64
Friday, July 11, 1981
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
July 22, 1946: The Bombing of the King David Hotel
and then being unjustly
blamed for not heeding a
warning.'
"Shaw had continued to
deny the falsehood that he
rejected an Irgun warning
and ever used the words,
`I'm here to give orders to
the Jews, not to take them.'
As late as 1977 Israel
Galili, recently Israel's
Minister of Information,
was unable to provide any
proof that the warning was
passed on to Shaw and that
he made these remarks.
Nevertheless, this story, the
one Galili related to Begin
the day after the explosion,
has been repeated in
numerous articles and
books."
There is a lengthy expla-
nation of Begin's decision to
bomb the hotel and to issue
warnings to the British. He
is described "as a political,
not a military tactician, an
amateur in fuses, blast ef-
fects, and evacuation
times."
The Clarke account
states that "Begin would
warn the King David be-
Israel Galili . and_ others cause in July 1946 the Ir-
who were engaged in the gun's horriii‘ code de.
struggle against the manded it ... that the
British domination and Irgun claim responsibil-
anti-Zionist prejudices. It ity for its attacks, that an
was the order of enemy be executed only
Menahem Begin that after an Irgun military
court had reached a ver-
made the act a reality.
Six members of the Irgun dict of guilty and that
Zvai Leumi used a kitchen warnings be given to
entrance to place seven targets when civilians
milk cans filled with gelig- might be endangered.
"According to this code it
nite and TNT. The south
wing of the hotel was blown had been immoral to attack
the British army while it
up.
Clarke confirms that was fighting Hitler. After
there were warnings to the the war it had become mor-
ally acceptable to kill
British.
British soldiers."
Clarke points out that
Clarke adds, "In July
Begin was not informed
about a decision to postpone 1946, because Jews and
the bombing. He relates: other civilians worked in
"Galili did not tell Begin the and visited the King David,
truth, that the X Committee because the Irgun was in
(which had planned retalia- joint command with the
tory acts) had canceled t?-.e
operation. Instead, he re-
peated the rumor that Sir
John Shaw had received one
of the Irgun's warnings. Ac-
By SIMON GRIVER
cording to Galili, when a
World Zionist Press Service
policeman told Shaw about
JERUSALEM — The
the warning he had replied,
am not here to take orders management of Jersualem's
from Jews; I am here to give King David Hotel is
them.' " Shaw was in charge hunting worldwide for
of the local civil servants guests who have stolen to-
and British colonial officers wels, ash trays and the like.
who administered the coun- But far from prosecuting
those they track down, they
try.
In the epilogue, in promise to return any items
which Clarke gives an handed over and which they
accodik of the survivors consider to have been le-
of that tragic occurrence, gally "souvenired."
The reason behind the
he states:
"Sir John and Lady Shaw search is that the hotel is
live in retirement in a small planning an exhibition of
village in Sussex. In 4977 memorabilia to mark 50
Lady Shaw said of her hus- years since it opened its
band, 'He's never com- doors to the public. Half-a-
pletely recovered from the century in which the hotel
shock of the explosion; from has hosted hundreds of
losing so many of his friends kings, queens, princes,
A tragic chapter in Is-
rael's history is recon-
structed in By Blood and
Fire" (Putnam), the com-
plete account of the 1946
bombing of the King David
Hotel in Jerusalem on or-
ders given at that time by
the Irgun leader Menahem
Begin.
Thurston Clarke inter-
viewed all the participants
in that dramatic occurrence
and conducted thorough re-
search to assure presenta-
tion of the details to indicate
the intent of the con-
spirators who performed the
bombing, the Jewish as well
as the British members of
the cast of characters in that
drama, listing also in an
important epilogue the sur-
vivors and their reactions to
what had occurred.
It was on July 22, 1946
that the King David Hotel
was bombed. Included in the
91 who died were 17 Jews.
Details of the planning,
the several postpone-
ments in actions, relate to
roles played by Ezer
Weizman, Moshe Sneh,
as the PLO are, however,
more numerous than their
differences.
"All have employed the
same terrorist techniques:
taking hostages, attacking
embassies and bombing
civilian targets.
A?
British soldiers search the wreckage after the
July 22, 1946, bombing of the King David Hotel.
Hagana and the Hagana in-
sisted on a warning and be-
cause the Irgun's flexible
honor code allowed for it,
Begin would give the
British time to evacuate the
King David before he de-
stroyed it . . . Warnings
were telephoned as soon as
the bombs were fused. -
" did not want any
casualties in that opera-
tion,' he said later, 'not even
one, and therefore I insisted
we give ample time for an
evacuation.' He assumed
that if Amihai Peglin (who
was in charge of the opera-
tion) armed the bombs with
30-minute fuses the British
would have at least 25 min-
utes to evacuate, provided
everything went according
to plan."
Clarke's recorded study
has historic value as an
analysis of Irgun's policies,
as a record of Begin's activi-
ties as leader of the anti-
British actions. The leading
Israeli pioneers have their
roles here, including David
Ben-Gurion and his associ-
ates in the Israel govern-
ment they formed.
