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.