Lipman Seethes Wrongly

Some persons just do not know the facts.

Take this lady, Jennifer Lipman, who writes:

...As always, my shul's mid-afternoon Question and Answer session was packed with hungry but engaged congregants. One query in particular prompted a lengthy response from the rabbi. In it, he referred to British Mandate Palestine and those Jews whose fight for statehood saw them join the militant Irgun group. "They weren't terrorists," went his argument. "It was a different time and they were fighting for their freedom."

Really? I thought, my blood boiling (never good on a fast day). Oh yes, I'm sure their cause and the context would have been of great comfort to the families of the 91 people who died in 1946 when the Irgun bombed the King David Hotel.

More to the point, doesn't that argument sound familiar? Isn't it essentially the defence used today by extremist groups after a blast on a bus in Israel or a random attack in the West Bank? If we condemn it now, we cannot excuse it in history.

I left the session seething with anger and disbelief but, most of all, with disappointment. Was it intentional moral relativism or just a short memory? I can't speak for the rabbi - perhaps he simply said the first thing that came to mind- but it makes little difference. It is irresponsible, not to mention dangerous and counter-productive, to use the bully pulpit to spread a limited or even false view of events. That is always true, but it is especially so with a subject as sensitive as the Israeli-Arab conflict...

Since any simple Google-search could have provided the lady with the facts, allow me to be short and to the point as this issue comes up a dozen times a year if not more and it is so terrible that Jews fall for Arab propaganda when they should know better (unless, of course, they are radical leftwing bolshie progressives who are anti-Zionist to begin with - no pun there - which I do not think the lady is).

1. The King David Hotel operation was initiated by Moshe Sneh of the Hagana following a May 15th meeting of the Joint Operations Committee of the United Resistance Movement when the plan was authorized in principle and following the 'Black Sabbath' search & arrest action by the British. Due to Sneh's resignation because of pressure from the more moderate wing, delays were requested but left unexplained for Begin.

2. The "Hotel" was not attacked. What was targeted was the southern wing which had been expropriated by the Bristish Mandatory regime as early as 1938. By 1946, the entire wing housed the Mandatory secretariat offices, in other words, the government, as well as the HQ of the British Army, then numbering almost 100,000 troops, in the country. It was a legitimate target for an urban guerrilla liberation group. It was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and a platoon of Paras.

3. All possible attempts to warn those inside were made including: a 30 minute delay of the fuses; the throwing of petards and setting alight two firewalls on the street in front of the Hotel on both approaches; three phboe calls were made to the French Consulate, the editorial offices of the Palestine Post and the Hotel itself. They were received. Why the British did not act is a mystery.

4. In summation, any comparison between this operation, and hundreds of others with any Arab terror group killing Israeli civilians is horrific, immoral and insensible as well as displaying a woeful lack of knowledge.

Any anger or disbelief directed at Lipman would be quite in order.  Any seething as well.  Memory?  She has none.  Relativism of morality?  Biased.

There is no excuse for her outlook and presentation of opinion.  All wrong.

Of course, if we review the actions of the British, and I suggest to her Bernard Wasserstein's book, Gt. Britian and the Jews of Europe, not only because of the book's content damning British officialdom in indriect collaboration with the Nazis in allowing millions to die in Nazi Europe, but because Wasserstein is far left in his politics so I presume he would be kosher enough for Ms. Lipman.

Has she now learned her lesson and is controlling her anger?

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