[This article is all wrong. Begin is the true hero and statesman in the event. Ben Gurion was wrong. Ted Belman]
Ship Symbolized Battle Among Zionist Groups
By Nathan Jeffay, THE FORWARD
Tel Aviv — One of the bitterest confrontations on record pitting Jew against Jew is soon to be dredged up — quite literally.
The Israeli government has given instructions for the raising of the Altalena, a Jewish ship on which the country’s prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, ordered his army to fire shortly after he declared independence, in 1948.
The Irgun, a right-wing Zionist faction led by Menachem Begin, who years later became prime minister, controlled the ship. The Altalena was bringing weapons from Europe to rearm the militia. When Ben-Gurion, then head of the provisional government, demanded that Begin and the Irgun hand over these arms, insisting there could be only one single armed force in the new state, Begin refused, and Ben-Gurion attacked the ship as it neared Israel’s shore.
Over the next three decades, his political faction enjoyed uninterrupted control of government. Its doctrine was that attacking the Altalena had been vital — a belief that is still widespread on the Israeli left. “The Altalena is when Israel was actually established as a state, as it was the moment when it was clear that it would be one state with one military,” said Jerusalem-based historian Gershom Gorenberg, who has written about the incident at length.
Today, the Israeli right is politically stronger than ever, and it is determined to put this narrative to rest once and for all. “Years later, we can now analyze the reasons behind that order to open fire on the ship without engaging in dialogue with its command,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a recent memorial ceremony for the 19 passengers who were killed. “It was a rash order, a mistaken order.”
His plan is to present the nation with the ultimate monument to his historical narrative — and in doing so, challenge not only Ben-Gurion’s attack, but also what the former prime minister did next. Ben-Gurion ordered the ship sunk in the Mediterranean; Netanyahu will be raising and displaying the wreck.
The intended message is that the hero of the Altalena episode was not Ben-Gurion, but rather Begin. In fact, so central is the Begin legacy to the project that it is actually being carried out by the Jerusalem-based Menachem Begin Heritage Center, which wants to air the old Irgun claim that Begin saved the day by refusing to fight Jews and not retaliate against Ben-Gurion. With the wreck, “we will have a monument that will tell the important story of how Israel was almost on the brink of civil war and how this was prevented,” said Moshe Fuksman-Sha’al, deputy director of the Begin Center.
This logic leaves Gorenberg incredulous. “The idea that Begin is the hero of this story is a total rewrite,” he said. Gorenberg likened the Israeli government adopting this narrative to the American government “endorsing Confederate History Month as a celebration of the South’s role in preserving the Union.”
The Begin Center is spending $60,000 — which is being subsidized by the government — on the initial exploration to locate the wreck, which it hopes to achieve by mid-August. It then expects additional government cash to raise the wreck from the seabed.
Fuksman-Sha’altold the Forward that the issue is deserving of public funds. “The general public knows about [the Altalena] and cares about it,” he said, adding that the incident “just doesn’t leave the public discourse.”
But Hebrew University historian Israel Bartal, chair of the Historical Society of Israel, believes that there is little public consciousness of the Altalena and that there is nothing in the plan “beyond a political intention to strengthen today’s right in the eyes of potential voters.”
He said, “For an Israeli who is 40 today, Begin and Ben-Gurion are the same person — people don’t know the difference.” In his analysis, understanding of the frictions between the two had already faded in the 1970s, when he helped to curate part of the Israel Defense Forces History Museum, in which the two men’s forces were presented as one. “Otherwise people wouldn’t be able to follow,” Bartal said.
He considers the plan “like a bad joke,” saying that it will fall flat even with those it is aimed to impress. “The message of this raising will be that the government is wasting millions on something that’s irrelevant to today’s problems,” he said, “Many will say, ‘Why not pay for more doctors?’ Even the right will say: ‘What do we need that for? Use the money to build another settlement.’”
Arye Naor, Cabinet secretary to Begin during the latter’s premiership, and an emeritus Ben Gurion University professor whose research focuses on the Israeli right, disagrees. While not passing judgment on the plan to raise the ship, Naor said: “I think that right now, there’s a serious message [from the Altalena] of unity looking backwards, because a lot of problems are still ahead of us. There is the issue of settlements, and the issue of withdrawal or evacuation will come sooner or later, so it’s important to remember the message of unity and saying no to civil war.”
