Jon Kimche
Jon Kimche was a Swiss-born British journalist.
Early life
Kimche was born in St Gall, Switzerland. His father, a fervent Zionist, later brought the family to London.[1]
During the 1930s, he worked in a Hampstead bookshop with George Orwell.[1]
World War Two
According to the Guardian's obituary, "Kimche used his Swiss passport during the second world war to travel throughout Europe on mysterious assignments for Britain and the Zionist movement."[1]
Kimche was recruited as a writer for the Observer by David Astor.[2] He became the military correspondent, a role he also served for Reuters and the Evening Standard.[1]
He also worked as deputy editor and editor of Tribune, where he appointed George Orwell as literary editor and columnist.[1]
Post-war
Kimche lost the job after disappearing from the office in 1946 to negotiate the release of a ship full of holocaust survivors travelling to Palestine from Turkish waters.[1]
He wrote the book Seven Fallen Pillars on British policy in Palestine. Together with his brother David, he wrote The Secret Roads, on illegal immigration to Palestine and Both Sides Of The Hill, on Israeli and Arab attitudes in the 1948 war and after.[1]
from 1952 to 1967, he was editor of the Jewish Observer and Middle East Review. He was sacked by the journal's publisher, the Zionist Federation, after a personal intervention by the Israeli Prime Minister., over a story about unemployment and emigration in Israel.[1]
The Six Day War led to new writing opportunities with the Evening Standard. A year later, Zionist supporters set him up as editor of the New East but this role ended in 1971, when he aclashed with his editorial board over articles from British pro-Arab writers.[1]
In 1973, shortly before the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, Kimche reported in the London Evening Standard that the Egyptians had moved their Soviet SAM missiles umbrella on the Suez front in defiance of the American-brokered agreement. This prompted some to wonder if he had received a tip-off from Mossad where his brother David Kimche was a senior officer.[1]
His last editorship was at Arab-Asian Affairs.[1]
Affiliations
Connections
- David Kimche - brother
