From: sethr@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (seth.r.rosenthal)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Re: Lehi and nazies
Date: 2 Sep 92 13:33:44 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories

In article <1992Sep2.045114.10284@cs.anu.edu.au>, bdm@cs.anu.edu.au (Brendan McKay) writes:
> In article 5358@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP, rdtst+@pitt.edu (Richard D Thorne) writes:
> >
> >NO LINK OF SHAMIR TO DOCUMENT NOR OF LEHI TO FASCISM
> >	It was noted that at the time this document was sent 
> >Shamir was not leading LEHI and since authorship can not be 
> >determined by its contents it must be that anyone attributing it 
> >to Shamir  is also engaging in speculation  
> 
> At the time the letter was written, Stern was firmly in charge so
> it is reasonable to posit that he wrote it.  There is no direct
> evidence concerning Shamir's involvement except that he was a
> senior member of Lehi at the time.  
> 
> Incidentally, the letter was not the only attempt made to contact 
> the Nazis.  Nathan Yellin-Mor (later co-leader with Shamir after
> Stern's death) tried to reach them in person in July 1941, but was
> arrested en-route by the British.
>  
> >                                              There exists the 
> >possibility that whoever contacted the Germans meant exactly 
> >what the cable says, but it is also possible that it was worded in 
> >such a way as to best convince the Germans to provide arms.  
> >I'm not sure what makes one possibility more likely than 
> >another.  Lehi's ideology can best be described as anti-British 
> >therefore the proposition that what was written was motivated 
> >more by a hatred of the British than a love of the Germans 
> >seems reasonable.  
> 
> Lehi had no love of the Germans.  They believed that the Nazis would
> win the war and that the Nazi flavour of anti-semitism was going to
> be the trend for a long time.  More interestingly, they believed
> that anti-semitism could not be fought because it was JUSTIFIED; 
> it was reasonable for non-Jews to hate Jews because after all the
> Jews were the Chosen People and therefore superior.
> 
> >                    Do you have any evidence that LEHI 
> >promoted fascism as their model? (e.g. essays or party 
> >platforms) 
> 
> Almost every historian who ever wrote about Lehi called their politics
> fascist.  However, it was much more fascism of the Italian flavour
> than of the German flavour.  The extensive contacts between the
> Revisionists (both Lehi and Irgun) and the Italian fascists are very
> well documented.
> 

I don't really want to get too involved here, but
Italian fascism wasn't really anti-semitic.   Many Jews
supported Mussolini, and there was no parallel
to the Nazi program in Italy.  (Mussolini did pass some
laws to harass Jews more to keep Hitler happy than for
his own beliefs) .  To the contrary,
Mussolini refused to deport Italian citizens whether
Jewish or not, and was uncooperative with deporting
Central/Eastern European refugees.  Only when the government
fell and the Germans were in de facto control of Italy did
some of the North Italian communities get deported.  Italys' 50%
survival rate of Jews (sounds bad but compared to 80-90%
fatality rates in other countries it wasn't) is a result
of Mussolini's non-involvement.

		Seth Rosenthal
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