@Aryeh Zelasko – Ben Gurion was a war criminal. Nobody denies that. It is simply a fact of history. Don’t worry the leftists will eventually pay for its perfidy.
Yes, a great read — offering a good basis for understanding what Begin was about.
Also superb for a more thorough-going, blow-by-blow account of the Altalena incident specifically, as well as the lead-up to it, is Eliahu Lankin’s To Win the Promised Land: Story of a Freedom Fighter (Benmir Books, Walnut Creek, CA, 1992, Trans. from the Hebrew, Artziah Hershberg). It’s a real page-turner; highly recommended. Lankin was the Irgun commander of the Altalena at the time.
The book was first published b’Ivrit (only) in 1950 as The Story of the Commander of the Altalena (Hadar, TA), and again in 1967 and 1974. In the 1974 edition, Begin wrote a tribute to Lankin, which is repeated in the preface of To Win the Promised Land .
I totally agree with Lt.Col.Howard and strictly recommend “The revolt”/”La rebelión” by Menachem Begin to know what really happened about Altalena, Deir Yassin and the King David Hotel bombing.
@yamit82 – sorry yamit-I beg to differ. Begin was truly one of Israel’s greatest leaders. He is still greatly unappreciated.
To Aryeh Zelasko:
Well said!
@ SHmuel HaLevi:
The left was right about Begin being a blowhard populist demagogue. I supported and even defended Begin till I saw him up close and personal. His natural place was in opposition where he could inflict no harm. He could have been the poster guy for the Peter principle.
MacArthur said, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away” Not applicable for Israels leaders historically. Here we need to remove them in coffins (metaphorically),almost none of our politicians choose to just fade away.
Basically, if any Jewish person in Eretz Israel believes promises from political aggregates including the likes of Dayan, Weitzman, Rabin, Beilin, Ben Yair, Barak, (the judge of sorts), Sharon, (part of the old MAPAI-MAPAM gangs), Peresites, Ramon, Beinish, Saridnikim, Livni,(and her group), Barak, etc, he or she is going the be endangered and betrayed. Those people are mortal enemies of a JEWISH STATE and of anyone that is truly Jewish.
Mr. Begin either believed on Dayan-Weitzman and other of that trash or was forced to incorporate them into the FIRSE LIKUD government.
Either way, he fell into the common traps of that element and ended up causing damage the unJews long planned for.
It was all the fault of Begin: What is Begin’s fault? Everything!!!!
The looming danger
What didn?t the leaders promise then? Peace with Egypt – the strongest state in the Arab world! However, under the umbrella of peace, Egypt was strengthened sevenfold and put together one of the world?s largest armies. Its army has about a million soldiers, 5,000 tanks, about a thousand airplanes and helicopters, thousands of cannons, dozens of ships, submarines and more. Egypt has replaced the outdated Soviet equipment with new American equipment, of course, with annual military aid from the United States in the billions. Egypt?s army conducts maneuvers practicing to fight against Israel. Underground tunnels were built under the Channel towards Sinai, huge arsenals were prepared in Sinai bunkers.
The leaders promised: now antisemitism will stop. In reality, Egypt is the spearhead of the global antisemitism and incitement movement.
After the Six Day War, the whole world saluted Israel; the world loves the little David cutting off Goliath?s head. Today, the world?s antisemitism and hatred of Israel has come to a head not seen since the Holocaust. Read More Re-conquer Sinai 1 I’yar 5771 / 05/05/2011
30th Anniversary of the uprooting of Yamit. The expulsion from Yamit took place on the 28th of Nissan. (mon may 2,2011)
“By Day I Evict, By Night I Plan to Liberate Sinai Again”
General Chaim Erez, who was the commander of the Yamit and Sinai Region eviction, confided in Rabbi Yisrael Ariel *
Former MK Geula Cohen, who retired from the Likud following the agreement with Egypt, revealed that Begin expressed regret about the move to her and Minister Neeman. She said that his seclusion followed the uprooting of the Yamit region. Geula Cohen called on the settlers in Judea and Samaria to fight hard, and not leave.
