Menachem Begin IRGUN - Jewish Underground FBI - British Intelligence - CIA - DOD Files & more

Menachem Begin
IRGUN - Jewish Underground
FBI - British Intelligence – CIA - Department of Defense Files, & more.

8,207 pages of Menachem Begin and IRGUN, the Jewish Underground,  the establishment of the State of Israel and Begin as Prime Minister FBI, British Intelligence MI5 MI6, CIA, Department of Defense files, and international press monitoring covering Begin.

Menachem Begin was born in Brest-Litovsk, Poland on August 16, 1913. He was educated at the Mizrachi Hebrew School and the Polish Gymnasium (High School). In 1931, he entered Warsaw University and earned a law degree in 1935. Until the age of 13 he belonged to the Hashomer Hatza'ir scout movement, and at the age of 16 joined Betar (Brit Trumpeldor), the nationalist youth movement associated with the Zionist Revisionist Movement. In 1932 he became head of the Organization Department of Betar for Poland traveling on its behalf throughout the country. In 1937 he returned to Poland, and for a time was imprisoned for leading a demonstration in front of the British Legation in Warsaw, protesting against British policy in Palestine. He organized groups of Betar members who went to Palestine as illegal immigrants, and in 1939 became the head of the movement in Poland. On the outbreak of World War II, he was arrested by the Russian authorities and in 1940-41 was confined in concentration camps in Siberia and elsewhere but was released under the terms of the Stalin Sikorski agreement.

Menachem Begin came to prominence as an advocate of the view that mainstream Zionist groups were too accommodating with the British authorities in pre-1948 Palestine, and advocated the use of force to establish a Jewish state. On his release he joined the Polish army and was transferred to the Middle East. After demobilization, in 1943, he assumed command of the Irgun Zvati Leumi (National Military Organization), known by the initials of its Hebrew name as "Etzel".  Claiming that the British had reneged on their original promise of the Balfour Declaration, and that the White Paper of 1939 restricting Jewish immigration was an escalation of their pro-Arab policy, he decided to break with the Haganah, which continued to cooperate militarily with the British as long as they were fighting Nazi Germany. Soon after he assumed command, a formal 'Declaration of Revolt' was publicized, and armed attacks against British forces were initiated. The IRGUN’s attacks on British targets in Palestine made him one of the most wanted men in the region. The Palestine Government offered a reward of £10,000 for information leading to his arrest.

As the leader of Irgun, Begin played a central role in Jewish military resistance to the British Mandate of Palestine, but was strongly deplored and consequently sidelined by mainstream Zionist leadership. Begin issued a call to arms and from 1945 to 1948 the Irgun launched an all-out armed rebellion, perpetrating hundreds of attacks against British installations and posts. The Jewish Agency, headed by David Ben-Gurion, did not take kindly to the IRGUN’s independent agenda, regarding it a defiance of the Agency’s authority as the representative body of the Jewish community in Palestine. Ben-Gurion openly denounced the Irgun as the “enemy of the Jewish People”, accusing it of sabotaging the political campaign for independence.  Growing numbers of British forces were deployed to quell the Jewish uprising, yet Begin managed to elude captivity, at times disguised as a Rabbi.

In 1947, Begin met in secret with several members of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine as well as the foreign press, to explain the outlook of his movement. In November 1947, the UN adopted the Partition Plan for Palestine, and Britain announced its plans to fully withdraw from Palestine by May 1948. Within days of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948 Begin broadcast a speech on radio calling on his men to put down their weapons and join with the Haganah to form the newly established Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was the first time that the public had ever heard his voice. As the Israeli War of Independence broke, IRGUN fighters joined forces with the Haganah and Lehi militia in fighting the Arab forces. Notable operations in which they took part were the battles of Jaffa, Haifa, and the Jordanian siege on the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem.

After the establishment of the State of Israel, Begin founded the right-wing political party Herut ("Freedom"), which would eventually evolve into the present-day Likud party. On June 1, 1967, Begin joined the Government of National Unity in which he served as Minister without Portfolio until August 4, 1970. Suffering eight consecutive defeats in the years preceding his premiership, Begin came to embody the opposition to the Labor Party, Ashkenazi Mapai-led establishment. On June 20, 1977, Mr. Menachem Begin, head of the Likud party, after having won the Knesset elections on May 17, 1977, presented the new Government to the Knesset and became Prime Minister of Israel. Despite having established himself as a fervent conservative ideologist, Begin’s first significant achievement as Prime Minister was to negotiate the Camp David Accords with President Sadat of Egypt, agreeing on the full withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from the Sinai Peninsula and its return to Egypt in 1978. Together with Anwar Sadat, the two won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.

