terrorism after the war

[Nick]

Does anyone understand the reasoning behind the various attacks which took place over a few years on British military and political property and people in Isreal by a Jewish terrorist group.

I have heard about it a few times and still find it hard to believe that there would be an element of people who would do this , especially on one of the allies who helped defeat the Nazis in the first place.

[Kiwiwriter]

I think it was David Ben-Gurion who said, "We shall fight the war as if there was no White Paper, and fight the White Paper as if there was no war."

So that was why.

There was an anti-British backlash in Palestine's Jewish community against the British limitation of Jewish immigration, which led to the assassination of Lord Moyne in Egypt, and other incidents. These outrages had the unwanted effect of provoking anti-Semitic outbursts in Manchester and Nottingham in 1946.

[laufer]

Zionist are exactly the same as any other radical nationalists. They explain theirs brutal acts by the national interest too easy.
We must remember however, that Great Britain was a guardian of status quo in Palestine in 40’s and British weren't enthusiastic about a Jewish state in Middle East.
Most of terrorist attacks were carried against Arab population (both Muslims and Christians) not against British soldiers and administration by the way.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=574872003

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,690-5823,00.html

[Nick]

your timesonline link missed out 1945


During December 1945, the focus of the Jewish attacks shifted to RAF airfields, police stations and armories. There was frequent exchanges of fire and some loss of life on both sides. The High commissioner, Lord Gort , left Palestine in November 1945 and was replaced by another British general Sir Allan Cunningham. Cunningham decided to mount a major blow against the IZL and on the 28 to June 1946, 17,000 British troops flooded into Jerusalem to carry out Operation Agatha. The Jewish Agency offices were raided, arms found and the agency shut down, with a large number of Jews suspected of terrorism being arrested. Jewish terrorists soon started planning the a reprisal for Operation Agatha and made plans for the bombing attack on the King David hotel.
The British response to the King David bombing was another 48 hour cordon and search, code named Operation Shark. This operation was mounted by the men and 6th Airborne division. The aim of Operation shark was to remove the few remaining hard core terrorists left on the scene. British and American press agencies were quick to take the opportunity to sell more newspapers but the result was to place the British Army in a bad light, as in Aden years later, propaganda pictures of British soldiers seemingly being brutal to women and children were splashed in the world newspapers. On January the 27th 1945 the first kidnapping took place. Judge Windham was kidnapped from his own courtroom in Tel Aviv . Windham was released when the British government gave in to his kidnappers demands, which was the release of Jewish detainees. On the 18th of June 1946 the kidnappers struck again. This time they held up the British Officers Club in Tel Aviv and took five British officers and one one RAF service man and dragged them to get away cars out side. One of the officers had to be clubbed to subdue him. The object of this raid was to obtain hostages to hold against the two Jews who had been captured in a arms raid at Sarafand in March. Four days later two of the kidnapped officer were released. They said that their captors had not been violent towards them, but they had been kept shackled in chains on their hands and feet. The remaining three officers were held captive for another 12 days. They were released after the two condemned Jews had their sentences commuted. Before releasing them the Jews first chloroformed the three officers. The three officers were then unceremoniously dumped still unconscious, on a street corner in Tel Aviv, where passers by took no notice of their predicament.


there seems to me to be a fair amount of attacks on British people and interests, i guess its a context thing

[laufer]

Originally Posted by nick

your timesonline link missed out 1945

You are absolutely right Nick. In fact, it missed much more. Stern Group was active since 30s.

[Nick]

its a fascinating subject Laufer, one on which you seem to be well studied, its interesting how you can start to look at subject only to realise you are only scratching at the surface , but i will carry on reading up on it, add it to the other lists of topics i need to study, aahhh not enough time for it all !!!