יומנים > יומן - מלא 11/11/1948

Thursday, November 11, 1948

The 12 naval cannons arrived and were unloaded: 6 C. [cannons] of 76 mm with 6,000 shells, 6 C. of 102 mm with 3,000 shells. Explosive material and spare parts also arrived.             - I summoned Dr. Mazeh [head of the supply service] and Yosef Avidar to clarify what happened to the sheep and cattle in the Galilee. Mazeh says that they collected 600 heads of cattle and 4,000 heads of sheep - for slaughter. D. Horowitz ordered [that they] be taken because he cannot provide dollars for meat [to the army]. I telephoned Kaplan - and he denies it. I issued instructions not to slaughter a single cow, a single sheep (Mazeh claims that there are 3 thieves and swindlers in the apparatus [organizational staff] of the abandoned property oversight [body] in the south).

       - [Eastern Front Commander] Dan Even came to see me: There's no discipline and no military capability. For this reason [there are] many losses. In the 7th Brigade there's a professional in charge, and there were no losses. In the Negev there were many losses. There isn't enough regard for the soldier in infantry. The soldier's pride is not being cultivated.

       He complains about the salary - cannot support his family. As a major-general he receives P£ 23.00, his family (a wife and two children) P£ 35.5 per month. A staff-sergeant major [?] in the police receives P£ 90.

       I asked him how to improve discipline. [In his view] unsuitable officers should be removed, for example Zadok and Avidar. There's no uniform style of dress, no attention to cleanliness, order, and discipline. Saluting while on duty is necessary. But there doesn't have to be a difference in dress and food between an officer in the soldier.

       - Shaul [Avigur], Yosef [Yizraeli], Yosef Yaakovson, [Levi] Eshkol: The organization of the Ministry of Defense. Yaakovson proposes establishing an office that will meet from time to time led by me, in order to determine each person's role as well. We agreed that there would be three levels [ranks] of responsibilities: 3 departments - for supplies (Yaakovson), for finances (Zabar [Zabrasky]), for armament (Shaul [Avigur]; 7 divisions (or more): for payments (Baruch [Rabinov]), for rehabilitation ([Yosef] Gurion), for production (Hillel Cohen), for the soldier ([Yisrael] Amir), for religious services ([Shimon] Wasserman), for industrial oversight ([Issachar] Sitkov), for procurements ([Aharon] Becker). There will be a number of other bureaus - for science, etc.

       A meeting of all the departments on Wednesday at 9 a.m.

       Yaakovson raises the question of properties bought [from the British] (airports, Sarafand, and the like), possessed (like the houses in Jaffa), and appropriated. There's no registration of the properties, and there's still no official ownership. By law [they] can be registered to the state or under the name of a private individual, but because army properties have to be registered under the name of the defense minister, a special law has to be issued. The registration will be arranged in the supplies department by a special bureau. [Binyamin] Fishman, who worked in the Tabu [land registry office], will assist in this matter.

       They propose that licenses for [personal] weapons be granted by the district governors, after the requester receives a permit from a committee of three: representative[s] of the police, army, and SHAI [information service, i.e., intelligence].

       - I asked Dolik [D. Horowitz] about money for food for the army and permission to take the Galilee herds. Dolik says that $100,000 was given, it wasn't enough, and he allowed them to use herds that won't do for other purposes.

       - The Committee of Five [for defense] (without Zisling). I told them about the Triangle plans and the two alternatives - northern and southern - the need to destroy the [Faluja] "pocket" for the sake of the action in the Triangle, and the purpose for which Yigael [Yadin] is leaving [for Paris] (tonight at 2, because the storm hasn't yet died down), and I asked for their opinion - assuming we move against the Triangle - which alternative would they choose.

       [Yitzhak] Gruenbaum is concerned about taking action against the Triangle - because this is the harshest blow against England. He proposes taking only Hebron, Bethlehem, and the Jerusalem Railway - and letting Sheikh Jarrah and Latrun be. I commented that [taking] the war to Hebron is [taking] the war to the Legion, and it will spread the war to wherever it's situated, and from an English point of view - this is a harsher and more dangerous blow.

       [Eliezer] Kaplan questions whether we can carry out an action without overstretching the cord. And if we take action - then it should actually be from the north, because a strike against the Iraqis eliminates the last dangerous enemy, and Abdallah will reach an agreement with us.

       - In the afternoon State Council.

       - [Shmuel] Lisgorsky [sp.] came to see me - his only son [Gedalia] fell 7 months ago in ''Ein Zeitim. He was a student at Ben-Shemen. The father knows Russian, Romanian, Hebrew, and more - he wants to work at something that will take his mind off his grief. He changed his name to Guri. I promised to look for an activity for him that will give him satisfaction.

       - Yehiel Halperin - on new immigrants. Immigrants are not being treated properly - right now the army is covering for everything, but the neglect will bite back. The immigrants relate to everything - including the parties - the entire Joint [Distribution Committee]. The state needs to take care of new immigrants, and the party needs to establish a team for this purpose. The new immigrants need to be part of the process of immigrant absorption. How? The answer didn't satisfy me: for each ship of immigrants our members would choose a representative, who would take care of them. On the other hand, the party would appoint a trustee who would handle the new immigrants and take care of them.

       - Shmulik [Admon, Artillery Corps commander] on the Artillery Corps problems. What are their instruments, how much manpower, etc. I asked him whether the rockets don't make the cannons redundant. Not in his view. Because a rocket cannot aim for a specific location and cannot provide fire cover. He acknowledged that it will reduce the need for cannons. I understood that we don't have officers with a higher education in the Artillery Corps, though there are already about 150 officers. The officers course is now 5 months.

       -Sydney Gruson and his wife from the New York Times visited me, followed by [Kenneth] Bilby from the New York Herald Tribune.