64 Friday, *1st 18, 1918
THE DETROIT LWISH I(WS
Colleague Vindicates Begin in the Altalena Case
(Continued from Page 5) here is what happened in
shore. The plane did not Paris and in Israel, in May
appear — but this did not and June.
dampen our spirits. We When I arrived in
now felt sure that the last Paris, on May 31, I in-
150 miles would be safe quired during several
and the Altalena, with its meetings with Lankin,
precious human and Kook and others, on the
material cargo was home. state of relations with Is-
As the sun settled,
we ap- rael's newly appointed
proached the beach and ambassador to France,
was
shore. We lost about six Maurice Fisher,
hours, having gone too far told that the relationship
was
good,
and
that
actu-
south to Tel Aviv. We re
turned northward at about ally through him, the
turned
3 a.m. and located the red Hagana operatives were
signals of the fishing jetty at advised about the immi-
Kfar Vitkin. There were no neat departure of the AI-
proper boats to help in the Mena. That they were
unloading. The waves were invited to send up to sev-
pretty high. The east was eral thousand people on
the ship.
beginning to light up.
T Irgun could not move
The
Begin instructed J.Rnkin
from the shore that we enough people in time and
should go out to sea and re- the urgency for the weapons
was growing daily. In addi-
turn in the evening.
At 9 p.m. June 20, Cap- tion the vessel could not
stay
further in port.
taro Fine, formerly corn-
mander of a U.S. Navy LST For various reasons the
in the Pacific, executed the ambassador advised that
textbook maneuver of drop- the European Hagana
ping his anchor, and with would not accept the invite-
line slackened steam with tion.
In Tel Aviv, (after the
full power onto the sandy
beach. The heavy gates ship left France) once Begin
realized
that he could not
opened, the small bridge
lowered and Begin stepped stop nor for the time being,
e
on it from a small beach establish communications
with the ship, asked, on
boat.
After inspe-tion of the June 15 for an urgent meet-
formations, the disembar- ing with the government.
kation of the men and The meeting took place
women started. We used after midnight, at the
three small boats. The men Freund Hospital, headquar-
and women carried a few tars of the iry
The Defense Depart-
t personal belongings — no
weapons or ammunition or meat was represented by
Gallili, Eshkol and David
their luggage.
The shelling continued.
Captain Fine flooded the
lower stacks of ammuni-
tion, thus preventing a
major loss of life on the boat
and probably on shore.
The order was given to
abandon ship. Kayaks
were arriving from the
beach. First the wounded
were lowered. Then the
rest of the men. Begin re-
fused to leave till all
wounded were safe.
The deck of the Irgun arms ship, Altalena, is the scen e of preparations for battle.
the ambassador, nor
about the loading of the
weapons, nor the depar-
ture of the vessel.
the Defense Department
could he, Ben-Gurion, re-
sort to force? After long ar-
The formation broke up
The captain closed the gates
and pulled the LST back
into the sea. Begin, Lankin
Merlin, Stawsky, boarded
the Altalena.
Meridor took command of
the handful of men on the
beach and ordered them to
dig defensive positions. I
dug my foxhole next to his.
Thus I spent my first night
on the soil of free Israel, the
same soil on which my
grandparents landed and
kissed almost 100 years ago,
and where I was now dodg-
ing the bullets of my
brothers.
Meanwhile, the Altalena,
followed by two corvettes,
proceeded to Tel Aviv. She
dropped anchor opposite the
beach at Frishman St.
The night passed quietly.
