"Terror State: Israel and the Bevin Bomb Plot"

Tweet Link to original (via Angry Arab Newservice): http://atthesauce.blogspot.com/2009/11/word-terrorism-in-todays-society-has.html

The word "terrorism" in today's society has become soldered permanently to the phrase "Muslim extremist".

The publication of The Defence of the Realm, the Authorized History of MI5, offers a useful reminder of the real history of terrorism in the Middle East.

The author, Christopher Andrew, who has not typed a single line of text which would have the censors nervous, offers the chapter: Zionist Extremists and Counter-Terrorism.

The section begins with the observation: "The terrorists came not, as later in the twentieth century, from Palestinian or Islamist groups but from the Zionist extremists of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang..."

Andrew adds: "In March 1946, B3a [of MI5] received information from a 'reliable' source in Palestine, in 'direct contact' with the Stern Gang', that 'terrorists are now training their members for the purpose of proceeding to England to assasinate members of His Majesty's Government'.

Beat the Dog
"The wartime track record of Zionist terrorists ensured that such reports were taken seriously. In November 1944 the Stern Gang had assinated the British Minister of State in the Middle East, Lord Moyne, and Zionist extremists had made several attempts to murder the British high commissioner for Palestine, Sir Ronald MacMichael."

It is a matter of historic record that the leader of Irgun, Menachem Begin, blew up the British Palestine HQ in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem with 500 pounds of explosives packed into milk-churns. Andrew states in passing that Begin was "the future prime minister of Israel".

Irgun and the Stern Gang were, MI5 believed, planning the assasination of Ernest Bevin, who became the Labour government's foreign secretary in July 1945 for having the temerity of calling for a settlement between Jews and Arabs in Palestine.

The new book cites an intelligence report from Palestine made on August 23, 1946 - just a month after the King David Hotel bombing.

The communique states: "Irgun and Stern have decided to send five cells to London to operate in a manner similar to the IRA. To use their own words 'beat the dog in his own kennel'."

A second report from September 1946 adds: "In recent months it has been reported that [the Stern Group] have been training selected members for the purpose of proceeding overseas and assassinating a prominent British personality - special reference having been made several times to Mr Bevin in this connection."

Much of this is already in the public domain. Interestingly, the book carries a clipping from the Express newspaper from August 25, 1948, headlined: "Stern Gang Gave Bomb Girl A Party."

The story runs to nine short paragraphs and quotes Betty Knouth stating: "Did I post letter bombs? Unfortunately, the Belgian police got me before I could do so. They are a Stern Gang patent.

"One was addressed to Sir Alan Cunningham, another to Sir John Shaw...Belgian experts said they were deadly. I'm sorry none of them were delivered."

This reportage contrasts so starkly with today where newspapers have no resources to gather news so instead ramp up any arrest, any cobbled together government statement relating to terrorism and run it across the first five pages.

But more generally, what do we learn from this episode in history? If you want to commit terrorism then aim to become a terrorist state. And seek funding and arms from the US government by offering to act as a military base in an oil rich region.