Jack Kemp

A few days ago I posted a story here, mostly taken from Wikipedia, about that Jewish West Point grad, lawyer and physical trainer for the Army Rangers from Brooklyn who used his West Point class connections to get off a desk and parachute behind German lines on D-Day with the 101st Airborne even though he never jumped with a parachute before. Later he went to Israel and was appointed the first General in the Israeli Army since the time of the Bible.

U.S. Col. Marcus died under suspicious circumstances in Israel, as opposing factions in the Israeli military didn't want an American as their commander. I was at first very cynical about the death of Col. "Micky" Marcus, and the suppressed investigation afterwards, but in talking things over with someone, I heard a different more complex, heroic explanation of that event. I saw that Col. Marcus probably knew full well that he was unpopular and he could easily be assassinated by an opposing faction in the seperate groups that made up the early Israeli Army. But Marcus felt it was worth the risk to himself to help the fledgeling Israeli forces in 1948 create a new refuge and country for Jews. He accepted the risks. That makes him somewhat like Michael Collins in Ireland and Anwar Sadat in Egypt who met similar fates in their nation's politics.

Here is the story of Col. Marcus's death and the coverup in Wikipedia:

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Death
A few hours before the cease fire, Marcus returned to his Central Front headquarters. He and his commanders were billeted in the monks' quarters of the abandoned Monastere Notre Dame de la Nouvelle Alliance in Abu Ghosh.[8] Shortly before 4:00 a.m., a sentry, Eliezer Linski, eighteen years old, and a one-year Palmach veteran, challenged Marcus, who he saw as a figure in white. When Marcus failed to respond with the password, Linski fired in the air and the man ran towards the monastery. He fired at the man, as did one or more fighters in a nearby sentry post. Marcus was found dead, wrapped in a white blanket. As an American Jew, Marcus knew very little Hebrew and failed to understand the Hebrew challenge, and Linski did not understand Marcus who responded in English.[9] Marcus wore no rank, although officers had been recognized by a ribbon pinned to their uniforms. As Marcus's body was removed from Abu Ghosh, a ribbon was found and placed on his casket.
His body was returned to the United States for burial, accompanied by Moshe Dayan and his wife Ruth, Yoseph Harel, and the wife of his aide de camp, Alex Broida.[10]
Ben-Gurion was suspicious of the initial report that Marcus had been shot accidentally.[11] The Haganah was composed of several factions whose lack of consensus over strategy and tactics was one of the reasons for Marcus's appointment as commander for Jerusalem, and Ben-Gurion suspected that elements in the Palmach may have conspired to kill Marcus so he would be replaced. On the same day Marcus was shot, Ben-Gurion summoned Yaakov Shimshon Shapira—later Israel's Attorney General—and asked him to investigate the incident. Shapira's investigation was cursory. Despite conflicting reports concerning the number of shots fired, how many wounds Marcus suffered, whether the fatal wound could have been caused by Linski's rifle, and how and why Marcus may have been outside the monastery, he concluded that Linski shot Marcus in the line of duty. The report has never been made public.[12]

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Michael Collins, a free Ireland leader and advocate in the early 20th Century, was much involved in the deal with Britain that freed most of Ireland from British control after 1920 but left England holding the Six Counties of Northern Ireland. A number of the original IRA members hated this deal which did not lift total control of all of Ireland and they assissinated this great Irish patriot Collins. Mr. Collins also knew in advance he stood a good chance of being killed by opposing factions in the Free Ireland movement but he felt the deal was worth it to establish the Irish Republic.

The story of Collin's death/assassination in Ireland on Wikipedia reads, in general terms, something like the story of Col. Marcus's death/possible assassination in Israel:

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Death
Collins's death remains a mystery for some conspiracy theorists. The only witnesses were Free State Army members of his convoy and the anti-Treaty ambushers. As all of these were participants, their accounts may not be objective. No two witnesses' statements match, and many are contradictory.[108] There is no complete record of the people involved, but the man who fired the fatal shot, Sonny O'Neill, later officially reported what he had done. Although the killing was an act of war, he met members of Collins' family when the Civil War ended to express his regret. Other accounts of the incident have been handed down through newspapers, biographers, private documents, and personal contacts. One version suggests that Collins was to meet with De Valera and discuss ways to end the conflict.[citation needed]
In August 1922, the Civil War seemed to be winding down. The Free State had regained control of most of the country, and Collins was making frequent trips to inspect areas recently recovered from anti-Treaty forces.[109]

