But the memoirs come with Etkes telling how, in 1921, he used his connections to take up arms from Jaffa’s British arsenal and “lent” them to Jewish fighters in Tel Aviv the Arab riots, according to the report. Etkes was revealed to be the culprit and punished at the time for being reassigned to the arid north.
Gil Margulis said Etkes had no qualms about running for either side: “It’s not an anti-British thing. I think the appeal is that for a while the Empire and the Zionist movement were walking in the same direction with other objectives. For him, the construction of the country was a vital thing, and he was able to do so with the empire by investing resources in it.
He said Etkes had not presented the story in his life to unwanted attention.
“For the rest of his life he had a large British pension,” he said. “I think he said he didn’t need to jeopardize that for a little news credit. It’s not discussed anywhere for this reason. “