Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Roberts’s Collision Course With Snowe
The New York Sun article “How Roberts Set a Collision Course With Maine’s Snowe” [Josh Gerstein, Page 1, August 16, 2005] on Judge Roberts does not simply address a gender-based issue.
Some years ago I supervised 10 entry-level workers. Under the terms of a union contract, five were “bumped” and laid off by senior employees whose department had been shut down. These senior employees earned twice the salaries of the entry-level workers, although everyone did exactly the same kind of work.
Slogans that sound good can have “pernicious” pitfalls. “Equality” to some proponents means women should register for the draft when they reach age 18, or a court-ordered leveling of wages superceding union contracts.
ROBERT J. BONSIGNORE
Brooklyn
‘Once More Without Feeling’
Once again a correspondent, this time Paul Greenberg [“Once More Without Feeling,” Opinion, August 18, 2005] has misrepresented the events of early and pre-state Israel to the detriment of the Irgun and Lehi (Stern). Mr. Greenberg writes that the underground organizations challenged the authority of the newly created state and that Ben-Gurion took strong action to defend the new Israel. There was never any challenge to the state presented by either Irgun or Lehi. From the time the Irgun began its revolt in early 1944, Begin pleaded with Ben-Gurion to fight the British together.
For more than a year, Ben-Gurion collaborated with the British in actions against the underground fighters. After the war in Europe was over, Ben-Gurion changed his mind. He had hoped the British would support a Jewish state, given the murder of the Jews of Europe and the contribution of the Jewish population of Palestine to the allied cause. When the British renewed their commitment to an Arab Palestine, Ben-Gurion joined Irgun and Lehi in an anti-British military campaign. Both Irgun and Lehi put themselves under the command of Haganah. Far from challenging Ben-Gurion, both organizations welcomed the united effort. In July 1946, Ben-Gurion changed his mind again and withdrew Haganah from the joint effort. He decided to sit on the sidelines and let Irgun and Lehi do the fighting.
In 1947, the British announced their intention to leave Palestine. Arabs began attacking Jews The Irgun and Lehi emerged from the underground to fight the Arabs. Again, there was collaboration with Ben-Gurion. Both Lehi and Irgun put themselves under the authority of the Jewish Agency. No actions were undertaken with out the approval of the Haganah high command. This situation continued until the state was created.
With the declaration of independence on May 14th, both Lehi and Irgun ceased to exist as independent entities. Both fought as separate units only in Jerusalem, then outside the borders of the Jewish state pursuant to the UN’s partition resolution. There was no challenge to authority. There was, to the contrary, a recognition and acceptance of the authority of the new government by the Irgun and Lehi.
In June 1948, the Altalena, an Irgun ship loaded with arms from France appeared off the coast of Israel. These arms were obtained before the state was created at a time when each of the three Jewish militias sought their own weapons. With the declaration of the state, Begin informed the government that the ship was on its way and its arms were to be for the entire country. Ben-Gurion used the occasion to destroy his political opposition. He ordered the ship sunk. In a hysterical address to the Knesset the next day, he declared that a coup against the state and been crushed. There had been no coup attempted against the state. There was only an effort by the Irgun to share the weapons it procured with the people of Israel.
ROBERT WEINTRAUB
Manhattan
Mr. Weintraub is a former spokesman for Likud USA.
Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007. Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.