Irgun Fighter Remembers the Altalena David Laskin September 9, 2014

Irgun Fighter Remembers the Altalena David Laskin

Malca Fein is a fit, sharp, outspoken, perfectly groomed octogenarian with a just a hint of an accent. But get her talking about the past and the fiery Zionist freedom fighter burns through her grandmotherly facade. At the age of 16, Malca, who was born in Tel Aviv in 1925 and now makes her home in Windsor, California, joined Irgun (also called Etzel, a Hebrew acronym), a paramilitary offshoot of Haganah that was bent on using armed force to expel the British from Palestine. In the fraught period between the end of World War II and the birth of the State of Israel, Malca put her life on the line proudly and unhesitatingly for the cause she believed in.

“I used a gun — a German Luger,” Malca reminisced recently. “I used to be quite an expert.” She participated in the notorious Irgun bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on July 22, 1946 — a direct hit on the headquarters of the British military command that took down a wing of the hotel and killed 91 people. “I brought the bombs and ammunition,” she recalls matter-of-factly. “I transferred the TNT — we all did. Our goal was to destroy the records the British were using to round people up. The Irgun were geniuses at explosives.”

But what most haunts this 88-year-old mother of four and grandmother of eight is a pitched bloody battle fought between Jew and Jew on Israel’s shore. The Altalena Affair changed the course of Malca Fein’s life — and continues to reverberate through the Israeli political landscape.

Altalena on fire after being shelled near Tel-Aviv

On June 20, 1948, with the newborn state of Israel fighting for its life against the combined forces of its Arab neighbors, an American landing craft called the Altalena arrived off the coast of Kfar Vitkin (a farming village north of Tel Aviv) carrying some 940 Irgun volunteers and a sizable cache of weapons. David Ben-Gurion, leader of Israel’s provisional government (and later its first prime minister), rescinded an earlier agreement to permit the ship to dock and the weapons to be off-loaded. A series of violent clashes between Irgun fighters and the fledgling Israel Defense Forces ensued, in the course of which 19 men (16 Irgun fighters and 3 Israeli soldiers) were killed.

Some of the crew of the Altalena. Bottom row center is Captain Monroe Fein.

Malca Fein took part in the Altalena Affair in three different but overlapping capacities. As an Irgun foot soldier, she assisted in the abortive landing and unloading of the ship. As a trained nurse, she tended to the wounds that her fellow Irgun fighters sustained during exchanges of fire with the IDF. As a passionate young woman, she fell in love with and subsequently married the American captain of the Altalena, a 25-year-old Chicago-born U.S. Navy veteran named Monroe Fein.

“What a time,” Malca says today with a rueful smile.

At the heart of the incident was a bitter, long-festering conflict between two of the main factions that dominated the foundational period of the Jewish state — the left-leaning Labor Zionists that rallied around Ben-Gurion and the militant right-wing movement that Menachem Begin inherited from the fiery Revisionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky. After the Second World War, the two factions clashed sharply over how best to bring an end to the British Mandate. Irgun embraced violent tactics (some called it terrorism) like the bombing of the King David, while Ben-Gurion called for negotiation and moderation. There was a personal element in the conflict as well: Ben-Gurion and Begin were archrivals and bitter enemies, and some historians believe that Ben-Gurion was bent on marginalizing or destroying not only the Irgun but Begin himself.

The conflict came to a head over the Altalena.

After Israel was born in May 1948, Ben-Gurion insisted that all independent militias, Irgun included, must immediately cease to exist and be folded into the IDF. Begin agreed in principle and some Irgun units were integrated into the IDF, but the war that broke out immediately after Israeli independence created an extraordinary situation. The besieged Jewish sector in Jerusalem’s Old City, which was technically outside the jurisdiction of the new Israeli government, was being held by a small number of desperately under-equipped Irgun fighters. Arms from the Altalena had been earmarked for the Irgun in Jerusalem — and Begin argued that the delivery of these arms was a matter of life or death for Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter.

