(sirens wailing) (Irit speaking in foreign language) (dramatic music) - That moment that I knew as going to be very dangerous.

People are going to get killed.

- If they won't listen to the warning, leave the place.

There is a bomb.

(dramatic music) - Never used to, never.

- Always battles between armed fan and armed forces.

(suspenseful music) (man speaking in foreign language) (eerie music) - [Narrator] May, 1945.

Hitler is dead.

World war II is over.

Six million Jews have been murdered by the Nazis.

The survivors leave the camps and struggle to make their way home.

But where is home?

(Irit speaking in foreign language) (dramatic music) - [Narrator] In 1922, the League of Nations grants the British Mandate to create a Jewish national home in Palestine.

Protecting the rights of Jews and Arabs soon proves to be an impossible task.

Violent skirmishes breakout between Jews and Arabs.

(Irit speaking in foreign language) - [Narrator] Arab Jewish tensions mount.

The British are increasingly forced to intervene.

(suspenseful music) Pressures Intensify when vast numbers of Jews flee to Israel from Europe.

Jewish organizations transport Jewish refugees to Palestine but the British refuse them entry.

(gentle music) Arriving at port after their harrowing journey, the migrants are told to go back.

This infuriates the militant Jewish resistant movement, Irgun, which resorts to a tried and tested remedy, terror.

(dramatic suspenseful music) - I was only a little boy when we had a visit from the second in command of the Irgun.

He was in Ireland for the purpose of meeting with the senior officers of the IRA to study their methods of attacking the British as they did then.

And they imitated many of their tactics.

(birds chirping) My father believed that the only way the Jewish people could survive as a people was by having their own state, by reestablishing the state of Israel.

And he believed that this could only be done by force of arms.

That the only thing that British understood was force of arms.

They had never given a country its independence by diplomacy or being talking nice to them.

The King David Hotel was the headquarters virtually of the British officers.

They all assembled in the King David Hotel.

That was their club, their residence of many of them.

It was a legitimate target.

And Irgun did warn them that they were going to destroy it.

I don't know how factual it is that there were many Jews in it but I don't think there were that many.

And if there were, well, they were enjoying themselves, having gin and tonics with the Brits.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] The stylish King David Hotel serves as the headquarters of the British and Palestine.

The entire fifth floor has been requisitioned by the army.

Local staff are employed to provide administrative assistance.

- My father was promoted to some job in the administration, in the center office of the the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, helping with the British administration.

(dramatic music) I was three years old and my brother was one month and two days.

(phone ringing) (dramatic music) - There is a file from the Jewish resistance movement, ordering to execute or to carry out as soon as possible, Operation of the Malone Cheek.

It's a codename for the King David Hotel.

(Amira speaking in foreign language) And in paragraph six, it's written, "For God's sake not personal terror."

(dramatic music) (Irit speaking in foreign language) (telephone line droning) (suspenseful music) (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] The telephone exchange is set up in the basement.

It's manned by six women working for the ATS the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

Their commander is alerted by the noise.

He and a fellow officer investigate the goings on and catch the intruders.

(Irit speaking in foreign language) (suspenseful music) - The girl who had to run from one place to another to make a telephone call, it was not that easy.

(phone ringing) She had to ask for permission in a certain shop to make a telephone call.

Maybe she started her mission 30 minutes earlier.

(suspenseful music) But until she called, she made the actual calls, which took time, and then the calls reach the hotel much later.

(phones ringing) (bell rings) (Irit speaking in foreign language) (suspenseful music) (clock ticking) (Irit speaking in foreign language) (somber music) (Irit speaking in foreign language) - [Reporter] 65 deaths are reported and there is little or no hope of survival for any of the 58 missing.

Nearly 50 others were injured.

The Jewish terrorist organization, Ha-Tzva'i Ha-Leumi openly admitted responsibility for the bombing.

Many arrests have been made.

Leaders of the Jewish agency have expressed horror at the dastardly crime perpetrated by a gang of desperadoes.

Mr. Adderley of the House of Commons declared the British government will not be diverted by acts of violence in their search for a just and final solution of the Palestine problem.

(somber music) - My father was killed at the bombing King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

The Irgun never admitted that there was such a short time for informing the hotel.

Though they say there were at least 30 minutes, it's absolutely not true.

