FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65

YEARS AGO On April 15, 1951, The Jerusalem Post reported that tThree Syrian soldiers opened machine-gun fire at an Israeli policeman standing guard on the Israeli-Syrian border and slightly wounded him. A protest had been filed with the Mixed Armistice Commission. Isolated shots had been fired from Syria at workers and constables near Mishmar Hayarden. London’s

Time and Tide independent review blamed Syria for the border trouble .The root cause, it said, was the refusal of the Arab states to recognize that they had b een defeated and that the Palestine war was over.

An Israeli soldier was wounded and taken prisoner when Arab Legionnaires entered Israel at Budros village near Ramle, and opened fire at a small group of soldiers. A protest had been lodged with the MAC. The Jordan report claimed that 12 armed Jews entered the village and were repelled by national guardsmen. A UN spokesman announced that a joint Israel-Jordan survey was scheduled to complete its investigation in the Bet Guvrin area, where another Israeli soldier was killed.

Ernest Bevin, former British foreign secretary, died in London of a heart attack. He was 70. His opposition to Zionism was one of the factors which led to the end of the Mandatory Palestine in 1948.

50

YEARS AGO On April 15, 1966, The Jerusalem Post reported that prime minister Levi Eshkol had taken over as the head of the Atomic Energy Commission and announced that he would in future personally handle all matters connected with nuclear research and development in Israel. Eshkol appointed Prof. Israel Dostrovsky as the senior scientist on the commission, which was being reorganized after a number of years of inactivity, following the resignation of Prof. Ernst David Bergmann in 1962.

At the UN, secretary-general U Thant had turned down a request by 12 Arab countries that he make a personal inspection visit to the Middle East camps caring for Palestinian refugees. U Thant added that he was “already fully alert to the seriousness and the urgency of the refugee situation even without a visit. He was in constant communication with Mr. L. Michelmore, commissioner-general of UNRWA, who was on the scene to act on refugee matters”.

25

YEARS AGO On April 15, 1991, The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet was critical of the official publication by state comptroller Miriam Ben-Porat’s report charging that one of every three civilians were issued with gas masks that “possibly” were faulty and inaccurate. Defense minister Moshe Arens charged that Ben-Porat’s report “did not reflect realities” and missed the target. Her intentions may have been good, but not the outcome of her report. Prime minister Yitzhak Shamir said the cabinet’s decision was not required on Ben-Porat’s findings, since it was obvious that the government identified with the position of the defense minister.