FROM OUR ARCHIVES
50 YEARS AGO
March 20, 1968
The itinerary of the Three-Day Jerusalem Route March was changed so as to avoid heavily populated Arab areas. The change, issued by defense minister Moshe Dayan, was understood to have been made in order to avoid giving offense to the many thousands of Arab residents of Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahur and East Jerusalem through which the close to 20,000 marchers would pass more than once. The new approach would take the marchers through open fields rather than through populated villages and towns.
Polish Communist Party leader Wladyslaw Gomulka said he favored giving exit permits to all Polish Jews “who regard Israel as their homeland.” Speaking at a party meeting, he charged that Jewish students played a leading role in the incitement that led to the student unrest in the country. Gomulka added that the fact that the Polish Communist Party was opposed to Zionism did not mean that it supported antisemitism.
15 YEARS AGO
March 20, 2003
Allied troops were waiting for the order to launch war on Iraq, after president Saddam Hussein rejected the US ultimatum to leave the country. American and British soldiers, armored vehicles and trucks advanced toward the Iraqi border, poised to invade. About 300,000 troops – most of them from the US and 40,000 from Britain – were reported to be within striking distance of Iraq. With the American forces set to plunge into Iraq, the Home Front Command ordered Israelis to open their gas-mask kits, try on their masks, and keep them nearby at all times. “On the brink of war with Iraq, Americans should be prepared for what we hope will be as precise and short a conflict as possible, but there are many unknowns,” president George W. Bush’s spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. “It could be a matter of some duration,” he said. “Americans have to be prepared for a loss of life. Americans have to be prepared for the importance of disarming Saddam Hussein to protect the peace,” Fleischer added.
After failing to dilute the powers of the prime minister, Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat officially asked PLO official Mahmoud Abbas to accept the job. He tried until the last minute to limit the powers of the prime minister, but was rebuffed by a rebellious Palestinian Legislative Council in what was seen as a sign of his dwindling influence.
10 YEARS AGO
March 20, 2008
On the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, US president George W. Bush warned that a precipitous withdrawal could embolden Iran and extremist groups, indicating he was unwilling to significantly cut America’s troop presence there during his last 10 months in office, despite urging from critics. “There is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning, and whether we can win it,” Bush said.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman proposed a bill to potentially fine Israelis who do not serve in the army or perform national service. “Every citizen of this state must serve the country in some way,” Liberman said. He added that his bill was not meant to punish any specific sector of society, “although it is widely known that the Israeli Arab sector does not serve the country it lives in.”