Rabbi Israel Ariel, who was rabbi of Yamit, revealed that Gen. Chaim Erez, who was responsible for the expulsion, said, after the rabbi admonished him as how he, as a Holocaust survivor, can evict Jews: “I am ashamed of the work imposed on me. During the day I expel residents, and at night, at the Command, I make plans to re-occupy Sinai.” Rabbi Ariel added that today we see that it is about to become a reality.
writes Rabbi Ariel in his diary, “and explained to the general that we have three goals: a) to stop the withdrawal; b) to prevent a similar catastrophe in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the Golan Heights; and c) to express pain at the dismembering of Eretz Yisrael. As far as the first goal is concerned,” he said, “we know that we are not many and that we cannot stop it”. The general interrupted him politely: “ if you would have been tens of thousands of people here, I would have had to inform my superiors that I am not able to carry out this mission”.
Yesh Din ve”Yesh Dayan
For me and many of the Yamit residents ethnically cleansed by the weakest PM in the history of Israel, that I consider a criminal and a traitor to the nation of Israel and the Land of Israel, “Yimach sh mo v zikhro”
Does anyone know why Begin died in obscurity? Virtually nothing is known about his final years.
Begin not Ben gurion is the father of Israel
@ ArnoldHarris:
1000 per cent correct. Not only an alcoholic but also a drug addict and womanizer. Typical left wing traits.
@dweller – Thank you very much. Everything you say is 100% accurate according to my notes. I found that the highest estimate of Arab deaths was in the New York Times (approximately 300 if I remember correctly) and the lowest estimate came from Arab academic investigators at a university (somewhere like 100 to 125 if I remember correctly).
There has been a lot of good work on the number of Arabs who actually left. Also, the number of Palestinians and their birthrate. Probably much of this I have become familiar with due to Ted Belman posting a vast range of excellent materials.
Thank you dweller and thank you Ted.
Quite right you are, Colonel; moreover, the Jewish Agency’s ‘horror & disgust’ over Deir Yassin betrays its own sanctimonious hypocrisy — inasmuch as it was well aware of the plans for the operation and the Hagana (effectively the Agency’s military arm) had no prior objection to the assault. If you’ll indulge me in fleshing out the story, I offer a bit more detail as excerpted from a previous post of mine on this website in an earlier thread responding to an article of a couple months ago [“Bibi’s Hanging Tough”]:
[Jun 23, 3:35 am] “Immediately after the Partition Resolution [UNGA 181, of 29 Nov 47] had passed, the Mufti’s thugs promptly went to work killing their Jewish neighbors. It would be six months till the Brits’ planned date of withdrawal. But they did nothing (surprise, surprise!) to stop Arab troops from cutting the road from Yerushalayim to TA.
“The City was besieged, blockaded, nothing allowed in — no food, no water, no fuel. And no communication with the rest of the Yishuv. Deir Yassin was one of two villages adjacent to the road, and a major military stronghold in the blockade — occupied by Iraqi & local Arab [not yet called ‘Palestinian’] irregulars of the ‘Arab Liberation Army’ (infiltrated in from Syria & Transjordan betw Jan & Apr ’48 — viz., before the invasion of 15 May). The village was situated on a hill, 2600 feet high, which commanded a wide view of the vicinity; it had to be taken to lift the siege.
“It was taken.
“The Irgun (with an assist from Lehi) surrounded the village with just over 100 men. Hagana did not actively participate, but their commander [David Shaltiel] made clear that he had no objection; his only concern was that they be sure that if Irgun took the village, that they could HOLD it afterward (so the enemy could not take it over when they left).
“A small open truck fitted with a loudspeaker was driven to the village entrance before the attack and broadcast a warning to civilians to evacuate the area.
“(As with the King David demolition, Begin usually INSISTED on first issuing a warning to civilians to withdraw — thereby giving up the element of surprise — often at risk of greater casualties to his own forces. The warning was something of a trademark for him; the Begin signature.)
“Irgun left open an escape corridor from the village & more than 200 of Deir Yassin’s 750 actual residents left unharmed.
“The story was later circulated of a ‘massacre,’ complete with rapes, mutilations, etc. It was the purest BS.
“The Arabs who remained in the village feigned surrender, then fired on the unwitting Jewish troops — who then returned fire indiscriminately. This was later confirmed by Arabic-speaking, Hagana troops who overheard some survivors talking among themselves. Some women were killed, because among those who ‘surrendered’ before opening fire were some dressed as women. (How better to hide firearms, or one’s identity, than in a burqa?)
