British accosting shiploads of Jewish refugees and denying them entry into
Palestine. The most celebrated case was the Exodus, a battered American ferry
boat that sailed from Chesapeake Bay to France, where it collected a shipload
of DPs. When the British tried to halt the ship, the DPs on board fought
back, surrendering only when the British started to ram the ship. The British
sent them back to Marseilles.
Zionists were outraged. In 1945, ben-Gurion and the Jewish Agency
approved measures of violence. The Haganah, the mainstream Zionist defense
organization, began operations against the British, as did the Irgun and its rad-
ical fringe, Lechi (Lochamei Herut Yisrael, Freedom Fighters of Israel), a radical
right fringe group under the leadership of Abraham Stern, also called the Stern
Gang. On October 31, 1945, the Palestine railway was blown up in 153 places.
In November 1945, the Irgun, Haganah, and Lechi agreed to coordinate
efforts against the British. In February 1946, they conducted raids on three
airfields, destroying three planes. On July 17, 1946, the Haganah blew up
ten out of eleven bridges in Palestine.
To be sure, there was a difference between the Haganah, on the one hand,
and the Irgun and the Stern Gang on the other. The Haganah attacked only
military installations. The Irgun and the Stern Gang attacked British person-
nel. Most notoriously, on July 22, 1946, the Irgun blew up the King David
Hotel, British military headquarters in Palestine, killing ninety-one Britons,
Jews, and Arabs. Subsequently, Irgun leaders claimed they gave a warning to
vacate the hotel. British leaders denied ever receiving such a warning.
By 1947, it was clear that security under the British Mandate had col-
lapsed. From May 1945 to October 1947, 127 British nationals were killed.
Eighty-thousand British troops and 16,000 British policemen were stationed
in Palestine by 1947, meaning one-tenth of the British army, and one police
officer for every eight people in Palestine.
There was also growing pressure on Britain to abandon the Mandate. In
Britain, this pressure stemmed from the loss of lives and the escalating cost:
£50,000,000 had been spent on Palestine by the end of 1947. In the United
States, there was growing pressure to admit the Jewish DPs. Truman wanted
100,000 admitted.
By the end of 1947, it was clear that Britain could no longer hold on to
Palestine, or many other colonial possessions. In addition, Indian indepen-
dence in 1947 made Palestine strategically less important. In February 1947,
Ernest Bevin, the British foreign secretary, suggested partitioning Palestine
as a new solution. The matter was referred to the United Nations, which
began to deliberate the prospect of an independent Jewish state in Palestine.
Support for Jewish statehood within the US government came primarily
from President Truman, who supported the creation of a Jewish state
mainly for reasons of conscience, but also to win Jewish votes. Truman
repeatedly overruled the State Department, which was leaning in a more
232 Jews in the postwar world