From: bdm@cs.anu.edu.au (Brendan McKay)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Re: Freedom fighter or Terrorist
Date: 26 Jan 1993 04:13:53 GMT
Organization: Australian National University
Distribution: world
Reply-To: bdm@cs.anu.edu.au
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.23.70

In article <1k1sasINNkn1@morrow.stanford.edu> Vic Filler writes: 
>In article <1jth0bINNd25@manuel.anu.edu.au>, bdm@cs.anu.edu.au writes:

>>I wonder how much this would change if the Irgun was seen behind all
>>the whitewash.  It seems like nobody knows or cares that the Irgun
>>did anything beyond blowing up the King David Hotel and organising
>>illegal immigration.  The large number of acts of pure indiscriminate
>                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>terror, such as setting off bombs in public places frequented by Arabs,
>>seem to have been largely forgotten.  The fact that such actions were

>I must confess to being among those who have largely forgotten the
>large number of acts of indiscrimate terror by the Irgun.

>So here's a real softball question:  could you list a few that your
>researches have turned up?

Why you should want me to list such things, I can't imagine.
Perhaps to see if I really know; fair enough.  I will look at
two specific time periods: 1936-9 and 1947-8.  In the case of
the first period, there is near-unanimity amongst historians.
For example, reknowned Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer wrote:

  "During the period of command over Etzel by Moshe Rosenberg and
  David Raziel, a great many assaults (some of them en masse) were
  carried out against Arab bystanders and shoppers: men, women, and
  children (November 1937-July 1939).  These were acts of terror on
  the Arab pattern."
  [From Diplomacy to Resistance, Jewish Publication Society, 1970; p14]

For more specific examples, two sources are a book by an Irgun man:
Y. Ben-Ami, Years of Wrath, Days of Glory; Memoirs of the Irgun
(Speller and Sons, NY 1982) and the most detailed history of the
Irgun and Lehi in English:  J. Bower Bell, Terror out of Zion
(St. Martin's Press, NY 1977).

Ben-Ami writes of many "minor" acts of violence such as firing
machine guns at trains, in addition to some major operations:

  "On the 27th [Feb 1939], which came to be known as "the Black Day," 
  the Irgun set off bombs in Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv.  The 
  casualties numbered over a hundred." (p229)

The nature of these attacks can be seen by examining contemporary
newspapers.  According to the Palestine Post of Feb 28, 1939, there
were two bombs in Haifa, one in the booking hall of the Eastern
Railway Station and one in the Arab market in the Suk Quarter
(24 Arabs killed and 39 injured, some dying later).  In Jerusalem, 
a bomb exploded in the Arab vegetable market in David Street
(4 Arabs killed and five wounded).  Further information on these 
attacks based on interviews with the participants can be found in 
Bell's book.

Ben-Ami thinks that bombing Arab market places was justified:

  "Irgun attacks on Arab market places received harsh criticism at 
  home and abroad, but we knew that weapons were being smuggled into 
  Palestine in vegetable trucks" (p231)

According to the Palestine Post of 1 March 1939, the death toll for
random violence during February was Arabs 144, Jews 11.  That does
not include a substantial number of Arab "brigands" killed by
British troops.  The number of separate incidents was very large
(about 20 appear in the PP of Feb 28 alone) and there is no way
that blame can be assigned to all of them.

Moving to the later period, the two notorious actions of the Irgun 
against random civilians were two bombings in Jerusalem.  

  "Irgun attempts at retaliation were brutal, ruthless and
  ineffectual.  On December 29 [1947], a bomb at the Damascus
  gate in Jerusalem detonated in the midst of a crowd.  Fifteen
  Arabs were killed and over fifty wounded...The next day a car 
  slowed down as it came alongside a large crowd of Arabs in 
  front of the Haifa oil refinery.  A bomb was tossed into the
  crowd.  The two-thousand Arab employees ran amok...Forty-one
  Jewish workers were slashed or clubbed to death...

  ...on January 7 [1948] ..[a bomb was detonated by Uri Cohen
  and other Irgun members in front of a crowd of Arabs waiting
  at a bus stop near the Jaffa Gate]... Seventeen Arabs were
  killed in the explosion and over fifty wounded."  (Bell, p266-267)

It is important to not consider these acts in isolation.  They 
were a part of a cycle of violence where Arab and Jewish terrorist
gangs battled each other and sought revenge for each other's
actions.  For each action I've mentioned above there was one 
or more equally disgusting action committed by Arab gangs on 
Jewish civilians.  Both Ben-Ami's and Bell's book provide
countless examples.

>This is a sincere question--I am always eager to learn something
>new.  

It's the best I can do with limited time.

[..words of praise deleted..]

>Vic

Brendan.


Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast