Editing Lehi

{{Evil Organization
|Box title    = Evil Organization
|Image        = Logo of the Lehi movement.svg
|size   = 
|fullname = '''Lohamei Herut Israel – Lehi'''
|alias = Lehi<br>Stern Gang<br>National Military Organization in Israel<br>Fighters for the Freedom of Israel
|origin = Mandatory Palestine
|foundation = 1940
|dissolution = 
|headquarters = 
|commanders = [[Avraham Stern]] (1940 - 1942)<br>[[Yitzhak Shamir]] (1942 - 1946)
|agents = 
|skills = 
|goals = Establish a "new totalitarian Hebrew republic" (failed)
|crimes = [[Terrorism]]<br>[[War crimes]]<br>Mass [[murder]]<br>Sabotage<br>Destruction of property<br>Armed robbery<br>Extortion<br>[[Islamophobia]]<br>[[Arson]]<br>[[Kidnapping]]
|type of villain = Jingoistic Extremists 
}}{{Quote|Neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat. We are very far from having any moral qualms as far as our national war goes. We have before us the command of the Torah, whose morality surpasses that of any other body of laws in the world.|Excerpt from an article in the underground newspaper ''He Khazit''.}}
'''Lehi''' (Hebrew: לח"י – לוחמי חרות ישראל‎ Lohamei Herut Israel – Lehi, "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel – Lehi"), often known pejoratively as the '''Stern Gang''', was a Zionist paramilitary organization founded by [[Avraham Stern|Avraham ("Yair") Stern]] in Mandatory Palestine that promoted [[fascism]] and [[ultranationalism]] and used terrorist means in its actions. Its avowed aim was to evict the British authorities from Palestine by resort to force, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state, a "new totalitarian Hebrew republic".

Much like Irgun, Lehi was classified as a [[death squad]] by some sources.

It was initially called the '''National Military Organization in Israel''', upon being founded in August 1940, but was renamed Lehi one month later. The group referred to its members as terrorists and admitted to having carried out terrorist attacks.
==Biography==
Lehi split from the [[Irgun]] militant group in 1940 in order to continue fighting the British during [[World War II]]. Lehi initially sought an alliance with [[Benito Mussolini|Fascist Italy]] and [[Nazi Party|Nazi Germany]], offering to fight alongside them against the British in return for the transfer of all Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe to Palestine. Believing that Nazi Germany was a lesser enemy of the Jews than Britain, Lehi twice attempted to form an alliance with the Nazis.

During World War II, it declared that it would establish a Jewish state based upon "nationalist and totalitarian principles" After Stern's death in 1942, the new leadership of Lehi began to move it towards support for [[Joseph Stalin]]'s Soviet Union. In 1944, Lehi officially declared its support for National Bolshevism. It said that its National Bolshevism involved an amalgamation of left-wing and right-wing political elements – Stern said Lehi incorporated elements of both the left and the right – however this change was unpopular and Lehi began to lose support as a result.

Lehi and the Irgun were jointly responsible for the massacre in Deir Yassin. Lehi assassinated Lord Moyne, British Minister Resident in the Middle East, and made many other attacks on the British in Palestine. On 29 May 1948, the government of Israel, having inducted its activist members into the Israel Defense Forces, formally disbanded Lehi, though some of its members carried out one more terrorist act, the assassination of Folke Bernadotte some months later, an act condemned by Bernadotte's replacement as mediator, Ralph Bunche.

After the assassination, the new Israeli government declared Lehi a terrorist organization, arresting some 200 members and convicting some of the leaders. Just before the first Israeli elections in January 1949, a general amnesty to Lehi members was granted by the government.

In 1980, Israel instituted a military decoration, an "award for activity in the struggle for the establishment of Israel", the Lehi ribbon. Former Lehi leader [[Yitzhak Shamir]] became Prime Minister of Israel in 1983.

Stern's group was seen as a terrorist organisation by the British authorities, who instructed the Defence Security Office (the colonial branch of MI5) to track down its leaders. In 1942, Stern, after he was arrested, was shot dead in disputed circumstances by Inspector Geoffrey J. Morton of the CID. The arrest of several other members led momentarily to the group's eclipse, until it was revived after the September 1942 escape of two of its leaders, Yitzhak Shamir and Eliyahu Giladi, aided by two other escapees Natan Yellin-Mor (Friedman) and Israel Eldad (Sheib). (Giladi was later killed by Lehi under circumstances that remain mysterious.) Shamir's codename was "Michael", a reference to one of Shamir's heroes, Michael Collins. Lehi was guided by spiritual and philosophical leaders such as Uri Zvi Greenberg and Israel Eldad. After the killing of Giladi, the organization was led by a triumvirate of Eldad, Shamir, and Yellin-Mor.

Lehi adopted a non-socialist platform of anti-imperialist ideology. It viewed the continued British rule of Palestine as a violation of the Mandate's provision generally, and its restrictions on Jewish immigration to be an intolerable breach of international law. However they also targeted Jews whom they regarded as traitors, and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War they joined in operations with the [[Haganah]] and Irgun against Arab targets, for example Deir Yassin.

According to a compilation by Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Lehi was responsible for 42 assassinations, more than twice as many as the Irgun and Haganah combined during the same period. Of those Lehi assassinations that Ben-Yehuda classified as political, more than half the victims were Jews.

Lehi also rejected the authority of the Jewish Agency for Israel and related organizations, operating entirely on its own throughout nearly all of its existence.

Lehi prisoners captured by the British generally refused to employ lawyers in their defense. The defendants would conduct their own defense, and would deny the right of the military court to try them, saying that in accordance with the Hague Convention they should be accorded the status of prisoners of war. For the same reason, Lehi prisoners refused to plead for amnesty, even when it was clear that this would have spared them the death penalty. Moshe Barazani, a Lehi member, and Meir Feinstein, an Irgun member, took their own lives in prison with a grenade smuggled inside an orange so the British could not hang them.

[[Category:Modern Villains]]
[[Category:Organizations]]
[[Category:Dissolved Organizations]]
[[Category:Judaism]]
[[Category:Israel]]
[[Category:Terrorists]]
[[Category:Mass Murderers]]
[[Category:Fascist]]
[[Category:Islamophobes]]
[[Category:Hypocrites]]
[[Category:Irony]]
[[Category:Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Villains]]
[[Category:Extremists]]
[[Category:Fanatics]]
[[Category:Assassins]]
[[Category:Wrathful]]
[[Category:Delusional]]
[[Category:Kidnapper]]
[[Category:Arsonist]]
[[Category:Anarchist]]
[[Category:Xenophobes]]
[[Category:Saboteurs]]
[[Category:Destroyer of Innocence]]
[[Category:War Criminal]]
[[Category:Cold war villains]]
[[Category:Totalitarians]]
[[Category:Military]]
[[Category:Supremacists]]
[[Category:Extortionists]]
[[Category:Thief]]
[[Category:Criminals]]
[[Category:Jingoists]]