- [Narrator] The paramilitary organization, Irgun, founded by the Russian Jew, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, claims responsibility for the attack.

(dramatic music) (phone ringing) - We have "HaMashkif" daily newspaper from the 22nd of July, 1946 telling about the bombing of the King David Hotel.

(machine whirring) (Amira speaking in foreign language) (phone ringing) (Gideon speaking in foreign language) (dramatic music) (phone ringing) - [Narrator] Ze'ev Jabotinsky believes that mass immigration of Jews to Palestine is the only way to establish a free Jewish state.

He is also convinced that this plan can only be achieved through armed resistance.

- This picture was taken in Warsaw in 1935 in a meeting of the leaders of the revisionist movement in Poland.

Here you see Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the leader of the revisionist movement, Menachem Begin and the David Stern, my father, who was one of the leaders of Betar Movement in Poland.

(dramatic music) (Gideon speaking in foreign language) (dramatic music) - My father met with Jabotinsky in London.

Jabotinsky had recruited my father to go to America, to raise funding.

(somber music) And my father went to America using all his connections with the Irish out there, whom he had dealings with during Ireland's fight for independence.

- That's for you, Dad.

- Hm.

- That's the letter from the Department of Justice- - Oh, right.

Yes.

- Outlining- - Outlining why they won't give permission to Jews to come in.

- Hm, yes.

If we as the Jewish people didn't do something to save themselves no one else was going to.

How often did I tell American Jews when speaking to them in America, that if they did not make up their minds quickly the problem would be solved by extermination.

(people chattering) (bright music) - My father was very, very young.

He was like 16 when he joined the Irgun.

He came from a very Orthodox religious family.

So he put aside his Bible and he took up a rifle, so to speak.

(people chattering) He had tremendous admiration for Jabotinsky.

He adored Jabotinsky.

He very much agreed with Jabotinsky's kind of sentiment and his worldview and his political kind of outlook.

My father rose in the ranks very rapidly.

And in 1937, he was sent to Europe to facilitate in bringing illegal immigration of Jews from Europe to Palestine.

My father kind of shuttled back and forth between Poland, primarily Geneva, London, and Paris.

And that's where his relationship with Jabotinsky developed.

(Rebecca speaking in foreign language) And in 1939, after the Nazis invaded Poland, Jabotinsky came to the conclusion that the only place to be now was in America and to work with American Jewry.

And so he asked my father to accompany him.

(gentle music) My father had no problem calling people and going up to people and asking them, famous people, people with status to support his cause.

And he had a lot of chutzpah.

They stage two very, very elaborate pageants.

One of them was called, "We Will Never Die."

And this was in 1943 and it focused on the extermination of the Jews.

- [Announcer] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Tonight is the scene of one of the nation's most spectacular pageants.

Titled, "We Will Never Die," this mammoth memorial is dedicated to the two million civilian Jewish dead of Europe.

The cast includes 1,000 volunteer actors and actresses written by Ben Hecht as a living testimonial.

- And the second one was "A Flag Is Born" and it focused on the struggle for independence in Palestine.

He accumulated an incredibly talented group of people around him.

They had Ben Hecht.

They had Stella Adler and they would have Paul Mooney and they had Marlon Brando.

And they had like very, very big names, kind of Hollywood names who volunteered basically, who kind of gave of their time and of their talent as part of the cause.

(dramatic music) - We sold out.

You had to pay tickets even though everybody was a volunteer but still it cost a lot of money, a think like this.

Two weeks before the evening, every single of 22,000 tickets were sold and we decided to chance it, you know, we'd be felt that there is a surge of interest and we issued an announcement that that thing will be an hour earlier.

And we made another one at 10:30 in the evening and the police wouldn't give us a permit.

We say, they says, there has never been so many people there on non-sporting events.

Of course, we overcame them and they gave us.

We filled Madison Square Garden twice in the same night.

And this was early '43, January, February '43.

And who were we?

Unknown people.

I mean, we used big, big, big names, but it wasn't the names who pulled them.

- [Narrator] Hillel Kook has more than enough chutzpah.

He not only gains the support of Hollywood stars but also mobilizes influential senators.

First to save Jews from the clutches of the Nazis and later to finance the emergence of a free Jewish state.

(gentle music) - One day, my sister told me that she had a job and it was passing out a basket at a play called "A Flag Is Born."

