`Story of Israel's Armed Forces'

Israel's Heroic Struggles to Reject Tyranny
Related in Yigal Allon's 'Shield of David'

Israel's Deputy Prime Minister
YigalIon has many distinctions.
Presently he is high in the ranks
of his government He is a sabre
and his early activities were in the
Jewish defense forces of Palestine,
together with such notables as
Moshe Dayan, Itzhak Rabin, Yo-
seph Tabenkin, Yigael Yadin, Yitz-
haq Sadeh, Mickey Marcus, Orde
Wingate, and many others, and he
rose to the rank of Major General.
He was an active officer in Israel's
War of Independence and the 1956
war, and during the Six-Day War
he was Minister of Labor. He was
a founder of Palmach and became
its commander.
He studied at the Hebrew Uni-
versity and at Oxford. He is an
able author and a scholar.
These are qualities that attest to
his being so highly qualified to
write "Shield of David—The Story
of Israel's Armed Forces," which
has just been issued by Random
House.
It is a great work not only as a
record of the military factors in
the emergence of the Israeli army,
but also because of its historical
perspectives — because of the
author's delving into the record
of the Zionist struggle for the
homeland to assure a permanent
home for the dispossessed Jews
who suffered under Nazism and
other tyrannical governments.
Allan emerges here as an able
historian, as ann understanding
gatherer of facts that make
"Shield of David" a deeply mov-
ing story. It is told factually,
without resort to sentimentali-
ties. Yet, in the process, he has
provided details of a people's
battle for life and of Its heroes'
determination not to surrender to
the mounting hordes of enemies,
the Zionist ideal remaining the

guiding spirit for seekers of free-
dom and independence.
The great value of this new
work by the Israeli deputy prime
minister who also serves as his
country's minister of education
and culture is the totality of the
story of the Jewish defense groups
which had defended the Jewish
colonists in Palestine from the
earliest times of the 19th century
migrations of pioneer builders of
Zion to the present. He concludes
with the Israel army which tri-
umphed in 1967, and all of the
heroic accompliShments are linked
to the founding groups, with Hash-
irner which served as the training
force that developed into the Ha-
gana that made history as one of
the world's most courageous self-
defense forces.
Then came the Palmach, and the
Irgun Zvia Leumi forces, and with
the formation of the Israeli army
there was effected the unity that
is so vital for national defense.
"Shield of David" is not a
story limited to the description
of the development of the Zahal,
the Israel army. It deals with the
historical background of Jewish
trials and tribulations that were
endured by the early settlers In
Palestine, as well as the miseries
that were suffered by Jews in
the Russian Pale of Settlement.
It is in connection with these
experiences that Alton tells about
the bravery of a group of Jews
in Gomel who would not submit
to humiliation, who organized
to light the pogronichlka.
For three days the heroes of the
Gomel Jewish community fought
first the pogromchiks, then the
Russian army itself. The resist-
ance is viewed by Allan as "an
historic event," because: "The first
revolutionary pioneers to leave

Russia for Palestine in 1904 were
a group of those same young Jews
who had, unprecedentedly, given
battle to the Czar's army a few
months ago."
Out of such ranks developed the
defense units in Palestine. These
were the forces who later fought
in the Hagana, who defended the
colonists and learned warfare to
be able to create the foundation
for the Israel army of defense.
These are the people with whom
Charles Orde Wingate, the impas-
sioned British military leader who
became a staunch adherent of the
Monist cause, labored to form the
night squads who perfected de-
fensive methods to assure security
for Jewish settlers in Palestine.
Allon's story deals with the
struggle of the early pioneers
against British betrayals of pled-
ges to the Jewish people and the
failure of the British administra-
tions under the mandate to give
Jews a chasm to provide their
own protection. British perfidy
emerges anew from this story of
determination by Jews who were
fighting against great odds not
to yield to Arab rioters or to
British perjudk-es.
While exposin; the Arab terror-
in conjunction with a number of ists who threatened the very exist-
other bodies outside the univer- ence of the Yishuv in Palestine, as
sity. Also within the Old City are well as the collaboration of the
digs conducted in the. Jewish British in Arab aims to prevent
Quarter by Prof. N. Avigad, while the emergence of an independent
the institute's members
Jewish national home, Allon also
pate in the dig at the CitadeL
relates the Jewish experiences dur-
Taken together, these are bluld- ing the war against Nazism. Pal-
ing a detailed picture of Jeru- estinian Jews offered their help
salem's history such as never be- to the British in spite of the en-
mities that stemmed from them.
fore available.
Teaching digs already begun by That help so vially needed, final-
ly
was accepted. Yet there was
the institute in various parts of
the country are to continue, and a fear of a Nazi onslaught that could
lead
to the total destruction of the
start is soon to be made on the
excavation of synagogues in Ein Jewish community.
Anticipating
the worst, the Jews
Gedi (on the shores of the Dead
Sea) and in the Hebron hills area. planned. Yltzhaq Sedah and Prof.
Yohanan Rattner of the Haiti
The archeological study of ancient
synagogues is yet" another central Technician developed the Carmel
Plan. The Haifi area was to be
preoccupation of the institute,
used to create a beleaguered post
Prof. Yadin said.
for the hundreds of thousands of
Marine archeology is a further Palestinian Jews who were to have
facet of development at the insti- been moved there, "to be governed
tute, which has now been joined by a Jewish military administra-
by Dr. Elishah Linder, a pioneer tion; to be provisioned by planes,
of this area of study, and a start by submarines and through its own
is to be made soon on underwater agricultural resources." It was a
archeology in Eilat
plan patterned after the Masada
Referring to the imminent possi. historic experience never to submit
bility of excavations abroad, Prof. to the enemy.
Yadin stressed the need to carry
The plan was not carried out,
out archeological studies in neigh- the Germans having suffered de-
boring lands. With those lands bor-
feat at El Alamein, Palestine
dering on Israel closed to it, the
thus saved from the Nazi con-
institute would instead turn its
quest. But the fornadatioa of the
attention to Mediterranean coun- plan. Man explain, provided
tries.
the Jewish community "with
Prof. Yadin paid special atten-
added dimensions to its military
tion to the compilation of a num-
thinking and broadened its mill-
ber of corpora designed to con-
tary coacepts."
centrate all information available
Hagana's concepts were pat into
about certain aspects of archeo- force when the Jewish community
logical work. Projected is a re- of Palestine was virtually battling 1
vival of a publication series — the British in the determination to
"Kedem" — which dates back to bring the "illigal" immigrants in 1
the establishment of the institute to the country. Ships were sunk,
on the Mount Scopus campus in thousands were sent to Cyprus, but
the pre-state days, and a periodi- the Yishur fought every attempt
cal devoted to research on syna- to interfere either with the right
to ezis or to bring in Jewish refu-
gogues in the land of Israel.