Yet in the years to follow, especially during his second term in office from 1981, Begin’s government was to reclaim a nationalist agenda, promoting the expansion of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories. In 1981, Begin ordered the bombing and destruction of Iraq's Tammuz nuclear reactor in Osirak by the Israeli Air Force, in a successful long-range operation called Operation Opera. Begin launched a limited invasion into southern Lebanon in 1982, which quickly escalated into full-fledged war. Begin resigned as the sixth Prime Minister of Israel in 1983. Menachem Begin died in Tel Aviv in 1992.

 
CIA FILES

101 pages of CIA files dating from 1945 to 1948.

Files contain Palestine situation reports discussing: Strategic considerations in relation to U.S. interests; Political Situations; Economic Situations Foreign Affairs; Military Situations.

 A 1947 report examines the consequences of partitioning Palestine. Topics include: Political consequences, Religious pressures, Tribal pressure, probable attitudes of Arab governments, probable actions of Arab governments, Aims of a Jewish state, Attitude of the Soviet Union, and Military consequences. The report contains information about the strengths of Irgun,  Haganah,  and the Stern Gang.

A CIA report titled, "Report on Clandestine Air Transport Operations Outside US Continental Limits Involving US Citizens and US-Owned Aircraft," examines Americans arranging for flights of arms to assist the Jewish underground movement in Palestine.

Other report titles include, "Possible Developments from the Palestine Truce" and "Probable Effects on Israel and the Arab States of a UN Arms Embargo."


CIA Camp David Israel-Egypt Peace Plan Files

106 pages of CIA files reporting to the Carter White House on issue surrounding the Camp David Israel-Egypt Peace Plan.

 
British Security Service MI5 MI6 Files

253 pages of British Security files on Menachem Begin dating from 1929 to 1955. These files were not released until 2006.

British Security files on Menachem Begin composed of compiled reports on Begin's  movements, contacts and activities drawn from various sources. The files include details about Menachem Begin's early life. The files contain conflicting content on whether or not Begin served in Spain with the International Brigade. The file includes a photograph purportedly of Begin with comrades in Spain, but also information from other sources suggesting that he was elsewhere for the duration of the Spanish Civil War.

The files contain: Information, from an informant code named CHEST, on Begin's activities. Extracts from intercepted letters from underground leaders including Begin. Reference reports of information gained from interrogation of IRGUN members. Intelligence report on Begin's relationship with Ben Gurion. Information concerning his political activity in Israel. Surveillance reports on Begin's political party the Herut Group.

The possibility of Soviet control of Begin´s Irgun organization is one of the key concerns of the file. The files record various terrorist acts attributed to that organization. The file includes a Polish Security Middle East group report on Jewish terrorist activities, dated April 1945; and a report of intelligence sourced from Chilik Weizmann by the Secret Intelligence Service that Begin had undergone cosmetic surgery in February 1947 to conceal his identity (the SIS report comments dryly that "We have no description of the new face").

Later files focus on Menachem Begin´s post-war travels and meetings in Europe and the Americas. There is an April 1953 case summary, including details of the possible connections between Begin and the Russian intelligence service in which an agent writes,  "…the answer would appear to be that Begin was probably not a Soviet agent in the sense that he was working for the RIS…but that there is some slight possibility that during 1947 he might have accepted or even sought Soviet financial assistance for the terrorist organization."

 
FBI FILES

293 pages of FBI files dating from 1947 to 1949 covering IRGUN and Hagnah. Files contain approximately 85 narrative pages. Files give basic background information on Irgun and Hagnah. Topics include: Possible violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and the Neutrality Act. Publicity for a planned Begin 1948 visit. FBI investigation into whether Begin should be admitted into the US. The files contain a FBI collection of newspaper articles on militant acts against British targets.

 
Foreign Relations of The United States, 1977–1980, Volume IX, Arab-Israeli Dispute, August 1978–December 1980, Second, Revised Edition

The 1.450-page Office of the Historian, United States Department of State’s documentary history of the construction of a framework for the Camp David peace plant, August 8–September 17, 1978, Negotiating the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, and search from peace in the region beyond the Camp David agreement.

Primary composed of transcripts of Presidential papers, White House records, Zbigniew Brzezinski material and staff material, President Carter’s correspondence with foreign leaders, Department of State documents, supporting documentation generated by Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, and others agencies.

