יומנים > יומן - מלא 16/04/1948

April 16, 1948 Yolanda advises that Farouk [the King of Egypt's] man wants to meet with Elias [Sasson], with the King's knowledge. - At 2:00 a.m., six secessionists broke into our signal office and stole the papers and the codes. - I invited several members of the [General] Staff (Yigael, Yisrael, Lehrer [Moshe Tzadok], Yosef R. [Avidar], and Zvi [Ayalon]) to figure out where we stand with the approach of May 15 (which seems to have begun already). In Yigael's opinion, we are 40% short on manpower, 75% on motor vehicles, 50% on equipment for the units. The worst situation-manpower. [For Operation Nahshon] we left Central Galilee, Zebulun [Subdistrict] (Western Galilee), the Bet She'an Valley, the Negev nearly exposed. Lehrer reports about the distribution of the force: in the Palmach 5,200 (thereof: a thousand in the Negev), for the Golani [Brigade] 1,800, for the Carmeli [Brigade] 2,100, for the Alexandroni [Brigade] 2,100, for the Kiriati [Brigade] 800 (although it maintains 2,200, many of whom superannuated garrison men), for the Givati [Brigade] 3,100, for Jerusalem 2,000 (apart from 1,000 garrison), in misc. services 1,800-18,900 altogether. Number of motor vehicles: 35 in Nahshon; apart from this, 25 armored vehicles. There are 600 vehicles in storage-not yet serviceable and being repaired. In five weeks, 250 will be repaired. There are 72 trucks at the ports and aboard ships. Zvi [Ayalon] thinks personnel (another ten thousand or so), money, supplies, motor vehicles should be mobilized-from domestic sources. Buses, cars, food should be requisitioned against a receipt. Special orders are needed for this. An induction order is needed for men aged 26-35 with children, the vocationally skilled, and commanders of all ages, those born in 1930, arresting evaders. The appeals committee relating to mobilization of commanders should be disempowered (there are 200 signalmen in the settlements-it would take a month to train a new signalman-and veteran commanders). Camps for military police are needed. Upcoming operations: capturing the surroundings of Jerusalem (after Nahshon is over-the surroundings in the north, the east, and the south), cleansing the surroundings of Tel Aviv as far as the airfield in Lod, inclusive, and the surroundings of Rishon [Lezion], Petah Tikva, capturing dominant villages in the [Jezreel] Valley, several of the police buildings that are being evacuated. To create a distraction, an attack on Kalkilya, Tayibbe (in the Sharon [region]), Kafr-Qara [in Samaria], etc. For the time being, they're sending 35 platoon commanders, 30 squad commanders to Jerusalem with the convoy. - I urged the Executive meeting to discuss the cease-fire proposal-I approved Moshe [Sharett's] response, with special emphasis on our opposition to any condition that impairs Jewish immigration and to supervision by the Mandate Government. I reported on the military situation and the urgent demands that I will present on Sunday (two days from now) to the yod-gimmel ("the 13," the provisional government or People's Administration), if they come up. Dobkin told me about the composition [of the government]: BG-Chair and Defense, [Eliezer] Kaplan-Finance, Moshe [Sharett]-Foreign Affairs, [David] Remez-Transport, Y[itzhak] Gruenbaum-Interior, [Peretz] Bernstein-Trade and Industry (supplies); [Aharon] Zisling-Agriculture, [Mordechai] Bentov-Public Works (manpower), [Moshe] Shapira-Immigration, Fishman [Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon]-Jerusalem, Rosenblüth [Pinchas Rosen]-Justice, [Bechor] Sheetrit-Health and Social Work. - Kozlowski [Pinchas Sapir] and [Baruch] Lin are demanding 15,000 to fortify Mishmar Ha'Emek. I gave an instruction to send materials and workers now in order not to lose time. Zabrasky received only half a million (an advance from Anglo-Palestine Bank on account of the loan) whereas a million and a half are needed.