Haareetz - On Third Thought

[Englander]

By Tom Segev

Sat., August 06, 2005

>snip

A week ago Thursday, Dr. Ruth Lamdan placed a mourning notice in the Hebrew edition of Haaretz. Two days later, on Saturday, the 23rd day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, would be the 59th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. "Ninety-one people - Jews, Christians, Muslims and others, including clerks, workers, guests and passersby - were murdered by miscreants. We shall not forget!" the ad read.

Lamdan, who teaches history at Tel Aviv University, never forgets. She was about 3 years old when the pre-state underground Irgun blew up one of the hotel's wings. Among those killed was Zvi Shimshi, the district officer in the Netanya region; Shimshi was her father.

She has published similar notices in the past. She once also wrote to Menachem Begin, the commander of the Irgun, seeking his account of the event: His people warned the British to evacuate the building but they did not accede. So he is not to blame for what happened - they themselves are.

Begin was asked more than once to explain the difference between the acts of terrorism perpetrated by his organization and those perpetrated by Fatah. He always claimed that the Irgun attacked only governmental targets, whereas the Palestinians attack civilians. That is not true. The Irgun carried out attacks in markets and on buses, and had it attacked the King David Hotel at night, Ruth Lamdan's life might have been different.

In the years since then, terrorism and the struggle against it have become a central element of the self-identity of many countries. The questions about what is permissible and what is not have assumed dimensions that might perhaps justify a special scientific congress next year, on the 60th anniversary of the event. This is a story that remains alive and kicking, Lamdan said. The pain constantly bursts out, the anger is at its height.

Haaretz