Rattlesnake Ridge      

 
      BFF

“The Zionist battle to wrest control of the country from the British and establish a Jewish homeland was led politically by the Jewish Agency and militarily by guerrilla organisations such as the Haganah and Irgun. “The Jewish Agency set up special clubs for the purpose of propaganda,” said Motti Golani, a historian of the British Mandate at Haifa University. “There were dancing parties, clubs with lectures, dinners. The Agency pushed young girls, of around 18 or 20, to have relationships with British soldiers. It was a kind of spying.” The Jewish Agency’s message was confusing: on the one hand the relationships were encouraged for political purposes, but they were meant to stop short of becoming sexual or permanent. “It was an indecent thing, for a Jewish girl to have a British boyfriend,” Segev told the Observer. “Not because he was British, but mostly because he wasn’t Jewish. It was something a family would hide.”…..… The British did not confine their romances to Jewish women. The highest-profile relationship of the era was between the commander of the British forces in Palestine, General Evelyn Barker, and Katy Antonius, the socialite wife of a prominent Arab. Barker, who was also married, wrote almost 100 passionate letters to his lover …….The Jewish Agency, he added, “had very good information. There were a lot of spies. There were hardly any real secrets. Both the British and Jewish Agency used code names, but they both knew who the other was talking about……...”

Interesting bit of old history of Palestine under the Mandate. Not clear how much is true and how much gossip. I suspect most of it is true. But you get the flavor of the time.
Cheers
mhg


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