FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On December 27, 1951, The Jerusalem Post reported that Bruce McDaniel, US administrator of grant-in-aid funds in Jerusalem, conferred with Ehud Avriel, director of the Prime Minister’s Office, and other officials concerned with the program. Out of the $25 million already released by Washington, allocations of about $10 million had so far been approved by McDaniel.
The combined team of the Labor Ministry and the Jewish Agency announced that 8,000 wooden huts would be built in ma’barot (immigrant transit camps), replacing tents, within a month and a half.
In Beersheba, scores of newly planted trees were uprooted and shops were compelled to close by 200 demonstrators who demanded work. The excited group of people, who had listened to Communist Party speakers, were dispersed by the police and 12 persons were arrested, four of whom were later released. About 300 persons registered daily as unemployed.
Several members of the cabinet and of the Jewish Agency Executive held its first meeting in Jerusalem to formulate a proposal granting legal status to the World Zionist Movement.
50 YEARS AGO
On December 27, 1966, The Jerusalem Post reported that a Syrian top army team had arrived in Cairo. Jordan protested against the “leak” of its “refusal to implement the decision of the Arab League Defense Council concerning the stationing of Iraqi and Saudi Arabian troops within its territory”.
Syrian shepherds were again grazing their flocks inside the demilitarized zones within Israeli territory. In all cases they were protected by Syrian soldiers.
The Post’s editorial commented favorably on prime minister Levi Eshkol’s decision to extend the term of the chief of staff for another year. Eshkol rightly felt that in the present state of uncertainly in the area, it was necessary to retain stability at the helm of the IDF. By law the term of the chief of staff was not limited to any specific period. However, it had become a practice to change the post regularly, and the previous chiefs of staff served three years each, making this interval seem the proper period.
25 YEARS AGO
On December 27, 1991, Post reported that the Soviet legislature recognized the new Commonwealth of Independent States and had thus voted itself out of existence, A Russian white, red and blue flag flew overhead in Moscow in a symbol of transition to a new order.
According to the deputy chief of the staff Maj.-Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Israel was not currently facing a nuclear threat and did not foresee a war with Syria the following year.
Israel had established diplomatic relations with Ukraine and would formally establish diplomatic relations with the three Baltic states within the next 10 days, to be followed by Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
A ship carrying 486 immigrants from the Commonwealth of Independent States was scheduled to dock at Haifa. – Alexander Zvielli