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>The Village Voice Web Site Wins the National Press Foundation Award >for Online Journalism > >Week of December 19 - 25, 2001 > >From the Irv Rubin Bust to the Stern Gang: The Rich History of >Jewish Terrorism Oy McVey by Jason Vest > > >WASHINGTON, D.C.�At a moment when the popular mind-set once again >links the words "Arab" and "Islamic" with all things retrograde and >threatening�including terrorism (cue the new Charlie Daniels anthem >and revel in the poetry: "This ain't no rag, it's a flag/And we >don't wear it on our heads. . . . /We're gonna hunt you down like a >mad dog hound")�it came as a surprise to some that the latest >malefactors accorded POW status in the "War on Terrorism" turned out >to be Jewish. > >Arrested and charged last week with intriguing to do explosive >little actions on a Culver City, California, mosque and the offices >of Lebanese American U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, Jewish >Defense League chief Irving David > >Rubin and JDL member Earl Leslie Krugel were, according to FBI >wiretap transcripts, anything but circumspect about their devices >and desires: Though Rubin lamented the wanting state of technology >in the JDL's possession (not good enough to "blow up an entire >building"), Krugel was adamant that "Arabs need a wake-up call" and >that the JDL needs to do something to one of their "filthy >mosques"�which may explain the five pounds of gunpowder and >pipe-bomb mat�riel found at his house. "If the people responsible >for September 11 are the quintessence of evil genius, these guys are >at the Keystone Kops end of the spectrum," says Hussein Ibish, >communications director for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination >Committee. "The only reassuring thing about them is their absolute >ineptitude and the fact that they were arrested." > >Mainstream Jewish groups were quick to condemn the JDL as well: >Characterizing the activities of the organization�founded in 1968 by >Brooklyn's own, now deceased Rabbi Meir Kahane�as "contemptible," >the Anti-Defamation League's regional director issued a statement >"abhor[ing] and condemn[ing] the potential terrorist plot." The >American Jewish Committee said it "categorically condemns in the >strongest possible terms the alleged JDL plot," and went so far as >to follow up with a personal letter to Republican representative >Issa, decrying "such wanton lawlessness," which is "so clearly >contrary to the fundamental tenets of our faith, and to the basic >principles of justice and liberty that brought our parents and >grandparents to America's shores and that form the bedrock of our >national values." > >Yet some observers of the current Middle East crisis see more than a >bit of disingenuousness and historical irony here. While both the >ADL and the AJC have condemned the JDL, they've unequivocally backed >Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's indiscriminate use of force >against the Palestinians and the cutting of ties with Palestinian >Authority president Yasir Arafat�neither of which is universally >seen as a particularly constructive way to slow the cycles of >violence across Israel and the Occupied Territories. > >But what's even more vexing to others is the apparent inability or >unwillingness to discern similarities between the current >Palestinian milieu and Israeli operations of 50-plus years ago, >which secured statehood from colonialist occupiers�as well as >similarities between violent, internecine struggles among disparate >underground groups. "It's peculiar, it's paradoxical, that Sharon >and Likud should be the ones who are trying to equate any authentic >resistance in Palestine with some of the terrorist activities, as >terrorism in Israel really started with Begin and Shamir and later >Sharon," says Clovis Maksoud, the former Arab League ambassador to >the United Nations. "It's a very valid question as to why they see >no similarities between themselves under the British and the >Palestinians under their occupation." Especially, he adds, as the >Israeli government supports museums that honor assassins and >terrorists�including one located on a street named for a terrorist. > >The thoroughfare in question runs between Florentine and >Emeq-Yisrael, and bears the name Stern Street�in honor of Avraham >Stern, a 1920s Zionist and charter member of the Haganah, then a >loose-knit Jewish militia organized as a self-defense mechanism >against Arab violence. Finding the Haganah insufficiently proactive >in realizing the goal of a Jewish state that would encompass "both >sides of the River Jordan," erstwhile Mussolini follower and >early-day ultra-nationalist Ze'ev Jabotinsky broke with the militia >and formed the Irgun, which devoted itself to terrorist operations >against the British. Once an enthusiastic Irgunist, Stern was >appalled when the Irgun decided to make common cause with the >British against the Nazis, and created the even more underground and >more violent Lehi (Lohamei Herut Yisrael, or Fighters for the >Freedom of Israel), also known as the Stern Gang, which held there >was no greater threat to the Jews of Palestine than the mandate's >British administrators. > >To this end, Stern actually made overtures to the Axis powers; >September 1940 found him in dialogue with an emissary from Il Duce >in Jerusalem, and in January 1941 he dispatched an agent to >Vichy-controlled Beirut with instructions to convey a letter to >representatives of the Reich. In it, Stern held that the >"establishment of the historical Jewish state on a national and >totalitarian basis, and bound by a treaty with the German Reich, >would be in the interest of a maintained and strengthened future >German position of power in the Near East. Proceeding from these >considerations, [the Lehi] in Palestine, under the condition [that] >the above-mentioned national aspirations of the Israeli freedom >movement are recognized on the side of the German Reich, offers to >actively take part in the war on Germany's side." > >The Germans declined to take Stern up on the offer, but Stern held >out hope as his organization continued to engage in terrorism >against the British. After Stern died in a shoot-out with British >police in 1942, his mantle was picked up by future Israeli prime >minister Yitzhak Shamir. Still, the Israeli underground focused on >the British as the greatest of all evils, and on November 6, 1944, >Lord Moyne, the British minister for Middle East affairs, was >assassinated in Cairo by Eliyahu Beit-Tzuri and Eliyahu Hakim�both >members of the Lehi, who were later arrested, convicted, and hanged. >After the state of Israel was established, the Lehi, displeased with >what it considered the too pro-Arab views of the Swedish >UN-appointed mediator for Palestine, assassinated him; on September >17, 1948, Count Folke Bernadotte�who, as a neutral diplomat in World >War II, had saved thousands of Jews from Nazi death camps�was shot >and killed by Lehi assassins, along with French colonel Andre Serot, >the senior UN military observer, whose wife's life had been saved by >Bernadotte. > >The Bernadotte assassination was so outrageous that the nascent >government of David Ben-Gurion had little problem disbanding the >Lehi (though none of the assassins were ever brought to justice). >Yet, despite this history of terror, the Israeli Ministry of Defense >underwrites museums commemorating the Stern Gang and the >Irgun�which, under Menachem Begin, bombed the British headquarters >at the King David Hotel in 1946, leaving 90 dead and 45 wounded >(with 15 Jews among the casualties). Like Lehi, it wasn't until 1948 >that the Irgun was forced out of existence, after its arms-transport >ship, the Altalena, was blown up by the provisional Israeli >government�a point analysts like Ibish say bears remembering. > >"There are streets named after the assassins of Moyne and >Bernadotte. They are historical figures not disavowed by the >rhetoric of the state of Israel, nor is there any reflection on the >fact that two terrorist leaders later became distinguished leaders >of the republic," Ibish says. "And now people are saying that Arafat >must have his Altalena." Ibish adds that Israel's first prime >minister, David Ben-Gurion, "never moved against the Irgun and the >Stern Gang until after the state was established and secured, which >is definitely not true in the case of the Palestinian Authority. >Essentially, the Israelis are asking the Palestinians to do >something they themselves refused to do." > >Tell us what you think. 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