FROM OUR ARCHIVES
50 YEARS AGO
The US proposed that Egypt allow freedom of navigation through the Straits of Tiran during a “breathing spell” which the UN Security Council would use to resolve the Middle East crisis. Prime minister Levi Eshkol said that before any overt response to the closure of the straits, Israel was obliged first to put to the test international pledges of its allies to maintain freedom of passage. He further said that “Israel’s political drive to restore free navigation would not be effective but for our own armed strength and the justice of our cause,” adding: “Egypt’s ruler would do well to recall that this not the first time he has been carried away on the wings of his imagination and seen himself as victor before any battle was fought. Disappointment was not long in coming, and we have been witness to that.”
Nearly 70 Jews from the Yemeni port city of Aden, comprising half of the remaining community, were planning to leave the colony for good following anti-Jewish riots and the shooting of two Jews. Most Jewish families were preparing for their emigration at a Jewish-owned hotel, with others housed in safe areas under British protection.
15 YEARS AGO
Sharp divisions between defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and chief of staff Shaul Mofaz arose at a security cabinet meeting, as BenEliezer disagreed with Mofaz’s and other politicians’ calls to expel Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat. Mofaz raised the expulsion of Arafat as an option to be considered given the wave of terrorism the country was experiencing. National Religious Party leader Effi Eitam also supported the idea, saying after the meeting that “military action should be renewed to expel Arafat, who is the head of a murderous regime. He is not a partner for negotiations and not for reform.”
A military court extended the remand of West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti by 22 days to allow investigators to complete the investigation into his connection to the deaths and wounding of dozens of Israelis. His lawyer said that as a political leader, his client would plead not guilty to all charges expected to be brought against him.
10 YEARS AGO
Prime minister Ehud Olmert gave a spirited defense of the Second Lebanon War, at a special Knesset session to discuss his refusal to resign after the harshly critical findings of the Winograd Committee’s report came out. He took issue with two key conclusions of the report: that his stating the return of captive reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev was one of the objectives of the war was a mistake; and that the decision to go to war had been made hastily and without proper preparation or forethought. Olmert said that Israel could not have expected the international community to make the soldiers’ return a top priority if Israel had not made it one. He remained defiant in the face of several MKs who had called upon him to quit, saying that the Winograd report called to “implement the conclusions of the war but not for heads to roll.” A hundred and sixty-five Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed in the war and 2,067 military and civilian wounded. – Daniel Kra