יומנים > יומן - מלא 24/10/1948
Sunday, October 24, 1948, Jerusalem
In the morning I visited Dov Yosef's office. Food - there are reserves for three months. There's egg powder - there are no eggs. There's flour, oil, sugar, milk powder - 70 tons (for two months). The food is allocated [rationed]; only a few things are available in the free market (usually luxuries: expensive preserves, etc.). The grocer must provide 250 grams per person per day, but there's leftover.
Water - there are reserves of 55,000 cubic meters, enough for two months, being brought in by pipeline. If the additional 6" pipeline is laid - there will be an additional 1,500 [cubic] meters per day. Leibowitz [the city engineer] thinks the work will be done in 7-8 days. Then it will be possible to take a shower in Jerusalem. There will then be 4,000 cubic meters per day (normally 10,000 cubic meters are required).
Fuel - [we] have kerosene. In November 2 gallons will be provided per person for the month, this is enough for slightly more than cooking, and [people] will be able to heat [themselves] a little, but it won't suffice, and it will be cold in Jerusalem. There's no diesel fuel in the country; in the city there's only 60 tons of diesel fuel. There are about 20,000 gallons of gasoline, [which] is provided only on the basis of coupons. For bakeries the diesel fuel will only last two months [if used] sparingly. Yosef complains that from time to time the army comes and takes fuel - without instructions from him. Electricity - okay. They have 300 tons of diesel oil, [and] consume 12-14 tons per day. If there's less oil - they'll reduce the electricity supply.
There isn't adequate telephone and telegraph connectivity. Mail is only once a day - in the morning, and the newspapers are complaining that they can't send material in the evening. They only need one vehicle in the evening. It's puzzling that there's no telephone line - even a pipeline has been laid. There is a telephone [line] up to Sha'ar HaGai - only about 11 km of line is missing. The telegraph doesn't work either - when there are many telegrams.
There's no work underway in the city, because there are no workers. Even 53-year-olds are on duty. It's imperative to add another 500 people, workers or soldiers, to Jerusalem. It turns out that D. Yosef's letter about the transfer of 1,200 men from garrison to Hayish was based on incorrect information that he received from Wolla [sp.] [Ze'ev] Feldman, Levitze [Yitzhak Levi]'s deputy. Instead of 1,200 as stated - they took only 639, and even these weren't added to Hayish, but instead went from partial enlistment to full enlistment in garrison. (Moshe [Dayan] asserts: Hayish has 2,300 recruits, garrison has 2,600, aside from services, whose number Moshe doesn't know!). Yosef claims that in Jerusalem 8,000 have been conscripted. Where are the additional 3,000? And why is the percentage of conscripts relative to the entire population so small? In the country as a whole nearly 15% have been conscripted, here only 5%, or at most 8% - if it's true that there are 100,000 Jews here. Yosef says there aren't 100,000 - how many are there? 90,000. Wolla [sp.] Feldman says that garrison has 3,670. Moshe claims that Jerusalemites are located in other parts of the country, in the Negev, Galilee, and elsewhere. Yosef demands at least 500 people. Immigrants should also be brought in ([Zvi] Herman is handling ''aliya [and immigrant processing at the Jewish Agency] - and he should be approached).
[The] municipality - all the sectors in the city [are represented] on the governor's council - (only Agudas Israel isn't participating). They decided to expand the municipality. Yosef submitted the protocol to [Yitzhak] Gruenbaum. The minister of the interior arranged [a committee] composed of 15-16 people, [and] suddenly it was canceled. Yosef is insisting on a new composition - in order to activate the municipality.
How will the council members operate?
Movement - leaving Jerusalem will require a permit. So far 7-8 vehicles have left for Tel Aviv [per day]. The Personnel Department - Inspection reduced this to two buses per day. Why did they do that? Because a road [Kvish HaGvura - "Road of Valor"] is being paved and the traffic impedes it (see [Max] Schumacher - he's familiar with the issue, clarify it with him). The army in Jerusalem - according to Moshe [Dayan] - is not opposed to the free movement. Yosef doesn't recommend freedom of movement yet, but the number of buses should be increased. If there were enough vehicles - Yosef would support freedom of movement, but when there aren't, the matter shouldn't be turned over to Egged [the bus company] - who would receive bribes for [granting preference in] travel.
Relations in the city aren't bad. Everyone was included in the governor's council - aside from the Aguda [Agudas Israel] (Po'alei Agudas Israel are participating).
The state of livelihood? Not good.
Housing? - Arranged. About 10,000 people left the shelled neighborhoods and settled in Katamon, the German Colony, Romema, and elsewhere.
Hadassah in Jerusalem opened a physical rehabilitation department for soldiers in Jerusalem. [Dr. Eli] Davies [director of Hadassah in Israel] is complaining that the army in Jerusalem is also about to open such a department. In November university classes in humanities will begin for 300 students at the Terra Sancta [monastery], based on an agreement with the monks. Hadassah's hospital is located in the city, on HaNevi'im Street. Next to this building the office of the military police, which had relocated to Katamon, became available, but the housing service (Schumacher) refuses [to turn it over].
The Personnel Department brought me the total numbers of recruits in Jerusalem (October 11, 1948). The 6th Brigade: staff 191; Battalion 61 - 654; 62 - 560; 64 (auxiliary) - 273; 68 - 670, total 2,348; in the district [garrison]: staff 385; 161 - 181; 162 - 573; 163 - 684; 164 - 763; Jerusalem area staff 398; total 2,984. In the Personnel Department 388, in Personnel Department services 850, Logistics Department units 660, services and corps 986, miscellaneous 1,193 - overall total 9,415.
