Irgoun

LIrgoun (ארגון, “organization”), of its complete name Irgoun Zvaï ( or Tzvaï) Leoumi (ארגוןצבאילאומי, national military Organization), sometimes shortened in I.Z.L., acronym itself lexiconized in Etzel (אצ״ל), is a nationalist organization armed Jewish in Palestine agent, born in 1931 from a scission from the Haganah , and directed as from 1943 by Menahem Begin.

Irgoun organized the clandestine immigration of Jews in Palestine, the operations of reprisals then attacks against the Arab civilians and fought against the British presence in the country.

After the proclamation of the State of Israel in 1948, the majority of its elements were integrated in the regular army.

The former members of Irgoun mainly created at the end of 1948 the party Herout (Freedom), which is the matrix of current the Likoud, right party Israeli.

Creation of the Haganah

The Haganah is a Jewish vigilante group creates in 1920 in Jerusalem by militants Zionists, following the anti-Jewish riots and anti-Zionists carried out by the Arab nationalists.

Vladimir Jabotinsky, Zionist of right-hand side and inspiring future of the Irgoun , played a part in the creation of the organization. But it is the left party Achdut Ha' avoda which takes the young organization in hand, and quickly extends it to the whole of the Yichouv (Jewish community in Palestine agent) after the new riots of 1921.

Enough quickly, of the militants of any origines, but especially of left, integrates the organization. Achdut Ha' avoda transfers control from the Haganah to the Histadrout , the trade union of the left Zionist. The Haganah and the Histadrout are thus “unit” organizations, which gather the various left parties (in particular the Hapoel Hatzaïr and the Achdut ha' avoda ).

The British do not officialize the organization, but tolerate it more or less.

The Haganah organizes guards and patrols around Jewish establishments. But of 1921 to 1929, the safe situation is rather calm, and the not very active Haganah .

The scission of the Haganah (1929 - 1937)

Between 1929 and 1931, occur a series of anti-Jewish Arab nationalist riots, which make make tens of deaths. These riots will have two consequences: will to make of Haganah the common organization of the Yichouv , but also its scission.

The unit

The riots initially emphasize the need for the Yichouv to have a common defense organization, who is not only the emanation of the left parties. Haganah cannot thus be any more only the emanation of Histadrout. After two years of negotiations between parties, the direction of Haganah passes in 1931 of the Histadrout to the Jewish Agence (executive Zionist in Palestine). The Jewish Agency is indeed an organization officially non-partisane, gathering left and right. But as it is dominated by the left, the line required a right to watch. A joint committee is thus created. It is the political body of supervision of the Haganah , made up with equal shares of six political members: three representative the “left” (of which Eliayhou Golomb and Dov Hoz) and three representative the “line” (of which Saadya Shoshani and Yissaschar Sidkov).

But this change and this paritarism are more symbolic systems than practical: same the men, rather on the left, remain with the orders.

The direction of the socialist left, which held the Histadrout , indeed amalgamated within the Mapaï , in 1930. The Mapaï then took the direction of the Jewish Agency and the world Organization Zionist, in alliance with the liberal centrists (general Sionistes). David Ben Gourion directed the Histadrout of 1921 to 1935 (and thus the Haganah until 1931). It is him which takes the direction of the Jewish Agency of 1935 to 1948 (and thus again of the Haganah ).

The scission

The Haganah had developed doctrines of use of the armed force, baptized the Havlagah (“retained”):

for defense, at the time of an Arab attack;
for reprisals, but targeted on old identified attackers.

Very often, the attackers could not be identified, and a current appeared within the organization, preaching reprisals against the populations “supporting” the attackers, i.e. potentially against any Palestinian Arab civilian.

In April - May 1931, the year of the transfer of the Haganah under the control of the Jewish Agency, this current leaves the Haganah , taken along by the chief of this one, Avraham Tehomi, which involves 19 of its officers. The starting element of the scission was the suspension of Tehomi after attacks of this one against the “English socialist Jesuits, who express sharpest sympathy to the " malheurs" Arabic, but closes the eyes in front of the filths of which they go guilty to the Indies, to Egypt and other country”. These words were interpreted as an attack regulates some against socialism in general and the Jewish labor movement in particular.

The new organization takes the name of Haganah Beth ( Haganah “B”), before re-electing “ Haganah main road ”. Enough quickly, another name starts to be used: Irgoun Zvaï Leoumi (national Organization military), which will become exclusive in 1937.

In practice, the refusal of the Havlagah will hardly have consequences, the Arab attacks being stopped before the scission. But the Haganah is not from now on alone any more in string in the camp Zionist.

