FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On May 4, 1952, The Jerusalem Post reported from Washington that once again the US government had come to Israel’s financial rescue. After a week of diplomatic activity by commerce and industry minister Dr. Dov Joseph and ambassador Abba Eban in which they called on US secretary of state Dean Acheson, Averell Harriman and other Technical Cooperative officials, the State Department agreed to waive technicalities and release the remaining $11,583,000 of the $50 million refugee aid without waiting for approved projects to arrive from the office of Bruce McDaniel, Technical Cooperation Administration in Tel Aviv.
The US government had also made a contribution of $10m. to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees.
Dorothy Thompson, American journalist and president of the newly formed Association of American Friends of the Middle East, was awarded the Syrian Medal of Merit in Damascus for defending Arab causes in the US.
Ten infiltrators were killed, five wounded and 66 arrested by security forces during the April 1952, an IDF spokesman announced in Tel Aviv.
The first group of foreign scientists arrived for the International Symposium on Desert Research, ready to open in Jerusalem the following week under the auspices of the Scientific Council and UNESCO.
The start of the second year of the $500m. Bond Drive in the US was marked in Jerusalem’s King David Hotel. Eighty prominent drive leaders, now in the country, had been invited by prime minister David Ben-Gurion and members of the cabinet to participate in the festivities.
50 YEARS AGO
On May 4, 1967, The Jerusalem Post reported that infiltrators coming from the Hebron hills [under Jordanian occupation until June 1967] unsuccessfully tried to blow up a culvert on the Dvir-Lahav road. The culvert was about nine kilometers. from the Jordan-Israel armistice line. This was the second such attempt that week, when saboteurs set off a charge underneath a culvert on the Beersheba-Arad road.
The Post’s editorial commented on the decision of the Ministerial Economic Committee to merge all state-controlled chemical and petrochemical plants into one huge combine. This could become a milestone in Israel’s industrial development. The scheme’s eventual success or failure depended, however, on a clear understanding of the purpose and difficulties involved.
25 YEARS AGO
On May 4, 1992, The Jerusalem Post reported that state comptroller Miriam Ben-Porat said she had turned over to attorney-general Yosef Harish 10 allegations of criminal activity uncovered in compiling her annual report on the functioning of the government. But Ben-Porat did not identify which officials and ministries were involved.
While the Knesset election campaign got under way, the Likud vowed: “No Palestinian state.”
TV’s Friday night news was removed from the prime-time slot.
Syria displayed “slight movement” in the previous week’s peace talks, chief negotiator Yossi Ben Aharon told the cabinet.
A poll indicated that more than 83% of Israeli Arabs wanted a role in peace talks.