She asked me if I was interested and I was thrilled to be given the opportunity.

It was after the play was over, Luther Adler came forward and spoke to the audience about why they were gonna raise money and to help the Zionist cause.

He said, "Now these volunteers will pass baskets through the audience."

And we would put a basket on one side of a row.

And then it would come back filled with dollar bills.

People who went to the theater and who went to see "A Flag Is Born" were well-dressed and they looked like conventional theater goers.

I didn't count the money that we had raised.

It wasn't one of those things where you weighed the basket afterwards and said, "Hey, I got $500 and you only got $100."

(gentle music) We felt we were in the presence of something very important because we thought if the state of Israel was born we would have contributed something to help make it happen and the audience was were I, for the most part I think, extremely sympathetic to the message and happy to pony up.

Where the money literally went, did it go to the more militant Irgun, or did it go to the Haganah?

And I remember one of the older folks there assured me that it went to the more radical cause but I didn't know that at the time.

(birds chirping) - The Irgun was a hierarchical organization.

I mean it fancied itself kind of paramilitary organization.

So hierarchy and status was very significant.

And my father was probably amongst the higher ranking members of the Irgun.

And so therefore he was significant in determining or deciding who would be the head of their group in Palestine.

And the person who's chosen to be the head of the Irgun was Begin.

I don't think that Begin was his choice but he authorized the choice.

And I don't think he had a very strong opinion about it this way or that way, but as time went by and as he had more and more contact with Begin, he came to regret that decision very much.

(somber music) - [Narrator] Begin grows up in Russia.

His parents sent him to Betar, Ze'ev Jabotinsky's Zionist youth movement.

After being appointed leader of the Irgun in Palestine in 1943, the organization resumes acts of terror against the Arabs and the British.

The British have their hands full, cracking down and deactivating Jewish terrorists.

The attack on the King David Hotel is a huge setback for the British, but the final blow comes when they receive a message that two British sergeants have been taken hostage by the Irgun.

An exhaustive search and rescue begins.

The two sergeants are eventually found, hung in an orchard north of Tel Aviv.

- I'm speaking on behalf of my mother, Mrs. Martin, who is brokenhearted and prostrate at the terrible news at the loss of her son.

She wishes me to tell the country that she demands the body of her son to be brought back here in hopes that the whole realm will support her in this.

And let us hope that we can find a solution to this terrible problem in Palestine and bring an end to all this unnecessary murdering of young British innocent servicemen.

(somber music) - I was put into the 6th Airborne Forces.

I went over on D-Day, went right through Belgium, Holland, Germany, met up with the Russians.

I knew who I was when I was in Normandy but in Palestine it seemed like a different world to me.

You couldn't get through to a lot of people and find out what was going on.

I was sort of lost.

And I think a lot of my comrades were the same, you know.

It was a strange feeling there.

- I was called up as a National Serviceman.

After a few weeks training, I was sent to Palestine.

We didn't fight.

We ambushed.

(laughs) If it was a fight it would have been different, but it was never a fight.

They never showed their self.

Occasionally they did and they got very badly wiped out.

But not, most of it was undercover, stab you in the back from behind.

- We had it two or three times, the cars would come in during the night, shoot a guard on the gates of the tented camp and then go round, drive round in between the tents, far into the tents and killing the chaps inside.

They said they were the Stern gang.

And I think they were just a group of people that wanted to cause trouble.

- There are two train in front of us got blown up.

There's 26 dead.

That was one thing.

The architect was Mr.

Begin.

(laughs) He was supposed to be respectable, but he wasn't.

He was the head of terrorist groups.

He was, I think a prime minister when they got their freedom.

Not very nice man.

(mournful music) - My father used to say, I'm not anti-English at all.

I'm anti-British foreign policy in so far as it affects Ireland, and then so far, has it affected Palestine.

I think that there was a lot of similarity between the Irgun and the old IRA at that time.

The Irish fight for independence was the first time when guerrilla warfare actually took place.

In fact, the British thought this was very cowardly way of fighting a war while they had ten to one, it was okay but the fighting from behind walls, they said various things that ambushes were not the way to do it but it was the way that Ireland did it.

And it was the way that Ireland won its independence.

(melancholy music) - [Narrator] In May, 1947, a year after the attack on the King David Hotel, Britain announces that it will withdraw its troops and transfer responsibility for the mandate of Palestine to the United Nations.

