Amongst things I was not expecting to do in 2008...

Today I got to hear a terrorist speak. Well, someone who would be called a terrorist by the British government at any rate (and the speaker of the very next session I went to), though a freedom fighter by others: he was Yoske Nachmias, an Irgun member.

He had some amazing stories to tell, of fighting in the British Army to keep the Nazis out of Palestine during the War; of audacious raids on British army camps to steal their weaponry, and to destroy (along with (IIRC) the Palmach) the entirety of the British air fleet based in the Middle East; of being captured and sentenced to death, only to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment when the Irgun threatened to kill five British soldiers they had captured; and then being rescued from Acre prison; of liberating Jaffa (which was filled with Arab snipers taking potshots at civilians in Tel-Aviv) when Menachem Begin was prepared to give up on the assault.

I didn't take any notes, as I was feeling a bit frazzled by then (I slept really poorly last night, and should really be in bed now), but wow. The man was truly a piece of living history.

ETA: And he encourages you to visit him at the Museum of the Irgun at 38 King George Street, Tel Aviv.