Editing Yitzhak Shamir (section)

===1948 Deir Yassin massacre===
During the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]], Lehi became most famous for the [[Deir Yassin massacre]]. From April 9 to 11, 1948 around 130 fighters from Irgun and Lehi violated a peace deal with the village of Deir Yassin and killed at least 107 [[Palestinian people|Palestinian Arab]] villagers, nearly all civilians.{{sfn|Morris|1987|p=126-128}}<ref name=Morris2008p126>Morris 2008, pp. 126–128.</ref><ref name=pamphlet>{{cite journal | author = Benny Morris | title = The Historiography of Deir Yassin | journal = The Journal of Israeli History | volume = 24 | issue = 1 | year = 2005 | pages = 79–107 | doi=10.1080/13531040500040305| s2cid = 159894369  |issn=1353-1042}}</ref> Some villagers who had hidden or pretended to be dead were killed by Lehi men on April 10 or 11.<ref name="Morris 2004, p. 238">[https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PA238 Morris 2004, p. 238].</ref> News of the killings sparked terror among Palestinians across the country, frightening them [[1948 Palestinian exodus|to flee]] their homes in the face of Jewish troop advances and it strengthened the resolve of Arab governments to intervene, which they did five weeks later.<ref name=Morris2008p126 />

Lehi met fierce resistance from the [[Labor Zionism|Labor Zionist]] establishment in Israel as well as the broader [[Jewish diaspora]] for emulating [[European fascism]]. When Menachim Begin visited [[New York City]] in December 1948 over twenty prominent Jewish intellectuals condemned the Irgun and Lehi for their part in the [[Deir Yassin massacre]] in an [[wikisource:New Palestine Party; Visit of Menachen Begin and Aims of Political Movement Discussed|open letter]] to ''[[The New York Times]]''. The letter was signed by over twenty prominent Jewish intellectuals, including [[Albert Einstein]], [[Hannah Arendt]], [[Zellig Harris]], and [[Sidney Hook]]. 
[[File:Albert Einstein and others letter.jpg|thumb|right|[[wikisource:New Palestine Party; Visit of Menachen Begin and Aims of Political Movement Discussed|An open letter]] to ''[[The New York Times]]'' describing the [[Deir Yassin massacre]] was signed by over twenty prominent Jewish intellectuals, including [[Albert Einstein]], [[Hannah Arendt]], [[Zellig Harris]], and [[Sidney Hook]].]]
<blockquote>
A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants (240 men, women, and children) and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin. ...

During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute. ... Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of [[ultranationalism]], religious mysticism, and [[racial superiority]].<ref name=Oppose>{{cite news |author= Isidore Abramowitz |author2=Hannah Arendt |author3=Abraham Brick |author4=Rabbi Jeshurun Cardozo |author5=Albert Einstein |author6=Herman Eisen; Hayim Fineman; M. Gallen; H.H. Harris; Zelig S. Harris; Sidney Hook; Fred Karush; Bruria Kaufman; Irma L. Lindheim; Nachman Maisel; Seymour Melman; Myder D. Mendelson; Harry M. Oslinsky; Samuel Pitlick; Fritz Rohrlich; Louis P. Rocker; Ruth Sagis; Itzhak Sankowsky; I.J. Shoenberg; Samuel Shuman; M. Singer; Irma Wolfe; Stefan Wolfe|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/12/04/96605844.pdf |newspaper=The New York Times |title=Letters to The Times: New Palestine Party: Visit of Menachem Begin and Aim of Political Movement Discussed |date=4 December 1948 |access-date=3 August 2011}}</ref></blockquote>

After the backlash to the massacre, the Lehi [[Triumvirate|troika]] of Shamir, Eldad, and Yellin-Mor formally disbanded most of the organization on May 29, 1948 but continued to lead a minority of the membership from Jerusalem. Lehi leadership continued to be outside of Israeli government control while most of its former membership joined the newly formed [[Israel Defense Forces]].<ref>{{citation |first = Nachman |last = Ben-Yehuda |title = The Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel |publisher = University of Wisconsin Press |year = 1995 |page = 324}}.</ref> During a UN-imposed truce, Shamir, Eldad, and Yellin-Mor authorized the assassination of the United Nations representative in the Middle East, Count [[Folke Bernadotte]], who was killed in September 1948, when Lehi gunmen ambushed his motorcade in Jerusalem. Lehi had feared that Israel would agree to Bernadotte's peace proposals, which they considered disastrous, unaware that the provisional Israeli government had already rejected a proposal by Bernadotte the day before. The Israeli provisional government drafted an ordinance for the prevention of terrorism and then invoked it to declare Lehi a terrorist organisation, consequently rounding up 200 of its members for "administrative detention" (prison). They were granted amnesty some months later and given a state pardon.<ref>{{citation |first1 = Ami |last1 = Pedahzur |first2 = Arie |last2 = Perliger |title = Jewish Terrorism in Israel |publisher = Columbia University Press |year = 2011 |page = 28}}.</ref>