Summary
The June 1948 confrontation over an Etsel weapons ship, as Dowty presents it in Chapter 4: the one major incident in bringing all elements of the Jewish community under the new state’s authority (The Jewish State: A Century Later, lines 1380-1410).
Details
- The military arm of the Revisionist movement — Etsel (also known as Irgun), led by Menachem Begin — discussed various options including establishing its own government, but in the end was integrated into the new Israeli army (The Jewish State: A Century Later, lines 1385-1405).
- The process was marred by only one major incident, the Altalena affair of June 1948, when David Ben-Gurion ordered the use of force to prevent the unloading of a ship’s cargo of weapons sent by Etsel from Europe (The Jewish State: A Century Later, lines 1385-1405).
- Herut, the political successor to Etsel, was the first party to be founded after independence and quickly integrated into parliamentary life (The Jewish State: A Century Later, lines 1385-1405).
Related pages
The Jewish State: A Century Later, David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, Mamlachtiut