 
U.S. Government Foreign Press Monitoring

5,100 pages of foreign press monitoring containing with material related to Menachem Begin.

Media monitoring reports from 1977 to 1982, produced by the U.S. government's National Technical Information Service's U.S. Joint Publication Research Service. These 5,100 pages of reports focuses on the Middle East and North Africa. They contain information primarily from foreign newspapers, periodicals and books, but also from news agency transmissions and broadcasts. Materials from foreign-language sources are translated into English.

These 5,100 pages of serial reports contains information on socio-economic, government, political, and technical developments in the countries of the Near East and North Africa. Press coverage from and about Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spanish North Africa, Sudan, Sultanate of Oman, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, Yemen Arab Republic. 

It includes Arab and Israeli press reaction to the Camp David Accords. This reporting contains samples of Arab and Israeli press reaction to the results of the Camp David Summit Conference. All the material is in the form of editorials, commentaries, and cartoons; and it is selected from some of the most important Arabic, Hebrew, French, and English language newspapers and periodicals published in most of the Arab states and in Israel. Some of the material is from Arabic-language sources published in Paris and London.

Other major news events includes reporting to the 1977 Israel general elections bringing Begin to the head of the Israeli government.  Israel's 1982 invasion into Lebanon. Reports include over 100 cartoons from the Arab press on the Lebanon Crisis. Israeli political events toward the end of Begin's Premiership.

 
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE REPORTS 

645 pages of Department of Defense Reports.

Irgun Zvai Leumi: The Jewish Terrorist Element of TheArab-Israeli Conflict (1985)

An historical assessment (1895-1948) of the development and effectiveness of the Irgun during the struggle for an independent Jewish state, by Air Force MAJOR JAMES LARRY FIELDS.

Abstract:  There is a broad variety of literature that examines the moral, psychological, and sociological aspects of terrorism. Current terrorist organizations from all over the world tend to adopt the tactics and techniques of past successful terrorist organizations. One past successful organization was the IRGUN ZVAI LEUMI, the Jewish terrorist element of the pre-1949 Zionist movement. This project provides an historical assessment (1895-1948) of the development and effectiveness of the Irgun during the struggle for an independent Jewish state. The Irgun's methodology, tactics and leadership are contrasted to today's Palestine Liberation Organization. Also the Irgun's impact on future terrorist organizations is approached.

 
Jewish -- Zionist Terrorism and The Establishment of Israel (1977)

A thesis by John Louis Peeke, Captain, United States Air Force.

Abstract: Terrorist bombings of public buildings, attacks on public
officials, hijackings and assassinations of political leaders are
not new phenomena in Middle East politics. In recent history,
incidents initiated by the Palestine Liberation Organization and
its various components have captured headlines around the world.
As recently as World War II, however, another terrorist war was
fought over the same territory and for the same purposes--the
creation of a Palestinian state. This time, though, the terrorists were Jewish. This paper looks at the activities of the Jewish "terror" organizations in their quest for a Jewish state. Through three chronological, more or less parallel tracks, the paper will deal with the formation of the military and paramilitary groups, their organization, leadership philosophy and actions which eventually forced Great Britain to yield to Zionist demands for a Jewish state in Palestine.

 
Israel’s Attack on Osiraq: A Model for Future Preventive Strike

Israel’s Attack on Osiraq: A Model for Future Preventive Strike, a 79-page thesis by Major Peter S. Ford, United States Air Force. This thesis examines Osirak for lessons from a preventive attack on a non-conventional target. Ford conducted a personal interview with retired IAF Colonel Dov ‘Doobi’ Yoffe at his home in Israel after viewing the Heads Up Display (HUD) video of the 7 June 1981 strike. The video was a compilation of all Israeli Air Force F-16 aircraft that participated in the raid. It included take-off, ingress, pre-strike maneuvering, footage of the attack, post-strike defensive maneuvering, and egress back to Israel. The thesis contains information from personal interviews about the Osirak mission and the domestic political interaction preceding the strike. Aside from these first-hand sources, the thesis draws from select books on the subject. It also incorporates numerous scholarly articles, government documents, declassified information, foreign policy speeches, and media sources worldwide.

 
Insurgency in Iraq: An Historical Perspective

This 27-page monograph considers the patterns of insurgency in the past by way of establishing how much the conflict in Iraq (2003-2005) conforms to previous experience. In particular, the author compares and contrasts Iraq with previous Middle Eastern insurgencies such as those in Palestine, Aden, the Dhofar province of Oman, Algeria, and Lebanon. He suggests that there is much that can be learned from British, French, and Israeli experience. Comparisons are made with IRGUN's 1947-1949 campaign against British occupation of Palestine.

