mandated territory, and then by various plans to partition the area
stretching westward of the river to the Mediterranean Sea. Ben-Gurion
perceived that the proper way to treat people in despair was to turn
them into builders, not murderers. An axiom of his was that he would
bring Jews to Palestine even if this meant fighting the British, but he
would rather compromise on the land than take up the gun. He consid-
ered guns a necessary evil, destroying the people morally and physi-
cally. Ben-Gurion refused to choose between morality and Realpolitik,
action and passivity, and always opted for a third way. He understood
that the Yishuv had to develop a military capacity, but felt that it must
be applied in a morally pure fashion. Even before the Yishuv possessed
any notable military capability, Ben-Gurion developed the tradition of
“self-restraint,” later known as “purity of arms.” Except for a very
small and irresponsible segment of Revisionists, the Yishuv did not
spill the blood of innocent British or Arabs.
The 1939 British White Paper that limited Jewish immigration to
75,000 and severely curtailed Jewish ability to purchase land in
Palestine was issued at a most inopportune moment. The Nazis were
poised to unleash the Holocaust on the Jews of Europe. Ben-Gurion
declared that he would fight the British as if there were no Germans
and the Germans as if there were no British: he would do whatever
he could, legal or illegal, to get as many Jews as possible out of Eu-
rope and into Palestine, but at the same time would urge his people
to volunteer for the British Army to fight the Nazis.
During World War II, the Irgun proclaimed a revolt against British
rule in Palestine and embarked on attacks against various government
targets. In September 1944 Moshe Sneh, head of the General Head-
quarters of the Haganah militia, and Eliyahu Golomb, another Ha-
ganah leader, met the Irgun commander Menachem Begin and or-
dered him to desist from these actions.
The turning point in the struggle against the Jewish underground
came two months later, with the assassination of Lord Moyne in Cairo.
Moyne, a known anti-Zionist, had been appointed British minister of
state for the Middle East and, from his residence in Cairo, was respon-
sible for implementing the White Paper policy. The Stern Group con-
sidered him responsible for turning back ships crammed with Jews
fleeing Europe for Palestine and plotted to assassinate him. Two of its
members, Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet-Zuri, were dispatched toTERRORISM• 28106-102 (04) Q-Z.qxd 3/24/06 7:26 AM Page 281