The smallest and most radical of Mandatory Palestine's three Zionist paramilitary groups (Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi), the group never had more than a few hundred members. Lehi split from the Irgun in 1940 and by 1948 was identified with both religious Zionism (although most members were not Orthodox Jews) and left-wing nationalism (despite most members wanting to remain politically unaligned).[4][5] It carried out the November 1944 assassination in Cairo of Lord Moyne, along with other attacks on the British authorities and Palestinian Arabs. It was described as a terrorist organization by the British authorities[6] and was banned by the newly-formed Israeli government under an anti-terrorism law passed three days after the group's September 1948 assassination of the UN mediator Folke Bernadotte.[7] The United Nations Security Council called the assassins "a criminal group of terrorists,"[8] and Lehi was similarly condemned by the subsequent United Nations mediator Ralph Bunche[9].

Israel granted a general amnesty to Lehi members on 14 February 1949. In 1980 the group was honored by the institution of the Lehi ribbon, a military decoration awarded "for military service towards the establishment of the State of Israel" .[10] Future Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir was among its leaders.

Foundations and founding

Avraham ("Yair") Stern was an adherent of the Revisionist Zionist movement founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky and a member of the Irgun (Irgun Tsvai Leumi, National Military Organization). In June 1940, when the Irgun decided to suspend its underground military activities against the British during the World War II, he left the Irgun to form his own group, which he called Irgun Tsvai Leumi B'Yisrael (National Military Organization in Israel).

Stern broke away from Jabotinsky's view. While Jabotinsky had hoped that diplomacy and working with the Britain would prevail for the Jewish cause, Stern argued that the time for Zionist diplomacy was over, and the time had arrived for armed struggle against the British. For him, 'no difference existed between Hitler and Chamberlain, between Dachau or Buchenwald and sealing the gates of Eretz Israel.' [11]

Stern believed that the Jewish population of Palestine should fight, rather than support, the British in the War. He was vigorously opposed to the White Paper of 1939, which sharply reduced both Jewish immigration and the ability of Jews to purchase land in Palestine. He believed that immigration to Palestine should be available to Jewish refugees fleeing from Europe, and that this was the most important issue of the day. It was over the issue of the British that Stern and his long-time friend David Raziel split. Raziel believed that the Yishuv should assist Britain in their fight against Nazi Germany; he was killed in Iraq in 1941 during a mission for the British forces. Stern believed that dying for the 'foreign occupier' who was obstructing the creation of the Jewish State was useless. He differentiated between 'enemies of the Jewish people' (e.g., the British) and 'Jew haters' (e.g. the Nazis), believing that the former needed to be defeated and the latter manipulated.^{[citation needed]}

In 1940, the idea of the Final Solution was still "unthinkable," and Stern believed that Hitler wanted to make Germany judenrein through emigration, as opposed to extermination. In December 1940, he initiated contact with Nazi authorities, in order to enlist their aid in establishing the Jewish state in Palestine open to Jewish refugees from Nazism. He proposed to recruit some 40,000 Jews from occupied Europe with the intention of invading Palestine to oust the British. The Nazis did not take this proposal seriously, however, and nothing was to come of it.[11]

Goals and methods

Lehi had three main goals:

• to bring together all those interested in liberation (that is, those willing to join in active fighting against the British)
• to appear before the world as the only active Jewish military organization
• to take over the Land of Israel by armed force[12]

The group believed in its early years that its goals would be achieved by finding a strong international ally that would expel the British from Palestine, or Eretz Yisrael (the Jewish name for the land), in return for help from the Jewish military; this would in turn require the creation of a broad and organised military force "demonstrating its desire for freedom through military operations."[13]

An article titled "Terror" in He Khazit (The Front, a Lehi underground newspaper) argued as follows:

Neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat. We are very far from having any moral qualms as far as our national war goes. We have before us the command of the Torah, whose morality surpasses that of any other body of laws in the world: "Ye shall blot them out to the last man." But first and foremost, terrorism is for us a part of the political battle being conducted under the present circumstances, and it has a great part to play: speaking in a clear voice to the whole world, as well as to our wretched brethren outside this land, it proclaims our war against the occupier. We are particularly far from this sort of hesitation in regard to an enemy whose moral perversion is admitted by all. [14]

The article described the goals of terror:

• It demonstrates ... against the true terrorist who hides behind his piles of papers and the laws he has legislated.
• It is not directed against people, it is directed against representatives. Therefore it is effective.
• If it also shakes the Yishuv from their complacency, good and well.[14]

Yitzhak Shamir, one of the trio of leaders of Lehi after Yair Stern's assassination, argued for the legitimacy of Lehi's actions:

There are those who say that to kill Martin (a British sergeant) is terrorism, but to attack an army camp is guerrilla warfare and to bomb civilians is professional warfare. But I think it is the same from the moral point of view. Is it better to drop an atomic bomb on a city than to kill a handful of persons? I don’t think so. But nobody says that President Truman was a terrorist. All the men we went for individually — Wilkin, Martin, MacMichael and others — were personally interested in succeeding in the fight against us. So it was more efficient and more moral to go for selected targets. In any case, it was the only way we could operate, because we were so small. For us it was not a question of the professional honor of a soldier, it was the question of an idea, an aim that had to be achieved. We were aiming at a political goal. There are many examples of what we did to be found in the Bible — Gideon and Samson, for instance. This had an influence on our thinking. And we also learned from the history of other peoples who fought for their freedom — the Russian and Irish revolutionaries, Garibaldi and Tito.[15]

18 Principles of Rebirth

Avraham Stern put forth the ideology of his organization in what was called the 18 Principles of Rebirth:[16]

1 - The nation: The Jewish people is a covenanted people, the originator of monotheism, formulator of the prophetic teachings, standard bearer of human culture, guardian of glorious patrimony. The Jewish people is schooled in self-sacrifice and suffering; its vision, survivability and faith in redemption are indestructible. 2 - The homeland: The homeland in the Land of Israel within the borders delineated in the Bible ("To your descendants, I shall give this land, from the River of Egypt to the great Euphrates River." Genesis 15:18) This is the land of the living, where the entire nation shall live in safety. 3 - The nation and its land: Israel conquered the land with the sword. There it became a great nation and only there it will be reborn. Hence Israel alone has a right to that land. This is an absolute right. It has never expired and never will. 4 - The Goals 1 - Redemption of the land. 2 - Establishment of sovereignty. 3 - Revival of the nation. There is no sovereignty without the redemption of the land, and there is no national revival without sovereignty. These are the goals of the organization during the period of war and conquest: 5 - Education: Educate the nation to love freedom and zealously guard Israel's eternal patrimony. Inculcate the idea that the nation is master to its own fate. Revive the doctrine that "The sword and the book came bound together from heaven" (Midrash Vayikra Rabba 35:8) 6 - Unity: The unification of the entire nation around the banner of the Hebrew freedom movement. The use of the genius, status and resources of individuals and the channeling of the energy, devotion and revolutionary fervour of the masses for the war of liberation. 7 - Pacts: Make pacts with all those who are willing to help the struggle of the organization and provide direct support. 8 - Force: Consolidate and increase the fighting force in the homeland and in the Diaspora, in the underground and in the barracks, to become the Hebrew army of liberation with its flag, arms, and commanders. 9 - War: Constant war against those who stand in the way of fulfilling the goals. 10 - Conquest: The conquest of the homeland from foreign rule and its eternal possession. These are the tasks of the movement during the period of sovereignty and redemption: 11 - Sovereignty: Renewal of Hebrew sovereignty over the redeemed land. 12 - Rule of justice: The establishment of a social order in the spirit of Jewish morality and prophetic justice. Under such an order no one will go hungry or unemployed. All will live in harmony, mutual respect and friendship as an example to the world. 13 - Reviving the wilderness: Build the ruins and revive the wilderness for mass immigration and population increase. 14 - Aliens: Solve the problem of alien population [i.e. the Arab inhabitants of Palestine] by exchange of population. 15 - Ingathering of the exiles: Total in-gathering of the exiles to their sovereign state. 16 - Power: The Hebrew nation shall become a first-rate military, political, cultural and economical entity in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean Sea. 17 - Revival: The revival of the Hebrew language as a spoken language by the entire nation, the renewal of the historical and spiritual might of Israel. The purification of the national character in the fire of revival. 18 - The temple: The building of the Third Temple as a symbol of the new era of total redemption.