With numerically superior Arab armies closing in from all sides, the clash between Begin and Ben-Gurion was not a political debate but a national emergency.

The ship at the center of the incident was a vintage 4,000-ton American diesel-powered LST (or Landing Ship, Tank — a troop and cargo carrier adapted to amphibious combat) that had seen action during D-Day before being mothballed up the Hudson River near West Point. Irgun operatives in the U.S. arranged for the purchase and rechristened the ship the Altalena (Jabotinsky’s pen-name, and the Italian word for see-saw or swing). An experienced seaman was required to take command and Monroe Fein had had experience piloting LSTs in the Pacific during the war; he was young, healthy (except for occasional serious bouts with asthma), and a fervent Zionist. An Irgun recruiter interviewed Monroe in Chicago and promptly signed him on to captain the Altalena. Eliahu Lankin, who headed the Irgun in the Diaspora, called him an “intrepid Jewish patriot.”

The Altalena was transported across the Atlantic to Marseilles in the first week of June 1948. With the cooperation of the French government, it was loaded with a considerable cache of arms and ammunition — 300 Bren guns, 50 German Spender guns, 500 anti-tank guns, 1000 grenades and 5 million rounds of ammo. Young people from all over Europe, many of them survivors of the camps, streamed aboard; among the 940 volunteer fighters, there were 120 women. When Monroe set sail at dusk on the night of June 11, passengers and crew broke into “Hatikvah.”

Controversy swirled around the ship as soon as it entered the open sea. The day of its departure, a 28-day cease-fire in the regional war went into effect, and a delivery of arms and fighters would have been in violation of its terms. Nonetheless, Ben-Gurion approved the Altalena’s arrival and Monroe proceeded on the assumption that the mission had the “full knowledge and acquiescence of the Israeli government.” Begin had attempted to negotiate an arrangement with the Israeli government whereby the arms would be unloaded, with 20% of the cache going to Irgun forces in Jerusalem and the remainder to Irgun units that had been absorbed into the IDF, but the negotiations had stalled. Well aware that the ship was steaming toward Israel, Ben-Gurion gave instructions that Captain Fein was to anchor off Kfar Vitkin in order to avoid detection by U.N. observers. There, under cover of night, weapons and fighters would be transferred to land.

But that was not how the scenario played out.

“It was a big trap,” Malca recalls. “Begin was very naïve for agreeing to land the Altalena in Kfar Vitkin because it was a den of Haganah. We started unloading — we were there all night — but then [the IDF] started shooting at us.”

Malca adds one detail that had important consequences for her personally. At some point while the ship was still anchored off Kfar Vitkin, she boarded and asked Captain Monroe Fein if she could have some food for her hungry comrades. “Monnie said, ‘I don’t like women on my ship,’” recalls Malca, laughing. “And I told him, ‘I don’t want to be on your boat — I just want food.’”

Evidently, it was not love at first sight.

In any case, whatever sparks were flying between the future husband and wife were overshadowed by the desperate turn of events. Unbeknownst to the Irgun, Ben-Gurion had summoned an emergency cabinet meeting to determine how to deal with the arrival of the Altalena. Insisting that “there are not going to be two armies” in Israel, the prime minister made an executive decision to instruct the IDF to open fire if Begin did not agree to surrender the entire cargo of munitions.

The clash played out over the course of two bloody days, first in Kfar Vitkin and then in Tel Aviv. The Altalena’s 940 passengers were allowed to disembark peacefully at Kfar Vitkin on the night of June 20, but trouble arose when Captain Fein and his crew attempted to off-load the cargo of munitions. IDF soldiers had sealed off Kfar Vitkin, and two Israeli navy corvettes had taken up position near the ship. According to an account that Monroe wrote later, less than 20% of the cargo had been off-loaded when a fire fight broke out on the beach of Kfar Vitkin. Monroe, concerned for the safety of his crew and remaining cargo, decided to take the ship back out to sea — but before he got very far, “suddenly and without any warning whatsoever, both [Israeli Navy] corvettes opened fire on the Altalena with heavy machine guns.”