Lankin prevented Begin
from disembarking during
the night, fearing a mishap
or an ambush. With dawn,
Lankin placed a loud
speaker on the deck to re-
peatedly announce to the
gathering troops on the roof
tops, terraces and street
corners: "not to open fire,
the vessel has no military
action in mind . . ."
guments, with the general
On June 16, Gallili ad- Zionists and Mizrachi urg-
vised the Irgun that there ing caution, Ben-Gurion ob-
was no objection from the
tamed the authorization.
government, from the view-
This came after the Altale-
point of breaching the
na's 900 men and women
"cease-fire," to the sailing of were dispersed, unarmed, to
the Altalena and for the
camps throughout the coun-
vessel to proceed towards
try.
disembarkation, and that
We had about 40 Irgun
the preferred spot was Kfar
men on the beach, about 30
Vitkin.
on the ship, all of them en-
These
instructions
gaged in a slow process of
reached us, after repeated
unloading sealed crates,
attempts to communicate under a blistering sun, with
failed, on the morning of the the help of a couple of small
19th. According to Ben-
boats.
Gurion, he was unaware of
During the day we were
all this, including the al-
told that the Zahal was
most daily meetings in
encircling the area, that
which the issue of the dis-
the soldiers at road
tribution of the weapons
blocks were questioning
incoming and outgoing
ralsed•
They were home. The Cohen. Begin, Meridor was
The request of the Irgun
camp survivors. The vol- and others represented was that 80 percent of the vehicles. However, we
were confident and as-
unteers from the Western the Irgun,
At this meeting Begin of- weapons should be distri-
sured by Begin, Meridor
world, and the sprinkling
of non-Jews who felt ficially advised the gov- buted to the Irgun battal- and their lieutenants,
were now incorpo-
who were meeting off and
their duty to be counted ernment representatives ions that i
that the vessel departed on rated into Zabel (the :
Israeli
on with the local officers
at an historical moment. June
11 with men and army) and 20 percent to the of Zahal, that they would
Within a couple of hours weapons, giving them full Irgun unit in Jerusalem.
solve the problems and
the Altalena was empty of details on the supplies, the These negotiations con-
that we would promptly
people. Then the crates of men, etc. tinued through the morning
get the help necessary to
weapons and ammunition
According to Ben-Gurion, of June 21, on the beach at complete the unloading
started to be unloaded. Still his top defense people never Kfar Vitkin.
of the ship, enabling her
In the meantime, the
no sign of additional land- advised him of the meeting
After claiming ignor-
to return to Europe for single launch the Al-
ing boats that, so we were or of the Altalena till Satin-- ance of the vessel's de-
the next voyage.
talena
possessed was
told, the army or the Pal- day, June 19, the day it ar- parture, voyage and
Shortly before noon, the lowered and loaded with
mach promised. The un- rived off Kfar Vitkin (rni- pending arrival, Ben-
Zahal
delivered
an
ul-
arms, unloaded them on a
loading proceeded slowly. It flutes of State Council Meet- Gurion seemed to have
timatum — all weapons to pile on the beach and re-
been finally advised (on
became clear that it might ing, June 23, 1948).
be surrendered, no condi- turned. On its second
last for many hours.
the
19th),
what
the
In other words, his top
tions attached, within 10 trip, the shore units
On the beach I held a men sat on the news for four Altalena actually car-
minutes. Otherwise milit- opened fire on it and on
reunion that was quite emo- days and then sprang it on
ary action would start by the Altalena. Several men
tional. Not only shaking him . . . Or to put it more
Was this information the
Zahal.
both in the launch and on
Begin's hand, whom I had bluntly, the top security- cause for his single-minded
We were dumbfounded. board the Altalena were
never seen except under men of the government did insistence at the State
"Zahal commencing milit- wounded.
• very strict conspiratorial not divulge to the Defense Council meeting of June
ary action? Against us?"
