Before and After World War I How Jewish Self Defense Developed

 Nadene Goldfoot  

                                                                

                              Our First 1909 Jewish Defense Force:  Hashomer

Our 1st Aliyah from Europe was in 1880.  The term "1st Aliyah" generally refers to the first major wave of Jewish immigration to Ottoman Palestine, which occurred between 1882 and 1903. This period, also known as the Agricultural Aliyah, saw an influx of approximately 25,000-35,000 Jewish immigrants, primarily from Eastern Europe and Yemen. Motivated by Zionist ideals and fleeing anti-Semitic violence, particularly the pogroms in Russia, these immigrants sought to establish a Jewish homeland. 

Hashomer (The Watchmen), founded in 1909 was a Jewish self-defense organization in Palestine, active in the early 20th century. It aimed to protect Zionist settlements and Jewish agricultural communities from attacks. Images from Getty Images show Hashomer members, often depicted with rifles, guarding settlements.    

They first were commanded by Israel Shochat.  They did 2 things;  defense of Jewish settlements and struggle for the employment of Jewish workers.  They established a few labor settlements during WWI.  After the Allies won which to themwas a British conquest, it worked with the upper Galilee police force and directed selfdefense activities during the riots of 1920-1921.  Its function was later taken over bythe Haganah.                                       

Hajj Mohammed Amin El Husseini (1893-1974) By 1921, the high commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel of the British Government, only Jew in  it, appointed Husseini as Mufti of Jerusalem and head of the Supreme Moslem Council...Little did he understand what Husseini's goals had been  

                                Great Britain in Palestine

• 1917: The Balfour Declaration pledged British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine, sparking growing Arab opposition.
• 1919: Amin al-Husseini began organizing small groups called "fedayeen" to oppose Jewish settlement in Palestine. These groups launched attacks against Jewish farms in the Jordan Valley and Galilee, according to Israel My Glory.
• April 1920: The Nabi Musa riots erupted in Jerusalem. While a British commission report (the Palin Report) blamed both sides, al-Husseini was accused of inciting the Arab crowds, according to Wikipedia. These riots caused damage to Jewish property and resulted in deaths on both sides, according to Wikipedia; and other sources. 

These significant riots and attacks on Jewish homes occurred primarily in the 1920s and later, as Arab opposition to Jewish immigration and land purchases intensified. The first significant riots, which included attacks on Jewish homes, occurred in Jerusalem on April 4, 1920. 

                                                             

                     Haganah June 15, 1920

• Establishment of Jewish Self Defense : In June 1920, the Haganah ("The Defense") was founded. Initially, it was a loosely organized network of local defense groups and continued till 1948 when Israel was declared a country.  They realized that under British administration as they held the 30 year mandate, Jews were not being protected from Arab attacks.  They worked on making it even stronger after the 1929 Arab riots which resulted in a British policy of appeasement of the Arabs.  

The Jaffa riots were a series of violent riots in Mandatory Palestine on May 1–7, 1921, which began as a confrontation between two Jewish groups but developed into an attack by Arabs on Jews and then reprisal attacks by Jews on Arabs. The rioting began in Jaffa and spread to other parts of the country. The riot resulted in the deaths of 47 Jews and 48 Arabs, with 146 Jews and 73 Arabs wounded. total dead, 95                                                  

                            

                     Meanwhile in the United States

The Roaring 20's The social and cultural features known as the Roaring Twenties began in leading metropolitan centers and spread widely in the aftermath of World War I. The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of novelty associated with modernity and a break with tradition, through modern technology such as automobiles, moving pictures, and radio, bringing "modernity" to a large part of the population. Formal decorative frills were shed in favor of practicality in both daily life and architecture. At the same time, jazz and dancing rose in popularity, in opposition to the mood of World War I. As such, the period often is referred to as the Jazz Age.  Lots of anti-Semitism developing, here in classes; not allowed in gentile societies, work places, etc.  

The 1929 stock market crash, also known as the Great Crash, was a shock; an extreme sharp decline in US stock market values that took place in October of that year. It is considered a contributing factor to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Many committed suicide.  

