A study by a Hebrew University graduate student has produced documents related to attempts by Jewish leaders in Palestine to establish friendly ties with the Christian Phalangist party in Lebanon before and after the State of Israel was founded.
The student, Yaron Dan, found a report by Alexander Lutzki, of the Jewish Agency’s Arabic department who visited Beirut in the summer of 1947 to establish contacts with various personalities. These included Pierre Gemayel, founder and leader of the Phalangist party who is the father of President Amin Gemayel of Lebanon and of the late Bashir Gemayel, assassinated last September shortly before he was to take office as President.
RECOMMENDATION TO BEN GURION
Lutzki’s report to David Ben Gurion, chairman of the Jewish Agency, recommended that the Phalangists should be taken into consideration as a possible ally. Ben Gurion dismissed Gemayel as a man of “very little political wisdom.”
Lutzki noted that the Phalangist leader left the door open for further contacts between his party and the Jewish community in Palestine and recognized that both could gain from cooperation. He thought there should be further study given the possibility.
Dan’s research disclosed that Lutzki advocated relations with Elias Rabibi, editor of the Phalangist newspaper. Al Ammal. He said Rabibi showed more openness than Gemayel and hinted that bribing the editors of Lebanese Christian newspapers could advance the Jewish cause.
According to Dan, relations with the Phalangists continued into the early 1950s. Lutzki served later in the Foreign Ministry. His last post was as Israel’s Ambassador the Dominican Republic where he was killed seven years ago in a road accident.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
