FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On January 30, 1952, The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel complained to the president of the UN Security Council that recent speeches by Syrian representatives in UN meetings had violated the charter by threatening the use of force against another state. The Syrian delegate was quoted as warning Israel of “a storm which would tear down the structure of Israel down to its foundations.” A letter from Abba Eban, permanent delegate to the UN, had also quoted statements by Ahmed Shukeiry in the UN Special Committee on Palestine three days earlier, when he stated that he looked forward to the elimination of the Jewish state.
Finance minister Eliezer Kaplan told the cabinet that the Treasury could not be committed to meet the monthly quota of $6.5 million in foreign currency needed to maintain the current food rations. Kaplan did not recommend cutting the quota, which would mean reducing rations, but said that there was no guarantee that funds would be available in time.
A Rome court opened the trial in absentia of eight alleged “Jewish terrorists” accused of hurling a bomb against the British Embassy there in October 1948. All accused were believed to be in Israel.
The evacuation of Jews from Libya ended with the arrival of the last group of 402 immigrants aboard the s.s. Artza. They included 50 Youth Aliya boys and girls and 11 blind persons.
50 YEARS AGO
On January 30, 1967, The Jerusalem Post reported that the UN Israel-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission meeting at Mahanayim reached a dead end and was adjourned, following Syrian attempts to divert from the agreed agenda on border cultivation. The meeting started with the opening statement by the UN Mediator and the chief of staff, Gen. Odd Bull, deploring the previous week’s “mine laying in Israel near the Syrian border.”
A nine-year-old girl noticed an explosive charge placed against the protective wall around an ancient mosaic floor, about 15 km. southeast of Beit Guvrin and some four km. from the Jordan border. The charge was dismantled by sappers without causing any damage. A complaint had been submitted to the UN Mixed Jordan-Israeli Armistice Commission.
The third successive day of heavy rains washed out many roads in various parts of the country as wadis overflowed their banks.
25 YEARS AGO
On January 30, 1992, The Jerusalem Post reported that India announced it was establishing full relations with Israel, reversing a 40-year policy of diplomatic exclusion. An announcement by foreign secretary J.N. Dixit said the upgrading of relations was effective immediately. Until now, India linked relations to a solution of the Arab-Israel conflict and Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory. The announcement said embassies would open in New Delhi and Tel Aviv.
The multinational Middle East conference ended on an upbeat note in Moscow with Arab, Israeli and Western delegates set to hold a series of meetings to explore the nuts and bolts of peace in the region. Although marred by a Palestinian boycott and the absence of Syria and Lebanon, the meeting added a sense of substance and continuity to the fragile US-brokered peace process. It drew an impressive cross-section of the Arab world, the U.S. and Russia, the Europe, China, Japan, Turkey and Canada, and gave Middle Easterners what foreign minister David Levy called “a taste of the fruits of the coming peace.”