                             Back In Palestine

                                   

Joseph Vladimirovich Trumpeldor: (November 21, 1880 – March 1, 1920)  died at age 39,   was a Russian Zionist activist who helped organize the Zion Mule Corps and bring Jewish immigrants to Palestine. He was killed while defending the settlement of Tel Hai in 1920 and subsequently became a Jewish national hero

March 1, 1920:  The Battle of Tel Hai was fought on 1 March 1920 between Arab and Jewish forces at the village of Tel Hai in Northern Galilee. In the course of the event, a Shiite Arab militia, accompanied by Bedouin from a nearby village, entered a Jewish agricultural locality of Tel Hai in search of French soldiers. Confusion over the presence of the militias subsequently led to shots being fired and a firefight breaking out. In the aftermath of the fighting, 8 Jews and 5 Arabs were killed. Joseph Trumpeldor, the commander of Jewish defenders of Tel Hai, was shot in the hand and stomach, and died while being evacuated to Kfar Giladi that evening. Tel Hai was eventually abandoned by the Jews and burned by the Arab militia.  total=14 deaths.  

With a national monument in Upper Galilee, Israel commemorates the deaths of 8 Jews, 6 men and 2 women, including Joseph Trumpeldor. The memorial is best known for an emblematic statue of a roaring lion representing Trumpeldor and his comrades. The city of Kiryat Shemona, literally Town of the Eight was named after them.

The 1920 Nebi Musa riots or 1920 Jerusalem riots took place in British-controlled part of Occupied Enemy Territory Administration between Sunday, 4 April, and Wednesday, 7 April 1920 in and around the Old City of Jerusalem. Five Jews were killed and several hundred injured; four Arabs were killed, and eighteen injured; seven Britons were injured. The riots coincided with and are named after the Nebi Musa festival, which was held every year on Easter Sunday, and followed rising tensions in Arab–Jewish relations. The events came shortly after the Battle of Tel Hai and the increasing pressure on Arab nationalists in Syria in the course of the Franco-Syrian War.  9 killed.   Large numbers of Muslims traditionally gathered for a religious procession), which included slogans referencing Zionist immigration and previous confrontations around outlying Jewish villages in the Galilee. The trigger which turned the procession into a riot is not known with certainty.                               

Prince Faisal I bin Husssein would have his hands full with his future citizens.  He had made friends with Chaim Weizmann and had hoped the Jews would help his Arabs learn more from them, but as it was, they would rather be enemies.  

The Arab king of both Iraq and Syria was Faisal I bin Hussein. He first served as King of Syria in 1920, but was ousted by French forces. He then became King of Iraq in 1921, a position he held until his death in 1933. His people's attitude turned him away from the plight of the Jews.                 First Self Defense  1929.

The Faisal–Weizmann agreement was signed by Emir Faisal, the third son of Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi, King of the short-lived Kingdom of Hejaz, and Chaim Weizmann, President of the Zionist Organization on 3 January 1919. Signed two weeks before the start of the Paris Peace Conference, it was presented by the Zionist delegation alongside a March 1919 letter written by T. E. Lawrence in Faisal's name to American Zionist leader Felix Frankfurter as two documents to argue that the Zionist plans for Palestine had prior approval of Arabs.

The Arab-Israeli conflict exploded into its modern manifestation with the Jerusalem riots of 1929, centered around the use of, access to, and ownership of, the Western Wall.

• Evolution of Defense: The 1929 Arab riots triggered a transformation in the Haganah. It expanded, encompassing most Jewish youth and adults in settlements and thousands in cities. The organization implemented training programs, established arms depots, and began underground arms production, says the Jewish Virtual Library.  
•  Jewish self-defense in Palestine began with smaller, local groups like Bar-Giora and Hashomer before the 1920s. The need for a more comprehensive defense system became clear with the Arab riots in the early 1920s, leading to the formation and subsequent expansion of the Haganah as a nationwide, organized force.                                                          
  
                                Avraham 'Yair" Stern, leader of the Irgun
• 1931-1948  The Irgun, officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish Haganah. The Irgun engaged in armed conflict against both Palestinian Arabs and the British authorities during the Mandate period. 
  
• 1939-1942;  Lohame Herut Israel or   Irgun Tzevai Leumi, known to British as the "Stern Gang."  Yair Stern left the Irgun Tzevai Leumi  in 1939 which he had been leader, because of its refusal to continue anti-British activities in Palestine during World War II.  He formed an underground organization later known as Lohame Herut Israel which carried out acts of sabotage, etc.  Stern was killed by British police while being arrested.                                      
  
  Stanley Goldfoot was chief of Intelligence for the Stern Group.  Born in 1914, he made Aliyah right after high school.  He's my 2nd to 3rd cousin.  I met him at the King David Hotel which it was said he planned to blow up long ago but denied to me.  
  
