Purely Commentary
Historic Record Unrolled to Clarify True Role of
Irgun and Its Leadership vis-a-vis Menahem Begin...
A Mellowed Jimmy Carter Prepares for Talks With New PM
A New Image Out of Zion
Soon Will Illuminate the
Capital When Begin Arrives
immense value as a study of Israel's new trends as well as
of personalities who have revolutionized much of what has
occurred and is presently happening in the area surround-
ing Israel.
Menahem Begin will be better understood from this
study. The men and women who surrounded him form a
Washington may be even more stunned in less than two cast of characters so fascinating that a new view will
weeks than this nation's capital and, indeed, the entire so- have been gotten of the formation of the Begin cabinet in
ciety of nations, was when Likud toppled the Labor Align- the new Israeli government.
ment in Israel. When Menahem Begin comes to these
It is inevitable that one should marvel over the selectees
shores for the crucial meetings with President Jimmy Car- for the Begin chabinet.- Nearly all emerge as relatively un-
ter, a new star on the political horizon, an entirely differ- known,
except, one must assun, .. in Israel. Reading Dr.
ent sort of statesman, will confront the man from Georgia Bell's account
of the group who formed Irgun leadership,
who is himSelf a stranger to foreign affairs policies over
backgrounds, their devotion to Torah, to culture, to
which he now dominates. • their
accuracy in tackling Israel's needs, -their varied abilities,
There has been lots of talk about Begin the guerrilla, there
,the inevitable conclusion that the strfccession to
Begin the former terrorist, Begin the like of Arafat. All of Irgun, is that
is today Likud, is an army of able people
which is sheer nonsense because Begin was the leader of a who must which
be admired and respected.
patriotic force that was fighting Perfidious Albion, those
For example, Samuel (Shmuel) Katz is referred to nu-
British who were breaking pledges to the Zionist cause; merous
He was one of Begin's closest associates.
and Arabs when they threatened the established Jewish set- He was times.
in this country recently as a public relations
tlements in Palestine.
Some tunes will change rapidly when the basic facts are
established and when the media will feel impelled not to
equate Arafat, who had ordered the murder of children
and innocents on touring buses in Israel, with Begin and
Irgun who fought the British who prevented Jews in Pales-
tine from defending themselves against murderous Arab
mobs in the .process of sabotaging pledges for the estab-
lishment of the Jewish Commonwealth.
An example of an evidencing change in tactics will be
found in last week's • Newsweek. Replying to a letter in
which the correspondent, Benjamin Sherman of Teaneck,
N.J., took issue with Newsweek's description of Menahem
Begin, Newsweek's editors appended this editorial reply:
Most contemporary scholars find no evidence that
the Irgun engaged in widespread or systematic atro-
cities. Bombs were placed by antagonists in both Jew-
ish and Arab markets between 1936 and 1939; how-
ever, Begin was living in Poland at the time and had
no connection with those events. The King David
housed both military offices and the British Secretar-
iat, the headquarters of the civilian administration.
Begin and some neutral sources maintain that the Brit-
ish were warned of the bombing in advance, a claim
the British deny. The Irgun did attempt to warn the
villagers of Deir Yassin about the impending attack,
but an armored car carrying the message fell into a
tank trap. After 200 villagers died in the ensuing
battle between the Irgun and Arab forces, British in-
vestigators and the Arabs charged that the Irgun had
committed acts of rape and mutilation. Both the
Arabs and the British, however, had ample reason for
wanting to discredit the Irgun.
Menahem Begin will be at the White House on July 18.
Yet, more than a month prior to that visit, the State De-
partment commenced to attack the Israeli position with a
barrage of declarations about withdrawals, hard-line right-
ist leadership and more, much more. But even the prede-
cessor to hard-line rightist Israeli leadership, Yitzhak
Rabin, now finds it necessary to define the latest Ameri-
can challenges to Israel as having been formulattel rudely.
Which. goes to prove that no matter whether one is right-
ist, centrist or leftist, when Israel attempts to protect its
borderlines with a view to security it meets with opposi-
tion from Arab-inspired State Department anti-Israelism.
