There Must Be Some Misunderstanding. New Canaan, 1948.
Szyk pays tribute to great Zionist and Soldier Mickey Marcus
SZYK, Arthur. There Must Be Some Misunderstanding — To the Glorious Memory of the Colonel Mickey Marcus, Who Was So Instrumental in this Misunderstanding. Signed and Dated “Arthur Szyk, New Canaan, 1948”. Also signed “A.S.” Pen and ink on paper. Sheet size: 5″ x 4 1/2″. Image size: 4″ x 4 1/4″. Soiling else Very Good condition.
An Israeli soldier, carbine in hand, gives chase to an astonished barefoot Arab. “There must be some misunderstanding,” yells the Arab after dropping his “British” machinegun, while wearing a bag on his belt labeled “For Loot.” The Arab has no doubt become complacent and surprised about the Jewish threat to respond to his terrorism. After all, the newly created Israel in 1948 had no defensible borders, no air power, and only a few tanks and ancient artillery pieces thanks to the pro-Arab British administration in Palestine which had prevented the importation of military supplies to the Israelis. Szyk is giving well deserved credit for the “misunderstanding” to Colonel Mickey Marcus, the first general in Israel since Judah Maccabee two thousand years earlier.
David Daniel “Mickey” Marcus (1902-1948) was born in Brooklyn, New York of immigrant parents and graduated from West Point. He was forever changed by his close personal experience liberating the concentration camps while serving with the 101st Airborne in World War II. After the war, under the pseudonym “Mickey Stone” he moved to Israel where he helped train the Haganah by writing manuals and creating military strategies. Marcus correctly identified Israel’s weakest points as the scattered settlements in the Negev and the new quarter of Jerusalem. When the Arab armies attacked in May 1948, shortly after Israel declared independence, the new nation was ready. Thanks to the hit and run tactics devised by Mickey Marcus, the Haganah kept the Egyptian army in the Negev successfully off balance. He also helped save the western section of Jerusalem from Arab siege just days before the United Nations negotiated a cease-fire. Tragically Marcus did not live to see the peace. He was killed by “friendly fire” after walking alone at night and forgetting the Hebrew password. He is buried at West Point.
Arthur Szyk gives an appropriate homage to a great soldier, a great Jew, a great Zionist.
Publishing History: The New York Post, June 21, 1948, p.2.
