Terrorism
and the Creation of a State
At
the Annapolis conference on November 27, George Bush repeatedly stressed that a
Palestinian state was impossible if the Palestinian people did not renounce
what he described as terrorism. In his
prepared remarks, he stated: “Now is the time to show Palestinians that their
dream of a free and independent state can be achieved at the table of peace and
that the terror and violence preached by Palestinian extremists is the greatest
obstacle to a Palestinian state.” Speaking to reporters later, Bush again
reiterated, “…a Palestinian state cannot be borne out of terrorism … a state
cannot be created through acts of terror.”
However,
putting aside the whole question of what Bush means when he refers to Palestinian
terror, the fact is that there is a state in the region which was created
following an orchestrated campaign of terror – the State of Israel.
This
terror campaign, which began shortly after the onset of the British mandate in
Palestine in 1923, was coordinated by militant Zionist groups, organized in the
coalition United Resistance. For most of the Second World War, they suspended
attacks on British military targets, although one group, the Stern Gang (or Lehi), continued what it described as “direct action”
against the British, including the assassination of Lord Moyne in Cairo in
November 1944. In 1945, United
Resistance resumed its pattern of attacking British targets, including two
raids on the British Intelligence offices, an attack on the Schneller Army camp
and the 1946 bombing of the British Embassy in Rome.
Members of the Stern Gang also assassinated a United Nations-appointed mediator
in September 1948.
The
most infamous Zionist terrorist activity took place on July 22, 1946, when
members of the Irgun group, acting on instructions
from the United Resistance, carried out the first modern large-scale terrorist
attack in the Middle East. Irgun – which subsequently claimed responsibility for over
200 acts of terrorism against both the British and the Arab population between
1946 and 1948 - bombed the King David Hotel, where the British administration
was housed. Led by Menachem Begin, who was later elected Prime Minister of
Israel, the Irgun terrorists disguised themselves as Arab hotel workers and
planted 350 kg of explosives, hooked up to six different chargers, in the hotel
basement. They fled and set off their
bombs, killing 91 people, mainly civilians, and wounding another 45 people. Irgun claimed responsibility for the attack immediately, but
blamed the British for all casualties, claiming to have delivered a warning to
evacuate the hotel over 20 minutes before the bombs were detonated. However, according to an internal British
police report, which was made public in the 1970s, the British received the
warning at the same time that the bombs went off.
The
attack on the King David Hotel remains part of the founding mythology of the
State of Israel. In July 2006, a sixtieth anniversary celebration of the
bombing was organized by the Menachem Begin Centre and attended by, among
others, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The British Ambassador in Tel Aviv issued a
statement on the occasion stating: “We do not think that it is right for an act
of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated.”