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Irgun

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (R) are pictured either side of an image of the burning Altalena ship. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90, Hans Pinn/GPO, Avshalom Sassoni/FLASH90)
August 28, 2026, 6:37 pm
How the sunken 1948 Altalena arms ship became an election battleground in Israel in 2026
Always a symbol of the battle between left and right, the re-discovery of the wreck has been seized on by nationalist parties seeking to appropriate the mantle of victimhood
By Deborah Danan
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks from the Israeli coast about the locating of the 1948 vessel Altalena, August 24, 2026. (GPO screenshot)
August 24, 2026, 10:21 pm
PM hails finding of Irgun arms ship Altalena, denounces Ben-Gurion for attacking it in 1948
Netanyahu uses incident to illustrate dangers of civil war while denigrating his political opponents; Ben Gvir likens himself to Irgun leader Begin at separate press event
By Noam Lehmann and ToI Staff
The Altalena ship burns after being shelled near Tel Aviv, June 22, 1948. (Hans Pinn/GPO)
August 24, 2026, 12:57 pm
Wreckage found of Altalena arms ship sunk in deadly 1948 power tussle, far-right ministers announce
IDF says it had no part in search for Irgun ship sunk by army of nascent state; 16 Irgun members, 3 IDF troops died in incident that became right-wing symbol; chances of lifting still-intact vessel said slim
By Sam Sokol and ToI Staff
Images of Ze’ev Jabotinsky's 1938 letter. (Nate D. Sanders Auctions)
February 23, 2026, 5:02 pm
Jabotinsky letter revealing plea for funds to save European Jews heads to auction
Revisionist Zionism founder’s missive to finance director warned movement’s ‘success or failure’ hinged on new funding system
By ToI Staff
Two men look over debris beneath shattered windows of Acre Prison, north of Haifa, British-Mandate Palestine, May 6, 1947, which was blasted open two days earlier by members of an underground Jewish militia. (AP Photo)
August 31, 2020, 4:03 pm
An inside job: How a UK engineer helped the Irgun break into Acre prison in 1947
Newly reported details reveal that Peres Etkes, who designed the British Mandate penitentiary, passed building plans to Zionist militia and helped stage legendary jailbreak
By ToI Staff
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (R) and Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery at the PA headquarters in Ramallah on January 5, 2017. (Dov Lieber/Times of Israel)
August 20, 2018, 7:52 pm
Palestinian leader mourns passing of peace activist Uri Avnery
‘He will remain an icon of real and permanent peace,’ PA President Mahmoud Abbas tells close friend of former MK, who was first prominent Israeli to meet Arafat publicly
By Adam Rasgon and AP
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the unveiling of a new monument to the victims of the 1948 Altalena incident, at Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery in Tel Aviv, October 27, 2016. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
October 28, 2016, 4:38 pm
Unveiling Altalena memorial, Netanyahu says ‘war against our enemies is not over’
Prime minister praises warrior spirit of those aboard Irgun weapons-carrying ship destroyed by nascent IDF in 1948
By ToI Staff
Alatalena Memorial in Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery, Tel Aviv (Avishai Teicher)
October 18, 2016, 8:45 am
New memorial to Altalena victims erected in Tel Aviv
Monument commemorating 16 fighters killed in 1948 incident to be unveiled October 27 in Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery
By ToI Staff
The southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem following the 1946 terrorist bombing (Screenshot of newsreel footage from YouTube)
September 29, 2016, 2:53 am
UK opens secret files on 1940s ‘Jewish terrorists’ in Palestine and beyond
Newly declassified documents show how British agents tried to contain militant activities, feared attacks on British soil
By Gregory Katz
Zionist leaders arrested in Operation Agatha, a series of British raids, including one on the Jewish Agency in which incriminating documentation was found. From left to right: David Remez, Moshe Sharett, Yitzhak Gruenbaum, Dov Yosef, Shenkarsky, David Hacohen, Isser Harel. (public domain)
April 25, 2015, 5:16 am
After studying pre-state Jewish terrorists, author asks: Does terrorism work?
Bruce Hoffman says the struggle for Israel’s independence forms a blueprint for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today
By JP O’ Malley
Portrait of Yehiel Kadishai, in October, 2013. (photo credit: Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)
November 17, 2013, 5:30 pm
Yehiel Kadishai, aide to Menachem Begin, dies at 90
Kadishai helped liberate Holocaust survivors and smuggle them into pre-state Israel, served at Begin’s side for 30 years
By Gavriel Fiske
Adolf Hitler (left) shakes hands with Heinrich Himmler somewhere in Germany on May 18, 1944. From left to right: Hitler, Minister Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Admiral Karl Doenitz, Himmler and Field Marshal General Erhard Milch. (AP)
November 3, 2013, 3:07 pm
Deal with the devil
As WWII drew to a close, Hitler sought the rapid annihilation of every remaining Jew. A group of Revisionist Zionists enlisted Swiss politician Jean-Marie Musy to convince Heinrich Himmler to go against the Fuhrer’s orders. In a remarkable episode largely overlooked to this day, the effort was partially successful
By Joanna M. Saidel
Yitzhak Berman (photo credit: Courtesy/Government Advertising Office)
August 4, 2013, 12:56 pm
Former Knesset speaker Yitzhak Berman dies at 100
‘The pain at his passing is the pain over the passing of a generation,’ says Knesset Speaker Edelstein of the former Etzel fighter
By Haviv Rettig Gur and JTA
The Altalena ship burns after being shelled near Tel Aviv, June 22, 1948. (Hans Pinn/GPO)
June 20, 2013, 3:39 pm
Fire in the hole: Blasting the Altalena
Sixty-five years after the Irgun ship was shelled by order of Ben-Gurion, with the loss of 16 lives, previously unpublished interviews with several interested parties underline how deeply the animosities over the affair still lingered decades later
By Joanna M. Saidel
The reconstructed Room 34 at the Underground Prisoners' Museum in Jerusalem (photo credit: Shmuel Bar-Am)
April 16, 2013, 10:35 am
The pre-state struggle remembered at the Underground Prisoners’ Museum
Prison garb was brown for regular prisoners, black if you’d tried to escape, and red for those condemned to hang… This Jerusalem museum makes for a particularly appropriate visit around Independence Day
By Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am
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