יומנים > יומן - מלא 06/11/1948

Saturday, November 6, 1948

[Yosef] Weitz and [Levi] Eshkol came to see me - regarding the Negev. The question: whether to launch the Afikim LaNegev project and settle the first 300 people in Beersheva, and to establish additional settlements. There's a plan for the employment of hundreds of people. I told Weitz: Even though we have no guarantee that Beersheva will remain in our hands, we must act as if we're certain that it will remain in our hands; otherwise - it certainly won't remain in our hands.

       However, I told them that now there's the severe problem of the Galilee. We shouldn't think that the Galilee is ours, following the military conquest. It's not possible for us to hold onto an empty and desolate Galilee. If we don't hurry up and settle the Upper Galilee - then this is a political defeat. [We] need to establish a chain of settlements along the coast up to Rosh HaNikra and all along the Lebanon border and also around Safed. For this purpose it is necessary to take new immigrants and to demand that the settlement bodies supply trainers - and if they're in the army they should be pulled out, because this settlement enterprise has military value.

       - In the evening Herzfeld came to see me. He'd been in the Negev - in Yad Mordechai. The members demand that the designated area [Gaza Strip] be surrounded by settlements. I explained to Herzfeld: It's necessary to give priority to settlements around Beersheva and the southern Negev - and settlements along the coast in the Galilee and along the Lebanese border. Whether the shore along the Pleshet [Philistia] coastline remains in our hands - is still in great doubt.