Many news outlets were reporting about the “inspiring” story of a 95 year old “Israeli” reservist, Ezra Yachin, returning for duty. But who is Yachin, and what is he known for? Let us investigate his military and political history, so that we may understand just that (🧵)
First, to understand Yachin’s political leanings, we must first divulge that he was a part of the Lehi, or Stern (after its founder Avraham Stern) Gang, a paramilitary group which split from the revisionist Irgun wing of then Zionist movement (1/)
The reason for the split came when the Stern wanted to take a more hardline stance against the British after their signing of the White Paper in 1939, which included forming alliances with ANY group that would advance the Zionist goal of settling in Palestine (2/)
This, of course, included Nazi Germany, with whom the Stern wanted to form strong alliances. At this time all Zionist factions fought for private collaboration with Hitler, but publicly denounced the other factions for doing the same. It was opportunism at its finest (3/)
Members of the Lehi expressed admiration for both Hitler and Mussolini, as having both been men who “fought for their nations”. When the British put a pause on immigration of Jews to Palestine, they took a hardline stance against this (4/)
They split from the Irgun and organized in underground cells, intending to wreak havoc against the British, a common goal which united them and their Nazi counterparts. In 1941, the Lehi published “The Principles of Renaissance”, which laid out the group’s platform (5/)
This included doubling down on the idea that Jews were indigenous to the holy land of Israel as laid out in the Torah (an abject falsehood, it must be stated). The Lehi did not hesitate to lay out the following two stipulations in the era of “war and conquest” (6/):
The Lehi further laid out its stipulations in the “era of sovereignty”, which included mass ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians (see population exchange), and the revival of Hebrew, which was effectively a dead language at this point (not unlike Latin to the Romans) (7/)
Now that we have an idea of the Lehi Gang, let us look at their resume. First, they developed newspapers as means of propaganda (ironically the paper reporting on military operations was named Hama’as). Members of the Lehi were instructed to carry weapons at all times (8/)
In 1945, the Lehi and Irgun began to cooperate and rejoined them and the Haganah in the Hebrew Resistance Movement in November of that year. At this point they began to carry out organized terror attacks, primarily against the British at first (9/)
The British were seen as having not done enough to help with the establishment of the Israeli state, and thus were attacked by the Lehi on multiple occasions (e.g the Haifa railroad workshop bombing in June 1946 which killed 11 fighters) (10/)
In July 1946, the Hebrew Resistance Movement disbanded following the Irgun’s bombing of the King David Hotel (Menachem Begin was involved with this operation as well). However the Lehi continued their terror campaigns (11/)
In April 1947, the Lehi placed explosives at the British police station in Sarona (modern day Tel-Aviv). The group began to focus its operations on Jerusalem, to violently push back against any British attempt to enact their partition plan (Arabs should have nothing) (12/)
After 1947, the Lehi began to focus their operations outside of Palestine. A member of the Lehi was once instructed to assassinate foreign secretary Ernest Bevin in London for his “pro-Arab actions”. A Lehi member in New York sent explosives to London to help with this (13/)
However, the assassination was cut off by other members of the Lehi, who decided it was not worth the trouble given the British were beginning to withdraw from Palestine at this point. Regardless, the Lehi had intentions to kill others in London (14/)
They sent bombs to former commander of British forces in Palestine, General Evelyn Barker, and Major Roy Farran, who had tortured & killed a Lehi fighter in Jerusalem. Barker’s wide alerted authorities that she smelled a bomb & Farran’s brother was killed by the other bomb (15/)
At this point Israel’s war for “independence” began and the Lehi shut down its London cell to focus on Palestine. The British opposed the Lehi as being radicals, frequently imprisoning them & sometimes sentencing them to execution. The Lehi responded with jailbreaks (16/)
But steering away from the British, the Lehi aided the violent clearing of the land as part of Plan Dalet, March 1948. A phase of this violent process was the “Deir Yassin Massacre”, in which the Lehi indiscriminately killed, raped & exiled Palestinians from the village (17/)
And now we return to Yachin.
Yachin was a participant in the Deir Yassin Massacre. The members of the Lehi were eventually integrated into the IDF, and its leaders would join organizations like Mossad. The racist terror group was one with the Israeli state, inseparable (18/)
Yachin was a participant in the Deir Yassin Massacre. The members of the Lehi were eventually integrated into the IDF, and its leaders would join organizations like Mossad. The racist terror group was one with the Israeli state, inseparable (18/)
Regarding Yachin, more recently he was known to say the following regarding Arabs. This can not be distinguished from traditional Nazism, which viewed others outside of the “supreme nation” as being inferior, nothing but animals. Yachin channels this sentiment (19/)
The Lehi represent the true face of Zionism. While some disavowed them, in truth they reflected a violent inevitability of Zionism; the quiet part, out loud. We see this today with Israelis wanting nothing but the complete cleansing of the Palestinian people from the land (20/20)
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