Irgun Zvai Leumi

Jewish right-wing underground movement that advocated using force to establish a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan River. It opposed the British and the Arabs; its activities included a 1946 attack on the King David Hotel that left 91 dead and a 1947 raid on an Arab village in which all 254 inhabitants were killed. In 1943 Menachem Begin became the movement's leader. With Israeli independence its units disbanded. Israel's Herut Party was its political incarnation. See also Likud; Haganah.