The “national Haganah ” is not completely an organization of right-hand side, but the sympathizers of the Parti revisionist (the party of the right-hand side Zionist) there are numerous. Vladimir Jabotinsky, their chief, between besides at the “Committee of supervision” (a political committee of supervision) of the new organization in 1933, at the side of the Mizrahi (religious Zionists), general Zionists and small “Party of the Jewish State”. It is it should be noted that on this date, Jabotinsky is still very reticent, and hesitated much to support the “national Haganah ” preferring the opion to him to see the British supporting the integration of Jewish forces within the British army to make a rampart against the Arabs of it.

The Haganah , directed and dominated by the left, is however not either an organization recruiting only on the left. Militants of right-hand side and especially of the center (general Zionists) there remained.

On the ideology of the movement revisionist and Irgoun, to see the detailed article Left revisionist.

The great Arab revolt (1935-1939)

The national Haganah , or Irgoun , had had a weak activity of 1931 to 1935, because of absence of open conflict with the Palestinian population and Arab nationalist militants. In 1933, it is estimated at “300 men, for the majority of the young people without military experiment, often obliged to involve itself with weapons out of wooden”.

But of at the end of 1935 to 1939, the Palestinian Arabs revolt against the power British agent and the establishment Zionist (the Jewish population passed from 80.000 in 1918 to 175.000 in 1931 and 400.000 in 1936). Several hundreds of Jews will be killed during the period.

This rising will have three major consequences for the armed organizations:

military reinforcement of the Haganah : this one is shown enough effective to block the Arab attacks, to make safe the isolated points, and to launch raids of reprisals against the Arab nationalist militants. It thus attracts novel members, and counts soon tens of thousands of members (of which only one minority are combatants strictly speaking ). She also cooperates in a quasi open way with the British, who are based largely on her and her networks of information in the repression of Palestinian Arab nationalism. The British arm and involve also several units made up of Jews like the Notrim, a Jewish supernumerary police force which includes/understands approximately 3000 men as well as the Special Night Squads (special squadrons of nights) directed by the British major Orde Charles Wingate, a sympathizer Zionist.

the scission of the national Haganah : in front of the rise to power of the Haganah , even “limited” by the Havlagah , part of the national Haganah decides to rejoin the Haganah to offer a common front to the Arab attacks. As from 1936, Avraham Tehomi engages of the negotiations in this direction. He is convened in Paris by Vladimir Jabotinsky, which requires of him an official rallying to the revisionism (what the Irgoun had never made) and to its political authority. Tehomi states to accept, but passes finally to the Haganah in April 1937 with 40% of its troops (1300 men). The political “Committee of supervision” bursts. The parties other than the Party revisionist leave it. The Haganah is reinforced, as well politically as of many combatants.

toughening of the Irgoun : after the scission of 1937, the national Haganah gives up its historical name, and uses nothing any more but that of Irgoun Zvaï Leumi (IZL). Having broken with the general Zionists and the religious Zionists, the organization then becomes clearly the military wing of the movement revisionist, but with a power quite less than that of the Haganah . In spite of this ideological fastening clearly, the influence of Jabotinsky within the organization will be more theoretical than real (it does not have any more the right to penetrate in Palestine since 1929).

The Irgoun and the question of violence

The Irgoun began a campaign against the Arab civilians before even the departure of Tehomi. Thus on April 16th, 1936, in answer to the assassination of two Jews the day before, the Irgoun killed two farm laborers in an orange grove. The generalization of the attacks against the civilians goes back however to 1937, after the departure towards the Haganah of Tehomi and its partisans. Besides in 1936, Jabotinsky plays still a moderating part, entreating “its partisans to show reserve, as a long time as there will exist a chance to reconstitute a Jewish Légion with the support of the Great Britain”.

But after the scission, moderation is called into question. Jabotinsky written with the direction of the IZL “if the disorders begin again and accompany by attacks against Jews, you do not retain”. In Alexandria, in July 1937, it however indicates in its troops that it prefers to avoid terrorism plugs “I do not see no heroism to be drawn on a fellah come to sell its vegetables in Tel-Aviv, nor the political benefit which we could draw”.

The question of violence agitates the organization all 1937. Robert Bitker (an ex-officer of the white armies of the Russian civil war) becomes the new person in charge of the Irgoun according to April 1937, to which 1700 combatants remained faithful. Little appreciated of its men, it is replaced with the autumn 1937 by Moshe Rosenberg. Hostile with terrorism, this one is quickly replaced by David Ratziel. It is the latter which organizes the reprisals of “black Sunday”, the November 14th 1937, where 8 passers by (6 men and 2 women) are cut down.

