Final_Judgment

[200] Final Judgment 261
(What's more, we now know, one of the key bases of financial support for
Rabbi Tibor Rosenbaum's BCI—the key force behind Permindex and the plots
against DeGaulle—were "clandestine deposits of undeclared funds from French
Jews," 560 not to mention, of course, the criminal funds from the Lansky
crime syndicate.)
One French military leader who emerged as an OAS leader, General
Antoine Argoud said, "the physical elimination of the Head of State poses
no moral problem for any of us . . . We are all convinced . . . that DeGaulle
has deserved the supreme punishment a hundred times over." 561
However, there were other elements that proved supportive of the
French rebels within the OAS. According to historian Alexander Harrison:
"Factors that seemed to favor the success of the [OAS] efforts to keep
Algeria French [included]:
The complicity of the 'old boy' networks within the various
intelligence agencies, most notably the French secret service, [the SDECE]
and the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire [responsible for internal
counterespionage] both of which at times placed loyalty to a former
comrade-in-arms . . . above loyalty to the government; and
Possible logistical help from countries [such as] the United States
that had been hostile to DeGaulle since the first days of the Resistance in
World War II and viewed his pro-Soviet stance as a threat to Western
hegemony in the Mediterranean." 562
(Earlier we learned of the CIA's covert support for the OAS, despite
opposition to the OAS by JFK who had been an ardent advocate for
Algerian independence much to the dismay of Israel's lobby in America.)
ISRAEL AND THE OAS
Not surprisingly, according to historian Harrison, whose OAS
sympathies are apparent "Some of the most ardent supporters of the OAS
in Algeria were Jews." 563 What's more, notes Harrison, "a Jewish branch
of the OAS was created." 564
Another historian, Paul Henissart, has also noted an Israeli connection
with the OAS. According to Henissart, "[The OAS] attracted hotheads
including some Jews who belonged to Irgun Zvai Leumi, the Israeli
underground military organization. They were recruited by the OAS as
specialists in clandestine warfare." 565
He notes additionally that while there were Jewish defense groups
established in Algeria, "official Israeli delegations in Algeria to organize
emigration of Jews from the coastal cities were not averse to aiding these
self-defense groups. The Israeli government, however, never confirmed any
connection with them." 566
Nonetheless as Israeli historian Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi has pointed
out, there is evidence of official Israeli support of the OAS: "During 1961
and 1962, there were numerous reports of Israeli support for the French
OAS movement in Algeria." 567