Six Irgun members and two IDF soldiers died at Kfar Vitkin, but worse was still to come. Monroe managed to get the ship down to Tel Aviv without incident, but shortly after midnight he ran aground not far from the beach, at the foot of Frishman Street. That morning, about 8:30 a.m., future prime minister Yitzhak Rabin led a full-scale attack on the Altalena. Two of Monroe’s crew members were killed in the fire fight, and Irgun leader Avraham Stavsky (who had worked tirelessly to save Jews from the Nazis during the war) sustained mortal wounds. After a cease fire and a round of tense negotiations between Begin and the IDF commanders, the IDF opened up with a second barrage. A fire ignited in the cargo hold and grew rapidly; Monroe, aware of the imminent danger, ordered all men to abandon ship.

“As men began jumping off the ship and swimming toward the shore,” wrote Monroe, “those of us still on shipboard saw that they were being shot at continuously from rifles and machine guns on the beach.” Monroe hastened to hoist a white flag on the ship’s bridge, but the firing continued.

Monroe succeeded in evacuating every last man from the ship, including Begin, who had insisted on remaining on board, before the Altalena exploded in an inferno of flames and detonating bullets. (According to Fein family legend, Begin refused to leave, and Monroe had to throw him overboard before the ship blew up.) Eleven Jews perished in the fighting at Tel Aviv — 10 Irgun and ship crew members and one IDF soldier.

It was, in Rabin’s words, a “black day” for Israel.

According to Monroe’s written account, after the ship exploded, he and other crew members were hustled away from the shore and transported to Irgun headquarters; later he was taken prisoner by an IDF contingent and held for interrogation at an army camp in the northern outskirts of Tel Aviv. After being detained for four days, including a stint in an unventilated cell that triggered a serious asthma attack, the Altalena’s American captain was released. That was when the romance with Malca was kindled.

Monroe’s nephew Steve Shender says, “After his release from detention, my uncle became ill, and Malca, who was a nurse in the Irgun, nursed him back to health. They were definitely in love at the end of his convalescence.”

Malca adds a few more details: “We dated once in Tel Aviv — we went to a movie — but Monnie didn’t know how to get back to his hotel, so I had to walk him there and then return home by myself. He sent me a letter and a birthday gift.” The attack on the Altalena had soured Malca on Israel: “When they bombed the ship,” she says, “I decided to leave — if Jews can kill Jews, I don’t belong there.” Soon after, she went to New York on Irgun business. Monnie came east from Chicago on a visit, and at the end of two weeks he proposed.

Malca’s answer was “Of course!”

But it wasn’t exactly happily ever after. A few years into their marriage, after their first child was born, Monroe and Malca returned to Israel. Monroe wanted to make aliyah, but his involvement with Irgun made it impossible for him to get work, so they were forced to go back to the U.S. Monroe held a series of jobs, first at General Electric on the East Coast, then at Science Research Associates in Chicago, and finally at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Asthma plagued him his entire life, and he was treated with steroid-based medications that weakened his heart. In 1982, while swimming in Santa Monica, California, his heart failed and he went into a coma. He died at the age of 59.

Although the Altalena incident happened 66 years ago, it has not been forgotten. Supporters of Ben-Gurion argue that the use of force against Irgun was necessary to establish the new government as the only legitimate power in Israel. Ben-Gurion’s opponents question whether preserving one party’s hegemony could ever justify the killing of Jews by Jews.

According to Jerold S. Auerbach, professor emeritus of history at Wellesley College and the author of a recent book about the Altalena affair called “Brothers at War,” “the dark shadow of the Altalena still hovers over Israel more than six decades later, raising vital issues of political legitimacy that have yet to be resolved in the Jewish state.”

“To this day the Altalena continues to surface as a bone of contention and a warning in Israeli politics,” asserts Auerbach. “During the 2005 countdown to the disengagement from Gaza proposed by Ariel Sharon, the Altalena was repeatedly cited to justify or condemn the forced removal of Jewish settlers by Jewish soldiers. Until this legitimacy conundrum is resolved — if it ever is — the Altalena is likely to continue to haunt Israeli society. The affair has an afterlife.”

