FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On September 14, 1951, The Jerusalem Post reported that in Paris the UN Conciliation Committee met the four Arab delegations in the morning and the Israeli delegation in the afternoon, each session lasting 40 minutes. At these meetings the PCC chairman, Ely Palmer, made identical statements, reporting on the background of the conference and stressing its importance. Both the Israeli and the Arab delegates said that they would carefully study Palmer’s proposals.
The Knesset Finance Committee studied the agreement reached with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company on increased output of the Haifa Refineries.
A strike and frequent machinery breakdowns contributed to Tel Aviv’s shortage of ice. Several shops closed in the afternoon for lack of ice and long queues formed at others. The average daily production was 700 tons, and this was not sufficient for the fast-growing city.
The registration period for the 48,000 units of the four-year Popular Housing Program ended, with what could be considered a moderate success in view of the housing shortage. The Labor Ministry, which was in charge of the program, started considering the individual applications and preparations began for the construction of the first 12,000 units to be constructed that year.
In Tel Aviv, the Mapai political party’s Central Committee had agreed to continue talks with the General Zionists and Hapoel Hamizrahi towards the formation of a new government coalition.
50 YEARS AGO
On September 14, 1966, The Jerusalem Post reported that at the UN, Secretary-General U Thant had recommended to the UN General Assembly to retain the UN Emergency Force in the Gaza Strip and the Gulf of Eilat, and warned that its withdrawal “quite likely” would result in the early resumption of fighting. In a 21-page report on the operations of UNEF, he said, it contributed to being “a major stabilizing influence and the principal means of maintaining quiet in the areas in which it operated.” U Thant also reported that the deployment and activities of some 12,000 men of the Palestine Liberation Army, organized in Cairo by Ahmed Shukeiry, had increased, and led “to some differences with UNEF personnel.”
The Arab States protested to the UN Security Council against what they termed “the widely propagandist inauguration by the Israeli occupying authorities of the so-called Parliament in occupied Jerusalem.” They also appealed to other countries to “resist this illegal and aggressive act of Zionism.”
The Arad-Masada water pipeline was blown up during the night at a point some 10 km. away from Arad. Fresh tracks of three men led to the Jordanian border. A complaint was lodged with the U.N. Mixed Israeli-Jordanian Armistice Commission.
15 YEARS AGO
On September 14, 2001, The Jerusalem Post reported that at the wreckage of New York’s World Trade Center, rescue workers pulled five firefighters alive from a sport utility vehicle buried in the rubble, lifting the spirits of the city that feared thousands remained buried in the twisted ruins.
An emotional president George W. Bush declared the US and its allies were ready to “whip terrorism,” as officials confirmed hundreds of dead and at least 5,000 missing from the terror strikes in New York and Washington. Defense officials promised “sustained” engagement in what Bush described as “the first war of the 21st century,” while secretary of state Colin Powell confirmed for the first time that Saudi-born Osama bin Laden was a suspect.
– Alexander Zvielli