This may sound like sour grapes and may be branded as
equally rude in judging American policies, but facts are
facts and the statements by men like Alfred Atherton at
the State Department journalists' conference proves the
validity of resentment over what is occurring in Washing-
ton. When Atherton warns that even Jerusalem's status
will be subject to revision, he suggested an outright attack
on Israel's and world Jewry's most - serious concern regard-
ing Israel's capital. This spells trouble for a long time to
come.
`Terror Out of Zion': the Masterful
J. Bowyer Bell Irgun Chronicle
"Terror Out of Zion" by J. Bowyer Bell (St. Martin's
Press) is the masterfully written historical record of the
Irgun and its leadership. It is such a masterful account of
what had occurred during the rule of the British Manda-
tory Power in Palestine, so impressive a description of
Irgun's pioneers, that the volume already merits an ir-
replaceable spot on Zionist and Jewish bookshelves and as
part of the history of Israel. This book was written long
before the May 17, 1977 Israeli election and was published
some weeks before the election. Therefore it was not in-
fluenced by, the election. This review should have been pub-
lished before the election and the delay is regrettable. But
the book's value will remain strong even if resort to the
tiled "terror" may be resented.
The author of this volume, Dr. Bell, who presently is as-
sociated with the Institute for Peace and War Studies at
Columbia University, previously having taught at Harvard,
describes himself as "an innocent Episcopalian." He is a
student of Middle East affairs and is described as an au-
thority on terrorism. His newest book—he has authored
several and is at work now on a study of political assassi-
nations—is such a skillful analysis of a vital chapter in
Jewish history that the facts he has collected will prove of
SHMUEL KATZ
spokesman for Begin. He leaves a deep impression as a
brilliant spokesman for his chief and for Israel. It is believ-
ed that Shmuel Katz may succeed Simha Dinitz as his
country's ambassador to the United States. He is one of
many who figure in the struggle in which Irgun is de-
scribed as having been a better judge of developing occur-
rences than the party's antagonists. Therefore, the -Bell
book tis such a welcome addition to knowledgeability about
Israel.
Because the events that marked the Irgun struggle, the
Deir Yassin incident, the bombing of the King David
Hotel. that which is described as "terror" but which con-
By Philip
Slomovitz
tributed to Israel's emergency in the war against the Brit-
ish, are all combined into a great, factual tale, narrated
masterfully.
The characters as they are known in the struggle which
dampened Irgun for many years under branded terms of
hatred and rejection from the opposition all emerge in
their historic roles. The Begin batt_es with David Ben-Gu-
rion have a place in this story. The Vladimir Jabotinsky
background is treated with thoroughness. The vengeful
acts of hanging British soldiers in retaliation for the Brit-
ish executions of Irgun members are part of the dramatic
account of the events that are called "terror" but actually
are vital history.
So much is detailed that Dr. Bell's book will be riot only
a reference work regarding Irgun but possibly also a text-
book.
A Mellowed Atmosphere ... White
House Preparation for Begin
At his press conference on June 30, President Carter
made an encouraging gesture towards easing the tensions
that have existed as a result of his own and State Depart-
ment statements. In response to a question relating to
charges made by Senator Jacob Javits, the President said:
Well, I might say first of all that I look forward
with great anticipation to the visit of Prime Minister
Begin on the 19th of July. My determination is that
the talks will be friendly and constructive and also in-
structive for both him and me. He'll be received with
a kind of friendship that's always been a character-
istic of the American people's attitude toward Israel.
An overwhelming consideration for us is the pre-
vation of Israel as a free and independent and, hope-
fully, peaceful nation. That is preeminent. At the
same time I believe that is has been good during this
year when I hope we can reach a major step toward a
peaceful resolution in the Middle East to have the dis-
cussions much more open, to encourage the Arab na-
tions and Israel to frankly understand some of the feel-
ings that each of them has toward the other, and to
address the basic questions of territories, the defini-
tion of peace, the Palestinian question.
