Monday, April 04, 2011

Churchill on the Crosshairs of Lechi?

I think this Yedhioth Ahronot story doesn't sound right:

The Lehi group planned to assassinate British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1944, MI5 records exposed by The Telegraph indicate.  According to the files, Eliyahu Bet-Zuri, who was executed in 1945 for assassinating Lord Moyne, suggested sending agents to London to murder the British prime minister in order to force the British out of Palestine.

"Suggested"?  To who?

...Major James Robertson, from the agency's Middle East section, said threats made by Bet-Zuri in November 1944 were disclosed by another member of the Lehi, also known as the "Stern Gang."  The suspect revealed: "As soon as he (Bet-Zuri) returned to Stern Group headquarters he proposed to suggest a plan for the assassination of highly placed British political personalities, including Mr Churchill, for which purpose emissaries should be sent to London."

Robertson nevertheless noted: "The above information does not, as you will see, amount to very much."

"Returned"?  "Another member"?  See below.

This is true:

According to the files, attempts to target British officials continued after the World War II in order to put pressure on the UK to create a Jewish state.  In February 1946 the British defense security officer in Israel sent a secret coded telegram back to London revealing intelligence from "reliable sources" about a plot to kill British ministers, The Telegraph reported.

"Stern Group are training members to go to England to assassinate members of His Majesty's Government, especially Mr Bevin... Stern further reported to be receiving practical sympathy from important Jews (in) Palestine," the telegram stated.

Item:

Yaakov Heruti was a member of the technical department of the Lehi (The Stern Gang), a radical pre-state underground group, and specialized in preparing explosive devices.  In 1947, Natan Yellin Mor, a Lehi leader dispatched him to London to set up a branch there. Among the tasks he was assigned were the assassination of British foreign minister Ernest Bevin (the order was rescinded), attacking General Evelyn Barker (the bomb was sent, but neutralized) and the assassination of Roy Farran, a British police officer who was responsible for the death, following an intense interrogation, of Alexander Rubowitz, a Lehi pamphlet delivery boy. The bomb was delivered but accidentally killed Farran's younger brother.

See this interview, too.

The BBC did an interview with him:-

It wasn’t long before British security services got wind of what was happening and in early 1946 they issued this top secret internal warning:  “Members of the Stern group are now being organised and are under training. It is expected that they will be sent to the United Kingdom to assassinate important members of his majesty’s government, particularly, Mr Bevin.”

In the months that followed a number of bombs exploded in London and an attempt was made to drop on a bomb on the House of Commons from a hired plane. This last effort was only stopped after French Police discovered Stern Gang members preparing to cross the channel in a plane containing a large bomb.

Mike Thomson and the Document team track down the assassin sent to kill Earnest Bevin and the man who gave him the explosives to do it.

As for The Telegraph story, here, well, after November 6, when Bet-Zuri assassinated Lord Moyne, he never returned to HQ as he was arrested.  What is that source talking about?

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