יומנים > יומן - מלא 13/09/1948

[Monday,] September 13, 1948

Lifshitz [Zalman Leef] is preparing a new map - a border that excludes only Nablus, Ramallah, and Hebron from the state's jurisdiction, and leaves all of Jerusalem and its surroundings within the state. He has 3 alternatives - which build on the assumption that we'll conquer the entire country, an assumption that isn't out of the question - from a military perspective.

       He's worried about the issue of refugees, of whom only a minority, according to him, are in neighboring countries: maybe 75,000 in Transjordan, 5,000 in Iraq, 12,000-15,000 in Lebanon, 20,000 in Syria, and a few in Egypt. Only the city-dwellers left for neighboring countries. According to him, the Fellahin [Arab peasants] are parked on the frontlines and hoping to return. They should be harassed. They have a lot of cattle. The mukhtar of Qumya, who has a thousand dunam of his own land, is in Nazareth, and even though his two daughters in Nazareth are panhandlers - he doesn't want to sell land, because he's sure that he'll return, the price of land will rise dramatically because of large-scale ''aliya, and therefore he doesn't want to sell.

       Lifshitz also knows the secret to producing plastic maps - in three dimensions [relief maps], which the American army began producing for itself at the end of the war.

       - In the morning Judge Powers, a friend of [New York Governor] Dewey, and Molter, a Zionist from Brooklyn, candidate in the congressional elections, came to see me at the Kirya. The judge is a friend of [David] Marcus. He'd visited the Southern Front. According to his reports there are 12-18 Arab battalions in northern Jerusalem, 15 Iraqi, 6-7 Syrian, also Egyptian. They have 75 mm cannons with ammunition for eight days. They're planning to attack us - they'll violate the truce.

       Molter claims that he was promised we could receive plans for bazookas and other weapons that we can process here - even if they don't allow us to export the weapons from America. All we need to do is approach the State Department with such a request. Both visitors insist on the need to send a military attaché, more to the point three attachés - military, naval, air [force]. They'll show him the factories for weapons. It's also possible to send young officers to a military, naval, and air [force] academy (4 years) and to a one-year supplementary training course for artillery and the like.

       Molter complains that our hasbara [explanation, public relations] is not good. Creates an impression of communism, which there isn't, doesn't reveal the good that there is.

       - Gideon [Ben-Yisrael] informs me that he was wounded 4 months ago in the conquest of Abu Tor in Jerusalem. The bullet remained in his hand. In the meantime he continued and also finished a platoon commanders course with distinction. The surgery wasn't successful, and the doctors released him from active duty and are suggesting an administrative position for him. He wants to work in the Ministry of Defense in supervision, intelligence, and the like.

       - [Ze'ev] Sherf briefed me on the scandal of the "invasion" of Jaffa, by immigrants on the one hand and army [soldiers] on the other. I told the chief of staff to court-martial the officers responsible, and to demand punishment to the full extent of the law and to publicize the issue among all the army units, so as to completely uproot any inclination to take the law into one's own hands using armed force.

       - Gershon Zak is demanding space in the St. Lun [should be: St. Luke's] center near Haifa, for a naval officers course. I requested details and a written proposal.

       Regarding a chief of staff [for the Navy] - Yossi Hamberger [Harel], Eliav (Luba, Dan's adjutant), and Avraham Zakai support Paul Shulman as chief of staff. Shura Fishman [Naval quartermaster], Avraham Ofer (Hirsch) and Samek Poznanski [Yanai] are opposed - because Paul is not Eretz-Israeli, does not speak Hebrew, and is stubborn. The three of them propose Yossi Hamberger. Yossi is not, according to Gershon, a naval man, but a Haganah and Palmach man, an important organizer, non-partisan, not a man of Si'ah Bet [Faction B, which seceded from Mapai] or a party man.

