Hamashkiph - Hukmah Medinath Yisrael [“The State of Israel is Established”]

(ISRAEL, STATE OF)

16th May

Tel-Aviv

1948

On front page, illustrations of Herzl (right) and Jabotinsky (left)

This historic issue of Hamashkif, which represented the viewpoint of the Revisionist Zionist movement (or Beitar) founded by Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky, stresses that the State came about not through the benevolence of the nations of the world, but rather through the courage and self-sacrifice of the Jewish underground who finally drove the "shilton zar" (foreign ruler, i.e. Britain) from the Land. The centerpiece of the issue is a message from the unnamed "Commander in Chief of the Irgun Tzeva'i Le'umi," (i.e. Menachem Begin), reading: "Etzel [Irgun] will obey the laws of the State and honor its government." - Thus allaying the fears of the ruling clique (especially David Ben-Gurion) that Begin might provoke civil war between left and right-wing Jewish factions