Word: irgun
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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There has been so much irresponsible and incorrect reporting of terrorism and terrorists in Palestine, I feel it necessary to clarify the differences between Haganah and the two so-called "terrorist" gangs, the Stern Group, responsible for the murder of Lord Moyne in Cairo some years ago, and the Irgun Zeval Leumi, National Military Organization, responsible for the recent bombing of British headquarters at the King David Hotel...
...partition plan was almost certain to split Jewish ranks. The extremist Irgun Zvai Leumi and Stern Gang, neck-deep in guerrilla warfare against the British, would turn just as eagerly on Jewish "appeasers." In a showdown, moderate Zionists would probably have the support of Haganah, largest of the underground groups. The compromise note was already sounded by "Voice of Israel," the Haganah radio station, which last week condemned violence and "purposeless terror...
Among this new generation of Jewish patriots (and hardened soldiers newly arrived from Poland) are the most eager recruits for the Jewish underground organizations. Haganah (numbering an estimated 70,000) was organized to defend settlers from the Arabs, now helps illegal Jewish immigration. Two offshoots, the Irgun Zvai Leumi (3,000) and the Stern Gang (2,300), are the terrorist groups who believe that the only way to achieve the Jewish state is to drive the British out of Palestine...
While the overwhelming majority of Jewish spokesmen deplored the outrage, an extremist Zionist band known as the Irgun Zvai Leumi took credit for it. Inferentially, it deprecated the loss of life by claiming to have telephoned a warning to the King David's switchboard...
Haganah has denounced extremists of the Stern gang and the Irgun Zvai Leumi, which the British have long fought. Last week 31 young Jews (ages 19 to 28), members of the Irgun, were convicted of carrying firearms and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. (One, 19-year-old Benjamin Kaplan, was sentenced to life imprisonment for "discharging a firearm at His Majesty's forces.") In a turbulent three-day trial they shouted anti-British slogans from the dock, quoted Scripture (Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered . . .), chanted in unison "In blood and fire Judah fell; in blood...