FROM OUR ARCHIVES
50 YEARS AGO
On February 8, 1967, The Jerusalem Post reported that a hijacked Egyptian civil airliner, Antonov-24B, came down at Aqaba, and that Riad Hajjaj, one of the 41 persons aboard, who allegedly pretended to be an Egyptian intelligence officer, had asked for and was granted political asylum. The Egyptian government spokesman claimed that Hajjaj was a swindler who claimed to be an intelligence officer, but actually was a criminal who sought to escape justice. One Jordanian report claimed that aboard the plane there were other Egyptian officers, who had also sought asylum, but this was not confirmed. The plane was permitted to return to Egypt.
Three Syrian Army lieutenants and “a number of soldiers” crossed into Jordan and asked for political asylum, which was granted.
Jordan addressed two notes to the UN Security Council, the first charging Israel with “lies and fabricated charges” spread in order to destroy the UN machinery supervising the armistice, and the second calling Israel’s plans to hold an Independence Day parade in Jerusalem a “serious provocation directed against Jordan.”
In London, an all-party deputation from the House of Commons expressed concern to Soviet prime minister Alexei Kosygin about the conditions of Soviet Jewry. The deputation, in a letter delivered to the Soviet Embassy and signed by 252 out of the 630 members, had asked the Soviet government for a speedy implementation of the policy of family reunions, the freedom of Soviet Jews to practice their religion and to allow them to maintain contact with major Jewish organizations abroad.
10 YEARS AGO
On February 8, 2007, The Jerusalem Post reported that for the first time since the previous summer’s Lebanon War, clashes broke out along the Israeli-Lebanese border between IDF troops and soldiers of the Lebanese Armed Forces. The violence erupted after Lebanese soldiers opened fire at an IDF engineering unit operating north of the Israeli community of Avivim, along the border but inside sovereign Israeli territory. The unit searched for explosive devices believed to be planted there by Hezbollah. In response the IDF tank unit returned the fire and shelled Lebanese Army positions.
The IDF informed UNIFIL and the Lebanese army that it planned to cross the security fence and sweep the area for bombs and mines. The aforementioned area was inside Israel, and while the troops planned to cross the fence they would not cross the Blue Line international border, located several meters from it. At 8 p.m., D-9 bulldozers, backed up by Merkava tanks, entered the fence up to the international Blue Line and started their work.
A series of attacks on Hamas officials and their activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip threatened to spoil the festive atmosphere at the Hamas-Fatah summit in Mecca.
Newly installed justice minister Daniel Friedmann was trying to quell the storm of the controversy surrounding his appointment, but critics continued to insist he was a poor choice for the job because of his allegedly unbridled attacks on the Supreme Court and its president Dorit Beinish.