While Begin's warnings
are fully confirmed,
Clarke's equating the
Irgun policies with those
of latter day terrorists
represent sort of an in-
dictment. He states,
Chillikirkg -a similarity. in
Jewish and Arab maneu-
vers:
"Begin is sensitive to
being called a terrorist since
it appears to place the Irgun
in the same category as the
Palestine Liberation
Organization(PLO). His
sensitivity is somewhat jus-
tified. As a rule, acts of ter-
rorism committed by 'the
PLO have tended to be more
ruthless than those of the
Irgun. The PLO has never
adhered to even the most
flexible moral code. It does
not attempt to minimalize
casualties. Rather than
seeking to warn civilians, it
seeks them out.
"The similarities between
the Irgun and contemporary
terrorist organizations such
"All have employed
these techniques sys-
tematically. The Irgun's
participation in the King
David operation was
part of a systematic
strategy to force Britain
to leave Palestine; the
Hagana's participation
was an aberration.
"Most of the victims of
these techniques have been
innocents. In the case of the
King David explosion, they
were messengers and
clerks; 30 years later the
PLO attacked Jewish shop-
pers, schoolchildren, or
tourists boarding an
airplane.
"The members of these
organizations are usually
not psychopathic murder-
ers; not Charles Mansons
but Adinas, Gideons and
Chaim-Toits — people of
considerable courage and
p a-tri ism-4 whom_ tQr
rorism seems a compelling
necessity.
"Terrorists tend to exagg-
erate the importance of
their acts. A successful ter-
rorist campaign may, as in
the case of the Irgun's re-
volt, accelerate an histori-
cal process; only rarely does
it cause it to happen. Thus
the King David explosion
was to have its greatest im-
pact not on the fact of Isra-
el's independence, but on its
timetable, and on the inter-
nal dynamics of Zionism
and on the lives of the wi-
dowed and wounded, and
the survivors."
Among those listed in
the epilogue who played
important roles in the
bombing is Amnon Am-
non, the only form in
which the name appears
in this book. Here is the
Clarke reference to him:
"Amnon still works in
Jerusalem as a dental tech-
nician. He is the only Ir-
gunist involved in the King
David explosion and inter-
viewed for this book who
admits to feelings of re-
morse and responsibility.
" 'To this day I am not
happy about the operation,'
he said. 'I know that it
ruined many lives and de-
stroyed families and I (
think and dream of this . . .
was ashamed when I first
heard how many had been
killed. If I had fought
against soldiers and killed
them in combat it would not
bother me, but these were
office workers.
"
am still sad, I have
never been able to escape
my guilt and I never men-
tion this episode to my
friends. I think that the life
of one person is very impor-
tant. A person is a symbol
of God.' "
Photos of Irgun posters
_..,.einpkaAizing the resistance
-afftl
to B riti
many illustrations in the
book serve well in em-
phasizing this historic
chapter in pre-Israel his-
tory.
Must the King David
Hotel bombing be treated as
a debatable 'subject? It is
still used as an argument
against the Irgun, with the
Begin involvement. The
need for it is continually de-
fended, especially in view of
the warnings to the British,
confirmed in "By Blood and
Fire." There is ugliness for
Jews and Israelis in
Clarke's conclusions. Yet
they must be considered in
evaluations of historic ex-
periences.
—P•S•
Historic Hotel Celebrates 50th Anniversary
presidents, prime minis-
ters, generals showbusiness
personalities and business
magnates.
Indeed, while those who
have shaped history have
enjoyed the elegant delights
that one of the world's most
famous and fashionable
hotels has to offer, the King
David is itself a part of
Jewish, Palestinian and Is-
raeli history.
It has been featured in
countless novels and
movies, including
"Exodus." And it has
survived, despite being
blown up and enduring
long periods of war, au-
sterity and attrition. But
today there is rarely a
room available, and it is
true to say that the hotel
is an indivisible part of
the story of Israel.
Undoubtedly the show-
piece of the jubilee exhibi-
tion will be the guest book.
The hotel' opened in
January 1931, with the first
entry in the book being that
of British High Commis-
sioner Sir Arthur
Wauchope in December
1931. The next signature
belongs to Abyssinian Em-
peror Haile Selassie, while
Nixon,'Carter, Kissinger,
Eleanor Roosevelt, Chaim
Weizmann, Ben-Gurion and
Danny Kaye ( who signed in
both Hebrew and English)
are among a galaxy of
others. The most valued
entry is that of Egyptian
President Anwar Sadat,
who stayed at the hotel dur-
ing his historical peace-
making visit in 1977.
In fact it was Egyptian
Jews, the Mosseri family,
who used their wealth to es-
tablish the hotel. Back in
the 1920s they felt that
Jerusalem deserved a hotel
as sumptuous and stylish, as
any in Europe and so they
purchased a plot of land dente the hotel hit hard
overlooking the walls of the times, when it was lucky to
Old City. It cost just 19,000 have a few dozen guests at a
British pounds ($40,000) at time. In 1956 it closed down
today's rate). The hotel following the Suez war but a
quickly gained a reputation year later it received a new
as the most luxurious in the lease on life when the
Middle East and attracted Federmann family incorpo-
the region's "high society." rated it into their Dan hotel
chain.
When the British re-
During the Six-Day War
nted the south wing of the half the . rooms were unin-
hotel for their military habitable -becaulke they
and administrative were shot at by snipers from
headquarters, the King the Jordanian part of
David also became the
But since 1967
political focal point of Jerusalem.
aid the reunification of
Palestine.
Jerusalem, business is
After Israel's indepen- booming.
The King David Hotel as seen from the Jaffa Gate.