•    Stanley Goldfoot with first wife and two daughters.  He was born in   May 1914  in Johannesburg, South Africa.    
• It was said he played an important part in the assassination of Count Bernadotte, an operation planned in his apartment. After the assassination he was arrested with other Lehi members and imprisoned in the Jaffa, Akko, and then Jalameh Prisons. After over five months, he was released during the general amnesty. He worked in journalism afterwards, and did business in the US two years. For seven years he co-operated with Dr. Yisrael Eldad  publishing  the Times of Israel, with a circulation of about 50,000 copies in the US and Israel. He published the international edition of Dr. Eldad’s book, The Jewish Revolution. Stanley wrote LETTER TO THE WORLD. (read below)  Stanley lives in Jerusalem with his wife Helen, née Milner. He is the father of three daughters and two sons (including those from previous marriages) and grandfather to seven.
• Resource:
• Letter to the World (in my blog ) https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2023/09/letter-to-world-from-stanley-goldfoot.html
• Letter to the World by Stanley Goldfoot:  https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-letter-to-the-world-from-jerusalem-2019/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_casualties_of_war
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Trumpeldor
• https://lehi.org.il/en/goldfoot-stanley/
• The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Aliyah#:~:text=The%20First%20Aliyah%20(Hebrew:%20%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%99%D7%94,had%20grown%20to%20approximately%2055%2C000.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashomer#:~:text=Hashomer%20(Hebrew:%20%D7%94%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%A8%2C%20',Israel%20Giladi%20and%20Mendel%20Portugali.
• https://jewoughtaknow.com/king-faisal-i-bin-hussein#:~:text=King%20of%20Syria%2C%20King%20of,King%20of%20Iraq%20in%201921.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffa_riots#:~:text=Dozens%20of%20British%2C%20Arab%2C%20and,stabbed%20and%20beaten%20with%20sticks.

Israel's Need For Defense From The Beginning Part I

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                           

         World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, began on July 28, 1914, and ended on November 11, 1918. It was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers.  Leading Jews had been working on Ottoman Empire holdings of Palestine that were originally Israel to be again in their hands; especially land Romans had taken from them such as Jerusalem.                                                                      

Israel was reconstituted on May 14, 1948 after Jerusalem was burned down by the Romans along with the 2nd Temple in 70 CE.  Almost 2,000 patient years had gone by, but many had kept praying all those years for it to be re-created again for its people in need.

It was faced with formidable problems.  Defense from attacks was the first consideration. It's long land frontiers made her particularly vulnerable to assault--and the enemy used either direct attack of infiltration.  Sabotage and murder originating mainly from the Gaza Strip and from Jordan were a constant nuisance, and did not stop despite Israel reprisal raids. 

Against direct attack, immense efforts were made to build up and equip the armed forces (Tzeva  Haganah Le-Israel) Below. Haganah means Defense.  It was a clandestine organization for Jewish self-defense in Palestine as the Brits were not helping at all. (See the movie, EXODUS.).  It succeeded Ha-Shomer in 1920, the first, and existed until 1948 when its members were transferred to Tzeva Haganah Le-Israel.  The British Administration gave no protection to its Jewish population.  The Haganah combined an illegal organization with individual Jewish participation in the government's security forces and even had certain legal formations.   

Haganah's efficiency was shown in the Sinai Campaign 1956, the Six Day War 1967, the Yom Kippur War 1973, etc.   the defeat of the Egyptian forces, the destruction of Egyptian bases, and the capture of large quantities of material on the 1st two occasions deferred the assault on Israel from 3 sides planned by President Nasser and gave Israel much needed breathing spaces.

When was the IDF created? The order to create the IDF was issued on May 26, 1948, and went into effect on May 31, 1948. Israel is again celebrated on May 14, 1948 for its re-birth.  

 

Haganah also won Israel much popular sympathy throughout the world and opened up to shipping the Gulf of Elath twice blocked by Egypt.  However, Arab pressures---especially after 1973----led to considerable international isolation.  

President Jimmy Carter shaking hands with Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin at the signing of the Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty on the grounds of the White House, 1979

An important change occurred in 1977 with  President Sadat of Egypt's journey to Jerusalem and willingness to recognize the State of Israel.  This led to intensive negotiations culminating in the Camp David Agreements and the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.                                                         

  Oil painting I did of husband Danny Eskow now in Safed, Israel, an art center.  He's got his new huge prayer shawl, so different from small American ones.  He can put it over his head and meditate.  My painting style changed a lot as well; painting faster and freer. He also found an Israeli cousin, his father's 1ST cousin who started BOYS TOWN IN JERUSALEM!  The family had been from Russia and from there to Brooklyn, NY. 

                                    Here I am in Safed in 1981 with our red Fiat from Italy and our female German shepherd who flew with us.  We have the bottom floor apartment and can use the merepeset to hang wet clothes, my first apartment living.  I taught English at the Jr high across the street.  I have gone Dottee (scarf) and the elevation here is like Jerusalem.  This was winter. Dan was in the air force in the USA.  He has some physical problems but passed the test here anyway.       