Proof of the remote influence of Jabotinsky, however semi-official political leader of the organization, the Irgoun launched out in violence against the Palestinian civilians without his authorization. These attacks are worth with the Irgoun the reprobation of the official authorities of the Yichouv and the Haganah , as well as the qualification of terrorist organization by the British. “Of tens of frameworks of the party revisionist and the Betar are placed in administrative detention. Military tribunals are founded, the illegal possession of weapons becomes liable to the capital punishment. Irgoun must stop its attacks at the end of 1937”.

But the June 29th 1938, a militant of the Irgoun , Ben Yosef, stopped during the preparation of an attack in 1937 is hung by the British. The reaction of Irgoun will be violent. It is decided not to aim at the British, not to push too much far the showdown. Whereas the great Arab revolt was calmed, it is decided to target the Palestinian population: “It is necessary to create a situation or the life of Arabic will not be worth more than that of a rat. Like that, everyone will understand that the Arabs are shit, that we are, us and not them, the true Masters of the country”. Jabotinsky approves the new orientation. The assessment of the reprisals:

5 killed Arabs the July 4th 1938 in several attacks,
on July 6th, 2 bombs placed in milk cans explode in full Arab market of Haïfa. Crowd attacks the Jews, the police force draws: 21 Arabs and 6 Jews are killed in the attack and the riot.
a bomb placed in the street kills 2 Arabs in Jerusalem the July 6th.
a bomb placed in the street kills 3 Arabs in Jerusalem the July 8th.
a bomb placed in the souk of the hurdy-gurdy town of Jerusalem kills 10 Arabs the July 15th.
a bomb placed in the Arab market of Haïfa the July 25th 1938 fact 45 dead (British assessment; the Irgoun thinks that the British reduced the assessment to calm Arab crowd. An internal survey with the Irgoun gives 70 dead).
the last large attack of the countryside of 1938 will be made the August 26th: a barrel of dynamite explodes in the souk of Jaffa and fact 24 dead.

In sedentary term, one notes that the attack campaign of 1938 started again Arab violence, and the number of Jews killed for this period increases spectacularly: 50 per month between July and October, against 7 per month during the 9 previous months (or the great Arab revolt was calmed).

At the beginning of 1939, after information on a revision of the Palestinian policy of the United Kingdom in a direction pro-Arabic (confirmed then by the White paper ), the Irgoun revival its actions. Thus 27 Arabs in the streets of Haïfa, Tel-Aviv are killed randomly and Jerusalem, the February 27th 1939, which involves the congratulations of Jabotinsky (“your answer to the demonstrations of victory of the enemies of the Jewish State produced an enormous and positive effect”, letter of Jabotinsky with David Ratziel, chief of Irgoun, Jabotinsky files).

The political assessment of these actions seems with final rather negative. The use of violence against the Arab civilians is largely condemned by the Yichouv , and isolates the nationalist right, the Irgoun and Jabotinsky.

List attacks allotted to the Irgoun over this period

During the rising of 1936-1939, the attacks of the Irgoun made to Arab surroundings 250 civilian victims. The list below is drawn from the work from Arie Perliger and Leonard Weinberg, Totalitarian Movements & Political Religions , vol. 4, No 3 (2003) 91-118. One notes some differences in details with the attacks reported by Marius Schattner.

