Israel Plans to Raise the Famed Altalena

[rug]

Tel Aviv — One of the bitterest confrontations on record pitting Jew against Jew is soon to be dredged up — quite literally.

The Israeli government has given instructions for the raising of the Altalena, a Jewish ship on which the country’s prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, ordered his army to fire shortly after he declared independence, in 1948.

The Irgun, a right-wing Zionist faction led by Menachem Begin, who years later became prime minister, controlled the ship. The Altalena was bringing weapons from Europe to rearm the militia. When Ben-Gurion, then head of the provisional government, demanded that Begin and the Irgun hand over these arms, insisting there could be only one single armed force in the new state, Begin refused, and Ben-Gurion attacked the ship as it neared Israel’s shore.

Over the next three decades, his political faction enjoyed uninterrupted control of government. Its doctrine was that attacking the Altalena had been vital — a belief that is still widespread on the Israeli left. “The Altalena is when Israel was actually established as a state, as it was the moment when it was clear that it would be one state with one military,” said Jerusalem-based historian Gershom Gorenberg, who has written about the incident at length.

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/140810/#ixzz1U3QUW1BH