We made Aliyah in 1980.  In the 1980's Israel went through difficult periods in the international arena as a result of its invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and of the Palestinian uprising called an Intifada which started in 1987.  Then, world changes in the late 1980s brought new opportunities as both eastern Europe and the Black African countries, which had broken off relations after the Six-Day and Yom Kippur Wars, now resumed relationships with Israel.  Although Israel remained outside the fighting in the 1991 Gulf War, it was bombarded with Iraqi missiles which led to a reassessment of its military strategies.  later that year, peace talks with its Arab neighbors were initiated by the US.  Israel's population grew rapidly.  

At its inception, Israel adopted a unique law conferring citizenship on every Jew immediately upon landing on Israeli soil.  Within the 1st 3 years, the Jewish population was doubled from 650,000 to 1,300,000 through mass immigration called Aliyah.  This was accompanied by severe economic difficulties that were overcome only to some extent after a prolonged struggle.                           

                    Avraham  Stern, known as Yair (b:1907 d: 1942) , who split in 1940 from the Irgun Tzevai Leumi saying that Britain must be fought and they refused to do so, so he formed another group-Lohame Herut Israel and they did some sabotage. They were the toughest group.   He was killed and then Yisrael Scheib (Eldad) and Shamir took over.  Stern was killed by British police while being arrested.                                 

                  3rd cousin Stanley Goldfoot (born 1914 in South Africa, died 2006 in Jerusalem)  became Chief of Intelligence for the Stern Group, blamed for the bombing of the King David Hotel. 

                                          Yitzhak Jazarnitsky (Yitzhak Shamir) (b: 1915 in Poland ) took over Irgun Tzevai Leumi in 1937 leaving it in 1940.    He became Israel's 7th Prime Minister and served 2 terms, ((1983–1984, 1986–1992).).  Shamir joined the Revisionist Zionist Irgun paramilitary group led by Menachem Begin. During World War II the Irgun split over the question of whether to support the Axis Powers against the British Empire.  After the establishment of the Israeli state  Yitzhak Shamir was imprisoned by British authorities in 1941. A few months after Stern was killed by the British in 1942, Shamir and Eliyahu Giladi hid under a stack of mattresses in a warehouse of the detention camp at Mazra'a, and at night escaped through the barbed wire fences of the camp. Shamir became the leader of the Stern Gang, and, together with Giladi, Anshell Shpillman and Yehoshua Cohen, reorganized the movement into cells and trained its members.    Shamir served in Mossad between 1955 and 1965.                                 

                                                                         

    The Stern Group (Lohame Herut Israel) Fighters For the Freedom Of Israel, known as Lehi, or as British called them, The Stern Gang" after its founder, Avraham Stern. 

Since the IDF's  creation, its guiding principles have been shaped by the country’s need to defend itself from its numerically superior neighbors. The primary element of this doctrine is the belief that Israel cannot afford to lose a single war. IDF planners believe that this goal can be attained only through a defensive strategy that utilizes the rapid mobilization of overwhelming force to take the war to the enemy. Because the Israeli army has a relatively small active-duty component—estimates in the early 21st century placed it at some 125,000 troops, of whom roughly two-thirds were conscripts—this mission could  be achieved only through the maintenance of a well-trained reserve force and active intelligence gathering. These human assets were supplemented with robust early warning systems, one of the world’s most advanced theater missile defense networks, and a mechanized force that included some 2,500 main battle tanks and more than 5,000 armored personnel carriers.

It could more accurately be categorized as a citizen militia supplemented by a small corps of career officers and active-duty conscripts. Military service is compulsory for Jews and Druze, both men and women, and for Circassian men. 

Conscription deferments are available to students, and exemptions from service are granted to married women and women with children. Men undertaking religious studies, particularly those in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, were also exempt throughout most of Israel’s history, but in the 21st century the size of the community in proportion to the general population made the exemption highly controversial and politically polarizing. In 2023 the exemption did not have enough support in government for renewal and in 2024 conscription of ultra-Orthodox men began, although only a small fraction of the draftees reported for duty. 

The period of active-duty conscription is 32 months for men and 24 months for women; this is followed by a decades-long period of compulsory reserve duty (to age 40).

Resource;

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Israel-Defense-Forces

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I#:~:text=World%20War%20I%20or%20the%20First%20World,Allies%20(or%20Entente)%20and%20the%20Central%20Powers.&text=Facing%20a%20revolution%20at%20home%2C%20Kaiser%20Wilhelm,wi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak_Shamir

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Sadat