April 20th 1936: 2 Arab workers of a banana plantation are killed.
March 1937: 2 Arabs killed on the beach of beats-Yam.
November 14th 1937: 6 Arabs are killed in several shootings with Jerusalem.
April 12th 1938: 2 British Arabs and 2 police officers are killed by a bomb posed in a train with Haïfa.
April 17th 1938: An Arab is killed by a bomb which explodes in a coffee with Haïfa.
May 17th 1938: An Arab police officer is killed in an attack against a bus of the Jerusalem-Hebron road.
May 24th 1938: 3 Arabs are killed by ball with Haïfa.
June 23rd 1938: 2 Arabs are killed close to Tel-Aviv.
June 26th 1938: 7 Arabs are killed by a bomb with Jaffa.
June 27th 1938: An Arab is killed in the enclosure of a hospital with Haïfa.
July 5th 1938: 7 Arabs are killed in several shootings with Tel-Aviv.
the same day: 3 Arabs are killed by a bomb started in a bus with Jerusalem.
the same day: An Arab is killed in another attack with Jerusalem.
July 6th 1938: 18 Arabs and 5 Jews are killed by two simultaneous bombs with the Arab Melon market with Haïfa.
July 8th 1938: 4 Arabs are killed by a bomb with Jerusalem.
July 16th 1938: 10 Arabs are killed by a bomb in a market of Jerusalem.
July 25th 1938: between 39 and 70 Arabs according to the sources are killed by a bomb placed in a market with Haifa.
August 26th 1938: 24 Arabs are killed by a bomb in a market of Jaffa.
February 27th 1939: 33 Arabs are killed in several attacks, including 24 by a bomb in the market of Suk Quarter de Haïfa and 4 in an Arab market in vegetables of Jerusalem.
May 29th 1939: 5 Arabs are killed by the explosion of a mine in the cinema rex of Jerusalem.
the same day, 5 Arabs are killed during a raid on the village of Biyar “Adas.
June 2nd 1939: 5 Arabs are killed by a bomb Porte Jaffa with Jerusalem.
June 12th 1939: A bomb explodes in a post office of Jerusalem, killing a British bomb disposal expert when it tries to defuse the bomb.
June 16th 1939: 6 Arabs are killed in several attacks with Jerusalem.
June 19th 1939: 20 Arabs are killed by explosives placed on an ass at the market of Haïfa.
June 29th 1939: 13 Arabs are killed in several shootings which last nearly one hour.
June 30th 1939: An Arab is killed on a market of Jerusalem.
the same day, 2 Arabs are killed by ball with Lifta.
July 3rd 1939: An Arab is killed by a bomb placed in a market of Haïfa.
July 4th 1939: 2 Arabs are killed in two attacks with Jerusalem.
July 20th 1939: An Arab is killed in an attack of train with Jaffa.
the same day, 6 Arabs are killed in several attacks with Tel-Aviv.
the same day, 3 Arabs are killed with Rehovot.
August 27th 1939: 2 British officers are killed by a mine with Jerusalem.

Only the operations having involved deaths are listed here. The Irgoun carried out at least 60 distinct operations during this period.

The White paper of 1939

In May 1939, the British publish a third White paper on Palestine, answer political to the “Grande Arab revolt in Palestine”. They put almost fine at Jewish immigration, and consider (in a vague way) a unit State in Palestine for 1949, State inevitably with Arab majority. In addition, known as White paper, “the government of Its Majesty declare unambiguous today that it is by no means in its intentions to transform Palestine into a Jewish State”. It is potentially the end of the hopes Zionists.

Hitherto, the movement revisionist had criticized the British mandate, not favorable enough to the Jews. But there remained an ally of the United Kingdom. The White paper of May 17th changes the situation completely. The Irgoun starts to widen its actions with the fight against the British. David Ratziel, his commander, has just been stopped. “Under the impulse of Stern which took a dominating influence on the organization”, of the telephone exchanges are attacked, of the bombs explode at the post office of Jerusalem and the national radio. “Three British police officers and two Jews, shown to be used as auxiliaries, are assassinated”.

Cease-fire of the Irgoun (1940-1944)

In September 1939 bursts the Second world war, between the Nazi Germany on a side and the Franco-English alliance of the other.

Stern is in its stopped turn. Jabotinsky, whose influence on Irgoun became very theoretical, pushes to stop the armed operations, in the name of the priority with the fight against the Nazism. Ratziel supports it, “Stern and the majority of the command opposes it”. An agreement is finally signed by Ratziel at the end of 1939. The organization concludes even an agreement with the British to take part in offensive actions, in particular in the field of sabotage, and its chief David Ratziel will be killed with the combat in Iraq, in May 1941. To honor this agreement, “on June 18th, 1940, after much of hesitations, Britanniques slacken Stern and the four other commanders of the Irgoun . They will regret it”.

Jabotinsky approved the agreement. He dies of an heart attack in the United States on August 4th, 1940. With him disappears the charismatic chief from the nationalist right Zionist.

The scission of the “group Stern” (1940)

The opposition to the truce had been majority within the command of the Irgoun . Avraham Stern ( Yair ) question this choice of Jabotinsky and Ratziel. He considers that the threat of disappearance of the “Jewish national hearth” envisaged by the British by the White paper of 1939 (a Palestinian State with Jewish minority was to be created in 1949) is more serious than the danger Nazi.

He creates with his partisans, a scission which he initially calls “ Irgoun Tsvai Leumi beIsraël ”, then “ Lohamei Herut Israel ” (Combatants for the freedom of Israel) or Lehi . The British call it the “ Stern gang ” translates into French by “Stern group”. The organization tries to contact the Germans, in the name of the difference between the “persecutor” (Germany), preferable with “the enemy” (British who prevent the Jewish State).