- Meeting with [Jewish] Agency personnel at 12:30. [Moshe] Kol, Eliahu Dobkin, and [Meir] Grossman are working in Jerusalem. [Berl] Locker hasn't arrived here yet, Eshkol hasn't started work, [and] Werfel [Yitzhak Raphael] is in Tel Aviv most of the time. Rabbi [Ze'ev] Gold was given [the Department for] the Development of Jerusalem - hasn't started anything yet. [Ya'akov] Zerubavel was given [the Department for] Near East [Jewry] - but he hasn't begun work yet either. [Yehuda] Braginsky and [Zvi] Herman - both deputies - are handling immigrant processing; their work is primarily in Tel Aviv.
Can immigrants be transferred to Jerusalem? Dobkin: there's housing, there's work - but the immigrants don't want to come to Jerusalem. They also fear they'll be conscripted into forced labor. They should be promised that their fate here will be the same as the fate of someone in Tel Aviv. [Levi] Eshkol proposes completely "releasing" [the] immigrants [who come] to Jerusalem - for half a year.
Kol thinks it's hard to carry out [Jewish Agency] Executive work in Jerusalem - because of the strict conscription system. [Moshe] Kol has P£ 200,000 for payments - he can't make the payments because there's no clerk to draft and prepare the checks. Eshkol reports that Yisrael Amir [in the Ministry of Defense] is handling releases for the Agency in Jerusalem, but there are problems. Need to have Baruch Rosenthal [Tal] come here for a few days to assess the situation and sort things out as needed. The Agency demands the release of 20 men from the army.
Relations within the Executive are good. Grossman is very loyal. Zerubavel is slightly annoyed that he wasn't given a role - in Dobkin's view he's useless. Rabbi Gold also has grievances.
Kol and Dobkin claim that about 20,000 people left Jerusalem [a minority during the first truce, most of them during the second truce].
The [Jewish] Agency Executive wants a joint meeting with the government to discuss relations, allocation of the fundraising organizations' funds, and the processing of immigrants, education.
- I dined with [Henry] Morgenthau. Once again the bitterness against the "rabbis" [the Zionist leaders in the US]. He wanted to know my position. He is certain that the issue depends strictly on us here - and not on people in America. 4 questions arose: 1) the [United Jewish] Appeal [UJA], its structures and owners, 2) the organization of an appeal [campaign] "in kind" [equipment and supplies] for the army, 3) private loans, 4) a government loan. In my opinion the last 3 pose no problem, although an appeal "in kind" is usually a financial appeal [fundraising campaign]. But the government can and should establish a delegation in America - half of it government representatives, half of it our friends in America, for the sake of supplies, private and government loans, and perhaps also investments. The first matter would best be sorted out by agreement among the actors in America. The [Jewish Agency] Executive decided to ask [Eliezer] Kaplan to go to America, but Kaplan is refusing, and rightly so. This is also Morgenthau's opinion. Now they'll place all the responsibility on him. But it seems to me that he'll have to go at some point in time.
Morgenthau wants to know my opinion about our activities after peace [is achieved]. We scheduled a meeting for tomorrow morning, before the meal [Ben-Gurion, Morgenthau, and McDonald lunch meeting] (he doesn't want [Ambassador] McDonald to hear what he has to say) - if my time permits. By 9 a.m. I'll let him know if I can be available.
- It's interesting that so far there hasn't been any Egyptian announcement about the sinking of their ships [on the nights of October 21-23].
- At 4 I returned to Tel Aviv.
A cable from Gad [Pinchas Sapir] [saying] that yesterday a ship departed with 12 75 mm C. [cannons], 20 20 mm C., 130,000 shells (for 20 mm), sighting devices for 75 mm.
- In the evening I heard troubling reports from the Galilee. Qawuqji really did attack our positions and take over the area around Manara, and in effect he controls the Metulla road. Access to Manara is blocked. Dozens of [men in] Maxie Kahan's brigade have fallen. [General] Riley [head of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization] ordered a ceasefire before the assessment. Incidentally, the Egyptians told him about the sinking of [their] ships, but apparently only privately for now, because publicly nothing has been announced about this Egyptian defeat.
We clarified the situation in the south: whether it's possible to remove forces from there. There's an entire battalion in Beersheva, and another battalion - the raid battalion - is available for Beersheva. Yitzhak [Sadeh, of the 8th Brigade]'s battalion is also there. The "wedge" [in the Beit Hanoun area] is in our hands. We are entrenched along the Majdal - Faluja line, and it's impossible to bring food to the Egyptians. [We are] informing them that they were deceived [misled] by stories that we kill POWs, and through posters and loudspeaker[s] we're suggesting that they surrender. A patrol of ours entered Beit Jubrin and the residents met them with our posters in their hands - as saviors. Only 50-60 Sudanese are barricaded at the police, and the residents are trying to convince them to surrender. So it will be possible to pull the Oded Brigade out, [and] tomorrow it will return to the Galilee.
Apparently Qawuqji thinks that all our force is concentrated in the south, and this is a window of opportunity for him. Movement of Syrian forces from Quneitra has also been spotted. If the skirmishes continue - we'll launch the operation on Wednesday [October 27] - in the Western Galilee.
There were sirens tonight - but it's not clear whether there was sufficient cause for this.