As for Malca Fein, she looks back with a touch of wonder, and quiet pride, at a fraught chapter of history that shaped the rest of her life. “Was I aware at the time that we were making history?” she asks. “There was no time to think about it. You did what you had to do. You did it and that’s all. If you were lucky, you got home. If you weren’t, you didn’t. It was as simple as that. We gave, we sacrificed, what we thought should be done, we did it.”

David Laskin’s recent book, “The Family: A Journey into the Heart of the Twentieth Century,” will be out in Penguin paperback in September.

The Irgun: The Altalena Affair (June 20, 1948) by Prof. Yehuda Lapidot

The Altalena, purchased by Irgun members abroad, was originally intended to reach Israel on May 15, 1948, loaded with fighters and military equipment. Weapons purchase and organizational matters took longer than expected, however, and the sailing was postponed for several weeks. Meanwhile, on June 1st, an agreement had been signed for the absorption of the Irgun into the IDF and one of the clauses stated that the Irgun had to cease all independent arms acquisition activities. Consequently, representatives of the Israel Government were informed about the ship and its sailing schedule.

The Irgun headquarters in Paris did their best to keep the Altalena's preparations for departure a secret, but it was difficult to conceal the movement of 940 fighters and the loading of a large quantity of arms and ammunition. It was feared that if the plans were discovered, attempts might be made to sabotage the Altalena at sea. For this reason, when it raised anchor on June 11th, no cable was sent to the Irgun command in Israel, for fear that it would fall into the wrong hands. These precautionary measures proved fruitless, however, and the following day Radio London reported that the Altalena had sailed from Port-de-Bouc (France) in the direction of Israel with 1,000 Jewish volunteers and a large quantity of weapons on board.

It should be recalled that the first truce had begun on June 11th. When the Irgun leaders in Israel learned through the broadcast of the embarkation of the vessel, they feared that this breach of the truce conditions (i.e., the ban on bringing military equipment and fighters into the country) would be revealed. Menachem Begin decided therefore to postpone the arrival of the ship, and the Irgun staff secretary, Zippora Levi-Kessel, sent a wireless message to the Altalena to stay put and await orders. A similar cable was sent to Shmuel Katz (member of the General Headquarters), who was then in Paris, but contact with the ship was poor and the message was not understood.

On June 15th, Begin and his comrades held a meeting with government representatives, at which Begin announced that the ship had sailed without his knowledge and that he wanted to hold consultations on how to proceed. In his diary for June 16th, David Ben-Gurion wrote the following about the meeting:

Yisrael [Galili] and Skolnik [Levi Eshkol] met yesterday with Begin. Tomorrow or the next day their ship is due to arrive: 4,500 tons, bringing 800-900 men, 5,000 rifles, 250 Bren guns, 5 million bullets, 50 Bazoukas, 10 Bren carriers. Zipstein (director of Tel Aviv port) assumes that at night it will be possible to unload it all. I believe we should not endanger Tel Aviv port. They should not be sent back. They should be disembarked at an unknown shore.

The Altalena on fire off Tel Aviv (June 22, 1948)

Galili informed Begin of Ben-Gurion's consent to the landing of the ship, adding a request that it be done as fast as possible. Zippora Levi-Kessel then wirelessed the vessel to come in at full speed. The following day, a working meeting was held between Irgun representatives and Ministry of Defence personnel. While the Irgun proposed directing the Altalena to Tel Aviv beach, Ministry of Defence representatives claimed that the Kfar Vitkin beach was preferable, since it would be easier to evade UN observers there. The ship was therefore instructed to make for Kfar Vitkin.