The scission of with the Irgoun in practice will take several months, unquestionable militant hesitating between Irgoun (and its policy of cease-fire) and the partisans of Stern. The course of Yitzhak Shamir is thus revealing. In contact with the Stern group as of the beginning, it “does not manage to take its party. During months, it will oscillate between the two rival camps, without engaging neither in one nor in the other. It is only in spring 1941 that Shamir joined the Stern group, after the failure of the first attempts at contact with the Axis”. Hostile with the British, not moving back in front of violence (it directed the 8th company of the Irgoun of Tel-Aviv, and thus was very implied in the attacks anti-Arabic), but pragmatic and not very interested by the great ideological debates, it would have been rejected a long time by the exaltation of Stern. Marius Schattner notes that “the extremism of Yaïr rejects it”.

The new organization attracts at the beginning many militants, because the hostility with the new British policy was large within the Irgoun . It is devoted to attacks against the British or of the “collaborator” Jews, but without much success. “The group counts nothing any more but one member hundred at the end of the summer 1941, against several hundreds in 1940. Almost all the executives, the ones after the others, gave up a chief who was the proof of an obvious incapacity in the field of the direct action, and whose strategy of alliance with the Axis failed on all the line”. The organization is then “in full deliquescence”. Stern is finally dismantled fine 1941-beginning 1942 and enters in sleep. The persons in charge died (Stern) or in prison (Shamir).

The taking of of Menahem Begin (1943)

It is Yaakov Meridor which replaces Ratziel after the death of this one in May 1941. But times are difficult for the Irgoun . The organization was not a political party, and existed only for the armed struggle. The cease-fire removed its raison d'être to him. Moreover, the scission with Stern weakened it: “At the summer 1943, the moral one is so low that it is question of dissolving the organization”.

It is on this date that the old one directing Betar of Poland, Menahem Begin, takes again the direction of the Irgoun .

Resumption of the armed struggle against the British (1944)

In February 1944, the Irgoun considers that the war is now gained by the Allies, and that the priority problem becomes again the British project against the “Jewish national hearth”. The refusal of the British to let enter to Palestine the Jews which flee Europe is particularly criticized: “In the night of 1st at February 2nd, 1944, of the posters are placarded in the Jewish localities of Palestine. proclaim: " there cannot be truce between the Hebrew people and the British administration in Palestine, which delivers our brothers to Hitler. War with the British capacity. War until the end! " ”.

It is the first time that the revisionists attack the British. Temptation exists since the beginning them years 1930 (see Sionisme revisionist: Birionim), when the British started to take their distance with the Zionists projects and to slow down Jewish immigration. But Jabotinsky then the war had prevented the passage to the act.

The 12 then the February 27th 1944, of the buildings of the administration are aimed, but without making of death. March 23rd, 5 police officers and a member of Irgoun are killed at the time of attacks against the centers of the CID ( Central Intelligence Department ). In spite of an increasing dissatisfaction of the Jewish population of Palestine against the English policy, the attacks are condemned by the official authorities of the Zionism, but also by the Jewish public opinion.

The season

As of April 1944, David Ben Gourion threat to repress the Irgoun with the Haganah . In front of the rise of the actions of the IZL, it launches finally the November 26th 1944 “the season of hunting to the terrorists”, remained in the history under the name of “the season”. This day there, it makes adopt by the Histadrout a program in four points which envisages collaboration with the British in the tracking of the “terrorists”.

The Jewish Agency will provide to the British 700 names suspects. “From tens will be removed by the teams special of the Haganah , and subjected to severe interrogations, accompanied sometimes by maltreatment. The Irgoun and the Lehi will have to stop their operations until the end of the Second world war. At this point in time Begin makes a capital choice “while prohibiting with its men to devote itself to reprisals”.

The “season” is a success for the Haganah . Many chiefs of the Irgoun are in prison, even if Begin succeeded in passing between the meshs of the net. But the British attitude remains inflexible with respect to the Jewish refugees that the allied armies release from the occupation Nazi. Very entered to Palestine their remainder prohibited, and anger grows in the Yichouv . Collaboration with the British thus becomes increasingly unpopular, “including among those in charge of its execution”. The “season” is deferred at the beginning of the summer 1945. The Irgoun can blow and reorganize.

The Movement of the Hebraic revolt

“On October 1st, 1945, Ben Gourion addresses of Paris a top secret telegram to the command of the Haganah in Palestine, enjoignant to him to engage the fight against the capacity agent. The Haganah is seen entrusting a double mission: to ensure manu militari the unloading of the clandestine immigrants in Palestine, to perpetrate acts of sabotage calculated to produce the maximum of effect by causing a minimum of loss”.

From October 1945 in July 1946, the Haganah , the Lehi and the Irgoun create a “Movement of the Hebraic revolt”, directed by a “committee X” controlled by the Haganah .

The entry of the Haganah and its thousands of combatants (in particular 2000 combatants of elite of the Palmach ) gives a new broadth to the fight. Sabotages multiply. November 1st, the Haganah thus makes jump the railway line in 153 different points.

