JOEL GILBERT

In the history of modern Zionism, Shmuel Katz was a giant. His clear and
concise logic made him unique amongst Jewish political thinkers.

I met Shmuel when I was a student in Israel at the age of 18. It was the
beginning of a lifelong friendship. Only a year later, I began studying at
the University of London. I was honored when Shmuel asked me to be his
London researcher for his planned two volume work on Vladimir Zeev
Jabotinsky, Lone Wolf (or just "Jabo" in Hebrew).

Shmuel had told me many stories of his affection for Zeev Jabotinsky, and
the time he spent with him in Europe prior to World War II as his traveling
secretary. Shmuel attended speech after speech, as Jabotinsky encouraged
Jewish immigration to Palestine, while warning of impending disaster for
European Jewry. Shmuel also told me of his time in London, as editor and
publisher of the Revisionist Zionist Weekly in the late 1930's (at
Jabotinsky's request), and of observing Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's
appeasement of Hitler, which within 24 months resulted in bombs falling in
the streets of London where Shmuel was living.

Over the next three years, I dug deep into the historic files of the British
Mandatory authority in Palestine which were housed at the British Public
Record Office in Kew Gardens. Many of the files I examined had only
recently been released by the British government, after being sealed for 40
years. I extracted for Shmuel a number of letters between Jabotinsky and
the British authorities, as well as numerous documents illustrating British
policy to suppress Jewish immigration during Hitler's romp through Europe.
Hand written notes by British officials on the margins of documents revealed
anti-Semitic attitudes as a force in British thinking. Shmuel wrote for
seven years until "Jabo" was finally completed - an epic 2 volume, 1,000
page document.

After Menachem Begin's death, I recall in 1983 asking Tzachi Hanegbi, then
foreign policy advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Shamir, "Why doesn't
the Likud turn to Shmuel Katz for leadership?" Hanegbi, later the subject
of several ethical probes, answered, "Shmuel Katz could never be Prime
Minister, because he would never compromise on his principles."

Indeed, Shmuel had resigned from the Herut Knesset list in the early 1950's,
then once again as Menachem Begin's advisor in 1977 for reasons of
abandonment of principle. Shmuel often reminded me that Jabotinsky did not
like Menachem Begin, and didn't think he would make a good leader.
Jabotinsky likened Begin's speeches to the sound of a creaking old door.

Central to Shmuel's writings over the past 30 years was what he described as
the tragic void of leadership in Israeli politics and a political system
which simply recycled its failed leaders over and over. Moshe Dayan, Shmuel
wrote, was a total failure. As chief of staff of the IDF, Dayan had opposed
pre-empting the war in 1967 against Egypt and Syria, and along with Golda
Meir had acquiesced to Henry Kissinger's demand that Israel not pre-empt the
1973 attack by Egypt and Syria, despite their pre-knowledge. The later
episode so unnerved Dayan, Shmuel wrote, that Dayan broke down and cried,
and called for Israel to surrender to Egypt! When Menachem Begin pulled
Dayan from these depths to appoint him as his foreign minister to negotiate
"peace" with Egypt, Shmuel knew great things were not in the offing.
Meanwhile, Begin's Defense Minister, Ezer Weizmann, Shmuel told me, acted in
effect as a spy for Egypt. Weizmann would meet with the Egyptian delegation
and tell them how to deal with each of the persons in the Israeli
negotiating teams, and how to overcome their positions.

Just as with Moshe Dayan, Shmuel pointed out, Israel's recycling of failed
leadership continued. Rabin was reelected as Prime Minister after a
previous failure, only to help rescue the exiled and defeated PLO as Israel's
"partners for peace." Prime Minister Ehud Barak implemented the unilateral
withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, without any security arrangements, leading
to the Hizbullah takeover of the area and the Second Lebanon War. Today
Ehud Barak is the Israeli Defense Minister, charged with negotiating a truce
with HAMAS! Shimon Peres engineered the disastrous Oslo Accords - yet Peres
was elevated to President!

Like Winston Churchill prior to World War II, Shmuel Katz was Israel's voice
of clarity, unheeded. With a child-like laugh and a youthful twinkle in
his eye, Shmuel had the charisma, integrity, and vision to be Israel's
greatest leader. Sadly, Israel never elevated the principled and visionary
Shmuel Katz to political leadership. Instead, a cadre of weak, naïve, or
ego driven individuals, from the power hungry to the felonious, rose and
clung to office.

A writer of many epic works, including Days of Fire and Battleground, Shmuel
had the ability to explain the realities of history, while others simply
accepted simplistic concepts echoed in the media or invented by Israel's
enemies. I once paid Shmuel what he said was the biggest compliment he ever
got, "Shmuel, I used to think you were a genius, but now I realize that all
you write about is really just common sense."

Joel Gilbert is the writer and director of Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and
The Revolt of Islam