Whilst there was agreement on the anchoring place of the Altalena, there were differences of opinion about the allocation of the cargo. Ben-Gurion agreed to Begin's initial request that 20% of the weapons be despatched to the Jerusalem Battalion. His second request, however, that the remainder be transferred to the IDF to equip the newly-incorporated Irgun battalions, was rejected by the Government representatives, who interpreted the request as a demand to reinforce an 'army within an army'. This was far from Begin's intention; rather, he saw it as a question of honor that the fighters enlist in the IDF fully-equipped.

The Altalena reached Kfar Vitkin in the late afternoon of Sunday, June 20th. Among the Irgun members waiting on the shore was Menachem Begin, who greeted the arrivals with great emotion. After the passengers had disembarked, members of the fishing village of Michmoret helped unload the cargo of military equipment. Concomitantly with the events at Kfar Vitkin, the government had convened in Tel Aviv for its weekly meeting. Ben-Gurion reported on the meetings which had preceded the arrival of the Altalena, and was adamant in his demand that Begin surrender and hand over of all the weapons:

We must decide whether to hand over power to Begin or to order him to cease his separate activities. If he does not do so, we will open fire! Otherwise, we must decide to disperse our own army.

The debate ended in a resolution to empower the army to use force if necessary to overcome the Irgun and to confiscate the ship and its cargo. Implementation of this decision was assigned to the Alexandroni Brigade, commanded by Dan Even (Epstein), which the following day surrounded the Kfar Vitkin area. Dan Even issued the following ultimatum:

To: M. Begin

By special order from the Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defence Forces, I am empowered to confiscate the weapons and military materials which have arrived on the Israeli coast in the area of my jurisdiction in the name of the Israel Government. I have been authorized to demand that you hand over the weapons to me for safekeeping and to inform you that you should establish contact with the supreme command. You are required to carry out this order immediately.

If you do not agree to carry out this order, I shall use all the means at my disposal in order to implement the order and to requisition the weapons which have reached shore and transfer them from private possession into the possession of the Israel government.

I wish to inform you that the entire area is surrounded by fully armed military units and armored cars, and all roads are blocked.

I hold you fully responsible for any consequences in the event of your refusal to carry out this order.

The immigrants - unarmed - will be permitted to travel to the camps in accordance with your arrangements. You have ten minutes to give me your answer.

D.E., Brigade Commander

The ultimatum, and in particular the demand for an answer within ten minutes, was insulting and unrealistic. It was made, according to Even "in order not to give the Irgun commander time for lengthy considerations and to gain the advantage of surprise." Begin refused to respond to the ultimatum, and all attempts at mediation failed. Begin's failure to respond was a blow to Even's prestige, and a clash was now inevitable. Fighting ensued and there were a number of casualties. In order to prevent further bloodshed, the Kfar Vitkin settlers initiated negotiations between Yaakov Meridor (Begin's deputy) and Dan Even, which ended in a general ceasefire and the transfer of the weapons on shore to the local IDF commander.

Menachem Begin one year after the incident (June 1, 1949)

Begin had meanwhile boarded the Altalena, which was now heading for Tel Aviv. He hoped that it would be possible to enter into a dialogue with the Provisional Government and to unload the remaining weapons peacefully. But this was not the case. Ben-Gurion ordered Yigael Yadin (acting Chief of Staff) to concentrate large forces on the Tel Aviv beach and to take the ship by force. Heavy guns were transferred to the area and at four in the afternoon, Ben-Gurion ordered the shelling of the Altalena. One of the shells hit the ship, which began to burn. There was danger that the fire would spread to the holds which contained explosives, and the captain ordered all aboard to abandon ship. People jumped into the water, whilst their comrades on shore set out to meet them on rafts. Although the captain flew the white flag of surrender, automatic fire continued to be directed at the unarmed survivors. Begin, who was on deck, agreed to leave the ship only after the last of the wounded had been evacuated.

Sixteen Irgun fighters were killed in the confrontation with the army; six were killed in the Kfar Vitkin area and ten on Tel Aviv beach. Three IDF soldiers were killed: two at Kfar Vitkin and one in Tel Aviv.

