If asked, “Who created the modern state of Israel?” most Jews would offer such names and institution aS David Ben-Gurion, Chaim Weizmann, the Jewish Agency, and the United Nations. A newly translated memoir, however, completely upends this popular perception.
In The First Tithe, Israel Eldad, who ran the underground Lehi movement (sometimes known as the Stem Group) together with future Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir and Nathan Yellin-Mor, argues that the British would never have left Palestine in 1948 had the Irgun (headed by Menachem Begin) and Lehi not forced them out. He also defends his group’s deadly terrorist tactics and unique Zionist vi- sion, which included the building of the Third Temple.
After Israel’s founding, Eldad – who held a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Vienna – became a high-school teacher, but Ben-Gurion, fearing Eldad’s influence, ordered the Ministry of Education and Culture to fire him.
Eldad continued writing ideological books and articles (he also translated most of Fried-rich Nietzsche’s works into Hebrew) until his death in 1996…
0
0
0
