FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65 YEARS AGO

On March 16, 1952, The Jerusalem Post reported that the US Mutual Security Agency announced that Israel was scheduled to receive a share of the $55 million earmarked by the US for technical aid to the Middle East and a share of the $606.57m. for military aid, in addition to the $76m. proposed for the relief and resettlement of the refugees in Israel.

Compulsory loans, higher taxes, the reduction of the purchasing power and of foreign currency imports to a minimum were among the government’s forthcoming economic measures, according to commerce minister Dov Joseph.

Representatives of Swiss investors were due for oil talks with the government.

The legal status of the Jewish Agency in Israel was to be clarified in discussions between the newly appointed ministerial committee and agency representatives.

Menachem Begin, the Herut political representative, expressed hope that his party’s demonstrations against the reparations agreement with Germany would pass quietly.

Non-affiliation with the Histadrut and maintaining its independence was decided unanimously by the national conference of Israel Medical Association.

The s.s. Transylvania arrived in Haifa with 768 new immigrants from Romania.

50 YEARS AGO

On March 16, 1967, The Jerusalem Post reported from Tokyo that the foreign minister Abba Eban conferred for half-an-hour with Japanese foreign minister Takeo Miki. Eban arrived in Tokyo on a fourday goodwill visit in the course of his tour of Asian and Pacific countries. Later in the evening he was the guest of the foreign minister at a traditional Japanese dinner.

The establishment of a chair for Bible study at Tel Aviv University to carry the name of David Ben-Gurion was announced in New York by Dr. George Wise, president of the university, at a luncheon given in honor of Ben-Gurion by the Friends of Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Nahum Goldmann arrived in Bonn for a two-day visit during which he expected to meet foreign minister Willy Brand, finance minister Franz-Josef Strauss and other German dignitaries.

25 YEARS AGO

On March 16, 1992, The Jerusalem Post reported that a very senior official warned that Israel’s qualitative edge in the overall regional balance could be affected if the US limited its military sales. He explained that the US might impose such limitations in response to allegations that Israel had transferred American technology to third countries without authorization, thus compromising American political and economic interests. The Israeli official expressed anger and frustration over these allegations, which he described as “easily refutable.”

“Some of the charges are nasty and ludicrous,” he said. “This is a situation in which we cannot defend ourselves because we don’t know what we are accused of.” The official asserted that Israel maintained a very tight control over its military and technology sales. A number of cabinet ministers charged that the top levels of the Bush administration were trying to sabotage US-Israel relations,

US law-enforcement authorities charged that the Israeli Defense Ministry had been less than helpful to an American delegation in Israel to investigate the Rami Dotan embezzlement affair, American law enforcement sources charged.

The US had still not sent its annual aid package due in Israel the previous month.

—Alexander Zvielli