Shamir's methods
Sir: I do not know whether extracts from the interview between Yitzak Shamir and Nicholas Bethell ('Sharp methods...' 28 January) have been previously published; nor is it clear why they should be published now 11 years later. If they are intended as an apologia pro vita sua by the present Prime Minister of Israel they are uncon- vincing. If they are meant to illustrate Mr Waldegrave's recent remarks about Mr Shamir's past activities they are not much to the point in view of the latter's declara- tion that he is now a reformed character.
At the time of the interview Mr Shamir was discussing matters that were already long past and it is understandable that his recollections were in some respects unreli-. able. I was serving in Tel Aviv as an officer of the Mandatory Government from 1940- 1943 and was reasonably well informed about what was going on. Neither I nor an old friend and former police colleague have any knowledge of 'Operation Shark'; `MacMichael' presumably refers to Sir Harold MacMichael, High Commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan from 1938- 1944. No doubt the Stern gang would have liked to add him to their list of successful assassinations, but he died a Hatural death full of years and honour.
Mr Shamir was curiously silent about the murder of Count Bernadotte; perhaps he had him in mind when he remarked, `Today it is Lord Moyne, tomorrow it will be others.' He did not mention the murder, for no apparent reason, of a friend of mine, Witold Hulanicki, who was taken one evening from the presence of his wife and three small daughters and shot. He had been Polish Consul-General in Jerusalem — and incidentally a former Olympic Gold Medallist — and it was believed at the time (early 1948) that the then Russian Govern- ment for reasons known only to them had hired the Stern gang to put him on its hit list. There is no mention of the King David Hotel which was blown up and with it about 90 of my former colleagues including four of my close friends; perhaps he felt that it would be indelicate to refer to an outstanding feat of arms carried out by another organisation.
Thomas Scrivenor
Vine Cottage, Minster Lovell, Oxford 'It's my bar-code.'
Previous page
