Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumWhen Jewish militants dug underground tunnels
http://972mag.com/when-jewish-militants-dug-underground-tunnels/104788/The factory, named “Machon Ayalon,” was established in an eight-meter deep pit the size of a tennis court — built under a fake kibbutz near the city of Rehovot — created to disguise the factory from the British. Ayalon describes living a double-life full of secrets, tensions and lies, not to mention the danger of being discovered by British soldiers.
Between 1945-1948, Machon Ayalon produced millions of bullets for the famous “Sten” guns, which were used by the Zionist paramilitaries at the time. Ayalon wholeheartedly believed that their efforts “helped tip the scales” in Israel’s favor.
Ayalon’s story is by no means unique. The war effort in the run-up to the 1948 War was a national one, which included soldiers and civilians alike. And like the Hamas militants of today, each and every pre-state Zionist militant group — be it the Haganah, Etzel or Lehi — operated against the British and the Palestinians using tactics of building secret weapons factories or hiding weapon caches — known in Hebrew as slikim — among the civilian population. These acts are not retroactively condemned as war crimes by Israelis; on the contrary, they are part and parcel of Zionist mythology and the founding story of the Jewish state.
This is not a justification or endorsement of Hamas, since I would never endorse Haganah, Etzel or Leh or Irgun either. I just find the parallels fairly interesting.
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android fan
(214 posts)R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)
aranthus
(3,385 posts)What you are claiming is that the Haganah was as much a group of hateful mass murdering religious fanatics as Hamas. That is just nuts. The actions and contexts of the two groups are completely different.
R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)Why did you delete your OP?
I mean, it looks like such a wonderful hate site. 
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)Ayalon’s story is by no means unique. The war effort in the run-up to the 1948 War was a national one, which included soldiers and civilians alike. And like the Hamas militants of today, each and every pre-state Zionist militant group — be it the Haganah, Etzel or Lehi — operated against the British and the Palestinians using tactics of building secret weapons factories or hiding weapon caches — known in Hebrew as slikim — among the civilian population. These acts are not retroactively condemned as war crimes by Israelis; on the contrary, they are part and parcel of Zionist mythology and the founding story of the Jewish state.
Don’t believe me? Walk around Tel Aviv and look for the faded, bronze plaques that mark and tell the stories of weapons caches, ambushes against British soldiers and offices that served as illegal meeting points for leaders of the various Zionist militias. Had the State of Israel of today faced off with the pre-state Zionist movements, it surely would have condemned their human rights violations and bombed them into oblivion; no different than what we saw this past summer against Hamas militants who hid weapons in schools and mosques, dug tunnels and built primitive missile factories.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)What wonderfully useful insights. 972mag basically can write the same article over and over and people would find the parallels "fairly interesting".
R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)I feel kinda embarrassed for you.
...no, not really. android fan
(214 posts)We're not here to amuse you.
R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)shaayecanaan
(6,068 posts)a rather strange intimation of familiarity from someone with just over 100 posts.
aranthus
(3,385 posts)Hamas tunnels exist to smuggle in weapons to attack civilians, and to facilitate infiltration of civilian areas to attack civilians in the cause of destroying the one Jewish state in the world and replacing it with an Islamist tyranny. The Haganah was never interested in establishing a religious tyranny. It was formed to defend the Jewish community and to obtain independence. Complete moral obtuseness by 972, which is par for the course for them, and more shame on them.
