties get representation that they wouldn’t get if it weren’t for proportional representation.
Wendy, Wendy. May I suggest that this could be one of your challenging conversations.
What a pleasure. That’s very challenging.
Can I just tell you, that apart from Israel’s suffering, as you will know, was it four, four general elections in two and a half years? Belgium didn’t, Belgium didn’t have a government for two years because of proportional representation. It’s a disaster waiting to happen every time.
I think we need the lawyers in on that, don’t you? A lot on both sides of the coin. Anyway, Howard, that was really, really interesting and thank you for being prepared to address this issue. There are so many issues in the history of Israel that are so contentious, and of course this is one of them. But I would suggest to you particularly since the, since there’s been changes of government in Israel, the Altalena is taught now, but I think you’ve pointed out very, very ably that there are so many divisions in Israeli society and it’s one of the things that we should be working to try and rectify. But it was a superb presentation and also it was a great honour, as you mentioned, to have somebody on board, somebody on board our Zoom who was actually onboard the Altalena.
Who was on board.
All power, all power to you. But again, Howard, thank you so much and so much. Thank you so much to all our listeners and we will see you on Monday. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you, Michael Brecker.
[Wendy] Thank you, Howard. Thank you, Trudy. Thanks everybody for joining us. Bye-bye.
[Howard] My pleasure.