The news from the Middle East is so depressing that I would prefer not to follow it at all. So many thoughts come to mind as I see the events unfold. One of them is that no-one is lily-white when it comes to war. There are naturally two sides to this story, just as with anything else. What are regarded as terrorists by one side are hailed as freedom fighters by the other. This was also the way things were when the state of Israel was in its infancy. The Stern Gang that assassinated Folke Berna-dotte was described as a group of terrorists by Swedes, but to Israelis they were fighting for their country's right to exist.
In May 1948, Bernadotte was appointed United Nation mediator in Palestine. He succeeded in achieving a truce in the first Israeli-Arab war. On 17 September 1948, a few days before his second plan for a political solution was to be presented to the UN, the Swedish Count was killed. Bernadotte’s assassination is documented in Kati Marton's book A Death in Jerusa-lem (1994). He was shot together with his deputy the French colonel, Andre Serot. According to the Stern Gang, Bernadotte had to be eliminated "because he disturbed our national ambitions". The Israeli government declared that it was "adapting rigorous and energetic measures to bring the assassins to justice to eradicate this evil". But this has never happened. According to the Israeli paper Yediot Ahronot, that has investigated this historical event, Captain Moshe Hillman, who was Bernadotte's Israeli coordinating officer, witnessed the murder. He did inform his superior, Major Moshe Dayan, about what had taken place but was told to "take no notice...we have not seen anything and we have not heard anything."
Yeshoshua Cohen who held the gun be-came a good friend of "the nestor of the Israeli state", David Ben Gurion. The lea-der of the Stern Gang who issued the order to kill the Swede was Yitshak Shamir who later became Prime Minister of Israel. As President of the Swedish Red Cross, Folke Bernadotte, a father of two, had a few years earlier liberated some 30 000 prisoners from Nazi death camps in Germany. About 11 000 of them were Jews. It is also interesting to note that it was Folke Bernadotte who was originally chosen for the mission to rescue the Jews in Budapest but he was unable to get a visa from Germany to transfer to Hungary. Hence it was left to Raoul Wallenberg to carry out this monumental task.
We have not come very far in these al-most 60 years. We have still not learnt that violence does not lead to peace. Only ne-gotiations do. Our thoughts go out to the innocent people on both sides of this conflict who have to endure so much suffering.
Have a nice August
Anders Neumuller,
Editor
PS. Many people have wondered why Folke Bernadotte's name is not among the Swedish gentiles honored with a plaque for saving Jews at the US Holocaust Me-morial Museum in Washington DC. When Folke Bernadotte’s godson, the Swedish King, was going to visit the Museum in 1995, the Museum promised to correct this, but as far as I know it has never happened.
In May 1948, Bernadotte was appointed United Nation mediator in Palestine. He succeeded in achieving a truce in the first Israeli-Arab war. On 17 September 1948, a few days before his second plan for a political solution was to be presented to the UN, the Swedish Count was killed. Bernadotte’s assassination is documented in Kati Marton's book A Death in Jerusa-lem (1994). He was shot together with his deputy the French colonel, Andre Serot. According to the Stern Gang, Bernadotte had to be eliminated "because he disturbed our national ambitions". The Israeli government declared that it was "adapting rigorous and energetic measures to bring the assassins to justice to eradicate this evil". But this has never happened. According to the Israeli paper Yediot Ahronot, that has investigated this historical event, Captain Moshe Hillman, who was Bernadotte's Israeli coordinating officer, witnessed the murder. He did inform his superior, Major Moshe Dayan, about what had taken place but was told to "take no notice...we have not seen anything and we have not heard anything."
Yeshoshua Cohen who held the gun be-came a good friend of "the nestor of the Israeli state", David Ben Gurion. The lea-der of the Stern Gang who issued the order to kill the Swede was Yitshak Shamir who later became Prime Minister of Israel. As President of the Swedish Red Cross, Folke Bernadotte, a father of two, had a few years earlier liberated some 30 000 prisoners from Nazi death camps in Germany. About 11 000 of them were Jews. It is also interesting to note that it was Folke Bernadotte who was originally chosen for the mission to rescue the Jews in Budapest but he was unable to get a visa from Germany to transfer to Hungary. Hence it was left to Raoul Wallenberg to carry out this monumental task.
We have not come very far in these al-most 60 years. We have still not learnt that violence does not lead to peace. Only ne-gotiations do. Our thoughts go out to the innocent people on both sides of this conflict who have to endure so much suffering.
Have a nice August
Anders Neumuller,
Editor
PS. Many people have wondered why Folke Bernadotte's name is not among the Swedish gentiles honored with a plaque for saving Jews at the US Holocaust Me-morial Museum in Washington DC. When Folke Bernadotte’s godson, the Swedish King, was going to visit the Museum in 1995, the Museum promised to correct this, but as far as I know it has never happened.
posted by Nordicway at 10:04 AM
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