When Winston Churchill visited Palestine on 30 March, 1921, he told a Palestinian Arab delegation that:
“It is manifestly right that the scattered Jews should have a national center and a national home to be re-united and where else but in Palestine with which for 3,000 years t hey have been intimately and profoundly associated?
"We think it will be good for the world, good for the Jews, good for the British Empire, but also good for the Arabs who dwell in Palestine and we share in the benefits and progress of Zionism.
"If, as may well happen, there should be created in our own lifetime by the banks of the Jordan, a Jewish state under the protection of the British crown which might comprise 3 or 4 millions of Jews, an event will have occurred in this history of the world which would from every point of view be beneficial and would especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British Empire.
"I am told that the Arabs would have done [built hydro-electric plants] for themselves. Who is going to believe that? Left to themselves, the Arabs of Palestine would not in a thousand years have taken effective steps toward the irrigation and electrification of Palestine.
"They would have been quite content to dwell --- a handful of philosophic people----in the wasted sun-scorched plains, letting the waters of the Jordan continue to flow unbridled and unharnessed into the Dead Sea."
Menachem Begin: “Our generation witnessed the renewal of Jewish heroism----in the continuous endangering of personal freedom and life in the Underground, on the battlefield, in the prisons, in the concentration camps, in the purple garb of those in the death cell and in the long march to the gallows."
The timing of Menachem Begin's arrival in Eretz Israel was providential:his reputation as a brilliant young leader, orator and writer had preceded him;his burning faith in his people's cause was known; his strong will and fearlessness were already recognized.
At the height of the outpouring of joy on Israel's declaration of independence on Saturday 15 May 1948, Menachem Begin---who had lived in the Underground for almost 5 years, with a minimum of outside contact and at times in disguise-----addressed his people over the secret radio station of the Irgun:
"Is there a heroism higher than these? We dare not reply too hastily on that question----for not all the trials are behind the heroes, the fighters of Zion, who are still in the USSR. Even today, we may say that we are standing before a new peak of renascent Jewish heroism. "
From “The Revolt" by Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel:
“During WW11 the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was taken over to house the central institutions of the British regime: Military GHQ and the Secretariat, the civil Government. As the revolt against the British rule intensified, the great hotel was developed I a veritable fortress in the heart of the city.
"The rules we had laid down for ourselves made the evacuation of the hotel essential. There were many civilians in the hotel whom we wanted, at all costs, to avoid injuring. More than 200 people were killed or injured. Among the victims were high British officers.-We----went through days of pain and nights of sorrow for the blood that need not have been shed.-----[Begin] learned that when the warning to evacuate the hotel reached a high official he exclaimed: “We are not here to take orders from the Jews. We give them orders."
Few things tickled Mr. Begin's fancy more than walking across the threshold of Number 10, for it was there, in the mid-1940's, that the order had been given to promise 10 thousand pounds----what was then a huge sum----as a reward for information leading to his capture, dead or alive.
Amazingly, now, British reporters were still pillorying him, and one, a bald man with the shape of a beer barrel, bellowed from the other side of the street as the the prime minister emerged from his limousine, “Mr. Begin, people in Britain still call you a wanted terrorist. Any comment?"
Begin crossed over to the newsmen, and in an eminently reasonable tone said to the man, “You really want my comment?" “Yes I do." “Then you shall have it. Kenyan Mau Mau leaders visit Britain and they are called freedom fighters. Cypriot insurgents, Irish revolutionaries, and Malaysian militias visit Britain, and they are all called freedom fighters. Only I am called a terrorist.
"Is that because I was a Jewish freedom fighter? “Are you going to ask Mrs. Thatcher for her support of the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital"? No, sir under no circumstances. “Why not?" Because, Sir, Jerusalem was a Jewish capital long before London was a British capital. When King David moved the capital of his kingdom, where he had reigned for 7 years, to Jerusalem, where he reigned for 33 years, the civilized world would had never heard of London."
"In fact, they had never heard of Great Britain," and he turned on his heels toward the door, where Mrs. Thatcher was waiting to greet him. Over pre-lunch drinks, the talk was largely about the British leader's support for the worldwide Jewish campaign on behalf of Jews in the Soviet Union who wished to emigrate to Israel.
The British Prime Minister regaled her guest with stories expressive of her fervent admiration of Jews. It has to do with my Methodist upbringing,"she exclaimed. “Methodism, you see means method. It means"----her fingers bunched into a fist-"sticking to your guns, dedication, determination, triumph adversity over reverence for education---the very qualities you Jews have always cherished."
Early in February, a debate on Palestine took place in the British House of Commons. The Irgun and Dov Gruner served as the central theme. Winston Churchill again demanded the evacuation from Palestine of the British forces whose maintenance, while serving no strategic purpose, was so costly in blood and treasure.
Again he urged the handing back of the Palestine Mandate to the United Nations if the United States refused to share in the responsibility of governing the land. But the main burden of his speech was a biting denunciation of the Government's “soft" policy towards terrorists.
“It is quite certain," explained Churchill, “that what is going on now in Palestine is doing us a very great deal of harm all over the world---I hate this quarrel with the Jews. I hate their methods of outrage. But if you are engaged in the matter, at lease\t bear yourselves like men."
The Government, he said, stated that the sentence on Gruner had been held up pending an appeal to the Privy Council. This was only an excuse. The Jewish Agency knew, but the condemned man refused to sign. In the face of the terrorists' threat, Churchill concluded, the Government had not found the strength to implement the process of law.
His meaning was clear. Gruner must be hanged, and better late than never. This statement was echoed by one of Churchill's lieutenants, Oliver Stanley. He remarked, “I do not believe that it is possible to carry on the Government of Palestine.
The Sunday Express devoted its leading article to the latest acts of terrorism in Palestine and said bluntly that “Britain must get out of Palestine and stay out. Mr Churchill asks, “Why is it thought that the measures proposed are likely to be more effective than others taken at various times during the past similar outrages?"
According to Reuters account of the historic debate in Parliament:
“Shouting angrily and thumping a dispatch-box in front of him, Mr. Winston Churchill demanded in the House of Commons to know how long this state of “squalid warfare' in Palestine, with all its bloodshed, would go on before some decision was reached.
He said how long would these horrible outrages and counter-measures, which are necessary but nevertheless objectionable necessary but painful, going to endure?
What do we have now? Just what we had then.
Abe Greenwald's latest column, “Death to America's “initial paragraph seemingly describes it:
“One week ago, protesters hit the streets of New York [and other American cities] for Al-Quds Day demonstrations against US and Israel and in praise of the Iranian regime. “Al-Quds" is Arabic for “Jerusalem",and the annual demonstrations are traditionally hate-fests at which protesters chant slogans about destroying the Jewish state.
The tradition was started in 1979 by the then-leader of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, and it's been a Middle East staple ever since. Al-Quds Day protests in the US, however, only began during the 2nd decade of this oh-so-colorful century.