I really think it's best for this next roughly three
weeks before Mr. Begin comes that we refrain from
additional comments on specifics. Because I think
we've covered the specifics adequately. And if I or
someone in the State Department or someone on my
staff emphasizes theritory and the definition of peace,
the immediate response is, 'Why didn't yciu say some-
thing about the Palestinians?' and so forth.
So I believe that we've discussed it adequately. I
believe all the issues are fairly clearly defined. It's ac-
curate to say that our own nation has no plan or solu-
tion that we intend to impose on anyone. We'll act to
the degree that the two sides trust us in the role of an
intermediary or mediator. And I still have high hopes
that this year might lead toward peace. But it will
never be with any sort of abandonment of our deep
and permanent commitment to Israel.
And I have made this clear in specific terms to
every Arab leader who's been to our country.
This is a heartening assertion. It was echoed with good
will in Jersusalem by Menahem Begin. It is to be hoped
that it will lead towards retention and strenghthening of
the established Israel-U.S. friendship.
Israel Yeshiva Aids Youth Who Strayed From Upbringing
By MOSHE RON
The Jewish News Special
Israel Correspondent
TEL AVIV—Among the
90 yeshiva scholars who are
studying at the Esh Torah
Yeshiva in Jerusalem are
hippies, who were sympa-
thizers with the Palestinian
terrorists, and have re-
turned to their Jewish
roots.
There is one scholar, Yitz-
hak, who has grown up in a
Jewish home in the U.S.
without any Jewish educa-
tion. He only recalls his
Bar Mitzva as the sole Jew-
ish ceremony. He studied
business-administration. He
was deeply impressed by
the 5iiffering of suppressed
people and joined a leftist
student organization.
..I became a radical left-
ist revolutionary, - Yitzhak
said. - I grew long hair, and
did not change my shirts
for weeks. In our organiza-
tion were many Arab stu-
,dents and from them I
learned how their Palesti-
nian brothers were 'sup-
pressed' by the Jews in Is-
Yitzhak often visited the
office of the Fatah-organi-
zation in Brooklyn. He was
received warmly. He joined
their ideological propagan-
da institute called "The Pa-
lestine Revolution."
Yitzhak started a propa-
ganda campaign against
the state of Israel. He de-
manded that Jews should
leave Israel for their coun-
tries of origin in Europe,
U.S., Soviet Union, etc.,
and leave Palestine to the
Palestinians. Yitzhak left
the university and dedica-
ted himself for the Palesti-
nian cause. He came to Je-
rusalem in order to be
closer to the Arabs. He
spoke at Hebrew University
in favor of the Arabs and
against Israel.
Suddenly a change took
place. When Yitzhak visited
the Wailing Wall as a tour-
ist and saw the enthusiasm
and religious fervor of the
praying Jews. he was over-
whelmed. He met Ameri-
can youngsters. beatniks
and hippies; who have be-
come Yeshiva scholars. He
saw the scholars of the Y-e-
shiva Esh HaTorah at the
Wailing Wall. He was very
much impressed. He was in-
vited to come to the ye-
shiva and meet its director,
Rabbi Noah Weinberg. Yitz-
hak accepted. The yeshiva
was full of youngsters.
Rabbi Weinberg lectured in
English. Yitzhak started a
discussion with him about
the wrongs. 1,vhich Jews do
to Arabs in Israel.
Yitzhak said later, that
during this discussion, that
his arguments for the
Arabs against occupation
and expulsion became w '--
er and weaker. Rabbi
berg told Yitzhak with a
smile to read the Bible and
to examine his opinions and
convictions. He invited Yitz-
hak to join the yeshiva.
Yitzhak agreed to do so for
a week. After a month Yitz-
hak asked Rabbi Weinberg
to let him stay in the ye-
shiva. He got more aid
more attached to the Torah
and Talmud studies. He cut
his hair short, wore clean
shirts and started to attend
every day prayer services.
Rabbi Weinberg felt affec-
tion for this new strange
scholar.
Yitzhak proved an out- ,
standing Talmud scholar.