After the shelling of the Altalena, more than 200 Irgun fighters were arrested on Ben-Gurion's orders. Most of them were released several weeks later, with the exception of five senior commanders (Moshe Hason, Eliyahu Lankin, Yaakov Meridor, Bezalel Amitzur and Hillel Kook), who were detained for more than two months. (They were released, thanks to public pressure, on August 27, 1948).

Years later, on the eve of the Six-Day War, in June 1967 (after Ben-Gurion had retired from political activity and Levi Eshkol was Prime Minister), Menachem Begin joined a delegation which visited Sde Boker to ask David Ben-Gurion to return and accept the premiership again. After that meeting, Ben-Gurion said that if he had then known Begin as he did now, the face of history would have been different.

---

Sources: Israeli Government National Photo Collection

1. Menachem Begin, The Revolt, (NY: Nash Publishing, 1977), p. 224.
2. J. Bowyer Bell, Terror Out Of Zion, (NY: St. Martin's Press), p. 172.
3. Anne Sinai and I. Robert Sinai, Israel and the Arabs: Prelude to the Jewish State, (NY: Facts on File, 1972), p. 83.
4. Benjamin Netanyahu, ed., "International Terrorism: Challenge And Response," Proceedings of the Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism, July 2­5, 1979, (Jerusalem: The Jonathan Institute, 1980), p. 45.

This Day in Jewish History 1948: The Altalena Arms Ship Reaches Israel, and Is Attacked With Friendly Fire
By the end of two tragic days, pitting the newly created IDF against the Irgun, 19 people were dead.

David B. Green Jun 22, 2015 1:47 AM


The Altalena burning off the coast of Tel Aviv on June 22, 1948. Hans Chaim Pinn / Government Press Office

June 22, 1948, was the date of one of the most divisive and disturbing events in Zionist history – the shelling of the Altalena, a ship bearing arms and recruits for Israel’s War of Independence, by the newly minted Israeli army. The bitterness caused by the incident remains fresh for many people even today.

The Altalena, which was attacked off the coast of Tel Aviv, had been dispatched by the Revisionist pre-state militia Irgun shortly after Israel’s declaration of statehood. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion reportedly saw the Irgun’s decision to proceed with the mission, even though the militia had already been integrated into the Israel Defense Forces, as evidence of insurrection. He therefore precipitated a confrontation with the vessel.


Over the course of the two-day showdown, 19 people were killed, most of them veteran Irgun members.

Consolidating the 
pre-state militias

When the State of Israel was founded, on May 14, 1948, Ben-Gurion ordered the various pre-state militias consolidated into a single military force. But only on June 1 did the Irgun and the government finally sign an agreement, which, inter alia, barred it from importing arms independently.

Well before that agreement was signed, however, the Irgun, under the leadership of Menachem Begin, had arranged an arms deal with the French government. To bring the newly acquired weapons and some 900 new recruits to Israel, it had purchased a decommissioned American vessel, Landing Ship Tank 138.

The ship was renamed the Altalena, one of the pseudonyms of the Revisionist Movement’s late founder, Ze’ev Jabotinsky.

When the Altalena’s departure from Port de Bouc, France, was delayed from early May to June 11, Begin informed the government and met with its representatives to determine how the ship’s cargo would be distributed on arrival. Begin wanted some of the arms to go

directly to his forces in Jerusalem, where the various militias were still battling independently of one another; Ben-Gurion basically insisted that everything be transferred to the IDF.

The ship arrives

On the afternoon of June 21, the ship dropped anchor off Kfar Vitkin, north of Netanya, per the government’s instructions. All 940 volunteers on board disembarked and reported to a camp in nearby Netanya to enlist, and close to half of the arms – 2,000 rifles, two million rounds of bullets and 3,000 shells – were unloaded and turned over to the IDF. But meanwhile, the cabinet met and ruled that nothing could remain in the Irgun’s hands.

The IDF commander on the scene, Dan Even, sent an ultimatum to Begin, who was now on board the Altalena, giving him 10 minutes to surrender the ship or be fired upon. When Begin didn’t respond, shooting began. It isn’t clear which side started it.

