יומנים > יומן - מלא 09/11/1948

Tuesday, November 9, 1948

Fisher [Yosef (Joseph) Ariel] from Paris: a single director was appointed for the fundraising campaign in Paris in place of the three previous ones. The fundraising campaign will be divided, half for security, a quarter for the KKL [Keren Kayemet LeIsrael, the Jewish National Fund] and a quarter for Keren HaYesod. [Baron] Guy Rothschild resigned as chairman of the Haganah fundraising campaign because he wants a united [Jewish] fund, because he thinks it will be hard to raise a lot of resources for just Eretz Israel.

       Fisher met with soldiers [from GAHAL] who are natives of France and the colonies [mainly from North Africa] (about 2,000). Among one sector - those who came from the Zionist movement - the feeling is good. But these are a minority. The majority was recruited without any preparation or training, without knowing the language. Among them the feeling is defeatist - not in the military sense. Here, indeed, they want to fight. But in a general sense. After the war they want to return. There's no activity among them. Only ETZEL is active among them in French. In Neve Ilan and ''Ein HaNatziv there are good men from France who could be active among them and influence them. The return of these elements to France - with combat experience and opposition to the Yishuv - will have a terrible influence. He met three men, soldiers who participated in the conquest of Beersheva - and in looting. [They're] corrupt.

       In Paris, Pol [Abraham Polonski] publishes a weekly newspaper, Defence; the editor is Jacques Calmi [sp.], who was assistant to P. Bergson [Hillel Kook, ETZEL supporter]. The funds from the Haganah accounts are in the country. He spends 600,000 francs per month. Fisher asked for half of this amount - for his newspaper. I telegraphed Reuven [Shiloah] to look into the matter. I asked him about [Maurice] Fischer, our ambassador. He's succeeding. Over the course of the year he established many contacts; he's respected. His illness - an ulcer - bothers him, but he's succeeding, even though when he arrived he didn't know Paris. [Marc] Jarblum doesn't like him, but assists him faithfully.

       The economic situation in France is good. Production is increasing, but there's financial hardship, strikes, communists, and de Gaulle. De Gaulle is not anti-Semitic, he is a Zionist, will recognize the State of Israel, many friends of ours are in his circle. But the masses on whom he relies - are anti-Semitic and reactionary masses, and his rule will entail the growth of the anti-Semitic movement.

       The Jewish communists helped the Haganah fundraising campaign. Now they're demanding that the fundraising campaign take a stance in favor of the Democratic Front and against England and America. Of course our members object, and they're going to withdraw from the committee and launch their own Haganah fundraising campaign.

       - Ya'akov [Shimshon] Shapira and Ya'akov Dori: the military law and the advocate general. Shapira proposes [Joseph] K[aiserman] - not a bad lawyer, a well-mannered man. [Avraham] G[orali] is a good guy - but doesn't know military matters and isn't an important lawyer. There was a nomination for W[estin] [sp.] - English Jew, was in the army, a good lawyer. But he's a foreigner, and has a flawed Jewish background. Pairing him with G[orali] is not an option, nor with H[oter-Yishai]. These are not a pair.

       H[oter-Yishai] is not such a bad lawyer, knows the army, served in the army, knows military administration, but he's easygoing, flighty, not always dependable; K[aiserman] - in Ya'akov's view - is better, but doesn't know anything about the army.

       But after weighing everything, Ya'akov proposes H[oter-Yishai].

       Shapira proposes W[estin] and K[aiserman]. He's worried about H[oter-Yishai]; he makes noise and isn't a man of action. He sabotaged the war against LEHI. There's no moral flaw in W[estin] - it's just that he was a foreigner, didn't understand our affairs - he'll be a deputy to H[oter-Yishai]. Ya'akov agreed to this.

       I asked about the military law - Shapira claims he has no personnel. I promised him a budget for someone specifically to translate and expedite the law. He'll take [Moshe] Silberg for this purpose.