The Palmach unit de-
underground conditions, Minister the pending arri- 21st, ("Driver," April,
Begin reassured us: "Don't manded that the unloading
but meeting some of my old val of millions of rounds of 1955)? What if the Irgun
worry. It's not serious. cease. This was done. Lan-
comrades of 15 years ago, ammunition, thousands of would not accept the au-
Meridor is meeting with the kin asked for medical help:
from the days when I first rifles, aerial bombs, half- thority of the Defense De-
local commander. Every- It was not given. Again and
joined the Irgun, in 1933: tracks—this, when his own partment? He was not in-
thing will be fine . ."
again Lankin asked for help
Kook, Merlin, Meridor, men were fighting Arab terested in the breaching of
The unloading continued — and the answer always
Holchman and others were tanks with Molotov the cease-fire (on the day
for a few more hours. The was: "Don't worry - Hakol
all there.
cocktails and Sten guns . . . the Altalena" arrived a
heat was extreme. The men yehie besseder" ("Every-
From my experience on
Furthermore we are "Hagana" vessel discharged
were tired. We took turns thing will be alright")
the Kfar Vitkin beach, from supposed to accept as arms at Bat Yam).
resting
for a few minutes in
One of the wounded died.
conversations later on with factthat the SHAI (Israeli
Ben-Gurion wanted the
the shade, under the fishing Stawsky, badly wounded,
Arieh Ben Elizer, Sam Mer- intelligence) never ad- approval of the Council on
jetty. A UN plane circled was partly unconscious,
lin, Eliahu Lankin and from vised Ben-Gurion about one point only If the Irgun
over us. Two Israeli corvet- Merlin , with bullets in his
research done by the latter, Lankin's meetings with did not accept the orders of
tes appeared on the western leg was losing blood heav-
horizon . .
ily.
By 5 o'clock Begin
The final gesture from the
asked for all men on shore was the artillery
shore to line up in forma- bombardment, accom-
tion so that he could re- panied with continuous
port on the progress of small arms fire. Within mi-
the negotiations with the nutes one shell hit stored
Zahal As the men lined c lothing. They caught fire
up, Zahal opened fire, in- and the fire spread.
cluding machine guns
The shelling continued.
and mortars.
Lankin raised ir white flag.'
The last were Lankin, Joe
Kahn (who later fell in
Jerusalem) and Monroe
Fine. The Altalena was co-
vered with smoke,
thousands of rounds of am-
munition were going off.
Heavier explosions were
rocking it. The Altalena
was expiring in fire and
° flame on the shore she
wanted to call home.
Despite repeated calls by
Begin, Lankin and others
for a commission of inquiry,
it never was established.
Few of the protagonists are
still living. Some of us who
are still here can only re-
minisce, analyze and con-
jecture.
The research done by
Lankin, others and myself
leads me to believe that the
tragedy occurred because:
Begin, who was very con-
scious of the tragic Jewish
historic fratricide, never
believed that anything so
radically tragic could occur.
He negotiated in good faith,
proposing terms he felt just,
giving up most of his condi-
tions except for the weapons
for Jerusalem.
Ben-Gurion, on his
own, or at the instigation
of Gallili, Levi Eshkol
and other key men of the
Hagana, felt that the ar-
rival of the vessel could
be used to destroy the ris-
ing Popularity of the Ir-
gun, Begin and the
coalescing political
movement that was to fol-
low the end of the war.
A similar opportunity
was once used by Eliahu
Golomb and associates, in
the case of the murder of Ar-
losoroff in 1933, to halt the
growing popularity the
Jabotinaky movement and
discredit it in Palestine and
the Diaspora.
"B-G" was obsessed with
hatred of the "Porshim."
After the resignation of the
Mizrachi delegate from the
State Council, following the
destruction of the Altalena,
he stated: "What would
'have our position been if
they had in their hands
5,000 rifles and 250 Bren
guns? In what language
would they have spoken to
the people, to the state? Do
you imagine the danger
that would have hovered
over us? . . ."
And he went on: "With
one rifle one can murder a
few people, with 5,000 rifles
one can murder a whole
'Yishuv . By destroying
this 'Etzel' ship we have
prevented a horrible disas-
ter that threatened us and
never has the burning of a
ship served such a noble
purpose as this burning
. . .7 (State _Council, June
23, 19483:
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