Civil War: Zionist vs. Zionist

The three terrorist organizations, Haganah, Irgun and the Stern Gang, with their respective! philosophies and tactics, represented a conflict within the Yishuv over the future leader-ship of the Jewish state. Because of the League of Nations' recognition of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency as the responsible organizations for the implementation of the Jewish national home, the members of the Agency felt that they were the sole representatives of the Jewish people. Although the Jewish Agency did not exist until 1929, the World Zionist Organization had an official role in Palestine as early as 1918. While attempting to form a Jewish Agency as called for in the League of Nations Mandate and incorporate Zionist and non-Zionist philosophies into that agency, the World Zionist Organization administered Jewish goals in Palestine until the Agency's creation in 1929. In 1920, the elected Assembly and National Council were created. In 1920, the Ger'eral Federation of Labor, or Histadrut, also was formed. The largest employer and strongest voice in Palestine, the Histadrut was actually a non-political organization. But political parties, such as Ben-Gurion's Mapai Party, controlled the Histadrut.

As a result, the Histadrut, led by Mapai, held key portfolios in the Jewish Agency and thereby took the role of Zionist leadership. The Mapai and its partners in political thought, Paole Zion and Hapoil Hatzair formed the socialist wing of the Vaad Leumi. The appearance, therefore, of Jabctinsky's Zionist Revisionists on the political right was viewed by Ben-Gurion and his associates as a challenge for leadership of the Jewish Nation.

When viewed from Ben-Gurion's perspective, it would seem

almost inevitable that the Jew-versus-British and Jew-versus-

Arab controversies would extend to Jew-versus-Jew. From the

literature available, it appears that such conflict did occur,

but it was a one-sided effort. David Ben-Gurion and his allies

emphasize a greater challenge to Jewish Agency authority than

that which actually existed. It ir probable that the challenge

was real, but less strong than indicated by Ben-Gurion and strong-

er than maintained by his opponents, Katz and Begin. Had it not

been for the Second World War, challenge for Zionist leadership

by the Revisionists might have occurred in the 1939-1942 time

frame. The forced cooperation between the British, the Jewish