       - LEHI - Shapira insists that Yellin[-Mor] be turned over for a civil trial in Haifa - because there are additional charges against him (weapons, valuta [foreign currency]), and there's no cause for concern that Judge Agranat would be afraid or deterred. Shapira will be the prosecutor. Shaul disagrees with this: in the eyes of the public right now there's no value or significance in charges involving the possession of weapons and valuta. The main issue is his being a leader of terrorists. As judges they propose: Ya'akov Galili, attorney (brother of [Yisrael] Galili), Michael Ben-Gal, and Nahum Shadmi.

       A question about Y. Shapira's apartment - on Shivtei Israel Street, which is occupied by Hayish [Field Corps]. I issued instructions to Persitz to give this apartment to Shapira, but Kaplan took the apartment.

       - I received a report on the Jerusalem casualties [people killed]: December 1947: soldiers - 22, civilians - 19, total - 41. January - 74 (63 s., 11 c.), February - 75 (14 + 61), March - 73 (59 + 14), April - 141 (92 + 49), May - 214 (128 + 86), June - 189 (74 + 115), July - 151 (90 + 61), August - 48 (35 + 13), September - 27 (13 + 14), total 1,033 (590 [soldiers] + 443 [civilians]).

       - [Gershon] Zak returned. He'd gone with the Italian to Italy - to examine sabotage plans known to the expert [Sergeant Fiorenzo Capriotti, who instructed the naval sabotage unit in the use of explosive-laden boats]. Ada [Sereni] handled a few of these plans - it had to be submitted to the English according to the contract. The head of the Italian Navy knows what we used to sink the two Egyptian ships, and there's concern that England will take measures. 3 plans were given to us (an incendiary bomb that can be tossed at a harbor from any boat, a depth charge to destroy submarines in deep waters, a depth charge that rises and blows up a ship). He learned that submarines have not yet been given to Egypt. There are additional plans that we might obtain. Alon [Yehuda Arazi] and Ada are handling the matter. Alon will arrive this week; it's possible to obtain three naval cannons from 1947 by way of the government of Greece - at a cost of 100,000 per cannon. It's also possible to obtain a 700-ton submarine for 49 men from Greece at P£ 100,000 (or $) so that it's brought initially to Haifa.

       - Finally we captured Iraq-Suweidan - after shelling by cannons. Sixty people fled to the countryside - thirty were taken captive. It's safe to assume that Faluja won't last long either.  Cadogan [UK ambassador to the Security Council] will have additional material for incitement.

       - Moshele [Moshe Carmil] of the Mossad [le-''Aliya Bet] came to see me. He's complaining about the immigration arrangements. The immigration apparatus in Haifa is too small, and when a large ship arrives, disembarkation takes 7-8 hours, and everyone crowds onto the deck, because they can't sit anywhere else for lack of air, and they stand with the luggage, with the children. Then they're taken to a shack in the warehouse, where the registration begins, but there aren't enough clerks to register them, and again the whole thing takes hours. When a ship arrives at 6 p.m. disembarkation lasts until midnight and sometimes 2 a.m.; the children in particular suffer.

       On the part of the clerks there's apathy - no regard. The matter is conducted heartlessly. It's possible to find volunteers for this activity, it's possible to carry out the registration on the ship. [Eliezer] Dostrovsky himself has regard for the immigrant - but he's trying to do everything by himself and isn't managing.

       Moshele also insists on taking better advantage of the ship's capacity. This depends on the Ministry of Transport (Bar-Kochba [Meirovitz]). The Ministry personnel want the capacity to be like elsewhere in the world - and this isn't possible, in Moshele's view. They're more severe with an Israeli ship when it leaves the country (Bar-Kochba is in charge of ports).

       The Mossad has 16 working ships - a few are always under repair. The crew is about 600 people. [Zeev] Schind left the Ministry of Transport and transferred to the Mossad. In Haifa it's Zvi Yehieli (Schind left this morning for Paris).

       Moshele thinks it's possible to organize young immigrants from South Africa and South America and Australia - emissaries have to be sent, for this purpose.

       - In the afternoon I attended an assembly in Petah Tikva to commemorate the [city's] seventieth anniversary.