London feared Jewish terrorism that aimed to drive Britain out of Palestine in the years before the establishment of the State of Israel, newly declassified documents reveal. The director of Britain’s MI5 intelligence organization warned in 1946 that then-Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin was a potential target for assassination and that Jewish militants from the Stern Gang and Irgun could join forces and “send five cells to London to work on IRA lines.” In fact, no Jewish groups carried out attacks in Britain. The Stern Gang bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 80 people, and the Irgun hanged two British soldiers after Britain executed Jewish militants.
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