יומנים > יומן - מלא 05/10/1948

[Tuesday,] October 5, 1948

In the evening I left for the Southern [Front] staff - in Gedera. Also present, aside from Yigal [Allon], were the intelligence officer (Zerubavel Vermel [Arbel]), operations officer (Yitzhak Rabin), Shimon Avidan [Givati Brigade commander], and others.

       In the south and the Negev Egypt has [its] Division 3, comprising 3 brigades: Brigade B - positioned north of Ashdod up to Majdal, 3 battalions, 8 field cannons, aside from anti-tank cannons. Brigade D - along the Majdal - Beit Jubrin line; Brigade A - from Majdal to El-''Arish, mainly around Gaza (2 battalions). There are also irregular, and semi-regular battalions, a sort of Egyptian GAHAL [foreign recruitment] (Sudanese, Libyans, [Muslim] Brothers). Their force is stretched over long lines, [they're] anxious and fear attacks. Eastward they're sparse; there isn't a large force around Jerusalem (from the south).

       Our forces: Givati has 5 battalions: [Battalion] 51 - 688 men, [Battalion] 52 - 625, [Battalion] 53 - 645, [Battalion] 54 - 635, [Battalion] 55 - 690, in total 3,283. A shortfall of 824 men from the standard. Givati claims that it only has 2,200 combatants. Aside from them there are 2 garrison battalions: [Battalion] 151 - 360 men, [Battalion] 152 - 573 men, altogether 933. Avidan believes: only 625 [of them] are combatants.

       Of the Negev Brigade currently in Be'er Ya'akov - Battalion 2 - [there's] only a skeleton and a staff company, [Battalion] 7 - 650 (60 of them WC [Women's Corps]), [Battalion] 8 - 880 (this includes a staff company), [Battalion] 9 - 500 (70 WC), in total 2,030. There's also a French [speaking] battalion of 400 men.

       The Yiftah [Brigade] has 2 battalions: [Battalion] 1 - 768 (449 combatants); [Battalion] 3 - 881 men (483 combatants), in total 1,649. In the Negev District there are 2 battalions - 138 + 120, total 258; in total there are about 8,800 men at the front, 20% of them non-combatants.

       An attack (in the southeast [in Iraq-Manshiyya], in Majdal, then Gaza) requires, in Yigal and Shimon's view, another brigade from outside - Brigade 8 [the Armored Brigade]. Then he'll do the work in seven days. Without Brigade 8 he's not sure of the outcome. Southern Jerusalem requires, in Yitzhak [Rabin] and Yigal [Allon]'s view, only one brigade, which will come [be pulled] from Talpiot, one section will go to Bethlehem and Beit Jala, and one section will go to Silwan and Abu Dis. In their view there's no need to capture Latrun at all; we'll expand the corridor from the south and the railway will be in our hands. In the southern portion the action will require 6 Hayish battalions + 1 garrison; the action in the north [the corridor] 7 Hayish + 4 garrison.

       - In the morning a number of [Mapai] members dropped by. I raised the question of attacking the Egyptians. [David] Remez strongly objected - so far we've won by miracle, and we can't count on miracles. [Yosef] Sprintzak kept quiet out of protest. All the other members - Shaul [Avigur], [Levi] Eshkol, Grabovsky [Meir Argov], Bebe [Idelson], Gurfinkel [Yisrael Guri], Globman [Akiva Govrin], Yehudit [Simhonit], [Yehiel] Duvdevani, Kossoy [Yona Kesse] - spoke in favor, some with less and some with more certainty. I explained to Remez that there are no miracles, that everything occurs naturally - according to all the odds we're expected to win, because the Arabs haven't changed in the meantime; the risk of a truce without a resolution is much worse and more problematic; we needn't fear sanctions now, especially in the south, and the British on their own won't openly provide help [to the Arabs].

       - I edited my remarks from the kibbutz members' conference.