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MI5 Archives Reveal Link Between Israeli PM and Soviet Inteligence British MI5 counter-espionage archives reveal a link between Soviet intelligence and the sixth prime Minister of Israel Menahem Begin, the Axis Information and Analysis agency reported Friday. The archives reveal that back in 1947 MI5 analysts suspected that Begin was receiving or asking the Soviet secret services for financial help for his Zionist organization. Soviet intelligence archives confirm the fears of British counter-espionage, the agency adds. Menahem Begin, Israeli PM from 1977 to 1983, first joined the ranks of Beitar — a right-wing Zionist youth organization — in Poland in 1929. He eventually became its head. He was arrested for staging mass demonstrations near the embassy of Great Britain in Warsaw, protesting against limits set on Jewish immigration, then released as the German army approached. Begin fled to Lithuania, and when in 1940 Lithuania became part of the Soviet Union, he was arrested again on political grounds, and banished for 8 years to Siberia. However, after the German attack on the USSR, he was unexpectedly released in the winter of 1941, ostensibly as part of an initiative to form a “new Polish army”, a formation that was initially under the control of the Soviet People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD). In the ranks of one of its units Begin arrived in Palestine. Begin served in the army until 1943, then moved to the radical grouping “Irgun Tzvai Leumi” (National Military Organization — ETZEL). He took over the running of Beitar in all of Palestine. Then Begin with his wife and children went underground until 1947, frequently changing his appearance and using false documents. The authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine offered a reward of $30,000 for his life. Following an ETZEL attack on the British headquarters in Jerusalem, Begin allegedly underwent plastic surgery. During the period prior to the creation of Israel, secret services of the USSR conducted vigorous activity in Palestine and had a well-established agent network there. In his memoirs, head of Soviet intelligence in the Middle East in 1929 Georgy Agabekov noted that the main task regarding Palestine consisted at that time in “careful studying of all class and mutual national relations and finding-out on whom the Soviets could stake in case of war with Great Britain — on the Jews or on the Arabs. Moscow saw a big strategic significance in Palestine”. At first the Soviet secret service network in Palestine was formed of Jews, ex-citizens of the former Russian empire. In their activity in the Mandate of Palestine the USSR’s secret services used activists of the local Communist Party (established on the Kremlin’s initiative in 1929), and members of Zionist organizations, including right-wing radicals. However, if the communists did not hide their connections with Moscow, Zionists tried to avoid publicity regarding such contacts. At the end of 1923 an illegal Soviet intelligence head-quarters began to operate in Palestine. According to Russian sources, Soviet intelligence had agents in the ranks of the Zionist right-wing radical organization ETZEL since 1937. --------------------------------------------------- Please help our fight against the New World Order by giving a donation. As bandwidth costs increase, the only way we can stay online and expand is with your support. Please consider giving a monthly or one-off donation for whatever you can afford. You can pay securely by either credit card or Paypal. Click here to donate. |
