יומנים > יומן - מלא 12/12/1947

[Friday,] December 12, 1947 Yohanan [Ratner]: All the activities [in Ta’as, i.e., home manufacture of weapons] – bottles [anti-tank Molotov cocktails?], anti-personnel [mines], PIAT [launcher] (reaches 100-120 meters, pierces tank armor) – have finished all laboratory testing, except for anti-vehicle mines, which require more tests. Delays: the supplies overseer [in the General Staff], Yosef R. [Avidar] is preoccupied, Slavin is selective [fastidious]. The calculation is unclear (the tests in Dalia were on Tuesday, November 18). Why is there a delay? Yohanan wants to handle armored vehicles, the problem of exploiting tractors as tanks. There’s an expert, Skutnicki [sp.] (in the Vulcan factory), [was] manager of a large factory in Russia, and supplies manager in the Red Army. Yohanan wants to make use of him. Good. Proposes appropriating a motorboat to provide help when necessary to Nahariya. Yes, definitely. The [wireless] signal is not enough. The Staff doesn’t know what’s happening in the Negev. Need to inspect the signal network. – Moshe D. [Dayan] returned from the Negev. According to him the Arab village is not guilty of attacking. The men made a mistake and entered the village. One Arab demanded they stand and fired in the air. Arabs gathered – and then our men tossed a bomb and killed two Arabs. The rest is known. In the Negev they’re divided over a response. Moshe’s view is that a response is necessary, unless the government intervenes and makes peace. They don’t want additional personnel – it will burden the economy. All that’s required is additional equipment (there’s a Palmach company, in addition to the settlement personnel). – [Eliyahu] Elyashar: He’s being called upon to approach the UN [regarding the conditions of Jews in Arab countries]. [His representative in Egypt, Salvador] Adjiman [sp.] approached him. – [Shlomo] Kaddar (the Situation Committee): [Committee] Bet – [which handles] postal matters, ports, railways, PW [public works], police and prisons, urban planning, district administration, transport, Jerusalem, law, and judiciary – will transfer to Tel Aviv. – Rosenblüth [Rosen] brought me [Eliezer] Lazarson [sp.], son of Prof. Lazarson, as a liaison officer between the Organization and the ‘Aliya Hadasha [party]. Lazarson attended a British staff college, worked in the English army at the start of the war. He engaged in military intelligence, primarily problems of caution [military field security]. Managed military censorship in the country. – I spoke with [Shlomo] Zimmerman regarding A.D. [‘Aliya Dalet] arrangements from America – that Mina [Rogozhik-Ben-Zvi] would travel. According to him she is prepared to travel, although she got married. – Kaddar (continued): [David] Remez and [Moshe] Sneh are being added to Committee Bet (so far: Grabovsky [Meir Argov], Golda [Meir], Bar-Kochba [Meirovitz]). For Jerusalem a special committee [will be assembled]: Granovski, Remez, Shapira, Senator, and Reuven Schraibman [Shari]. (Where are the [Mizrahi] “communities” and the Jerusalem researcher [Yitzhak Ben-Zvi]?) – I spoke with Ya’akov [Dori] about [Eliezer] Lazarson and expediting production. I telegraphed Kaplan regarding the need for a special defense fundraising campaign of 12 million for three months, if he can’t guarantee the sums immediately by the old method. – At 2 p.m. Yehezkel [Sahar] telephoned from Jerusalem: 1) The army has taken responsibility for the Jaffa-Jerusalem Road, the Old City in Jerusalem, the Hebron Road, and the Southern Road. 2) The Commissioner asked that Ben-Gurion be informed that as of today the army is responsible for the above, and he asks that all retaliatory actions be terminated and that the secessionists be restrained. – At 3 a meeting with [Israel] Rokach, Yosef Sapir, and [Haim] Ariav – regarding a “government.” In Ariav’s view – [it should correspond with] the composition of the Congress, but comprising Eretz-Israel residents. In Sapir’s view – a government with two aspects: complete representation and ability to act. Rokach disagrees with Ariav – not [corresponding with] the Congress’s composition but rather [with] the Yishuv’s composition. Sapir again demands concentrating the Defense Committee. I spoke about dissolving the N.H. [National Headquarters of the Haganah] and replacing it with an executive committee. There was no objection. They wanted to sort out the Revisionist problem. Regarding the secessionists I said: as a precondition – an explicit and unqualified commitment to refrain from any separate action in Jewish, Arab, or English territory. “Action” means what we understand this term to mean. – [Yosef] Yanover [sp.] from South Africa: He knew nothing about the grumblings against Golda’s mission. According to him it’s possible to obtain P£ 1 million for defense as well as material and men. We’ll summon [Michael] Comay for Sunday and send him back to South Africa.