Naval postgraduate school monterey, california thesis approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

The Irgun Site
. Peeke, 
Jewish--Zionist Terrorism and the Establishment of Israel,
60. The 
use of Jewish propaganda was an extremely powerful tool in the days following a militia attack. Whether 
exploiting the retaliatory speeches of the British military or characterizing the Jewish attacks as self-
defense, the Haganah propaganda element was always able to maintain the support of the Jewish 
population, which gave the militias safe haven. The “Voice of Israel” radio broadcast exaggerated the 
retaliatory actions of the British military. For example, after the King David hotel bombing, the Irgun 
intercepted a letter from Lieutenant General Sir Evelyn Barker ordering everything having to do with the 
Yishuv “out of bounds for all British officers and soldiers.”
253
He concluded his questionable letter by 
stating, “The aim of these orders is to punish the Jews in a way the race dislikes as much as any, namely by 
striking at their pockets.” Although the British rescinded the letter two weeks later, it was too late to 
resuscitate the British involvement in Palestine. 
254
Cohen, 
Palestine and the Great Powers, 1945-1948
, 74, 92. 
255
Lapidot, 
The Irgun Site
, 20; Cohen, 
Palestine and the Great Powers, 1945-1948
, 94. 

---

87
the damage done by the King David Hotel bombing and also “helped transform British 
security forces into even more of a resentful and hated enemy occupation force.”
256
 
Thus, from June 1946, the militias employed a two track strategy. Haganah 
pursued the political track, with pressure for compromise from Britain being applied by 
the Irgun and Stern Gang on the military track. Begin, the Irgun leader, saw a direct 
correlation between his attacks and British concessions. In December 1946, two Irgun 
militiamen sentenced to prison were lashed on their backs as part of the sentence. Begin 
responded publicly by warning the British that “you will not whip Jews in their 
homeland. And if British authorities whip them, then British officers will be whipped 
publicly in return.”
257
The following day, a British major and three NCOs received 
retaliatory lashes. After twenty-five years of protests by the Jewish Agency, lashes were 
suddenly eliminated in Palestine. Similarly, after three Stern Group militiamen were 
executed at the Acre prison in July 1947, the Irgun responded by hanging two British 
sergeants, creating a spiral of violence between the Jewish militias and the British 
occupation forces, who felt trapped by British policies that prevented more offensive 
operations. After the two sergeants were hanged, British soldiers and policemen 
vandalized Jewish businesses and houses, but were met by groups of young militiamen 
with stones and fists. Vigilante reprisals signaled that the British had nearly lost control, 
which met the exact goals of the Irgun: to make Palestine ungovernable for the British.
In retrospect, the hanging of the sergeants served as one of the strongest signals for 
British departure from Palestine. In the words of the Chief Secretary of the British 
Government in Palestine, Colonel Archer-Cust, “The hangings of the two British 
sergeants did more than anything to get us out of Palestine.”
258
British security forces were left in a precarious position as a result of the British 
Labour Party’s decision to renege on British commitments to the Jewish state since they 
were forced to uphold a political policy that was diametrically opposed the Jewish militia 
256
Lapidot, 94. 
257
Peeke, 
Jewish--Zionist Terrorism and the Establishment of Israel
, 62. 
258
Peeke, 69; Michael Joseph Cohen,