יומנים > יומן - מלא 16/12/1948
Thursday, December 16, 1948
[Ya'akov Shimshon] Shapira, the attorney general, thinks that [Isser] Be'eri should only be tried for murder. There are mitigating circumstances, and the prosecutor's charge should present the circumstances, and the chief of staff will mitigate the sentence. Otherwise it could look like a government cover-up. I'll consult further with Ya'akov [Dori] on this matter.
- [Yitzhak] Ziv-Av came to see me. He has the capacity to act, but he thinks everything through before taking any steps.
- The necessary budget for procurement for three months:
150 ZB-37 Besa [gun]s and ammunition - $320,000.
600 sniper rifles - $150,000.
Armor-piercing, incendiary and flash [?] 7.92 rounds; .303 930,000, cannons and shells, including plunder cannons $3.5 million, rockets $250,000, tanks (Shermans or others) 1 million.
Explosives $500,000, Navy 2 million, fighter planes and bombers for the Air Force 3 million, signal devices [radios] 250,000 - totaled 12 million. There are debts abroad totaling 2 million.
- The French consul Ventier [sp.] came to see me. He seeks assistance for our friends in the [French] cabinet and asks that we vacate a few French buildings. I said that every building that isn't militarily necessary for us to hold will be released regardless of the debate over admission [to the UN].
- [Eliezer] Kaplan, [Levi] Eshkol, [Yosef] Avidar, [Avraham] Zabar: Kaplan - we'll continue at a million per week until mid-February. The treasury owes APC [the Anglo-Palestine Company, predecessor of Bank Leumi] P£ 26 million. It's necessary to obtain 15 million abroad in dollars as I requested [for procurement], and the same amount for defense in the country - in addition to the weekly million. He proposes: Eshkol will travel [abroad] for this purpose and will also formulate the agreement with the Joint [Distribution Committee]. Can Eshkol leave the country at this time? And why not have David Hacohen go? Kaplan thinks that David won't be adequate for the Joint.
Outside of America - the entire [Jewish] world will, in Kaplan's opinion (based on [Eliahu] Dobkin's remarks), give $68 million.
Zabar asserts that for December another P£ 400,000 is needed - and [we] cannot manage without it.
- State Council.
- In the evening Moshe Dayan, Yigael [Yadin], Reuven [Shiloah] came to see me regarding al-Tall's response to Sasson's remarks. Elias [Eliahu Sasson] went too far in his conversation with Tall on the matter of annexation. The king [Abdallah] is amenable to everything and wants to discuss an armistice - and after that peace. In Reuven's view armistice refers to a cessation of hostilities, and only afterwards a discussion of the issues. This is not viable; such an armistice already exists now. The main thing is a few urgent problems: Latrun, Sheikh Jarrah.