יומנים > יומן - מלא 17/03/1948

March 17, 1948 A delegation from Sejera visited me-[Arye] Fabrikant (who has turned totally white in the meantime) and [David] Matviev[-Yaakov], Jr.: Lots of veterans have left: [Zvi] Shechter, [Moshe] Kurakin, [Moshe] Nitshayev, [Zusia] Weiner, [Munes] Smushkin [sp. all?]. Only 13 men are armed. The village is being guarded by people aged 16-50. Altogether, there are only 20 farmers. The Hapoel Hamizrachi organization sits up there, on the farm. They're shooting from the hills-from Arab Sejera and from Lubiyye. Sejera serves as a base for responses (the Kafr-Kana case)-but when the operation is over-they leave. Arab Sejera sees this and all they get from it are feelings of vengeance. There's no water in the village; it has to be brought in from Kadoorie School. They are demanding 50 men as reinforcements. Fortifications are needed, too; there is no barbed-wire fence. - I summoned Yisrael [Galili] and told him that by the Sabbath [Saturday, March 20], we have to complete two months of preparations: mobilization of manpower, distribution of the forces, organizing a reserve, arranging supplies, transport, fortifications. We'll set up a crucial consultation: the two Yigals [Yigal Allon and Yigael Yadin], Ya'akov [Dori], Yohanan [Ratner], Shkolnik [Eshkol], Yisrael [Galili]. - I instructed Y[osef] Baratz to visit the camps and look into the food and clothing situation and seeing to the conscripts' material and spiritual needs. Baratz nominates Lehmann of the Cooperation Center for the Soldiers' Welfare Committee. - Yosef Yaakovson: Zagagi isn't signing Shvilim contracts because the banks hold the Agency liable for the contract. There are 76 Shvilim contracts (members of the Shvilim board: Dolik [David Horowitz], Zagagi, Yaakovson, Rabinov, Weinberg and [Yaakov] Hausmann), in the sum of P£ 220,000, that haven't been signed. The purchases aren't coordinated: Betzer [buys] separately, vehicles separately, etc. Dolik proposes [organizing] a "gift to the soldier" from America-ten dollars per gift. In Italy there are 50 Fiat vehicles, each able to haul more than 7 ½ tons. Import licenses can be obtained but it will take P£ 100,000 to do it. I asked him to look into it with [Abraham] Zabrasky. - Yosef Yizraeli is back from Haifa. 200 Jews (750 Arabs) are working at the refineries, 750 Jews at the port, none at the airport, 150 at the post and telegraph, around 100 at the railroad, [at the oil companies] I.P.C. [Iraq Petroleum Company], Shell, and Socony-150. To keep these plants going, an additional 1,400 people are needed (without adding more for the railroad). The Haifa Labor Council cannot give people-the workers of Haifa won't go. Where are the immigrants?-scattering across the cities and a few to the kibbutzim. Among the 1,500 who work in those plants, around 750 are liable to conscription. Command HQ, the conscription coordinator, and Abba [Khoushy] and Krelenboim [Yosef Almogi] propose setting up labor camps for conscripts to work in those places-under military rule and apparatus and military pay. Where will they get the conscripts? Married people with children, aged 25-35, who are being discharged now, new immigrants, only sons (how many only sons? thousands (?) Yosef Yizraeli estimates it at around 2,000. What's being done about inducting immigrants? They took Tiomkin [Eliahu Tal] (a major in the Brigade), he met with the Immigration Department, and will centralize all immigrants who are liable to conscription at the Binyamina immigrants' camp. But the kibbutzim insist on receiving the immigrants as a "reserve." - Yosef Yizraeli promised to share with me all the material about manpower in writing. - [Dr.] Granovski [Granot] saw Dr. [Aharon] Barth [manager of Anglo-Palestine Bank] about the KKL guarantee for the defense loan. Barth told him that it's a guarantee from KKL for the whole loan and not a guarantee for the half. Namely, KKL has to guarantee 2 ½ million, and Barth said that after this he won't lend KKL any [more]. I asked: What are you borrowing from Anglo-Palestine Bank for?- KKL doesn't receive money From the U.S. [all of it goes for defense]. From the sterling countries they're not receiving [any] [because the funds were frozen] and therefore it won't be able to finance obligations that it undertook. - Zvi [Ayalon] states in Yigael [Yadin's] name that they found a suitable place for an airfield next to Rehavia in the Valley of the Cross, and they'll need P£ 7,000 for the purpose. A minimal sum-but only if the place really is suitable, and the work should begin at once. - I looked into Yaakovson's claim about Shvilim with Zagagi. Kaplan promised the banks that the Agency would be responsible for the Shvilim contract, and therefore Zagagi has to see if there's enough money to cover the contracts. For this reason, Zagagi asked Zabrasky for 1) an approved budget, 2) an instruction to the Agency that in contractual matters the Agency can deduct sums that are pledged to defense. Zagagi has already signed P£ 320,000 worth of contracts, thereof P£ 48,000 for tents, the rest for wearing apparel (30,000 pairs of shoes, 60,000 white suits, etc.). Apart from this, P£ 60,000 for [Yitzchak] Vilenchuk [Ta'as], 17,000 for vehicles, 77,000 for procurements in Belgium (with Federmann's help) of tents, belt [sic], binoculars, etc., 10,000 for fortifications- P£ 574,000 altogether. (When I saw Yaakovson three hours later, he told me that Zagagi told him that he would sign the contracts but has not yet signed.) - I invited the Air Service people (Aharon Remez and Eizik [Yehoshua Eshel]) to send someone to Europe to purchase fighter and bomber aircraft, because there's hope for a base in one of the large countries. They proposed Yehoshua Gilutz (an aviation engineer) and Yitzhak Levi (a veteran procurement official]. - Just before evening, at the request of Holzmann, counsel for the Mutual Broadcasting [Company] in America, I prepared a broadcast about the Jewish government and its duties.