In April 1948 Ben Hecht and his Jewish buddies put an advert in the New York Times about Palestine.?

Question

Can anyone please tell me where I can obtain the original text?

It's the article which contains Hecht's words:

"Every time I hear a British soldier has been killed, I have a little holiday in my heart!"

Answer 1

Welcome to Yahoo Answers. You ask a reasonable question about Jewish terrorist attacks on British soldiers in Palestine, and just two answers in someone is suggesting you are a racist.

It's like something out of George Orwell - four legs good, two legs bad; Israeli terrorism good, Arab terrorism bad.

I don't know whether the quote is in there, but you might try the book Ploughing Sand.

Answer 2

Through your local libary you may find that a larger library or your national library has access to a microfilmed or even digitised copy of that newspaper. I doubt if it is available on the Net. Your information might not be right exactly- he did place ads, but I'm not sure the quote is from one of them.

A quote from Hecht's remarks can be found here : http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/ar... as follows: "Mocking the British description of the Jewish fighters as "terrorists," Hecht praised them as heroes, compared them to George Washington, and declared that there was widespread support for the Jewish militias among grassroots American Jews. "In the past 1500 years every nation of Europe has taken a crack at the Jews, " Hecht wrote. "This time the British are at bat. You are the first answer that makes sense--to the New World. Every time you blowup a British arsenal, or wreck a British jail, or send a British railroad train sky high, or rob a British bank or let go with your guns and bombs at the British betrayers and invaders of your homeland, the Jews of America make a little holiday in their hearts."

Hecht's assertion caused such a stir that it was quoted on the front page of the New York Times, as well as in many other publications. "

My opinion: it was said at a time when the people he was supporting saw only too clearly that they'd been abandoned and left to die by the rest of the world. They saw Israel as their only hope of survival. I have some doubts about some of their actions, and I'm very worried by Israel today, but such remarks as Hecht's need to be seen in the context of the time.

If, as I suspect, you are a British nationalist, remember that I, the person who helped you find this information, am Jewish by heritage myself.

LATER: you asked the question, mate. I helped you find the information, which was exceptionally easy to do, by the way. Therefore I have doubts about your motivation, wondering if you were a British Nationalist troll.  If not, I apologise, maybe you are some other kind of troll.

LATER STILL: Thank you but I'm not a gentleman, I lack one of the chromosomes for that description :-D  And I have to put in an ad for my profession - if you'd asked for help at a library, you might have found it quicker. I'm a librarian at a tin-pot little outback library in Australia. May you find peace. (that's it for the day, I'm on my day off.)

MR Rosenkrantz: I didn't say he was a racist, I said I hoped he wasn't going to use the information for racist purposes. I changed that, and added in my doubts above. I am not 'black and white' on this issue, sorry if you can't see that.

Answer 3

Great screenwriter, terrible human.