Amichai Paglin

Amichai Paglin, code name "Gidi" ( he, עמיחי פאגלין;1922–1978) was an Israeli businessman who served as Chief Operations Officer of the Irgun during the Mandate era. He planned and personally led numerous attacks against the British during the Jewish insurgency in Palestine, commanded the battle to conquer Jaffa in the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, and participated in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Following independence, he ran an industrial oven factory together with his father, and was later appointed Prime Minister Menachem Begin's counter-terrorism adviser.

Biography

Amichai Paglin was born in Tel Aviv, the son of Gershon and Sima Paglin. His family had immigrated from Lithuania in 1920. Paglin attended Tel Nordau elementary school and Balfour high school. He was in the same class as Lehi fighter Eliyahu Bet-Zuri and future IDF Chief of Staff Tzvi Tzur.

At a young age he joined the Haganah, and was appointed the signaller of Efraim Dekel, the commander of Shai (the Haganah intelligence unit). He participated in a squad commander course, and expected to participate in significant operations against the British. However, to his disappointment, he was commanded to scrape posters off walls and to do other simple activities.

Activity in the Irgun

Paglin's family was associated with the Labor Movement. His older brother, Neriel, was a member of the Palyam, the naval commando unit of the Haganah's strike force, the Palmach, and was an assistant to Haganah commander Yisrael Galili. Neriel was one of the 23 Palyam soldiers who died on the ship ''Ari HaYam'' when it sank off of Vichy-controlled Lebanon in May 1941, during Operation Boatswain, a mission for the Allies. This frustrated Amichai greatly, who felt that his brother had given his life for the British, and yet the British did not open Palestine to Jewish immigration. This encouraged him to join the more anti-British Irgun.

He joined the "Hayil Kravi" (Combat Corps) of the Irgun and immediately began acting as a simple soldier. He participated in one of their first operations, the Irgun's bombing of the Immigration Department in Haifa, carried out as a protest against the British refusal to allow large numbers of Jewish refugees into Palestine. Afterwards, he participated in attacks against the Income Tax offices and the CID building in Tel Aviv.

Paglin stood out for his courage, his technical knowledge, his fertile imagination, and his daring and original plans to strike the enemy. Menachem Begin (the leader of the Irgun), would later write about him, "this amazing young man, his military ability borders, without doubt, on the genius...."

In 1946, after the arrest of Eitan Livni, the Chief Operations Officer of the Irgun, "Gidi" was appointed to the position in his place. In this position he planned over 200 attacks: both against the British, and in the 1947–1949 Palestine war, against the Arabs. In many of these attacks, he personally participated.

Paglin planned the King David Hotel bombing, the attack on the British Air Force base at Qastina, the Goldschmidt House officers club bombing, the Acre Prison break, and led the Irgun squad that hanged two British sergeants from trees near Netanya, as a response to the hanging of convicted Irgun members by the British. He also led the battle for Jaffa in the 1947–1949 Palestine warr and an unsuccessful attempt to conquer Ramle.

After the Irgun merged with the Israel Defense Forces in the coastal area, he transferred to Jerusalem, where the Irgun continued as an independent entity. He participated in the joint attempt to break the siege on Jerusalem's Old City (together with the Haganah and the Lechi).

When the Irgun tried bringing the Altalena arms ship, Begin did not believe that the IDF would shoot at the Jews of the Irgun. Paglin warned him that they would likely attack, and therefore should direct the ship elsewhere. In the end, Paglin was correct, and fighting broke out. As the ship was being shelled, Paglin headed towards Ramat Gan in an attempt to capture the seat of government. However, he was detained by IDF soldiers. He eventually managed to escape, but it was too late to help the Altalena or threaten the government. In the end, the Irgun was disbanded and integrated into the IDF.

When the Irgun disbanded, there was an agreement that three commanders from the Irgun would be appointed as generals in the new army. Paglin attempted to be drafted twice, but was rejected due to "health reasons" (apparently by direct order of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.)

After 1948

He married Tzipora Perl, who served with him in the underground. They had two children, a son named Neriel and a daughter named Galia. Together with his father Gershon, he built a factory in Petah Tikva for industrial ovens, which became famous for building the oven in which the body of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann

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