London reacts while carrying manpower of the army to 80.000 men in December 1945 (they will be 100.000 in 1947, that is to say 1 soldier for 6 Jewish civilians, children included/understood).

The December 27th 1945, 10 police officers and soldiers are killed in a series of raid of the Lehi and Irgoun . The April 25th 1946, the Lehi kills 7 British parachutists (attack condemned by the Haganah ).

The June 12th, the government refuses the entry of 100.000 Jewish refugees (a recommendation of the Anglo-American commission). In the days which follow, the armed groups multiply the attacks. The July 22nd 1946, the Irgoun makes jump the Hôtel King David which shelters the secretariat of the British Government of Palestine. One counts 91 victims (28 British, 17 Jews and 41 Arabic), the majority civil. The attack was planned by committee X, but the Haganah finally required to cancel the operation vis-a-vis the possibility of civilian victims. The Irgoun will maintain the operation. The attack is conducted by Yosef Avni, a member of the Betar , which will take part in the Massacre of Deir Yassin of the April 9th 1948, and Yisrael Levi. A telephone message informs the French consulate and the newspaper Jerusalem Post 25 minutes before the explosion. Another warning message is given to the hotel little time before the explosion, which will deny a long time the British authorities. The Irgoun asserts the attack immediately, while affirming not to have intended to cause deaths. Menahem Begin reports this episode in an autobiographical book published in 1978 .

The moderate ones of the Jewish Agency and OSM, in particular Haïm Weizmann, had made pressure for a few weeks to stop the armed actions. The British had stopped many person in charge of the Histadrout , Jewish Agency (of which Moshe Sharett, the chief of his political department) and Haganah . The attack of King David and its tens of deaths ring the knell of the “Movement of the Hebraic revolt”. The moderate ones carry it. The Haganah condemns the attack and leaves the MRH. The Lehi and the Irgoun are again insulated vis-a-vis the British.

Even the Parti revisionist, which however shares the same nationalist ideology that the Irgoun , will take sometimes his distances from with certain actions of the organization.

Towards the division of Palestine (August 1946 - November 1947)

The Lehi and the Irgoun do not have many men: “4000 with more for the IZL, of which a thousand operational, 10 times less for the Lehi , but removed from the constraints that alliance with the imposed to them Haganah did not want too deaths, the dissidents will only strike any more extremely”.

After a pause making following the attack against the hotel King David (July-September 1946), the two organizations “start again the urban guerilla warfare in October 1946. A hundred members of the British security forces are killed or wounded in 6 weeks on October 31st Irgoun makes jump a bomb to the British embassy to Rome”.

Repression is severe, but “the marshal Montgomery, Head of State imperial major, will never obtain freehand to disarm Yichouv and to employ the same punitive methods which had been used for to crush the Arab revolt in 1936”.

“The operations against the troops of occupation, increasingly daring, make the country ungovernable (...). Disabled, Bevin, of the Foreign affairs British decides in February 1947 to carry the business in front of UNO, not without hoping for a failure of the United Nations which would allow the return in strength of Great Britain”.

A commission of UNO is formed, the UNSCOM, which will propose a Plan of division of Palestine, finally adopted by the General meeting of the United Nations at the end of November 1947. By this plan, a Jewish State is designed to be created in May 1948, on 55% of old Palestine agent.

The Jewish Agency and the world Organization Zionist accept the plan but the Irgoun refuses it. The IZL does not have however the means of being opposed to it, and ceases officially its operations in August 1947, when the plan is adopted by the UNSCOM is that it submits it to the General meeting of the United Nations.

The last phase of the operations of the IZL (August 1946 - August 1947) will have cost the life 141 British (338 in all between 1944 and May 1948). These figures are complete figures, which include the victims of the Haganah (enough little) and of the Lehi . But the Irgoun is responsible for the majority of deaths.

One of last the actions of the Irgoun will have a great repercussion in England, or riots anti-semites aiming of the stores and the synagogs will burst. The July 28th 1947, 3 men of the Irgoun are hung. “The following day, two British sergeants taken as hostages are hung in a wood of eucalyptus, close to Netanya. A mine placed under hung will explode when a British captain comes to detach the bodies. In the hours which follow, 5 Jews are killed by drunk British police officers of rage who mitraillent passers by with the aveuglette”. Time to go (it is time to leave) written the Manchester Guardian .

Civil war in Palestine (December 1947 - summer 1948)

Attacks against the Arabs

The shortly after the vote of division, the November 30th 1947, attacks and anti-Jewish riots burst in Palestine and in the Middle East: “The Palestinians do not agree to lose half of their fatherland so that the Occident discharges its moral debt towards the Jews”.

