יומנים > יומן - מלא 01/04/1948

April 1, 1948

The first three officers of the Naval Service [Navy] have already (at long last) been set up, and I asked Yisrael [Galili] to see to the total transfer of the Palmach's naval workers [the Palyam people] to the Naval Service. He promised to do it.

- I invited [Nahum] Warlinski [sp?] [manager of Tnuva] and demanded that he devote himself during the week ( "the week" may last more than seven days) to centralizing and arranging supplies for Jerusalem [so that] our sacrifices and efforts to take over the Jerusalem road won't be in vain and so that they can be put to full use. He said he'd do it.

- A long talk with Yohanan [Ratner] about his duties and the arrangements to be made: With the help of the Zionist General Council, we may rid ourselves of the delays and the jumbling of authorities, and a single central authority will be set up. The Defense Committee and the National Headquarters will be abolished, and with them the post of Chief of the National Headquarters as well, but I would like-if I continue to manage the defense bureau, to co-opt Yisrael [Galili] and Shaul [Avigur] into this work. Reform at the [General] Staff is needed-Separate planning from execution. Enlarge the military element and [people with] experience at the Staff and in command, don't let the army become a political-party army, and, all things being equal, [better] a nonpartisan man than a party man for command, have command come from the Staff only, develop two new and independent services: naval and air. Establish a Negev Brigade (S.R. [Shlomo Rabinovitz-Shamir] should command it], perhaps split the northern [Command]: one part as far as Migdal, the other Tiberias and the Bet She'an and Jordan Valley district. Develop science and expedite its use in battle.

Ratner will take up his duties next Wednesday-as stand-in for the Chief of General Staff. He needs to draw up an algebraic and "arithmetic" plan for changes at the Staff.

Yohanan asked: Are we heading for an armistice?

I said: I don't know what the UN forces are heading for, but England-is our enemy, and no matter what happens the near solution in terms of formal arrangements (state, trusteeship, federation, etc.), its content will depend on the power we mobilize and display, and therefore-military force.

[Ratner] then asked: Are we heading for coordination with the "commander" of the IZL and will the chief of General Staff have to maintain communication with [Menachem] Begin?

I said that according to the proposal that's been presented to us-there will be not coordination but subordination and the IZL will get a piece and will receive instructions from the local Haganah commander.

- The pieces [weapons] that arrived tonight [on a plane from Czechoslovakia] have already been placed in service in the war for transport to Jerusalem [in Operation Nahshon], including 15 machines [machine guns]. I told Yigael that some of the "free" machines will be airlifted to Jerusalem-as a morale-booster and a symbol.

- From Hadassah, [Rose] Halperin, Judith Epstein, Rebecca [Sieff], Ethel Agronsky [Agron], and Bertha Schoolman will come from abroad for the meeting of the [Zionist] General Council.