JTA — Few non-Jews and even fewer British soldiers are regarded as highly in Israel as Orde Charles Wingate, a senior officer who became a legend here by shaping Israel’s prestate military. Many Israeli towns have a Wingate street or square, and relatives and others who share his name are often reminded of Israel’s debt to him.
“I had recognized him as a man of genius, and I hoped he might become a man of destiny,” British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote to Lorna Wingate after her husband’s death aboard an American military plane that crashed in Burma on March 24, 1944. David Ben-Gurion thought Wingate might have become the Israel Defense Forces’ first chief of staff – an extraordinary possibility for a Christian steeped in a religiously inspired Zionism.
Read Full Article »