The IZL takes again its attacks against Arabic, in reprisals. The December 27th 1947, of the members of Irgoun throws 2 bombs in a crowd of Arab workmen in front of the refinery of Haïfa. 6 are killed. 39 Jewish workers will then be killed by the Arab workmen in reprisals

While the Haganah works with the constitution of an army solid, able to overcome irregular Arabic and the regular Arab armies whose attack is announced after the departure of the British (envisaged the May 15th 1948), the Irgoun , of which the size is reduced, is devoted primarily to attacks blind against the civil population.

As from April, the Haganah launches out in a counter-offensive of great scale against irregular Arabic, taking again the control of the transportation routes which connect the Jewish zones between them as well as mixed cities. (see a chart of the Jewish zones, and the chapter on this against offensive in the article Civil war of 1947-1948 in Palestine agent).

Massacre of Deir Yassin

The Irgoun agrees to coordinate its actions with the Haganah , but to a certain extent only. One starts to see appearing units of several tens of men of the Irgoun operating together against Arab villages. It is within this framework that occurs the Massacre of Deir Yassin. The April 9th, of the combatants of the Irgoun and the Lehi attack the village, in spite of the agreement of non-aggression which it had signed with its Jewish neighbors. Badly trained with this type of combat, the attackers 5 killed, 35 wounded and withdraw themselves. They then call upon the Palmach whose “section will reduce without problem the principal focus of resistance. Midday Friday, it is withdrawn, leaving the care to the combatants of Irgoun and the Groupe Stern to rake the village”. Part of the population is then massacred. The spoken Arabic high committee about 254 civilian victims. The historians in general evaluate the massacre rather between 60 to 120 dead. But, strongly mediatized, the massacre had several consequences. On the one hand, it definitively anchored the violent image of the Irgoun . In addition, “still amplified by Arab propaganda, will throw thousands then tens of thousands of Palestinians on the roads of the exodus”.

Menahem Begin will deny any massacre, speaking about a “untrue propaganda”: “It was not what occurred to Deir Yassin, but well what was invented which helped us to open to a way towards decisive victories the Arabs taken of panic to us fled with the cries of “ Deir Yassin ””. It should be noted that the authorities of the Jewish Agency will denounce the massacre firmly, but that no legal proceeding will be undertaken.

The catch of Jaffa

The town of Jaffa was allotted to the Arabs but are in the middle of the Jewish State. Following the victory of Haganah with Haïfa, Jaffa is attacked by Irgoun the April 27th. The forces of the Armée with Arab release resist to the attackers. Following the incidents of Haïfa, the British intervene and threaten the Juifs of reprisals if they do not stop their offensive. Following rumors of reinforcement of the Armed with release and intervention of the Arab Legion, Yigal Yadin lance the Hametz operation aiming at encircling the city. The British react by bombarding the positions of Irgoun what puts a term at the offensive. The city will fall only the May 13rd following the departure from the Britanniques but into the tread, between 50 000 and 60 000 additional Arabic will be enfuis^,.

Actions against the British

For this period which goes from at the end of 1947 to the May 15th 1948 (departure of the British), the IZL also took sporadic actions against the British. Officially, those being withdrawn, the Irgoun had ceased its actions. In practice, considering that the British rather leant Arab side in the civil war which was held under their eyes between Arabs and Jews of Palestine, the Irgoun will take actions of specific reprisals. Thus, the February 22nd 1948, the Irgoun and the Lehi , at the time of 5 separated incidents, will kill 10 British and will seriously wound of them 8 others following an Arab attack with the car bomb street Ben Yehuda in Jerusalem, which will cost the life more than 60 Jews and in which were implied British deserters with the service of Hadj Amin Al-Husseini. There will be other attacks.

The disappearance of the Irgoun

The May 14th, the independence of Israel is proclaimed, and the Jewish Agency is transformed into provisional government. The foreign troops (Egyptian, transjordaniennes, Iraqi, Syrian women and Lebanese) penetrate in Palestine. The engagements become traditional combat of infantry, where the old practices of urban guerilla warfare and attacks do not have any more course. The Irgoun accelerates its evolution towards broader structures, adapted better to the combat of infantry. She will obtain there certain successes, limited by the lack of combatants.

Thus in Jerusalem, where the May 21st, an Egyptian column reached Bethlehem after having crossed the Negev and to be last by Beersheba. The May 22nd, it grapeshot southern suburbs of Jerusalem. “Of the bloody combat are held in the south, against the forces combined of the Legion and the 4th brigades Egyptian woman, for the control of the kibbutz Ramat-Rachel which orders the access of the new city. Five times taken and taken again, the kibbutz will end up remaining with the hands of the men of Irgoun”.