Six Irgun soldiers and two from the IDF were killed before Begin ordered the Altalena to up anchor and sail for Tel Aviv, where he hoped to be able to negotiate directly with government officials.

At midnight between June 21 and 22, the Altalena ran aground opposite the Kaete Dan Hotel (today the Dan Tel Aviv). Ben-Gurion ordered it surrounded by troops on shore and two naval gunboats.

Begin ordered his men not to fire even if they were fired upon. But apparently, some of his men disregarded that command.

As Begin’s people began unloading the remainder of the Altalena’s cargo, the IDF

forces on the beach, under the command of Yitzhak Rabin, fired on the ship and the naval vessels began shelling it. Fearful that the munitions still on board could be set off, the Altalena’s captain, Monroe Fein, ordered everyone to evacuate.

A shell did penetrate the ship’s hull, and Fein ordered the vessel flooded. But even as the men jumped into the water, the IDF continued shooting.

By the time a cease-fire was arranged that evening, another 10 Irgun fighters and one IDF soldier had been killed.

The Altalena on fire off the coast of Tel Aviv, June 22, 1948.(Hans Pinn/Government Press Office, State of Israel)

For Israel, sorely pressed on every front, a four-week truce arranged by the U.N. Security Council, which finally went into effect on June 11, 1948, was a godsend. “I asked the members of the General Staff whether a truce would be to our advantage,” Ben-Gurion wrote in his diary on May 26. “All of them agreed that it would.” The period of quiet was spent rearming and training. It was a reinvigorated IDF that took to the field when the battle was rejoined on July 8. This was the case in more than just the logistical sense. For while the Arab guns had been silent, Ben-Gurion faced his sternest test—from within his own side.

The Provisional Government had issued an ordinance on May 26 establishing the Israel Defense Forces and prohibiting “the establishment or maintenance of any other armed force.” On June 1, Menachem Begin, the Etzel (also known as the Irgun) leader, signed an agreement with the government whereby Etzel units would join the IDF in battalion formations and take an oath of loyalty. The Etzel’s separate command structure would be disbanded within a month, and the organization would cease buying arms abroad.

Nevertheless, on June 11, the Altalena, a ship that the Etzel had purchased, set sail from southern France with a large quantity of arms and explosives on board as well as some 850 immigrants. As it approached the shores of Israel, Begin informed the government that 20 percent of the arms would be sent to Etzel units in Jerusalem. Since Jerusalem was not yet formally under Israel’s jurisdiction, Yisraeli Galili, negotiating for the IDF, agreed. Begin then proposed that the remaining weaponry go first to equip Etzel units within the IDF. Whatever was left could then be allocated to other units. Galili balked. He reported to Ben-Gurion on June 19 that the danger of a “private army” was evolving. Ben-Gurion convened the cabinet. “There are not going to be two states,” he declared, “and there are not going to be two armies. And Mr. Begin will not do what he feels like. … If he does not give in we shall open fire!” The cabinet resolved unanimously to “authorize the defense minister to take action in accordance with the law of the land.”

Ben-Gurion feared that Begin might use the arms aboard the Altalena to equip Etzel units outside the sovereign jurisdiction of the state—thus ostensibly not violating his commitment—in order to extend the war with the Arabs into the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), thereby defying government policy.

The Altalena anchored off Kfar Vitkin, a moshav, or settlement, between Tel Aviv and Haifa, and hopefully far from the prying eyes of U.N. observers, and began off-loading the weapons with the help of hundreds of supporters who had gathered at the site. Galili and Yigael Yadin, chief of operations for the IDF, deployed troops to surround the beach and ordered Begin to surrender. Some of the troops with Etzel sympathies crossed the lines and lined up with the Altalena crew and its enthusiastic sympathizers. The ship, with Begin and other Revisionist leaders now on board, weighed anchor and put out to sea, chased by IDF craft. It sailed south toward Tel Aviv and eventually ran aground close to the shore. At army headquarters in Ramat Gan, I spent that night with a rifle in my hand in Ben-Gurion’s office, in case the headquarters compound was stormed by demonstrators.

