FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On July 24, 1951, The Jerusalem Post reported on the nation’s observances of the 47th anniversary of the death of Dr. Theodor Herzl were centered at his tomb in Jerusalem, when more than 1,000 persons came to pay tribute, among them many tourists and veteran Zionists who had arrived for the Zionist Congress.
“Without the ingathering of the exiles we cannot have a state; with unemployment we cannot have the ingathering, and with “free enterprise we have unemployment,” prime minister David Ben-Gurion declared in Tel Aviv in an address to the National Conference of the Mapai Artisans’ Club in the Ohel Theater. Ben-Gurion said he was confident that in 10 years’ time Israel would have four million inhabitants. He also warned that “our enemies want a second round.”
The new Egyptian proposal to internationalize the area of the Haifa refineries as a possible prelude to the reopening of the Suez Canal to all traffic was being studied by the UN, while the UN Security Council debate on this subject was postponed due to the death of King Abdullah.
50 YEARS AGO
On July 24, 1966, The Jerusalem Post reported that chief Israeli delegate to the UN, Michael Comay, had asked for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to consider Syrian aggression against Israel. Comay quoted repeated acts of aggression committed by the Syrian armed forces and by armed saboteur groups operating from Syrian territory.
In Cairo, Egypt unveiled new Russian-made air-to-ground missiles in a massive military parade and vice-president Abdul Hakim Amer said that the duty of the armed forces was to liquidate Israel in a battle that every Arab dreamed of.
In Paris, Israeli ambassador Walter Eytan said Israel would file a formal application for its association with the European Common Market in September 1966. He made the announcement after a 30-minute meeting with French prime minister Georges Pompidou at the Hotel Matignon, the prime minister’s official residence.
The Post’s editorial dealt with the rather bleak picture of the state of Jewish education in the US and its prospects for the immediate future, as seen by those Israelis who had been following the 40th anniversary conference of the National Council for Jewish Education.
25 YEARS AGO
On July 24, 1991, The Jerusalem Post reported from Washington that president George H.W. Bush hoped agreement could be reached on a Middle East peace conference by the following week’s superpower summit in Moscow, but would not place a deadline on Israel, the White House announced. Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater also said there was “no linkage” between $10 billion in US loan guarantees for housing Soviet and Ethiopian immigrants in Israel and Israeli compliance with the peace process.
Prime minister Yitzhak Shamir complimented Syrian president Hafez Assad, saying he had undergone a transformation in his geopolitical thinking. Shamir said the change was similar to that undergone by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, which ultimately led him to make peace with Israel.
According to a report released by state comptroller Miriam Ben-Porat, interior minister Arye Deri was personally responsible for the improper allocation of funds to religious institutions via various local authorities, and to achieve this aim the minister ignored his obligation to maintain proper controls. Deri accepted the state comptroller’s report and appointed a committee to make proposals on implementing her recommendations.