Haaretz
Sivan 17, 5766
Former
prime minister Menachem Begin played a central role in a failed attempt to
assassinate then-West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, with the
objective of sabotaging the reparations agreement in the works with
Israel, according to the journal of Eliezer Sudit, one of the men who
carried out the attempted hit.
Sudit's journal, which was published
in a limited number of copies only, came into the possession of the Israel
correspondent for the German daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine.
Excerpts from the diary passed on to Haaretz reveal that Begin
knew of the plans to assassinate Adenauer, and even initiated meetings to
promote the operation. Among other things, Sudit writes that he heard
Begin had offered to sell his gold watch to pay for the hit after the
operation ran into financial difficulties.
Begin's personal
secretary, Yehiel Kadishai, and Herzl Makov, the director of the Menachem
Begin Heritage Center, told Haaretz Monday night that they knew nothing of
Begin's involvement in the affair.
On March 27, 1952, a German
sapper was killed by an explosive device that had been hidden in an item
of mail addressed to Adenauer. At the same time, two letter bombs were
sent to the meeting place of the Israeli and German delegations by a group
calling themselves the Jewish Partisans Organization.
A few weeks
later, five Israelis were arrested in France on suspicion of involvement
in the assassination attempt. One of the men arrested was Sudit, a former
member of the Irgun, a prestate underground led by Begin. Sudit allegedly
prepared the explosive device and hid it in the package sent to
Adenauer.
Sudit decided to publicize the affair some 40 years
later, in his journal, Be'shlihut Ha'matzpun (On a Mission of Conscience).
According to Sudit, he met secretly with Begin and suggested "an operation
that would shake the world and prove that not all Israelis are prepared to
accept money as atonement for blood."
Sudit writes that Begin was
very unhappy with the reparations agreement in the works, noting that the
former prime minister "was ready for any reaction that would come as long
as the reparations agreement was avoided."
Sudit says that Begin
subsequently introduced him to then-Herut MKs Yohanan Bader and Haim
Landau, and also Abba Shertzer, who headed the Irgun's intelligence
service. It was Shertzer who told Sudit of Begin's readiness to sell his
gold watch to finance the trip to France.
According to the journal,
Begin and Sudit met once more before the latter left to carry out his
mission.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine announced Monday that it would
be publishing extracts from the journal in the near future. The
newspaper's Israel correspondent, Joerg Bremer, told Haaretz that he had
tried to interview Sudit a number of times, but had been turned down with
the excuse that the man was not willing to speak to
Germans.