Lehi

Egyptian nationalist terrorism operated at much the same time, and terrorist activity during the Indian struggle for independence began in nineteen twenty-five and lasted till independence in nineteen forty-seven.

Later cases include the Arab Revolt in British Mandate Palestine from nineteen thirty-six to nineteen thirty-nine and Jewish paramilitary organizations such as the Irgun and the Lehi from the late nineteen thirties to the establishment of the state of Israel in nineteen forty-eight.

Without normatively evaluating their actions, it's important to note that we again witness what clearly are liberation movements.

All are struggling against colonial oppression and for the modern conception of a people's right to self-determination.

Before the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, and before there was an Israeli army, there were three underground Zionist militias.

The Haganah, the Irgun, and the Lehi.

They were comprised of mainly Jewish migrants to the British Mandate of Palestine with the aim of helping usher in the Jewish state by any means necessary.

They differed in their tactics and beliefs and at times fought with each other, but together they terrorized Palestinian villages, committed acts of violence, terrorism and ethnic cleansing, and executed bombings and assassinations against the British to force them to give up control of the land.

Then tragedy.

In 1948, when Barbara was eleven, her father was abducted and murdered by members of Lehi, the militant Zionist organization, also known as the Stern Gang.

Why did they murder him? Lehi accused him of spying for the Arabs.

No evidence was ever produced, and the accusation was later acknowledged to be unfounded.

The bitterest irony was that Hulanicki supported the Zionist cause and had befriended Lehi's own founder, Abraham Stern.

Years later, the killing was described as a terrible mistake.

What a world this place can be.

He needed, he needed to go an extra step.

And, and the way that played out for Kahane in, in the nineteen-forties, which is when he was, uh, in Betar, was, um, Betar was supporting the Etzel, the Irgun, Menachem Begin's underground, and Kahane was supporting the Lehi, the Stern Group, which was more extreme.

So you could see already then that, uh, where, where, where this guy was going to, to end up.

But, um, and when Kahane started the Jewish Defense League, this is in nineteen sixty-eight, and the year is very important, and I'll come to that in, in a moment, uh, he was really, um, drawing very, very overtly from Betar and the Jabotinsky movement.

Then there was the Irgun, or the Etzel, the Irgun Zvai Leumi, which was associated with the rightist revisionist Zionist of Vladimir Jabotinsky, and it was later headed by Menachem Begin.

And then there was a more extremist faction known as the Lehi, Lohamei Herut Yisrael, or the Stern Gang, initially headed by Avraham Stern until he was killed by the British.

The Irgun and the Lehi were considerably smaller.

Uh, they were more radical, more right-wing, et cetera.

Now, there's four...

The Palmach, the elite commandos, which were officially under the Haganah but were essentially independent, was associated with an even more left-wing faction from the Kibbutzim, which were, they were called Mapam.

They were basically borderline communists, and the senior officers of the Palmach were all belonged and associated, identified with Mapam.

The Irgun, on the other hand, was a right-wing revisionist Zionism, and Lehi was even more right-wing extremist, um, on the, on the far right.

I can't go to the thinking of everyone, but in a way he was of the same generation.

If you want the same caliber, a commander of the underground, like Begin was the commander of the Irgun, the Etzel, Shamir was one of the three commanders of Lehi, of the stern group, as they called it.

He was brought to politics by Begin.

He was not in politics.

After the state was established, he did not continue in politics.

in the Lehi group, they had the interesting group of people.

Some went very much to the left, some to the right, some socialists, a very interesting group of people.

He was not one of the leftists, obviously, but he did not go to politics.