Purely Commentary
Leonard • Mosley -has written one of the most remarkable '
stories of our time, about one of the -most interesting characters
of our generation. . .
His "Gideon Goes. to War: The Story of Major T General
Orde C. Wingate," (published by Charles Scribner's. Sons, 597
5th Ave:, N.Y. 17) deals with the ma_n who created the
background for the Jewish defense forces in Israel, who helped
establish the Haganah, :who- had' visions of leading conquering
JeWish forces in establishing a Jewish State; He . foresaw the
reality of the State. He defied his own government in laboring
towards the end that- Jews • might re-acquire statehood.
Wingate's story is "of special interest at this" time • as an
indication of the influence that Biblical scholarship had on
the dreams of Christians as well as Jews for the re-establish-
ment of the Jewish State.
*
*
"There will be no free- Palestine for the • Jews unless you
fight and win," was Wingate's approach to Palestine'S Jewish
leaders in the early 1930s. He sounded like 'a "madman," but
he knew whereof he spoke.
Dr. Chaim Weizmann, then president of the World Zionist
Organization, later the first..President .of ,spoke of him
as "my favorite madman." The biographer of Wingate adds that
Dr. Weizmarin "was_ genuinely fond of him,. and accepted from
his lips orders and insults • he would never- -have - taken from
a Jew."
*
*
Wingate studied and mastered - Hebrew. He constantly
recited Psalms, often chanting them in Hebrew, and he kept
repeating the "shit_ hamaalot" • of the 138th Psalm: "When the
Lord turned again the captivity of Zion . . ." Mosley writes in
his interesting story that Wingate was "a convinced Zionist"
who made no secret of his desire to help Jews win their
independence, "even if it meant fighting other enemies of
Zion -besides the Arabs" --- and that included the British
themselves.
When the inhuman British White Paper was issued, Wingate
urged Jewish leaders to launch an attack "against the great oil
refinery in Haifa." He told them: "Its destruction would be a
grave blow to the British Empire." He gave assurance that he
would •gain entrance for Jews into the refinery. When he was
questioned, how • could he do that as a British officer, "what
about your military career?", he answered: "There are times
when a man must make a decision. Now, comrades, are you
with me — am I to lead you?"
His proposal was turned down. The Jewish leaders felt that
1939 was not the time "to embarrass the British, even for the
sake of a Jewish State."
* - *
*
. •
•
Wingate paid a price for his stand. After building up the
Jewish fighting forces, after leading them in attacks against
nests of Arab bandits who were endangering the security of
Jewish settlements, he was recalled from Palestine and was
ordered never again to return to the Holy Land.
He had • a similar tragic fate later in Ethiopia, where he was
responsible for the return of Haille Selasie to his throne. He
wound up his career as the hero of the Burma .campaign, as
the leader in the Chindit operation, as the man who, defying
the entire British military machine that had disapproved of his
tactics, set into motion a drive that helped turn the tide of
War. He was 41 when he died in an air crash in Burma, having
given his life for his country and the Allied cause. But he died
hoped
a Zionist, always dreaming of a future in which he -had
to lead victorious Jevis in the re' creation of their statehood.
In Palestine,. Wingate operated from Jewish settlements,
and was especially attached to Ein Harod which "had its
spiritual attraction too: for here, under the lee of Gilboa, was
Gideon's burial-place; and here, it. is no exaggeration to say
that Wingate felt like a soldier of the Old Testament too."
There is a moving deScription of "Wingate's interest in the
Zionist cause by Moshe Dayan, now head of the Israeli army,
then one of Wingate's young jewish associates in the establish-
Ment of the -Haganah, in •MosleY's "Gideon Goes to War." "He
was never wrong," Dayan said, describing Wingate's raid on
Arab bandit hangouts. "I never knew him to lose an engage-
ment. He was never worried about odds . . . There were many
men who served with him at Bin Harod who later became
officers in the Israeli army which fought and defeated. the
Arabs, but they were not- the only ones who benefited,, from
Thrilling Story of the In-
spired Christian _Z ionist
and Brilliant Military
Leader, Maj.-Gen. Wingate
By Philip
Slomovitz
Between
You and Me
By BORIS SMOLAR
(Copyright, 1956, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.)
