At the beginning of the State of Israel, Hungarian Jew Rezső Kasztner (aka “Rudolf Ysrael Kastner”) was appointed spokesman for the Minister of Trade and Industry. However, it turned out that during World War II he had negotiated with the Nazis for the flight of Hungarian Jews. According to some, he was a hero, according to others a Nazis collaborator. A Hungarian journalist accused him of saving only his family, friends, and wealthy personalities who could pay their ransom. It is established that he was talking with a special emissary of Heinrich Himmler and that he met Adolf Eichmann, probably in 1944. He raised at least 8.6 million Swiss francs for them. David Ben-Gurion was informed of these negotiations, probably as early as 1942. Two trials shook Israeli society in the post-war period. Eventually, Kastner was assassinated in 1957.

Historian Nadav Kaplan has just published a book “מדוע חוסל קסטנר” (Why was Kastner murdered?) published by Steimatzky. In it, he does not examine Kastner’s past, but the conditions of his murder and the improbable immunity enjoyed by his murderers. According to him, the elimination was carried out by “revisionist Zionists” but ordered by the Shin Bet with the approval of David Ben-Gurion. The purpose of this state affair was to hide from the Israeli population the importance of the Zionist leaders’ negotiations with the Nazis.

In May 1942, David Ben-Gurion presided over the Congress of Zionist Organizations at the Baltimore Hotel in New York City. He placed them under the protection, not of the United Kingdom, but of the United States. The Baltimore resolutions have set Israel’s policy from the outset. If Nadav Kaplan’s theory is correct, Israel has been run by a gang of criminals since 1948, unbeknownst to its population.

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