Archeological Advances Assured
With Dedication of New Building

JERUSALEM—The Hebrew Uni-
versity's Institute of Archeology
is soon to pioneer a further aspect
of Israeli archeology when its
schol err s undertake excavations
abroad to explore the cultures and
societies with which this country
is intimately linked.
The was a key line of develop-
ment forecast by Prof. Yigael
Yadin, head of the institute, when
he addressed those attending the
dedication ceremony of the Caras-
so Archeology Building on the
Mount Scopus campus of the uni-
versity.
The Carasso family of Tel Aviv
gave the funds for the restoration
of the former Museum of Jewish
Antiquities building in tribute to
their late father, Moise Carasso,
a leading member of the Salonika
Jewish community who had
played a key role in aiding the
absorption of other members of
his community into Israeli life.
The Institute of Archeology is
comprised of two separate yet
interrelated divisions, said Prof.
Yadin. The Carasso Building will
serve the research work of the
institute, with teaching premises
to be built -alongside within' the
next few years. Prof. Yadin re-
ferred to inane, which will be
of invaluable assistance to re-
search scholars in assessing the
results of their findings during
and after archeological excava-
tions. The building also is to
contain a teaching museum.
The institute now has a staff of
some 30 teachers, research fellows
and administrative workers, while
it employs scores of students in
current excavations.
The leading current project is
the dig around the southern wall
of Temple Mount in the Old City
of Jerusalem, which is led by Prof.
Benjamin Maur and carried out

YIGAL ALLON

gees and survivors from Nazism
into the land.
Scores of historic incidents thus
are recorded in this volume in
which the heroism of Jewish set-
tlers who defied obstructionism is
portrayed with great pride. It is
a factual account, and it gains
significance because it is presented
by one who played a personal role
in enacting the events that led
first to the defiance of tyranny
from a mandatory power and ter-
rorism from Arab ranks, and later
to the creation of Israel's army.
While the current events re-
ceive serious attention in this
story of Israel's armed forces,
it is_ the dramatic events that
preceded Israel's statehood that
stand obt most significantly in
a well outlined historic record.
There are- some missing links.
It would have been well to relate
that while Sir Alan Cunningham,
the last British High Commission-
er for Palestine, was cold-blooded
and had left the military supplies
to the Arabs with the intention of
seeing Israel destroyed at birth,
there were other high commission-
ers who had a sense of fair play.
The heroes who helped in Is-
rael's rebirth are listed, some are
missing. Perhaps Moshe Sharett
(Shertok) deserved a better spot,
and Yehoshaphat Harkaby is
among the names we missed.
The most remarkable things
about the Allon book are the
more than 200 descriptive black
and white photographs—including
those of many of the personalities
who figure in his story—and 16
full - page multicolored photo-

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graphs. All add Immensely to the
book's value.
In its entirety, this as a great
work, deserving to be read and
studied. "Shield of David is a val-
uable addendum to Jewish and
Israeli history, and its author,
Yigal Allon, who shares in the
glory of Israel's heroism, is a
splendid depictor of the great
events that will live indelibly as
part of the story of Israel's deter-
mination never to abandon the
right to life and to dignity among
the nations of the world.
—P.S.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, January 1, 1971-31

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