Mr Begin's record
Sir: 'I cannot quite understand why the strong distaste remains' is the most significant remark of Patrick O'Donovan in his article Memories of Begin (19 November), for that 'strong distaste' totally distorts everything else he says. He cites two extremely nasty incidents, namely the hanging of the two British sergeants and the whipping of British officers.
These acts resulted from the behaviour of the Mandatory Government which hanged Begin's own soldiers, thus forcing him to threaten that if any more of the prisoners taken by the Mandatory authorities were hanged he would hang two of their prisoners. When the next three Irgun men were hanged he did just that. In the case of the whipping of the British officers this followed the whipping of Irgun prisoners. The object in both cases was to save his own men, and Was totally effective as all hangings stopped afterwards. In other words he countered evil with evil in order to put a stop to further evil. The blame for the evil in the first place must be placed at the door of those in the Palestine government. These horrors reflect no credit on either side, and little good is done by airing them thirty years later.
On the question of the tragic death of Arab civilians at the taking of the village of Deir Yassin, Mr O'Donovan takes the standard Arab propaganda line and implies that this was a massacre to panic Arabs to leave Palestine. The Arab propaganda put out in order to blacken the name of the Jews completely backfired and was a major factor in causing the flight of Arab civilians. What actually happened was that an Irgun unit, after warning the inhabitants to leave as it was about to storm the village, which was an important point on the supply route between the coast and Jerusalem, advanced on the village where white flags were flying. As they approached Iraqi troops opened fire killing the Irgun commander. After the battle it was discovered that only part of the villagers had left in response to the warning, the others had remained in the houses with the Iraqi soldiers and were killed in the course of fighting when grenades were thrown into the houses. Two hundred Arabs died including soldiers and civilians; the attacking Irgun force lost four dead and forty-one wounded.
Concerning the tremendous dislike of Begin of the late David Ben-Gurion, this is an old story that dates back to the period befOre the second world war when Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the first Jewish unit within the British army which fought with Allenby in the first world war, set up the Revisionist Party. This party split the Zionist movement, and the left-wing parties including Ben-Gurion's Mapai developed an intense dislike for it, which was not ended until Levi Eshkol succceeded Ben-Gurion in the leadership of the Labour movement.
The Herut Party is nothing more sinister than an Israeli Tory Party. The Israeli electorate voted for it primarily on domestic issues and, as might be expected from such a party, has carried out major economic reforms in the direction of a greater free market economy.
Begin's policy has totally discredited all the pundits who were horrified when he came to power. It has resulted in a boost to Israeli morale, and recent visitors to Israel imply that if he went to the polls again he would have a considerably increased majority. Above all, the greatest breakthrough in peace negotiations with the Arabs has now taken place within a • mere six months of his accession to power. David M. Jacobs 23 Worley Road, St. Albans, Herts.
Previous page
