page_title: Lehi (militant group)
section_title: 18 Principles of Rebirth
hierarchical_section_title: Lehi (militant group) / 18 Principles of Rebirth
caption_attribution_description: English: 18 Principles of Rebirth, written by Avraham Stern (1907-1942) Čeština: 18 principů obrození národa, sepsaných Avrahamem Sternem עברית: עיקרי התחיה שחיבר אברהם שטרן
context_page_description: Lehi, often known pejoratively as the Stern Gang, was a Zionist paramilitary organization founded by Avraham Stern in Mandatory Palestine. Its avowed aim was to evict the British authorities from Palestine by resort to force, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state, a "new totalitarian Hebrew republic". It was initially called the National Military Organization in Israel, upon being founded in August 1940, but was renamed Lehi one month later. The group referred to its members as terrorists and admitted to having carried out terrorist attacks.
  Lehi split from the Irgun militant group in 1940 in order to continue fighting the British during World War II. Lehi initially sought an alliance with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, offering to fight alongside them against the British in return for the transfer of all Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe to Palestine. Believing that Nazi Germany was a lesser enemy of the Jews than Britain, Lehi twice attempted to form an alliance with the Nazis. During World War II, it declared that it would establish a Jewish state based upon "nationalist and totalitarian principles".
context_section_description: Avraham Stern laid out the ideology of Lehi in the essay 18 Principles of Rebirth:
  THE NATION: The Jewish people is a covenanted people, the originator of monotheism, formulator of the prophetic teachings, standard bearer of human culture, guardian of glorious patrimony. The Jewish people is schooled in self-sacrifice and suffering; its vision, survivability and faith in redemption are indestructible.
  THE HOMELAND: The homeland in the Land of Israel within the borders delineated in the Bible ("To your descendants, I shall give this land, from the River of Egypt to the great Euphrates River." Genesis 15:18) This is the land of the living, where the entire nation shall live in safety.
  THE NATION AND ITS LAND: Israel conquered the land with the sword. There it became a great nation and only there it will be reborn. Hence Israel alone has a right to that land. This is an absolute right. It has never expired and never will.
  THE GOALS:
  Redemption of the land.
  Establishment of sovereignty.
  Revival of the nation.
  There is no sovereignty without the redemption of the land, and there is no national revival without sovereignty.
  These are the goals of the organization during the period of war and conquest:
  EDUCATION: Educate the nation to love freedom and zealously guard Israel's eternal patrimony. Inculcate the idea that the nation is master to its own fate. Revive the doctrine that "The sword and the book came bound together from heaven." (Midrash Vayikra Rabba 35:8)
  UNITY: The unification of the entire nation around the banner of the Hebrew freedom movement. The use of the genius, status and resources of individuals and the channeling of the energy, devotion and revolutionary fervour of the masses for the war of liberation.
  PACTS: Make pacts with all those who are willing to help the struggle of the organization and provide direct support.
  FORCE: Consolidate and increase the fighting force in the homeland and in the Diaspora, in the underground and in the barracks, to become the Hebrew army of liberation with its flag, arms, and commanders.
  WAR: Constant war against those who stand in the way of fulfilling the goals.
  CONQUEST: The conquest of the homeland from foreign rule and its eternal possession.
  These are the tasks of the movement during the period of sovereignty and redemption:
  SOVEREIGNTY: Renewal of Hebrew sovereignty over the redeemed land.
  RULE OF JUSTICE: The establishment of a social order in the spirit of Jewish morality and prophetic justice. Under such an order no one will go hungry or unemployed. All will live in harmony, mutual respect and friendship as an example to the world.
  REVIVING THE WILDERNESS: Build the ruins and revive the wilderness for mass immigration and population increase.
  ALIENS: Solve the problem of alien population [i.e. the Arab inhabitants of Palestine] by exchange of population.
  INGATHERING OF THE EXILES: Total in-gathering of the exiles to their sovereign state.
  POWER: The Hebrew nation shall become a first-rate military, political, cultural and economical entity in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean Sea.
  REVIVAL: The revival of the Hebrew language as a spoken language by the entire nation, the renewal of the historical and spiritual might of Israel. The purification of the national character in the fire of revival.
  THE TEMPLE: The building of the Third Temple as a symbol of the new era of total redemption.
caption: 18 Principles of Rebirth
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