From: bdm@cs.anu.edu.au (Brendan McKay)
Subject: MEQ #5: Former Lehi members speak of killing UN mediator
Reply-To: bdm@cs.anu.edu.au
Organization: Australian National University
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 06:56:58 GMT


      MEQ #5.  Former Lehi members threaten the United Nations.

   JERUSALEM, Sept. 11 [1988] -- Two former guerrillas of an underground
   Jewish group once led by Yitzhak Shamir have said that they assassinated
   a United Nations peace envoy 40 years ago.

   While the killing of the envoy, Count Folke Bernadotte [0], was widely
   believed to have been carried out by the band, the Stern Gang, the
   account of the two men on Israeli television and radio Friday night
   was the first public acknowledgments by members of the group [1].

   The Stern Gang was the most militant of the underground organizations
   struggling to establish the State of Israel.  Count Bernadotte, a Swedish
   diplomat, had been sent by the United Nations Security Council in May
   1948 to try to establish a truce between the Israeli soldiers and Arab
   armies.

   Yehoshua Zeitler [2], who said he directed the assassination, told
   Israeli radio that he had decided to speak out because of what he said
   was his fear that the United Nations would again try to force Israel
   into concessions that would endanger its existence.

   Meshulam Markover said he led the four-man assassination squad that cut
   off Count Bernadotte's car with a jeep on a Jerusalem street on Sept. 17,
   1948.  Three guerrillas jumped out, he said, and one, Yehoshua Cohen [3],
   who died two years ago, fired the shots that killed the envoy and his
   French aide-de-camp [4].
   ...
   A spokesman for Mr. Shamir said after the broadcast that the Prime
   Minister had played no role in the assassination because the group
   had officially disbanded six months before [5].

   Source: New York Times, September 12, 1988, page A3.

Brendan's Notes:
[0] Chairman of the Swedish Red Cross; credited with convincing
    Himmler to release about 21,000 concentration camp inmates to
    Swedish custody in 1945.  See A. Ilan, Bernadotte in Palestine, 1948
    (Macmillan, 1989).
[1] This is incorrect.  One of the three commanders of Lehi, Israel Eldad
    (the other two were Yitzhak Shamir and Natan Yellin-Mor), admitted Lehi's
    role on Israeli television in 1978 (reported in HaOlam HaZeh, 9.8.1978).
    According to Eldad (and also some other former Lehi members) the
    assassination was ordered by the three leaders together.  Lehi's
    involvement was initially admitted by Shamir, but later he changed
    his mind.  Shamir's role has also been confirmed by Lehi's intelligence
    officer Stanley Goldfoot.  Yellin-Mor was elected to the first Knesset
    soon after the assassination.  See C. D. Stranger, A Haunting Legacy:
    the assassination of Count Bernadotte, Middle East Journal, 42 (1988)
    p260ff, and Ilan, cited above.
[2] A veteran of the Deir Yassin massacre and a well known apologist for it.
    Usually spelt Zetler.
[3] Two days after the assassination, Cohen's name and three others
    were given by IDF Intelligence to Ben-Gurion, who noted them in
    his diary.  Years later, after BG's retirement, Cohen became a
    personal friend of BG.  The diary entry was "rediscovered" with
    the help of BG's biographer Michael Bar Zohar, at which point
    Cohen apparently admitted his role in the assassination.  See
    M. Bar Zohar, Ben Gurion, p180-1, and Ilan, cited above, p235-6.
[4] A detailed account of the assassination based on interviews with former
    Lehi members can be found in Bell, Terror out of Zion.  It is consistent
    with the summary here.  US intelligence agencies collected evidence of
    the involvement of the Israeli and Czech governments in the assasination,
    but this evidence seems very weak.  See Green, Taking Sides, and
    Ilan, cited above.
[5] I wonder what percentage of Israelis accept such denials at face value.
    (This is a serious question; feedback encouraged.)  In any case, it is
    a bare-faced lie, as Shamir's role has been well established (see [1]).
    There was an official disbanding of Lehi on May 29, with many members
    joining a unit of the IDF 8th brigade (later notorious for the
    massacre of 80-100 civilians at Dawayma), but Lehi continued operating
    in Jerusalem until after the Bernadotte assassination.  It even
    conducted an occasional joint operation with the IDF.  See
    M. Dayan, Story of my life, p127.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Middle East Quotes is an occasional series of quotations on Middle
East history.  The editor does not necessarily approve of the sentiments
expressed in quotes, nor will he necessarily join in any discussion
they engender.  Contributions are welcome but will not necessarily be
accepted.  Full sources are essential.      Brendan McKay.



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