       - The ship HaDromit (arrived last Wednesday [from Mexico]) brought 32 75 mm C. [cannons] with 16,000 shells, 2 American mountain guns 75 mm, 4,000 shells, and 170 aerial bombs, 50 kilos each, 500 Browning-6 300 [0.300" caliber] machine guns. Ten million rounds, 4 naval radar systems, 60 heavy machine guns (Vickers) with bullets (number?), 24 American heavy machine guns, 15,000 steel helmets, 1,000 tons of sugar [apparently as a smokescreen for the military cargo]. The ship - 6,000 tons, is ours (entered the port under the name Pins [sp.]) (Its original name is Kafelos).

       Tonight a ship will arrive from Yugoslavia with 38 German 75 mm C. [manufactured by Krupp], 50,000 shells and another 150,000 shells for 20 mm and additional goods from Belgium and lumber. The Jack Star is anchored in port, carrying 18 small observation aircraft from America and motors for aircraft, one radar, a new medium-sized Bren-carrier, 200 machine guns, 200 rifles.

       From Kozlowski [Pinchas Sapir] a message: On September 15 a ship with the purchase from Czechoslovakia will set out (10,000 rifles, 20 million bullets, 500 machine guns, 20 Besa [machine gun]s).

       On September 21 a ship will set out with 20 (anti-aircraft and anti-tank) 20 mm C., 200,000 shells.

       - I dined with Bartley Crum and Freda Kirchwey. In the afternoon I went with them to Rehovot, for the Givati Brigade parade.

       - In the evening [Arthur] Koestler came to see me - he's writing a book about Israel's war and the founding of the state. He complains about the attitude of overlooking past service in ETZEL, and he wants to know our genuine position between East and West. This is in his view the question that determines everything. In America there's sympathy for us but they're concerned about our leanings towards Russia. Are we loyal to Western democracy?

       I told him: There's a political aspect (the aspect of utility). We want the friendship of all governments, regardless of their internal regime. He agreed with this. And as to Western democracy - I'm in favor of Jewish democracy. The "Western" [democracy] is insufficient. Being Jewish is not just a biological fact but also - knowingly or unknowingly - a moral, ethical one. We possess special Jewish content - which should be made available to the world. The value of life and the liberty of man are more deeply imbued in us, per the teachings of the prophets, than in Western democracy. Government by force without the freedom of choice and without the freedom of conscience, thought, and speech - is not compatible with socialism, but that does not mean that we must align with the West. I would like our future to be built on the ethics of the prophets (man is created in the image of God, love thy neighbor as thyself - these lead to a life of equality and liberty such as on a kibbutz), on the best science, and on the best technical advancement.

       He asked about my attitude towards changing Hebrew letters to Latin ones, and when I replied in the negative, he insisted: And why did the Turks do it? I explained that in Turkey it was justified and necessary - because Arab letters do not suit the Turkish tongue, whereas Hebrew letters and the Hebrew tongue are organically interlinked, and Latin letters do not suit the structure of the language or its grammar.

       He acknowledged that it's possible there's an inherent connection between the letter and the tongue, and expressed pride in his knowledge of Hebrew - his original tongue is Hungarian and also German, eventually he switched to English, but it's hard to imagine that he'll be able to write in Hebrew, although he speaks it a little.

       He asked about his book Thieves in the Night - I told him that I'll speak frankly: there's a lot of literary and descriptive talent, power of thought and political analysis in the book - but the truth is missing. The propaganda value of the book is tremendous, but it doesn't contain a truthful portrayal. There isn't a single positive halutzi character in it, not a single Haganah figure. The positive characters are only in ETZEL - and there's no greater falsehood than that.

       He apologized that he hadn't written the book for me - but for the Gentiles, and it had garnered support for Zionism, and was written out of emotion - the impression from his meeting with [Menachem] Begin, and the persecutions that ETZEL men were experiencing at that time at the hands of the government and the Haganah.

       He requested material on the war - specifically my diary. I didn't promise him that, and I also explained that I don't actually have a diary, but rather written records of matters that I must remember for the practical needs of the war and security.