Altalena Story Recalls B-G Begin Rift

(Continued from Page 1)
ing its "illegal immigra-
An active participant in tion" out of Europe from
the purchase of the Al- 1937 to 1939.
In 1939, he came to the
talena, Yitzhak Ben-Ami,
who helped in loading it U.S. and founded the
with ammunition, its voy- American Friends _for a
age, and was present at the Jewish Palestine, which
sinking with Begin, tells raised funds for the "illegal
the Altalena story for the immigration." He served in
first time, absolving the U.S. Army from 1943 to
Menahem Begin of guilt, 1946 and was executive di-
vindicating him and the Ir- rector of the American
gunists, rejecting the claims League for a Free Palestine
that were made by David- from 1946 to 1948.
He writes that Altalena
Ben-Gurion. He relates it in
this article "'The Altalena' was Jabotinsky's pen name.
Thirty Years Later."
Jabotinsky used it often,
Ben-Ami was born in especially for writings on
Palestine and educated general literary subjects
at Herzlia Gymnasium,
and critique — beginning
Tel Aviv, and Hebrew with his correspondent's
University, Jerusalem. career in Rome for the
He joined the Irgun in 'Odessa Novosti.' Later on,
1932 and was assigned to he used it also for articles on
various duties by the Irgun Zionist subjects.
"When the Irgun dele-
command. including head-

Participa it's Altalena Story
Exonerates Israel's Begin

(Continued from Page 1)
had to rely on the BBC,
which announced a few
hours after we sailed that
a cease-fire went into ef-
fect in Palestine and
"that a boat carrying men
and women sailed from
Port de Buc towards
Palestine . . ."
This was an ominous
velopment. This news leak
exposed and endangered the
Altalena and emergency
plans were adopted by
Eliahu Lankin and his staff.
The boat did not carry
anti-aircraft guns. It had no
defense against torpedos,
except its excellent captain,
well maintained engines
and its speed. It was a
Landing-Ship-Tank (LST),
a vessel designed to be pro-
tected by other war vessels
and air power. Potentially,
it was a sitting duck.
We quickly adopted mea-
sures that the command
hoped would contribute to
the safety of the vessel.
Twenty-four Bren guns
were positioned around the
deck. This was the aerial
"defense." To avoid inter-
ception by enemy vessels
(Egyptian, British), the cap-
tain sailed away from usual
sea lanes and at full speed.
One group of 120 men was
being trained to protect an
emergency landing in hos-
tile territory.
No one could predict
how long the UN spon-
sored cease-fire would
last, or what sea power
the Egyptians would de-
ploy, or what the British
might decide to do —with
or without UN sanctions.
Ideally, the Altalena was
counting on quietly sliding
onto a beach — and hope-
fully getting away in 24
hours, to come back with
heavier armaments. (It
could have further delayed
its already much delayed
sailing by two more weeks,
because such armament
was promised by the French
authorities who supplied,
free, the bulk of its cargo.)
The military situation of
the new state was worse
than critical. It had the
human power but its
weapons were pitiful. The

Altalena carried more
weapons than the Hagana
and the "establishment's
leadership" accumulated in
Israel in 30 years.
The Irgun command in
Europe felt that with the
critical militarysituatio.n in
Israel chances must be
taken to run the risk and
bring to the people of Israel
what they needed most,
even if it might be costly in
lives . .
So we sailed without final
instructions from head-
quarters in Tel Aviv.
On the third night we
received a shock in the
form of a garbled broad-
cast from Israel, instruct-
ing us to "keep away,
keep away . . ." We later
learned that Begin and
the Irgun command de-
cided to delay the depar-
ture and then the landing
because of concern with
breaking the cease-fire.
But we did not receive the
message sent to Paris,
and we followed the mes-
sage radioed to us di-
rectly only in port.
After much deliberation
and the weighing of a
number of alternatives,
Lankin ordered the captain
to proceed full speed to as
near and safe a distance
from Israel that might ena-
ble us to re-establish com-
munications.
On the morning of June
19 the communication si-
lence was broken. We were
220 miles off shore. The
radios worked both ways.
The codes functioned. We
were instructed to proceed
to Kfar Vitkin.
Our joy was overwhelm-
ing. Not only because we
felt reassured by overcom-
ing the communication
breakdown, but also be-
cause Kfar Vitkin, a stron-
ghold of the "left" and the
Hagana, was selected as the
landing spot. It meant the
new state and army were
really evolving to the na-
tional entities they had to,
to be able to survive.
By noon we were ad-
vised that an Israeli
plane would meet us and
accompany us to the
(Continued on Page 64)

gation in the U.S. named
our , first vessel 'Ben
Hecht,' we were criti-
cized by our comrades in
Palestine for not naming
it after Jabotinsky. We
had good reasons for it—
public relations and
otherwise.
"However, the second
boat was to be named `Zeev
Jabotinsky.' We had second
thoughts when considering
registration, insurance, the
British, etc. We chose 'Al-
talena' because we knew

that only sophisticated
Zionists would recognize
the famous pen name, dat-
ing back to the turn of the
century."

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