Moshe Sharett began life as Moshe Shertok in Kershon, Ukraine, in 1894. He came to Palestine, then occupied by the Ottoman Turks, with his family at the age of 12. Sharett was a member of the first graduating class of Herzilya Gymnasium, the first Hebrew high school in the country. He studied law in Constantinople and economics in England. Sharett was a staunch Zionist who rose up to head the political department of the Jewish Agency, representing the Jews in Palestine. David Ben-Gurion was the chairman of the Jewish Agency. Sharett helped form mainstream Zionist policies and supported the establishment of the Jewish Brigade in the British Army during Word War II. He also worked with Ben-Gurion to organize the mass immigration of Jews to the future state of Israel.

In 1953, David Ben-Gurion retired from the office of prime minister and Moshe Sharett was appointed to be his successor. Sharett presided over fast economic development and the absorption of large numbers of immigrants. In the elections of 1955, David Ben-Gurion came out of retirement and returned to office. Sharett remained the foreign minister, but in less than a year he resigned to become chairman of Beit Berl College and later chairman of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency.

But why did Ben-Gurion come out of retirement to replace Sharett? The Lavon Affair.

The Lavon Affair was an Israeli espionage incident that occurred in July 1954. Jewish Arabs were recruited to form a network of Israeli agents in Egypt. Colonel (later President) Gamal Abdel Nasser had taken control of Egypt two years earlier in a military coup. The fundamentalist Moslem Brothers had been using terror to undermine Nasser who was attempting to create closer ties to Britain and the United States in order to get aid and to cement his authority. This scared Israel. If Britain turned control of the Suez Canal over to Egypt, it could block Israel from access to a vital source of supplies. If Egypt curried favor from the U.S., it would strengthen Egypt's military might. So the network of agents was given a secret signal to start bombing American and British property in Egypt - libraries and cinemas and other public places. It was believed that the Egyptian government would assume that the bombings were a continuation of terrorist attacks by the Moslem Brothers. And Britain and the U.S. would lose confidence in Nasser's ability to control Egypt.

The bombings all took place after hours and, to my knowledge, no one was injured. However, property was damaged and innocent civilian lives were risked, making these definite acts of Israeli terrorism. In October 1954, the agents were discovered. Egyptian police arrested the spies and sentenced them to 15 years in jail.

Most of Israel and the world believed that the agents had been framed. Prime Minister Sharett denounced the trial as a "wicked plot hatched in Alexandria… the show trial which is being organized there against a group of Jews who have fallen victims to false accusations and from whom it seems attempts are being made to extract confessions of imaginary crimes, by threats and torture…" Israeli newspapers denounced the Egyptian government, comparing them to the Nazis.

It eventually came to light that these people were indeed spies and had been conducting terrorist activities. The Israeli government was shamed and lost credibility among its allies. Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon was accused of secretly planning the entire episode without Sharett's knowledge. Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres produced incriminating papers, signed by Lavon, and testified against him at a secret government inquiry. Sharett ordered Lavon to resign and asked Ben-Gurion to replace him as Defense Minister. Ben-Gurion held Sharett responsible and eventually forced Sharett out of office to take over the position of prime minister himself.

If that were the end of the Lavon Affair, it would be a sad event in Israel's history. But that was not the end. Six years later, evidence was found that Lavon's signature had been forged on the incriminating papers. Lavon, having always maintained his innocence, demanded a new inquiry and one was held, despite Ben-Gurion's objections. In December 1960, the Israeli cabinet unanimously exonerated Lavon of all guilt. Despite this, Ben-Gurion pressured Lavon out of politics for good.

In the meantime, nine Israeli agents languished in Egyptian prisons, enduring torture and neglect. Two had already committed suicide and two others had been publicly hanged in Cairo. Two agents were secretly released in 1962 and shepherded to Israel where they were sworn to silence. Four others were released in a prisoner exchange after the '67 War. When three of those four appeared on Israel television a few years later, they all expressed the belief that Israel had made little effort to get them out. "Maybe they didn't want us to come back," said one. Another said "the government didn't want to spoil its relations with the United States and didn't want the embarrassment of admitting it was behind our action."

Much remains confusing about the whole incident. There were conflicting stories, secret inquiries, forged documents, and most certainly lying at high levels of government. The truth may never be known, and little has been written about the affair. While we must remain staunch supporters of Israel, we must not gloss over the dark periods, however short or isolated, in Israel's history. We should study them and understand them to ensure that they are not repeated. We must learn from the Lavon Affair.  If anyone has more information about this dark chapter in Israel's history, please contact me.