The May 26th 1948, Defense forces of Israel (the Israeli army) is officially created, and immediately absorbs the Haganah .

Menahem Begin “took on June 1st, 1948 to place its men and its equipment at the disposal of the Israeli army within which the members of the IZL (Irgoun) will constitute their own battalions”. The Lehi joined Tsahal also quickly.

The Irgoun and the Lehi align on this date respectively only 4000 and 1000 combatants. Other authors, like Karsh, give for the Irgoun lower figures, between 2000 and 4000 men.

Relatively very few, the members of the Irgoun are also held in suspicion by the new government of David Ben Gourion for their “terrorist” activities passed and their right-wing policy sympathies. The new Israeli army is thus primarily made up around old the Haganah .

The specific battalions of the Irgoun will last only 3 weeks. Indeed, the government, and especially David Ben Gourion, did not wish more to allow units “of right-hand side” that “of left” to continue to exist within the army (the Palmach , very on the left, had just been dissolved).

The units of the Irgoun will be dissolved during the 1st Israeli-Arab truce (June 11th - July 9th 1948), after the incident of the Altalena, the 21 and June 22nd. It is a question of an attempt of the units of the Irgoun within Defense forces of Israel of getting weapons by themselves thanks to Altalena, a boat of the organization. Ben Gourion takes pretext of this attempt to denounce a factious attempt, and to make give the attack to the boat. At the time of this one, there are 18 died: 16 members of the Irgoun and 2 soldiers of Tsahal. “The shortly after on June 22nd, the Irgoun virtually ceased existing like autonomous military force, except in Jerusalem. Its battalions were dissolved in the army and of the warrants for arrest were launched against several of its chiefs”. The members of the dissolved units are divided in the other units of Tsahal.

The Irgoun and the Lehi will continue to exist until September with Jerusalem, city envisaged by UNO to be separate of Israel and to become a “international zone”. The national agreements of integration of these organizations with Tsahal thus do not apply to it.

At the time of “the 10 day old War” (July 9th - July 18th 1948), after the first truce, the Irgoun knows its last combat, but without success. The Israeli command indeed launches the operation Kedem , which aimed at taking all the town of Jerusalem, and especially the old city.

Envisaged initially to be carried out by the Irgoun and the Lehi the July 8th, just after the first truce, the operation Kedem is deferred by David Shaltiel, commander de Jérusalem. Indeed this one questions their chances of success. The April 9th, these groups had indeed failed to capture the badly defended village of Deir Yassin without the assistance of the Haganah .

The plan is envisaged as follows: the forces of L Irgoun , ordered by Yehuda Lapidot (“Nimrod”), must enter by the door Bab Al Jedid , the Lehi passing by the wall on the basis of Bab Al Jedid and by the door of Jaffa, finally the battalion Beit Hiron passing by the Mont Sion.

The battle is finally designed to begin with the Shabbat, Friday July 16th with 20:00, one day before the second cease-fire. However the organization turns badly and the operation is deferred to 23:00 then at midnight, for in the final analysis starting with 2:30 of the morning. The Irgoun succeeds in cutting through a path by the door Bab Al Jedid but the other sections fail in their objectives. With 5:45, David Shaltiel is constrained to order the suspension of the hostilities and to fold up its troops. A new truce between in force on July 18th, and the engagements cease.

During this second truce, the September 16th, Folke Bernadotte, mediator of the United Nations, proposes a new plan of division of Palestine, in which the Transjordanie would annex the Arab zones including/understanding the Negev, Ramla and Lydda. This plan also envisages a Jewish State occupying whole Galileo, the passage of Jerusalem under international control and the repatriation (or compensation) of the refugees. The plan is refused by the Israelis and the Arabs.

The following day, September 17th, Bernadotte is assassinated by the Lehi with Jerusalem. In 24 hours, more than 250 members of the Lehi are challenged in all the country. The government benefits from it to dissolve the units of the IZL with Jerusalem, although it knows that they were not frays with the crime. The company of integration of the Lehi and the Irgoun to Tsahal, largely started during the first truce, is thus completed with the second.

Menahem Begin agrees to be subjected to the law of the new provisional government. Taking note of the dissolution of the Irgoun , it creates at the end of 1948 the party Herout (“freedom”) which will be directed by the old ones of the Irgoun , and which will reiterate the essence of its ideology. The Left revisionist, little credit since the death of Vladimir Jabotinsky in 1940, is also absorbed by the Herout . But its leaders, sometimes critical from the actions of the Irgoun between 1944 and 1948, will be kept away of the stations - keys by Begin.

Random links: