Page 375 - עלי זית וחרב - כרך כ

General (Res.) Shlomo Gazit talks with Prof. Shlomo Avineri

The Hagana within the Fabric of the Independence of
Israel

On reaching the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Hagana, Major
General (Res.) Shlomo Gazit talked with historian Professor Shlomo Avineri
about the organization's development into the Zionist leadership's operational
instrument in the domains of security, immigration and settlement. From the
perspective of generations he analyzes the definitive influence of the Yishuv's
defence force over the shaping of the Yishuv's course, the development of patterns
of the national leadership's policy and the State of Israel's political image. Prof
Avineri states that over the years of its existence, the Hagana changed and altered
its form, but two steady supporting pillars defined its path.

The first principle was the integration between all the Hagana's areas of activity
and the Yishuv's "Zionist and social project".

The second principle was organizational flexibility, a flexibility designed to
adapt the organization to changing goals due to the changing political, social and
defence-related conditions.

Formulating the attitude towards the dissident organizations in the "Hunting
Season" (1944–1945) was one of the most difficult and correct decisions taken by
the Zionist leadership. The IZL's decision to commence a revolt against the British
while Britain was shedding its blood in the terrible battles of the Second World
War against Nazi Germany and tens of thousands of soldiers of the Yishuv were
serving in its army was a matter of glaring irresponsibility verging on national
treason. The Zionist leadership was forced to accept the ambivalence of struggling
against the decrees of the White Paper while making at the same time a tremendous
effort to obtain the British government's consent for the establishment of the
Jewish Brigade. The IZL's declaration of a "revolt" might have dealt a decisive
blow, and constituted an existential threat, to the Jewish Yishuv and the Zionist
movement.

The ability to convince the communist Soviet Union and weighty elements in
the West in the spring of 1947 that the Yishuv had the capability to establish an
independent state under the Partition conditions was based on the Hagana's proven
operational capabilities.

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