יומנים > יומן - מלא 12/09/1948
Sunday, September 12, 1948
In the morning I returned to Tel Aviv, to the Kirya.
I was met by [Ze'ev] Sherf with a bundle of crises and urgent matters: Rabbi Fishman [Maimon] returned from Jerusalem - but is waiting for an initiative by me to return to the government. Second crisis, maybe more severe - wages for factory workers. The government committee, [Eliezer] Kaplan, [Mordechai] Bentov, [Yitzhak] Gruenbaum, [Peretz] Bernstein, agreed to increase % cost-of-living for every P£ 10 base salary. Bentov proposed arranging a meeting between the two sides first. [Akiva] Globman [of the Histadrut] objects to this; no agreement will be reached, and the government should decide. Kaplan proposes freezing prices and wages - the Histadrut rejects a freeze on prices, because they're about to renew the collective contract. A third crisis - government office workers' wages. There's a committee report, but no government decision, and in the meantime a few office workers are refusing to accept their wages. Moshe [Sharett] demands that instructions for the [delegation to the] UN be an urgent agenda item. Today the government will demand details about the two soldiers [who refused to cook on Shabbat]. Bernstein wants to speak about the high cost of living. And Kaplan - about the financial situation. There's the question of a registrar of cooperatives. A committee of 4 [ministers] failed to reach a conclusion. [Mordechai] Bentov and [Haim] Shapira propose [Aharon] Zisling; Kaplan and Bernstein - Rosenblüth [Pinchas Rosen].
- Yehuda Rosen (Reznichenko [Erez]) demands the P£ 1,000 for Berl's writings for the army. The workers at the publishing house [Ayanot, affiliated with Mapai] have been conscripted, including [Yitzhak] Niselevitch [sp.] who handled finances (now replaced by [Haim] Kopilevich [sp.]). P£ 3,000 is required to continue publication, to produce volume 9 of Berl, volume 4 of B.G., Eliyahu [Golomb]'s book, a book by Ben-Zvi on the history of Po'alei Zion.
- I wrote a letter to Rabbi Fishman - that he shouldn't leave the government [following the religious soldiers' release from prison].
- At my meeting with Abba [Khoushy] yesterday I heard a complaint about Isser [Be'eri] - that the telephone eavesdroppers [from the intelligence service] are providing the material to Mapam, as if those in charge of eavesdropping are soldiers who are members of Mapam - although Yitzhak Rapoport, who works in the Postal Service, is a member of the party [Mapai].
For the position of governor of Acre they propose Avraham Yaeli, or the officer Rehavam Zabludovsky [Amir] (in garrison force, in Haifa).
- The main points of my lecture yesterday [HaKibbutz HaMeuchad conference]: Victory is only one front. ''Aliya and the settlement enterprise are also security needs. Truce - a means of war against us, because the objective of the war (if not the complete destruction of the enemy) is to break the enemy's will. This is directed both against us and against the Arabs - by the British government. There is no free choice in war. Anyone who doesn't want to or cannot submit to the war needs - is lost. [We] need military settlement and military ''aliya, military industry and a lifestyle of austerity. The military factor alone will not be decisive - in our favor (against us - it might be). Eretz Israel - is an internationally sensitive issue, and international actors will interfere. This is why orientation is important - and specifically with the UN as a whole, to seek friends on each side, not to align [ourselves], not to presume that a world war is inevitable. There's an embargo on Jews, on Jewish money, on weapons for Israel. We won't [cultivate] hate because of it - but rather try to be rid of it. The "objectives" of the war - to what end? Our strength is not only physical, our advantage is spiritual, it is important to know what we are fighting for: kibbutz galuyot [ingathering of exiles], building souls, a society of workers.
How will we overcome the difficulties to achieving these three aspirations? The difficulties of the Arab surroundings, a weakened, backwards, feudal-Nazi society, cheap labor, few needs. Compared to them we are few even after large-scale ''aliya. We'll also face competition by countries with powerful production capacities. We'll be operating during a time of contradictions in the world. Our dispersion throughout the nations, and despite our independence here - the masses of Israel [Jewish people] are subordinated to foreign will, and to the wills of oppositionists. The hardships of the country: the small size of the territory, lack of coal and metal, scant rainfall and water, internal difficulties - division, devotion to the unimportant, not skilled in compromise, and so on.
Through two [factors] we will overcome - through science and through halutziyut [Zionist-pioneering spirit] (intellectual and moral advantage). Science - man's control over nature and its powerful forces. The generation of the atom: shrinking distances, living in three dimensions, the importance of the sea and the air, the secrets of chemistry, technical advances, the increasing preciousness of time - the danger of lagging behind, the imperative of harnessing our scientific power and reaching the pinnacle of our era.
Halutziyut - a man's agency over himself, over his hidden powers, not submitting to fate and circumstances, exploiting his full capacity and drives - the good and the bad - for his life's goal. Halutziyut necessitates man's liberty (not a robot), human equality, faith in the collective. Army - a collective halutz [Zionist pioneer], but only for negative purposes - destruction and killing and ruination. Positive halutziyut for creation - is not possible without liberty, halutzi unity, and faith in the collective - and therefore despite the division and impossibility of unity now - we mustn't abandon the banner of halutzi unity. We will turn to those whose faith in the collective has not dissipated.
The State of Israel requires that intellectuals and halutzim [Zionist pioneers] of actualization [i.e., those actually fulfilling the Zionist vision], those who know how to control the forces of nature and its powers, and those who actualize fraternity, unity, and self-agency for the good of the collective will. We are on the verge of a revolution - the basis of which might be destruction and ruination, but if we win - venturing forth into a Jewish and human space that we hadn't dared dream about before the establishment of the state.
- Shimon Avidan, commander of the 5th Brigade (Givati), came to see me. He now has 4 infantry battalions and one garrison battalion. The core groups of two of his battalions came from Tel Aviv, one [each] from Rishon LeZion and Rehovot. At the start of December (1947) he had 450 men with 78 rifles and a number of Stens. Two Givati battalions (out of 4 battalions) took part in Operation Nachshon under Avidan's command. For months his men stood [held onto] the Keren Kayamet [Jewish National Fund] House (30 men) [near Bet Dagan ], engaged in battles in Jaffa as early as October 1947. After Operation Nachson they started "cleaning out" the area in the south. The Yavne disaster happened to him. Major operations before May 15 - the effort to break through to Faluja, [the conquest of] Beit Daras. To date they've had 600 armed clashes, 300 killed, more than a thousand wounded. During the ten days - 600 wounded, a high percentage, about 30%, recovered completely and returned to full service, a number of others returned to services. Battalion 52 (Prulov [Yaacov Peri]) was in the Latrun Operation, Battalion 51 participated with Harel in safeguarding the route at the end of Operation Nachshon.
Now 3½ battalions are pinned down in an area of 82 kilometers [at the front], from Yavne to Tel a-Safi [Tel Tzafit], by way of Gat - Gal-On. He's 450 fighters short of the standard for four battalions (the battalion standard is 840), the services are full.
- In the afternoon government meeting. Rabbi Fishman [Maimon] returned to the government - after receiving my letter.