Relationship with fascism and socialism

Unlike the left-wing Haganah and right-wing Irgun, Lehi members were not a homogeneous collective with a single political, religious, or economic ideology. They were a combination of militants united by the goal of liberating the land of Israel from British rule. Most Lehi leaders defined their organisation as an anti-imperialism movement and stated that their opposition to British colonial rule in Palestine was not based on a particular policy but rather on the presence of a foreign power over the homeland of the Jewish people. Avraham Stern defined the British Mandate as “foreign rule” regardless of their policies and took a radical position against such imperialism even if it were to be benevolent.[17]

In the early years of the state of Israel Lehi veterans could be found supporting nearly all political parties and some Lehi leaders founded a left-wing political party called the Fighters' List with Natan Yellin-Mor as its head. The party took part in the elections in January 1949 and won a single parliamentary seat.

Some writers have stated that Lehi's true goals were the creation of a totalitarian state.[18] Perlinger and Weinberg write that the organisation's ideology placed "its world view in the quasi-fascist radical Right, which is characterised by xenophobia, a national egotism that completely subordinates the individual to the needs of the nation, anti-liberalism, total denial of democracy and a highly centralised government."[19] Perliger and Weinberg state that most Lehi members were admirers of the Italian Fascist movement.[13]

Others counter these these claims by pointing out that while Lehi founder Avraham Stern studied in Italy he refused to join the Fascist student association called "Gruppo Universitario Fascista" that foreign students were invited to, in spite of the fact that those joined were given serious reductions in tuition.[20] Moreover, during the time he spent in Russia, Stern was a member of the Pioneer movement which was the young pre-Komsomol layer of the communist Party in the USSR.[21] He also created the Histadrut of the Hebrew Tzofim Hashomer Hatzair in Suwałki which derived its ideology from youth organizations Hatzofim and socialist movements like Hashomer Hatzair and Hehalutz.[22] Supporting theories of Stern's progressive leanings is his comment that "We... want to establish the Kingdom of Israel and to rebuild it on the eternal foundations of Fraternity, Respect and Friendship to all the nation's sons whoever they are."[23]

Evolution and tactics of the organization

Many of Lehi combatants received professional training. Some of them even attended to military schools in Civitavecchia, ran by fascist government of Benito Mussolini.[24]

Some of Lehi members had undergone a military training by instructors of Polish Armed Forces in 1938-1939, months before World War II began. In Zofiówka of Wołyń, Podębin near Łódź and forests around Andrychów, they were taught how to use explosives. One of them reported later:

Poles treated terrorism as a science. We have mastered mathematical principles of demolishing constructions made of concrete, iron, wood, bricks and dirt.[24]

The group was initially unsuccessful. Early attempts to raise funds through criminal activities, including a bank robbery in Tel Aviv in 1940 and another robbery on 9 January 1942 in which Jewish passers-by were killed, brought about the temporary collapse of the group, and an attempt to assassinate the head of the British secret police in Lod in which three police personnel were killed, two Jewish and one British, elicited a severe response from the British and Jewish establishments who collaborated in an effort to eliminate the underground organisation.[25]