Haganah

I had already discovered political zionism from Ben-Gurion and Jabontinsky and cultural and artisitc zionism at Bialik's house, but the picture was incomplete. The missing piece of the zionist puzzle is, of course, its practical implementor, the zionist enforcer, the machine that made it all happen.

Introducing Eliyahu Golomb, another familiar name in zionist circles. Golomb's house on Rothchild Boulevard fittingly houses the Hagana Museum, as he together with Dov Hoz, are the founders of the Hagana, the official defence force of the Jewish settlement in Palestine during British mandate rule. His house was the official headquarters of the Hagana from which all of its operations were conceived, planned and put into action.

The original defence force of the Jewish settlement was "Ha Shomer", "The Guard". This group of jewish "cow boys" (gunmen on horses) and "sheep boys" (they disguised themselves as shepherds) was independently established and an authority unto themselves whose role was simply to defend the Jewish settlements from arab attack. Then in 1920 Golomb established the "Hagana" as the official jewish defence force, which was to act in accordance with the aims of the elected Jewish authority. The Hagana, of course, was an underground organisation which existed without the permission of the British authorities.


The Hagana can be considered in large part the the implementer of the zionism vision because on one hand it provided the military strength to make it happen and on the other hand it was much more than just a military force. For starters, its members were normal jews from all over Palestine who worked hard to build up the jewish settlement using their individual talents. Thus was created the true zionist pioneer, a hybrid worker/fighter prepared to contribute in any way for the zionist cause. Consequently, apart from defence, the Hagana played a huge role in setting up the jewish infrustructure, including the agricultural water system and an intricate communications network throughout the land, and helped to establish new settlements with the "tower and stockade" policy. After the war, the Hagana networks throughout Europe organised many ships to illegally bring thousands of Holocaust survivors to Palestine, and it's leaders worked tirelessly to obtain weapons from all over the world for the defence of the jewish settlement.

Naturally we can't ignore the Hagana's pure military contribution to the establishment of the State of Israel through its active defence against Arab hostility before and during the war with the Palmach strike force and the "Special Night Squads" established by a certain British captain named Orde Charles Wingate (see below), and its daring sabotage operations to undermine the British rule after the war.
The most significant heroic act of the Hagana, now incorporated into the Israel Defence Force, the official Israeli army established after the Declaration of Independence in May 1948, was the defence of the State during the War of Independence which cost the lives of around 5000 fighters with thousands more injured. A high price to pay but ultimately proof that Golomb's brain-child of 29 years earlier had proved a success, as the State of Israel was here to stay.