 
Israel: Problems and Viability

 A 12-page National War College student report by Colonel W.W. Connor on the outlook of the partition and the creation of the State of Israel. Covered are agreements from Balfour to Bunche, conflict of Jewish and Arab convictions, immediate problems, social and economic impact of immigration into Israel, political aspects, and the future of Israeli-Arab relations.

 
The Arab Position on Palestine by Kermit Roosevelt

A National War College transcript of a November 24, 1948 lecture presented by secretary of the Committee for Peace and Justice in the Holy Land, Kermit Roosevelt, in which he mentions IRGUN and Begin.

 
A Surprise Out of Zion? - Case Studies in Israel’s Decisions on
Whether to Alert the United States to Preemptive and Preventive Strikes, from Suez to the Syrian Nuclear Reactor

From introduction: This study seeks to use historical narrative to inform the reader’s understanding of choices both past and present, over several decades in which the U.S.-Israel relationship has grown far closer and deeper. For these purposes, we may think of Israeli leaders as falling into two categories: confronters and consulters. Israeli Prime Ministers David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin presented the United States with faits accomplis in 1956 and 1981, running serious risks in the bilateral relationship; by contrast, Levi Eshkol and Ehud Olmert took pains to try to see if Washington would resolve Israel’s security dilemmas in 1967 and 2007. In neither instance did consultation result in a U.S. use of force on Israel’s behalf, but in both cases, it did yield considerable dividends of U.S. understanding when Israel ultimately took matters into its own hands. From Suez on, one thing has not changed: Superpowers do not like being surprised.

 
“Just War” Case Study: Israeli Invasion of Lebanon in 1982

An essay by Marine Major Christopher A. Arantz.

Abstract: This essay examines Israel’s overall reasons for invasion of southern Lebanon and compares them to just war theory’s war-decision law and war-conduct law. This examination will establish that Israel achieved her objectives before war termination, which lead to some unjust actions.

Between 1948 and 1982 Israel had engaged in conventional combat four times against Arab coalition forces. In all cases, Israel fought for
survival of its state and established a military dominance in the region. In the years leading up to 1982, the Israeli government sought ways to
eliminate security problems in its occupied territory and across its border with southern Lebanon. Israel defined its security problems as terrorist excursions that threatened the security of its people and property in northern Israel. This paper will examine Israeli conduct of deciding to go to war and their conduct of war in relation to just war theory. Three areas will be examined; 1) Did Israel have a just cause, use a legitimate authority and the right intention for invading Lebanon as in accordance with Jus ad Bellum? 2) Did Israel conduct the conflict in accordance with Jus in Bello? 3) What are the long-term ramifications for the region since the invasion?


When David Became Goliath

By MAJ Christopher E. Whitting, RAAOC, Australia

For the first time since its establishment as a nation, and following four successive victories against various Arab conventional armies between 1948 and 1973, Israel was forced to withdraw militarily from south Lebanon in May 2000. This thesis investigates the defeat of the Israeli Defense Force by a guerilla army, Hezbollah. Rarely are the
causes of defeat on the modern battlefield simply a case of military failure. Specifically, this study will focus on the combination of factors that in unison forced the withdrawal of the Israeli Defense Force from Lebanon. The study concludes that a combination of political, military and social factors combined to force Israel to withdraw from Lebanon. A failure by Israel’s politicians to correctly identify the true nature of the problem and to link political goals to achievable military
objectives condemned the 1982 invasion from the outset. Additionally, the Israeli Defence Force was slow to adapt to guerilla warfare throughout the 18-year war, preferring to rely on the proven methods of prior conventional wars to achieve victory. Moreover, the social impact of a long and unwinnable war without a just cause impacted
severely on Israeli society weakening support for an Army whose historical role had changed from protector to aggressor.

 

Palestine Police Force Wanted Poster

Palestine Police Force wanted poster of Irgun and Lehi members. Begin appears at the top left.

 
Also included is an Australian Broadcasting Authority report of an investigation of an airing of a TV news program. The investigation was initiated over a complaint of inaccuracy of comparisons between Jewish underground militant actions and Palestinian militant actions.

The File contains a text transcript of all recognizable text embedded into the graphic image of each page of each document, creating a searchable finding aid. Text searches can be done across all material