יומנים > יומן - מלא 19/12/1947

[Friday,] December 19, 1947

Shlomo [Gur]: A [Molotov] cocktail will cost 20 grush. Has it been ordered? No. Regarding flamethrowers they're asking to wait another week - they might be able to upgrade to 25 meters. Novo [Novomeysky] returned and on Sunday we'll consult with him [regarding production at the Dead Sea].

       - Yohanan [Ratner] and Fritz [Eshet]: I said that I think it's necessary to re-examine the entire defense plan. We might have been too optimistic and underestimated the Arab character. The effectiveness of a response after the deed is subject to doubt: it could be interpreted as aggression, as fanning the flames, spreading the riots.

       We need to adopt an approach of offensive defense. For every [Arab] attack, to prepare to deliver a decisive blow [in response], destroying the place or causing the residents to flee and capturing the place. It also seems to me that some of the arrangements in the Organization do not accord with the severity of the threat, and we need a supreme oversight office that doesn't engage in operations, but only in assessing the situation and issuing high-level planning instructions: half civilian (a finances person and a personnel and logistics person), half military - Ratner and Fritz.

       Ratner refuses - doesn't believe he has the capacity to repair things. There's a corporative spirit in the Organization that won't tolerate any new power. Fritz doesn't believe in the possibility of repairs either. I spoke with Ya'akov [Dori] - he sees a need for such an office. He accepts Yohanan, not Fritz.

       - In the meantime Yisrael [Galili] came with Yosef Bernstein, who left Paris on Wednesday. On December 17 Ehud [Avriel] and Munya [Mardor] were in Prague. They found a direct contact. (For what and for how much - Bernstein doesn't know! Why didn't Ehud give him the details?) The negotiations are being conducted with an agent of the manufacturing company Zbrojovka. Ehud needs 1¼ million (in the meantime SHAI reports that it is in possession of a contract for the supply of weapons from Czechoslovakia to the Syrian government for $2 million: 10,000 rifles, a thousand [light] machine guns, 500 [heavy] machine guns, 12 million bullets. Something like 20 railway cars are already on the way and will be loaded onto ships in Constanta towards the end of December. [The Arabs] also made purchases in France, 9,000 grenades. They also report on purchases in Belgium for 14 million Belgian francs).

       We'll telegraph Ehud [telling him] to contact Geneva immediately and inform us if there's a million there for him, as Kaplan said, and also to let us know how much he needs.

       I telegraphed Kaplan [telling him] to telegraph me [and tell me] whether the million mentioned in his cable from the 16th of this month is already in Geneva, and to transfer the entire sum of 2 million from the loan of 5 [million dollars].

       - At ten a delegation of doctors visited me: [Meshulam] Levontin, [Moshe] Feller [sp.], [Yosef] Meir, [Moshe] Krieger [sp.], A. [Avraham] Katznelson: a State-of-Emergency Medical Committee has been established and regional doctors were chosen. It was decided to add 500 beds in existing hospitals, with reserve personnel (specifically surgery groups [teams]). P£ 76,600 is needed for equipment - beds, operating tables, and for additional beds. Of this, they received (that is, they were promised) - 29,000: 14,000 from the defense [budget], 15,000 from 30% of the UJA. Still short 47,000. Hadassah is adding 70 beds in Jerusalem - and they might also receive $50,000 from Hadassah. They'll still be short P£ 30,000.

       Care for the wounded (there are now more than 100 wounded) costs P£ 10,000 per month. They're requesting this allocation from defense, and the appointment of a liaison officer for the doctors, and to inform the security forces that in matters regarding doctors and medicine there's only one address: in Jerusalem - A. Katznelson; in Tel Aviv Dr. Meir (they're the representatives of the Health Council and the State-of-Emergency Medical Committee). Levontin of Magen David Adom adds that they provide first-aid, blood services, transport, training, medical supplies. For these they expended P£ 10,000 over the course of two months.

       I said that the entire budget cannot come from defense. In my opinion Hadassah must take on all these expenses. I therefore requested a full and detailed list of needs and a detailed budget. I'll speak with Mrs. Schoolman [Bertha, Hadassah representative in Eretz Israel and one of the leaders of youth immigration programs] and approach Hadassah in America.

       - I summoned [the engineer] Vilenchuk. Nothing has begun. He asked Schweiger [Dr. Shamgar] and [Shlomo] Bogard [sp.] to come two days ago - and they didn't come. This morning he saw S.G. [Shlomo Gur] and understood from what he said that they don't accept the arrangement in which he would supervise over them. As far as he knows they are proceeding with the chlorites factory, and purifying material that was found a year ago.

       - Shkolnik [Levi Eshkol] is demanding 25,000 from Dr. Barth, from the remainder [available to us] out of 100,000 from the [Mobilization] Fund. He requests my authorization that this be given from 75% [?]. I proposed that it be taken from the hundred, and the remainder be divided 70:30.

       - Ziama [Aran] and Pinhas [Lavon]: they spoke with Ya'akov [Dori]. Raised a few suggestions: Haim Halperin for logistics, Hillel Dan and the engineer Landau [sp.] for procurement, [Erich] Moller as manager of financial infrastructure with Haim Halperin as his assistant or Haim Taiber [sp.] and Kozlowski [Pinchas Sapir]. Pinhas [Lavon] proposes [Ezriel] Carlebach for hasbara [explanation, public relations] (???).