“Actually the Jordanian press tells the story clearly enough. Here, it quotes refugees, like Yunes Ahmed Assad, of Deir Yassin (virtually all of whose residents knew each other) -— writing on the fifth anniversary of the struggle over the village, and not only setting to rights the story of that encounter, but also placing the general pattern of evacuation in perspective:
“’The Jews never intended to hurt the population of the village, but were forced to do so after they met hostile fire from the population -— which killed the Irgun commander. [Furthermore,] the Arab exodus…was caused not by…the actual battle, but by the exaggerated description spread by the Arab leaders to incite them to fight the Jews…
“’For the flight and fall of the other villages, it is our leaders who are responsible, because of the dissemination of rumors exaggerating Jewish “crimes” and describing them as “atrocities” in order to inflame the Arabs… They instilled fear and terror into the hearts of the Arabs of Palestine until they fled, leaving their homes and property to the enemy…’” [quoted in the Jordanian daily, al-Urdun, 9 Apr 53]
“Another villager from Deir Yassin, Mahmoud Assad Yassini, who had pulled guard duty that day, remembers the extraordinary lengths to which the Arab leadership went in its resolve to spin the story of what had been an eight-hour BATTLE —- in a village which was in fact a well-fortified center of operations for Arab military activity, where great quantities of ammunition were found after the battle, and which had served as a base for Arab irregulars & Iraqi troops who attacked the Jewish Quarter of the Old City -— into a deliberate ‘massacre’ of noncombatants, and recounts his experience after the fighting, when he & the other surviving villagers attended an important meeting of the Mufti’s Arab Higher Committee nearby in Jerusalem:
“’When we arrived in Jerusalem, we were taken to a hotel near the Damascus gate. We started asking each other who had been killed, who was alive? Then the leaders of the National Committee [AHC] arrived, including Dr Hussein Fakhri al-Khalidi. He invited some of us to go to his headquarters. He said, “We want you to say that the Jews slaughtered people, committed atrocities, raped and stole gold.” He said you have to say this, so that the Arab armies will finally make a move and come to liberate Palestine from the Jews.‘
“[cited in Ahron Bregman & Jihan el-Tahri, The Fifty Years’ War: Israel and the Arabs (TV Books, NY, 1998, 1999), p. 36]”
“The reason for the distortions and exaggerations was subsequently set forth by a Palestine Arab official, Hazem Nusseibeh, who was a senior program assistant for the Palestine Broadcasting Service: ‘We weren’t sure that the Arab armies, for all their talk, were really going to come. We thought to shock the population of the Arab countries to stir pressures against their governments.’“
@ LT COL HOWARD:
You got that right. Begin was vilified all his life, even when he was Prime Minister. Yet he was a most pure and principled person. He was a very courageous.
For those who still haven’t read his book The Revolt written in 1950 they should read it. He goes into great detail on The King David Hotel Bombing, Deir Yasin and the Altelena.
Arguably many of the present sequel of “protests” at the time when the policies of Mr. Begin successors have brought a major surge in Israel’s power, are the last attempt by the Altalenists to again sabotage the State they see moving away from their criminal grasp.
As I said before. The Oslo conspiracy was a modern form of the original murderous assault against the Altalena.
Since the 90’s, by proxy. The islamic beasts of Arafat, which Rabin, Peres, Weitzman and other such items called their “partners” were given the job that Rabin took upon himself against the Altalena.
The resurfacing of the Altalena marks the end of the gangs that formulated the plans and acted to sink it and murder many Jews.
I agree, Yamit.
I heard all about the Altalena directly from Dr Israel Eldad, in the summer months of 1974 when he was teaching me about real Zionism such as I had heard little or nothing about, either in the USA or Israel. All that was during breaks between our chess games in his beautiful Rechavia apartment. He had a brain like a polished steel trap, and I can’t imagine him as ever having lost very many games of chess.
As for Rabin and his assassination, I never have shed even a single tear. I thought that man was a drunkard and a coward. From my own readings of his day to day interactions with Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan and the rest of the civil and military leadership of that era, he could barely screw up the courage to command Zahal in time for the Six Day War victory.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
The issue was whether an emerging country can allow and tolerate an independent opposition militia. Much as I support the Israeli Right, the decision and action to block an alternate militia was correct. Begin acted properly once his bluff was called. He withdrew. The bloodshed was unfortunate. The ship’s cargo might have possibly been commandeered upon unloading by what was then the official IDF. But that is an assumption. Others may know more about the real options.
