Kingdom of Israel (group)

The Kingdom of Israel (Hebrew: מלכות ישראל‎‎, Malchut Yisrael), or Tzrifin Underground, was a Jewish terrorist group active in Israel in the 1950s. "Kingdom of Israel" was the name that the group's members used, but it was better known to the Israeli public as the "Tzrifin Underground", after the Tzrifin military base, where its members were put on trial. The group carried out attacks on the diplomatic missions of the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia in protest against those countries' antisemitic policies, such as the Slánský trial and the Doctors' plot. They also attempted to assassinate German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer with letter bombs, and occasionally shot at Jordanian troops stationed along the border in Jerusalem.

The group's leader, Yaakov Heruti, recruited former Lehi colleagues, as well as adolescents from Revisionist Zionist homes who had been brought up to see Lehi fighters as heroes. Separately, another Kingdom of Israel member, Yaakov Blumenthal, "organized another clique of activists in Jerusalem, most of whom were Orthodox Jews." The group never had more than two dozen members.

On February 9, 1953, the group planted more than 70 pounds of explosives at the Soviet embassy. The ensuing explosion severely injured the embassy's housekeeper and significantly damaged the embassy building. Two other embassy employees were also lightly hurt, one of them the Soviet ambassador's wife. The USSR cut diplomatic relations with Israel in response. The bomb was planted by Yosef Menkes, who later planned the assassination of Rudolf Kastner. The sophistication of the bombing led Shin Bet head Isser Harel to believe that former Lehi members were responsible, but an intensive investigation failed to turn up the perpetrators.

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