PROGRESS REPORT
The United Jewish Appeal is
doing extremely well this year •
Maj. Gen. ORDE C. WINGATE, his Widow, LORNA WIN-
GATE, and their son, ORDE JONATHAN. When Mrs. Wingate
brought their four-year-old son to Israel, during the Arab-
Jewish war, in 1948, she said: "Israel is at war. If I had gold
and money, I would contribute them for the war. which _my
husband foresaw. Not having them, I decided to send you my
son. I am sending him to be educated in Israel, and to be a
loyal son of both Israel and Britain.'!
his training. In some sense, every leader of the Israeli army
even today is a disciple of Wingate. He gave us our technique,
he was the inspiration of our tactics, he was our dynamic."
Interestingly enough, this brilliant British officer once told
Jewish soldiers, in Hebrew: "Don't imitate the British Tommy.
Learn his calmness and discipline, but not his stupidity, brutality
and drunkenness."
Only once did this great man, this military genius, go on
a drunk: when he heard of the issuance of the British White
Paper of 193 shutting off the immigration of Jews to Palestine.
*
*
*
Avraharn Akavia, a - young Jew who was his interpreter in
Hebrew in Ein Harod, became one of his closest friends. He
accompanied him to Ethiopia.
Wingate continued a •correspondence with Jews in Palestine,
even while he was in Delhi, during the bitterest days of the
Burma struggles. .Mosley writes that "nothing was so important
to him as his return to the Holy Land. to take • over the army
of the Jews and lead them to victory. One day, just before the
Chindit operation began, a special plane arrived at Orde
Wingate's_ headquarters bringing Lord Mountbatten, several
British generals and a flock of American brass hats to visit
him; and also, having sneaked a ride, there was aboard the
war correspondent of Time and Life magazines, - Harry Zinder
(now head of the -Israel: Broadcasting CommiSSion) . • • Wingate
-caught - sight of Zinder, whom • he had known -in Cairo, and
darted from the car. He rushed up the steps crying: 'Shalom,
shalom,' for he knew Zinder • was a Jew, and dragged him to
his car. 'You shall come back and stay with me and talk to me
about- Palestine,' he said, completely ignoring the visitors. 'I
spoke very bad Hebrew at the time,' Zinder remembers, 'but
he insisted we- use that language, rattling away so that all the
others could hear him. And all . he would talk about was his
urgent longing to be back in Palestine, to finish with this war
and get on with the work he loVed.' "
Many believed that • if he could, Wingate would have
resigned his commission and would have gone to Palestine to
fight with and for the Jews, even if it were to be against his
own British - government. Mosley poses the question,- "would.
the Jews really have choserl Orde Wingate to lead them, as
he belieivied?" And his answer is: "My own conversations with
Jewish leaders and Jewish soldiers make me doubt it. This was
a Jewish war • for independence which only a Jew could lead
. . As I traced Wingate's '-wanderings through Palestine, years
after their War of Independence. was -over, I sensed as a
non-Jew that. 'what the Jews were trying- to tell me was that
the will of God was kind to •Orde Wingate when He let him
die in the jungle in Burma in 1944. The Jews would not have
chosen him.• And when. 1949 and the time to choose the leaders
came, he may well have died in a more painful way from a
broken heart. He was at least spared that.".
We read on, in Mosley's "Gideon Goes to War": "Instead,
it was his spiritual rather than his bodily presence which
heartened the Jews when the battle came, and has given them
courage ancl. inspiration ever since. At the height of the Arab-7
Jewish war, his wife came to Israel with her young son. She
was flown over a Jewish settlement named Yemin Orde (after
Wingate) at a moment when it was being attacked by Arabs
from Syria. She had Orde Wingate's Bible with her, and wrote
in the flyleaf:
`7.5.48. To the defenders of Yemin Orde. Since Orde
Wingate is with you in spirit, though he cannot lead you in
the flesh, I send you the Bible he carried in all his campaigns
and from which he drew the inspiration of his victories. May
it be a covenant between you and him, in triumph or defeat,
now and always.'