Coincidentally my wife and I saw a similar photo http://www.magnumphotos.com/image/PAR122245.html at the Boca Raton Museum yesterday evening by Robert Capa, the known war photographer who should be given credit for the pic above.http://www.magnumphotos.com/Catalogue/Robert-Capa/1948/ISRAEL-Tel-Aviv-NN140330.html See more on Capa and early Israel at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/birth-of-a-nation–by-robert-capa-823076.html?action=Gallery&ino=9
Yitzhak Rabin – murderer of Altalena ship
Rabin assassinated 🙂
Measure for Measure! PEACE
The nineteen men were not passengers who were killed, they were Irgun fighters coming to help fight the Arabs and were murdered in cold blood by Yitzhak Rabin after they raised white flags. Ben Gurion thought that Menachem Begin was on the ship and wanted to murder him. Rabin bragged about how he shot them in the water for many years. Rabin was the only Hagana officer willing to undertake this attack since the other officers did not want to fight Jews. The day the Altalena is raised we can have a memorial during the Yitzhak Rabin festival on the anniversary of his death.
Only G-d knows how many Jewish lives were lost due to the shortage of weapons that the Altalena would have provided. The country had 1,500 rifles and the Altalena was reported to have 5,000 rifles, machine guns, a tank, two canons, and eight million rounds of rifle ammunition. This would given the fledgling country a better fighting advantage but that didn’t matter to Ben Gurion whose lust for power was more important. Menachem Begin did not want to fight Jews but Ben Gurion showed his willing to murder Jews to keep his power ignoring the Arab threat to both sides.
Today this still goes on as the government wants to forcibly remove Jews from their G-d given land.
What incredible, pretentious BS. There was never a battle amongst Zionist groups. There was only the totalitarian ambition of Ben-Gurion. In keeping with his role model, Stalin, his solution to political competition was to murder the competitor. The Revisionist were never a “faction” but an alternative to the Communist. The Altallena was sunk for three reasons. Firstly it was an attempt to murder Begin and his people. Secondly, since the weapons were intended for the defense of Jerusalem and its surrounding area, it was intended to prevent the defense of Jerusalem and the Gush so it would fall into Arab hands and be destroyed. This would rid the New Israel of all of those backward and and useless Religious. The third reason was to establish the precedent that the open murder of Jews by “The Party” was acceptable.
The playing ground is being gradually leveled and the unJews who are hatchlings of the Ben Gurion school, know that their Altalena power and control harvest is over. That means that w/o a doubt, having failed to murder the Jews representing the majority in Eretz Israel by using their Arafat proxies, they will try to perform another Altalena.
The people must be alert and ready.
As an outsider I do not have much to contribute to this discussion.
I 1st encountered Gershom Gorenberg, some years ago when I penned a critique of his work for an American left-wing publication. They edited it to make it sound as if I was praising and endorsing his work. It is certainly was not the materials that I would want identified with my name.
One observation that is very troubling is that: Israeli society is still suffering from pre-State hatreds.
I have done a reasonable (but very limited) amount of research on the Altalena . My nonprofessional observation is that the” Begin story “is much closer to the truth than the “Ben-Gurion” story. Further, it appears to me that ,had those armaments and Irguin fighters been available, then East Jerusalem might not have fallen to the Jordanians.
I have also looked into Deir Yassin. On March 13, 1948 a contingent of Iraqi troops entered Deir Yassin On April 9, 1948 approximately 100 Irguin fighters approached Deir Yassin and were fired on. After combat, some of the remaining Arabs pretended to surrender and some them fired on the Israelis. The under -trained Jewish irregulars responded with indiscriminate fire.The Jewish agency expressed its “horror and disgust ” and repudiated this operation and those who conducted it. Given the facts on the ground ,it is likely that a great deal of this condemnation was a result of the political struggle (originating in Europe) between Begin and Ben-Gurion.
The lesson for Israel for today is that political conflict can jeopardize the existence of Israel. On this note, to me, Begin emerges as a much more heroic figure than he is given credit for by most major Israeli historians.
Of course that “belief” is still widespread with them.
How else to clothe the naked reality?
What the left carefully dances around
and cannot bear to contemplate
(let alone, admit) —
and most assuredly will never live down
if it lives to be as old as God Himself
— is that Ben-Gurion used the opportunity
to attempt the murder of Begin.
Shalom Chaver
Viva la Altalena!