His plan to travel to his native Cork on 20 August was considered particularly dangerous, and he was strenuously advised against it by several trusted associates. County Cork was an IRA stronghold as much of it was still held by anti-Treaty forces. Yet he seemed determined to make the trip without delay. He had fended off a number of attempts on his life in the preceding weeks and had acknowledged more than once, in private conversation, that the Civil War might end his life at any moment. On several occasions Collins assured his advisors "they won't shoot me in my own county," or words to that effect.
On 22 August 1922 Collins set out from Cork City on a circuitous tour of West Cork. He passed first through Macroom then took the Bandon road via Crookstown. This led through Béal na Bláth, an isolated crossroads. There they stopped at a local pub named 'Long's Pub', now known as The Diamond Bar,[110] to ask a question of a man standing at the crossroad. The man turned out to be an anti-Treaty sentry. He and an associate recognised Collins in the back of the open-top car.[111]
As a result, an ambush was laid by an anti-Treaty column at that point, on the chance that the convoy might come through again on their return journey.[112] Between 7:30 and 8PM, Collins' convoy approached Béal na Bláth for the second time. By then most of the ambush party had dispersed and gone for the day, leaving just five or six men on the scene. Two were disarming a mine in the road, while three on a laneway overlooking them, provided cover. A dray cart, placed across the road, remained at the far end of the ambush site.
The Irregulars in the laneway opened fire with rifles on the convoy. Emmet Dalton ordered the driver of the touring car to 'drive like hell', but Collins said 'no, stop and we'll fight 'em' and jumped from the vehicle along with the others. Collins first took cover behind the low grass bank bordering the road but then jumped up and ran back along the road to begin firing with his Lee Enfield rifle from behind the armoured car. The Vickers machine gun in that car had also been firing at the attackers but then stopped because a badly-loaded ammunition belt caused it to jam. Apparently to get a better view of the laneway, Collins left the protection of the armoured car and moved even further back along the road. Now standing in the open, he fired a couple of shots and as he was once more working the bolt of his rifle he was shot in the head. He was the only fatality, although another member of his party suffered a neck wound. At this stage, the firing abated and the Irregulars moved away. Collins was found, face down, on the roadway. One of his men whispered an Act of Contrition into his ear, but Collins was clearly dead. He was lifted into the back of the touring car with his head resting against the shoulder of Emmet Dalton. The convoy cleared the dray cart obstruction and resumed its journey to Cork.

The lengthy time the convoy took to cover the twenty miles back to Cork City was because many of the roads were blocked and the convoy had to travel across muddy fields and through farms to circumnavigate the obstacles, all in darkness. At times, when the vehicles became bogged down, members of the convoy had to carry Collins' body on their shoulders. The touring car eventually had to be abandoned because of mechanical trouble.
According to medical staff who examined his body in Cork and in Dublin, Collins' suffered two bullets to his head: an entry wound at the hairline at the front left of his forehead and a large exit wound at the rear of his skull, just behind his right ear. There was no autopsy; the attending doctors apparently saw the cause of death as obvious and not requiring recording. Collins field diary was taken by General Emmet Dalton who had been with him during his tour of the south. The body was first presented at Shanakiel Hospital in Cork, a small military establishment, and then shipped around the coast to Dublin where it was laid out in St Vincent's Hospital Dublin. From there it was removed to the City Hall beside Dublin Castle where it was laid in state.
Writers on the subject such as J. Feehan and S.M. Sigerson have called for a full forensic examination of Collins's remains in order to attempt to settle at least some of these controversies concerning his end.[114][115]

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And the last such political martyr I'll mention who knew the risks he was taking was, of course, Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian leader who started the Yom Kippur War and then did the unthinkable act at that time, flew to Israel and started peace negotions and later signed a deal with Menachem Begin in Washington. Sadat knew that groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood would want very much to kill him for signing a treaty with the "Zionist entity" Israel and, there was a good chance he would be killed afterwards. Sure enough, it happened at a military parade in 1981 when troops opened fire on Sadat and other officials in a grandstand reviewing the parade.

These three historic stories put each one of their tragic deaths into perspective. Each man knew the risks involved but felt they had to take those risks for the good of their own people.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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