FROM OUR ARCHIVES
50 YEARS AGO
On December 29, 1966, The Jerusalem Post reported that the Arab League Defense Council had, at its recent meeting, decided that Egypt should return its forces to the Gaza Strip, reinforce the blockade of Eilat and demand the withdrawal of UNEF forces. The council demanded that it was up to Egypt to fill the military vacuum thus created in the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. Egypt should also reoccupy the islands of Tiran and Sanafir and impose the Arab Gulf blockade. The council demanded that all Arab League members in arrears in their payments to the Arab Unified Command would make their payments in hard currency. (Egypt had been paying in Egyptian pounds which could be converted into international currencies only at a heavy discount.)
A Mark II anti-vehicle mine, of the type used by the Egyptian Army, was found by a routine IDF patrol on the “patrol route” in the Dan area, about 200 meters from the Syrian border and was dismantled without causing any damage. A complaint was lodged with the UN Israel-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission.
Israel maintained full and close cooperation with the staffs of the UN Truce Supervision Organization, both in New York and along its border with Syria. But it had announced that it would not participate in the meeting of the UN Israel-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission as long as Syria persisted in using this body to challenge Israel’s sovereignty over its demilitarized area in the north.
25 YEARS AGO
On December 29, 1991, The Jerusalem Post reported that 447 new immigrants had arrived in Haifa by ship from Odessa. It was the first such operation since the current wave of immigration from Russia started two years earlier. One immigrant on the ship sounded a shofar.
Heavy weekend storms claimed three lives in drowning. A car was swept off a bridge into the raging waters of Nahal Sorek.
Former US secretary of state,Alexander Haig recalled in an American army radio interview broadcast that George H.W. Bush, while serving as vice president in 1981, sought to cut all US aid to Israel, economic and military, after its jets attacked Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. Haig described a post-raid cabinet session in which then defense secretary Caspar Weinberger led the call for a total ban on aid to Israel, which was rejected by then president Ronald Reagan.
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra gave its promised program of music by Richard Wagner, but sought to forestall protests by treating the event as a rehearsal.
10 YEARS AGO
On December 29, 2006, The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli defense officials who recently held talks with senior officers in the Western military alliance noted that NATO was now taking keen new interest in Iran’s nuclear program.
The special budget for Knesset members taking English lessons had been slashed due to the lack of interest.
Foreign minister Tzipi Livni was expected to discuss with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice during her upcoming visit to the region the possibility of negotiating with Palestinians over provisional borders of the Palestinian state, but delaying the implementation of that plan until they dismantle the terrorist infrastructure. Livni held “non-binding” talks with prominent Palestinian leaders and had discussed these ideas with prime minister Ehud Olmert.
Palestinian Authority prime minister Ismail Haniyeh said that the kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit would be released soon.