My Letter in the Jerusalem Post Weekend Magazine

Doesn't seem to be online, May 8, 2009:

Sir,-

Sara Honig speculates where Yosef Haim Brener would locate himself along the spectrum of today's Zionist thinking ("The May Day massacre of 1921", May 1). We do know, however for sure what one extreme-left Zionist did in 1923 to Tewfi Bey, who, as Honig correctly notes, let the Arab pogromists into the yard of the Immigrants Hostel in Jaffa.

With the knowledge of Yosef Hecht, Hagana commander at the time, and under the direct order of Mania Shochat, Yerachmiel Lukatcher assassinated Bey in Jaffa on January 17, aided by Binyamin Bichman, as the deputy police commander for Jaffa left his home in Manshiyeh. Lukatcher had been a leading Hagana instructor since 1920, but he belonged to the more radical Hakibbutz underground group, which consisted of the most militarily oriented revolutionary leftists in the Yishuv, veteran membes of the Hashomer and Gdud Ha'avoda. Arab rioters attempted to break through into Neveh Shalom, but the Hagana, forewarned, halted their advance together with Jewish policeman David Tidhar.

Incidentally, other members of Hakibbutz were involved in the assassination of the anti-Zionist Jacob DeHaan in June 1924 in Jerusalem.

It seem that the circumstances of events have not changed all that much, rather that Zionist commitment and fervor fluctuates, irrespective of political identification.

Yisrael Medad
Shiloh