Opinion - News Analysis   

MI5 was warned of plot to kill Attlee's Ministers?

Richard Norton-Taylor

MI5 (British counter-intelligence) was warned that Jewish terrorists planned to assassinate members of Clement Attlee's post-war British Labour Government and feared that Menachem Begin, then leader of the extremist Irgun resistance group and a future Prime Minister of Israel, had tried to trick it by having cosmetic surgery to disguise his identity, files released on Sunday disclose.

The files include a telegram dated February 12, 1946, from Palestine saying that a reliable source claimed the Stern gang was "training members to go to England to assassinate members of His Majesty's Government, especially Mr. Bevin [British foreign minister Ernest Bevin]." The Stern gang, in common with Irgun, was fighting against the British mandate of Palestine and murdered Britain's Minister Resident in the Middle East, Lord Moyne, in Cairo in 1944. A memo from the Officer Administering the Government of Palestine to the Secretary of State for the Colonies the following day warned: "The Stern Group have decided to assassinate both the High Commissioner and the General Officer Commanding. In addition, a number of CID officers are to be assassinated as well as police officers and any high government officials who are thought to be anti-semitic."

In 1946, Irgun blew up the King David hotel in Jerusalem, and attacked the British embassy in Rome. A year later MI5 received a report about a rumour that Begin had "undergone a plastic facial operation and that his appearance is totally different from that displayed on police photographs." In 1948 Begin founded the Herut party, and he was appointed Prime Minister in 1977. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize with Egypt's President Sadat after agreeing to withdraw Israeli forces from the Sinai. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Facts are sacred
Dealing with Hamas
Some questions raised by the budget
MI5 was warned of plot to kill Attlee's Ministers?
Corrections and clarifications
Let the IAEA do its work on Iran
Emerging nations threaten G7 dominance
Punctuating the English language
Godhra report
The nuclear deal
Vaiko's crossover

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu