FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65 YEARS AGO

On September 13, 1951, The Jerusalem Post reported that the first $50 million received from the Independence Bond issue in the US had been made available to Israel and had been allocated for the expansion of mining and industry, electric power and agricultural production, finance minister Eliezer Kaplan reported to the cabinet.

One of the strangest conferences in recent diplomatic history was arranged by the UNPalestine Conciliation Commission “to solve the post-armistice problems between Israel and the Arab states.” It continued in session in Paris all day without formally opening, and with the chief participants not talking to each other. The official PCC spokesman denied British press reports that the conference would adjourn indefinitely and insisted that “the conference is going on.”

The cabinet session was devoted to financial problems. Dr. Perez Bernstein, General Zionist leader, said prime minister David Ben-Gurion agreed to implement certain big financial concessions, as suggested by his party.

Israeli foreign policy was defined by foreign minister Moshe Sharett as an “independent policy directed solely by Israel’s primary interests,” and “friendliest to those who help her most.” As to the decision taken by UN Security Council, Sharett pointed out that the initiative towards the enforcement should come from those countries interested in free navigation through the Suez Canal.

50 YEARS AGO

On September 13, 1966, The Jerusalem Post reported that wage restraint, an economic drive and a tax freeze were the main elements of the new economic policy, whose object was to get rid of cost inflation. “The best export premium is to cut production expense,” finance minister Pinhas Sapir announced. Among the important features of the new program was Sapir’s decision to revise production norms. Output, he said, would easily go up by from 20 to 30 percent and wages must be raised by no more than Israel’s net national product. Modest incentives would be offered to major export producers.

Police tow trucks were called in to remove some 30 Dan buses blocking the roads around the Tel Aviv University campus. Transportation minister Moshe Carmel later summoned Dan executive members to his Jerusalem office to warn them against taking the law into their own hands in their dispute with Egged over the university route. Police sent to remove the buses found their batteries had been disconnected. The two trucks were summoned and four Dan drivers were detained. Dan’s claims to the franchise for the route from the central bus station to the university were rejected by the Road Transport Controller.

25 YEARS AGO

On September 13, 1991, The Jerusalem Post reported that US president George H.W. Bush threatened to reject any move by Congress to pass Israel’s requested $10 billion in loan guarantees within the next 120 days. In a direct appeal to the American people, Bush charged that approving the guarantees now would “destroy” his efforts to arrange a Middle East peace conference.

Officials in Jerusalem privately expressed shock and fury at Bush’s charges with one source in the Prime Minister’s Office branding it “a bombshell thrown at our heads” and “a declaration of war against us.”

Bush’s televised press conference took place as 1,000 American Jews flocked to Capitol Hill to press their negotiators for a quick enactment of the legislation.

The body of IDF Sgt. Samir Assad was on its way back home from Lebanon via Vienna.

— Alexander Zvielli