Jewish Militants Wreaked Terror In Britain And Europe After World War Two Ended

Menachem Begin’s fight against British rule in Palestine

A British Palestine Police wanted poster showing images of ten terrorist suspects, including Menachem Begin (top left). Flanked either side is the Irgun logo depicting a map of Mandatory Palestine & the Emirate of Transjordan, a rifle and the acronym “Etzel” is written above the map, and “raq kach” (“only thus”) is written below. Both images in Public Domain via Wikimedia.

With the Second World War over, buoyed by a successful bombing campaign in Palestine, Jewish militant groups turned their attention to Britain, and British establishments based in Europe.

With their main goal, the formation of the State of Israel, less than two years away, Jewish activists sought retribution against those it believed were antisemitic, and who had conspired against them in their fight for freedom in Palestine, before, during, and after hostilities ceased in 1945.

Yaacov Levstein, alias Jacob Eliav, became head of Irgun bombing operations in Europe and was based in Paris. He was known to British Intelligence as a member of LEHI (also known as the Stern Gang) and a bomb maker — a man with a history of violence, an armed robber of banks in Palestine, who had been responsible for the deaths of many British personnel in that region during the previous decade.

Members of Irgun, a Zionist underground army guided by Menachem Begin, exploded a bomb outside the British Embassy in Rome during the night of 31 October 1946. The building was so badly damaged that it had to be demolished and entirely rebuilt.