יומנים > יומן - מלא 09/06/1948

Wednesday, June 9, 1948

At ten, still no news about the front [Operation Yoram]. Yigael [Yadin] had a phone conversation in which he heard that things are not right with Sasha (Yigal P. [Allon's codename]).  A report by Yosef R. [Avidar] casts doubt on whether the food was delivered [to Jerusalem] - although all the arrangements involving mules, jeeps, and people were completed.

       At ten a government meeting on our final answer [regarding a truce].

       At 12:30 I left for Hulda. At Ekron I received a transmission from Stone and Yigal, who had been fighting all night until dawn. 13 were killed and 45 wounded. If possible, they'll reorganize tonight and fight again.

       At Hulda I found Yigael [Yadin] and [Chaim] Herzog at Shlomo [Shamir]'s staff. An Arab company has set out towards Beit Susin and Beit Jiz, and our mortars and cannons were used against them.

       Abraham Silverstein [sp.], Shmurak [Dov Shemer]'s assistant, arrived at four and informed me that the porters had only reached the site at 3 a.m. They were tired. The jeeps set out with the food, but the mules did not, since the jeeps had been delayed by about five hours because of one jeep that had broken down, and the mules could not set out. At Beit Susin there remain 150 men, and at [Camp] Bilu there are 150 men. Tonight they'll head out. The mules too, they believe, will head out tonight. The new road is steadily being paved, although it's within Arab firing range.

       The attack plan that was carried out tonight was not the one formulated with Yigael S. [Yadin]'s knowledge, and he doesn't know why Stone and Yigal P. [Allon] changed it.

       From Yigal's conversation with the staff, it turns out that they won't mobilize against Latrun tonight, apparently for lack of ammunition. Stone is demanding more auxiliary weapons. They'll mobilize tomorrow. Tonight they'll transport food - using jeeps, mules, and people. At 6:30 I returned to Ramat Gan. On the way back 3 airplanes chased us, bombing the streets.

       - When I arrived back at my office at eight (in the evening), Yosef Yizraeli brought me two updates: 1) A telegram from the SD [US State Department] to the Provisional Government: Accept Bernadotte's truce proposal unconditionally. 2) A telephone [call] from Haifa according to a report of the British military [intelligence], [saying] that the Arabs are on the verge of their fatal [final] end. They have no ammunition or weapons, and they want the war to end provided they can "save face." The most zealous is [Egyptian Prime Minister] Nuqrashi Pasha, and the remedy is either to replace him or to find a scapegoat - namely the English (?).