MI5 Believed Jewish Underground Wanted To Assassinate Churchill

[Purveyor]

By Haaretz Service

A member of one of the Jewish underground militant groups that sought to end the British Mandate in Palestine and establish the State of Israel suggested that then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, should be assassinated, according to the British newspaper Telegraph.

Records of the British military intelligence unit MI5 reveal that a member of the Lehi pre-state militia confessed when captured by mandate authorities that a fellow Lehi member wanted to assassinate high-ranking British politicians, including Churcill and then-Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin.
churchill

Before the State of Israel was established in 1948, several Jewish underground military organizations operated in what was then mandatory Palestine, include the Hagana, the Irgun Tzvai Leumi, and the Lochamei Herut Israel, also known by its Hebrew acronym Lehi, and often called the Stern Gang after its leader Yair Stern.

The underground groups conducted military campaigns against symbols of British power and are partially credited with convincing the British government to withdraw its troops from Palestine and hand responsibility over to the United Nations, who then voted in 1947 to partition the country into Jewish and Arab states.

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http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/mi5-believed-jewish-underground-wanted-to-assassinate-churchill-1.354023

[leveymg]

1. Not such a huge leap after the Irgun blew up the King David Hotel.

If a "terrorist" lives long enough, he becomes a "statesman." i.e., PM Begin.

[azurnoir]

2. a small step when one considers that the same group tried to

cut a deal with the Nazi's to undermine British control of Palestine

[Poll_Blind]

3. And Ben-Zuri, after being hanged for another assassination, was buried in Israel's most...

...prestigious cemetery.

Go figure. Probably right next to Jabotinsky, so the settlers don't have to wear themselves out schlepping from one hero to another.

PB

[oberliner]

4. From Wikipedia

"We do not recognize England's right to give us Palestine or take it away from us. Let me make clear to the court: My ideas are not Zionist ideas. We don't fight to uphold the Balfour Declaration. We don't fight for the sake of the National Home. We fight for our freedom. In our country a foreign power rules."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliyahu_Bet-Zuri#cite_note-1

[LeftishBrit]

5. Firstly, Lehi was Lehi. Known to be a terrorist group and not mainstream in the Zionist movement

Secondly, they MAY have wanted to assassinate Churchill; but I also think that MI5 at that time probably had a suspicious view of all rebels against the British Empire.