BEN GURION EFFORTS FIGHTING HITLER
JEWISH ARMY FOR PALESTINE SOUGHT. Formation of New Units Seen as First Step.
The Australian Jewish Herald 24 October 1940
JEWISH ARMY FOR PALESTINE SOUGHT. Formation of New Units Seen as First Step
J.T.A. Air Mail Service
London. — There are at present six foreign legions on British soil representing Poland, Holland, Belgium, Norway, France and Czechoslovakia. 'One people is conspicuous by its absence —- the people that was the first of all the victims of Nazi aggression; the people that, more than any other in the world, has the strongest reasons, both material and spiritual, for fighting to the last man against the Nazi monster,” says Mr. David Ben Gurion, president of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Pales-! tine, making a new plea for the enlistment of a Jewish army to fight with the Allies against Hitlerism. The Jews, be says, are omitted through no fault of their own, since they have repeatedly offered their services to the British Government. The refusal to consider these offers may, Mr. Ben Gurion thinks, have been due to “the traditional dislike of foreigners serving in the British Army, and to the absence of any precedent for a foreign legion in Great Britain. But since the collapse of France, the remnants of all the Allied armies are con centrated in this country, arid a special Bill has had to be passed, by Parliament in this connection. The omission of Jews can there fore no longer be justified on these rounds.”
David Ben-Gurion's 1940 Mission to Rouse the Fighting Spirit of American Jews
As millions of Jews fell under the Nazi yoke, Zionism’s foremost leader came to America with one goal. He didn’t achieve it.
Observation.
Rick Richman.
Jan. 17 2018
In 1940, as millions of Jews came under Nazi control in the countries conquered by Hitler, and as the route to safety in Palestine remained closed by the British Mandatory power, three of Zionism’s greatest leaders traveled to America. They came at different times, on separate missions, but all three—Chaim Weizmann, the president of the Zionist Organization, Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky, the leader of the Revisionist Zionist movement, and David Ben-Gurion, the Labor Zionist leader who headed the Jewish Agency in Palestine—shared a single goal: to win support in America for a Jewish army to fight the Nazis alongside the British.
This article focuses on Ben-Gurion, the last to come. Writing to his wife Paula before leaving London for the United States, he said he wanted “to see with my own eyes what we can expect from America in wartime.” In particular, he wrote, “I want to know the extent of the contribution America’s Jews are prepared to make for the life of their own people.”
As millions of Jews fell under the Nazi yoke, Zionism’s foremost leader came to America with one goal. He didn’t achieve it.
mosaicmagazine.com
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Ben-gurion Calls for Jewish State in Palestine; Assails British Appeasement of Arabs.
November 26, 1941
Declaring that “Palestine as a Jewish State is the only possible solution of post-war Jewish misery and we are determined to achieve it,” David Ben-Gurion addressing the Inter-American Jewish Conference several hours after his landing in New York, last night demanded that:
1. The Palestine administration should cease its policy of appeasing Arabs.
2. A Jewish army fighting Hitler side by side with Allied armies be established.
3. The entire responsibility of post-war resettlement of millions of Jews after the war is over “as well as the authority to do so” should be left to the Jews themselves.
“After the last war,” Ben-Gurion stated, “millions of Greeks, forced to abandon Turkey and Anatolia, were settled in European Greece in short time. Jews can do the same thing in Palestine, as proved by their achievements there so far. But no foreign administration, however friendly and well-meaning, will do it. The whole responsibility and necessary authority must be left to the Jews themselves.
“When the war is over,” Ben-Gurion continued, “and Hitlerism is destroyed, the world will be faced with a formidable Jewish problem – millions of destitute, uprooted Jews in dire need of a country of their own. Palestine is the country, and the only country, for these Jews. We have so far settled several millions in the rest of the country. We have in Palestine all the necessary experience for that. We have rich experience in dealing with large-scale immigration, and colonization, and can confidently undertake the settlement of millions of Jews, provided that Palestine is placed under a Jewish administration – provided, that is, that Palestine is established as a Jewish Commonwealth.”
Scoring the appeasement policy of the Palestine administration, Ben-Gurion stated that “while the British people overthrew the Chamberlain Government, and under Churchill, are pursuing a policy of fighting Hitler to the finish, the same administration remains in Palestine, and the same stupid policy of appeasing the enemies of England in the Middle East and sacrificing its friends, is still continuing. The Mufti is in Berlin but his friends are free to act in Palestine and Baghdad. This policy, however, will not deter the Jews from contributing their best to the general war effort they are determined to have a Jewish army fighting Hitler side by side with Allied armies.”
Declaring that “Palestine as a Jewish State is the only possible solution of post-war Jewish misery and we are determined to achieve it,” David Ben-Gurion addressing the Inter-American Jewish Conference several hours after his landing in New York, last night demanded that: 1. The Palestine...
www.jta.org
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Intermountain Jewish News, 23 January 1942.
PALESTINE VITAL IN WAR EFFORT, ADMIRAL STATES
Cleveland Conference Urges Holy Land Plank for Atlantic Charter.
Cleveland.—More than 1,200 delegates from from all sections of the country attending the two-day Nationl Conference for Palestine at the Hotel Statler here, this week heard messages and addresses stressing Palestine’ importance a part of the anti-Axis front of the United Nations and lauding Jewish achievements there.
Among the messages read to the conference were those from Secretary of Navy Knox, Secretary of Treasury Morgenthau and from many Allied diplomats. Addressing the conference was David Ben Gurion, chairman of the executive of th Jewish Agency for Palestine, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, national chairman of the United Palestine Appeal, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Rear Admiral Yates Stirling and many others.
The conference adopted a resolution calling upon the federal government to incorporate “into its post-war program, as outlined in the Atlantic Charter and the Declaration of the United Nations, active support of the establishment of a self-governing Jewish Commonwealth of Palestine to which Jews who need or wish to live there may freely return.”
The government also was urged to aid in the establishment of a Jewish army for the defense of Palestine and other parts of the Middle East. Admiral Stirling, former Chief of Staff of the Fleet, told the conference that Palestine was a vital center for naval and air support for the Allied cause. He said that the country was in “a splendid geographical position to help carry forwaid the war.” ..