The road to a Jewish state is free.

(dramatic music) - My father finally returned to Palestine on the eve of independence.

The first day that Israel was declared an independent state he was back in Palestine.

- [Narrator] On May 14th, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel.

He becomes the country's first prime minister.

(David speaking in foreign language) (audience applauding) - For my father the Irgun was first and foremost an organization that had political principles and a vision, a very strong and specific vision for the state of Israel.

He felt that Begin was not up to that.

He felt that Begin didn't understand that.

He felt that Begin wasn't of the caliber to kind of be a partner in promoting that kind of vision.

My father always used to say a proud Jew doesn't talk about being a proud Jew.

If you're a proud Jew, you're a proud Jew and you stand tall.

And Begin talked about how you need to be a proud Jew.

And in a sense, that's kind of in a nutshell what he thought about Israel, that they were, you know fighting these battles.

And they were a sovereign nation state.

They didn't acknowledge that.

(somber music) (somber music) - Nobody ever said, I'm sorry or they are sorry.

And nobody ever reached my family, my mother, who had no help except for her family.

And nobody said, we are sorry for what have happened.

It could have been different.

And I'm still feeling very angry about it because they denied their part in what happened.

(Ruth speaking in foreign language) (woman speaking in foreign language) - After the bombing, the family took my mother with two babies to Tel Aviv.

And then when she came back to Jerusalem all her things were gone.

She found that everything that was movable in her apartment was taken away.

(woman speaking in foreign language) - I was very angry with Mr.

Begin and with Irgun as a whole organization, because they never said they were sorry about what happened.

They never admitted their responsibility.

They never spoke with the family, never said a word to our family or to other families.

And I felt that something is wrong in their behavior.

And I wanted to tell it to somebody, to say something about it.

And then I wrote a letter to Mr.

Begin who was at the time a member of parliament, a member of Knesset.

(Ruth speaking in foreign language) - There were always battles between armed man and armed forces.

I never used the method of assassination.

We never planned hurting civilian population.

We always used to warn them away from the zone of danger.

We never used terror, never.

- Whenever he's asked about this, Mr.

Begin and also other of his Irgun, they never answer you directly.

(somber music) It's sort of automatic answers.

Since then, I never tried to talk or to ask anyone of the Haganah or Irgun and I had no connection with them.

(melancholy music) - Nothing changed in 1948.

There was no decision that marked the end of a period.

You fight for independence.

You achieve that goal.

Business as usual, right?

Nothing changed.

And then in January, 1949, there were elections to the Constituent Assembly.

The purpose of the Constituent Assembly was to write a constitution.

What happened was that Ben-Gurion declared that Israel is not ripe to write a constitution and therefore he dismantled the Constituent Assembly and he declared it to be the first parliament.

(melancholy music) My father got up from his seat in the session of parliament.

And he cried out pooch, meaning that basically Ben-Gurion had hijacked a democratically elected assembly for purposes other than the purposes that it was elected for.

Those remarks were removed from the protocol of the Knesset.

There's no evidence for that anymore.

And in a way, there's no evidence for that spirit.

So in that sense, the story of my father is the story of Israel.

(wind whistling) (Irit speaking in foreign language) (bright music) (suspenseful music) (dramatic music) (people chattering) - My father used to say that what Israel has established was a shtetl with an army.

They have the army, they have the government ministries.

They have the ministers, they have the bureaucracy, they have the technocrats, but they don't have the spirit that for my father was a necessary condition.

The fact of the matter is that today 70 odd years later, Israel still has no constitution.

Israel still has no fundamental, moral, ethical document that will structure what Israel's identity is all about.

What is Israel, who is Israel, who is a member?

(dramatic music) Israel recently passed a law called the Nationality Law.

And this Nationality Law basically entrenches Israel's identity as a Jewish nation state.

And that also encapsulates everything that my father thought was wrong about the state of Israel.

You don't work so hard and fight so hard for a Jewish nation state.

You had to establish an Israeli nation state within Israeli nation with a renewed sense of identity.

And you know, 70 years after 1948 they pass a Jewish nation state law that basically defines Israel as an exclusive Jewish state.

(melancholy music) You know, the ideas of my father are still very relevant.

(Irit speaking in foreign language) (gentle music) (dramatic music) (melancholy music)