"She flung it out of the plane and it was 'picked up._ by
the 'settlers, who fought back and repelled the invaders. And
in the ensuing weeks, all over Israel, Jewish, soldiers were
ng, as he had taught them, with the tactics he had instilled
fighti
into them.
"So, at least in spirit, he did command the armies of
Israel when the great battle came. He probably realizes now
that it was the will of God, and that it was better that way."
These are a few brief impressions gathered from "Gideon
Goes to War" by Leonard Mosley. It is a great story that should
be read by all who desire to have a full understanding of the
great cause of ,Zionism and by those who seek information
. . . All indications point to
the fact that Israel will receive •
through the UJA this year more
funds than in 1948, which was
the peak year of Jewish fund-
raising . in the United States ..
It is not expected that - there
will be as much money raised
this year as in 1948, but on the
other hand there are no DP's to
be supported today as,there were
in 1948 . . . Thus, practically. all
the funds raised this year by
the UJA will go- to Israel, in-
cluding a good portion of the
funds allocated to the Joint Dis-
tribution Committee, which is
now operating in Israel . . . All
in all it can be safely predicted
that Israel will receive through
the United Jewish Appeal this
year no less than $400,000,000.
.. : This will include funds se-
cured through the Special , Sur-
vival Fund and other UJA proj-
ects.
* * ,*
WASHINGTON ECHOES
Moscow's dramatic offer to
help settle the Arab-Israel con-
flict has not been received with
open arms in Washington be-
cause of the undertones of the
offer . , . It has a lot of fine-
sounding phrases, but it also
includes a number of hidden
landmines . . . The Moscow
statement implies that the Sov-
iet government wants the Tri-
partite Declaration of 1950
scrapped . ti . This declaration,
made jointly by the United
States, Britain and France, ob-
ligates the "Big Three" to take
steps "within and without" the
United Nations to prevent war
between the Arab countries and
Israel_ . . . Although President
Eisenhower, in his last state-
ment on the Arab-Israel issue,
appeared to put the "without"
clause in mothballs, the United
States is not ready to tear up
the Tripartite Declaration . . • It
is downgrading it in• an attempt
to get action through mediation
by UN Secretary General Dag
Hammarskjold, but it is not
willing .to renounce it alto-
gether.
* * *
UN ANTICIPATIONS
In United Nations circles the
Soviet offer to participate in a
Solution of the Arab-Israel prob-
lem is similarly taken with a
lot of reservations . . . UN ex-
ports believe that the real test
of Soviet designs may not come
before November . . . At that
time the international Mon-
treaux convention relating to
the status of the' Dardanelles
expires . . . Moscow may then
make an attempt to enter the
Middle East through the front
door---through access- to the
Mediterranean — rather than
through the back door as ts the
case now . . . For nearly 300
years, ever since the Russian
empire reached the northern
shores of the Black Sea, Russia
has been making efforts to share
in the control of the Turkish
straits . • . . All these years her
efforts came to naught _and she
remained cut off from access to
the Mediterranean . • .- Had she
been successful in sharing these
straits, she would have been
in a position to control the
whole of the Levant and any
route of trade and communica-
tion leading from the Mediter-
ranean to India . .
With Moscow • now considering
itself a factor in the Middle
East the Soviet efforts to share
control of . the Turkish straits
are expected to be renewed ...
.. There seems to be no doubt
that the USSR will make its
stand on the Arab-Israel issue
dependent on whether she suc-
ceeds in realizing her centuries.,
old ambition to- reach the Mid-
dle East not by land but by sea
THE WINGATE CHILDREN'S HOME: Workers are shown,
through the Dardanelles.
.
about
a
man
who
may
have
appeared
as
and
acted
like
a
here as they laid the foundation for a home for refugee Jewish
2- D e t ro i t Jewish News
ehildren at Nir Etziony in Israel, in memory of Maj. Gen. Orde "madman" but who, in truth, was a groat and an inspired
• ,
FrIclay;-April 27, 1956
leaden
6. Wingate.