Off the Tel Aviv boardwalk, a traumatic scenario unfolded the next day. Etzel soldiers and civilian sympathizers streamed to the site. Some waded into the sea and swam out to the ship. At military headquarters, Ben-Gurion paced back and forth, fuming. Eventually he issued written orders to Yadin to concentrate “troops, fire-power, flame-throwers, and all the other means at our disposal in order to secure the ship’s unconditional surrender.” Yadin was then to await the government’s instructions.

Ben-Gurion then convened the cabinet again. Some colleagues suggested possible compromises, but he was of no mind for any such weakness. “This is an attempt to destroy the army,” he thundered. “This is an attempt to murder the state. In these two matters there can be no compromise.” The cabinet backed him. Small-arms fire broke out between shore and ship. The government evacuated homes and shops in the line of fire. The Palmach commander Yigal Allon, now a senior IDF general, was put in charge of the operation. He ordered a cannon deployed. Yitzhak Rabin was in command of it. The first shell fell wide, but the second struck the vessel. Fire broke out in the hold. Those on board began to abandon ship. (It stood barely one hundred yards from the beach.) But before they could all do so, an explosion tore through the ship, destroying it. Sixteen Etzel men and three IDF soldiers died in the episode; dozens more were wounded.

Begin delivered a two-hour broadcast live on Etzel radio that night, roundly cursing Ben-Gurion who, he claimed, had been out to kill him. For his part, Begin said, he would continue to restrain his men and thus prevent the outbreak of civil war: “We will not open fire. There will be no fraternal strife when the enemy is at the gate.” Ben-Gurion spoke at the People’s Assembly, the transitional parliament. He said that since the arms had not been destined for the IDF, he was glad they had been destroyed. He added a line praising “the blessed cannon” that had fired at theAltalena—a phrase the Revisionist stalwarts never forgot nor forgave.

Excerpted from Ben-Gurion: A Political Life by Shimon Peres in conversation with David Landau. The book, published as part of the Jewish Encounters series from Nextbook Press and Schocken Books, is out this week.

Shimon Peres has been president of the State of Israel since 2007. He also served two terms each as prime minister and foreign minister. One of the architects of the Oslo Accords, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. David Landau was editor-in-chief of Haaretz from 2004–2008. Before joining Haaretz, he was diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Post and its managing editor. He currently writes for The Economist.

The Altalena - One Sad Story

By Chaim Eliezer

The history of the re-creation of the State of Israel has always been charged with emotions. Mostly these emotional feelings are positive, but to the old timers of the state, the incidents that surrounded the emergence of the state were causes of deep inter Jewish hatred and suspect amongst brethren. This is highlighted in an extreme manner in an episode called the "Atlalena" from which an important lesson must be learnt.

The Alatlena was the name of a boat that brought in supplies, arms and Jewish soldiers. It met a sad fate which illustrates some of the inborn problems that existed during the formation of the State of Israel and the subsequent government intrigues and prejudices that were and still abound in the national government. To properly understand the rise of the State of Israel and the Altalena affair we must first understand a bit of its background.

Before the British relinquished their rule in Palestine (its name before the rise of the modern state of Israel), the Arabs and British had fought many battles against the Jews. These were due to the British, who as rulers and protectors of Palestine, did not avail the Jews with any protection against the attacking Arab marauder bands and later organized Arab armies. The Jews, in order to defend themselves, set up their own clandestine defense groups. One was the Haganah, also known as the Palmach, and another was the I.Z.L. (the Irgun Zvai Leumi - meaning the national army group) or known simply as the Irgun. (It should be noted that other groups also existed, but in the framework of this article, we shall just focus on these two groups.)

The Haganah was under the command of David Ben Gurion; where as the Irgun was lead by Menachem Begin. The Haganah was the larger of the two and it was connected politically with the Jewish Agency. The Jewish Agency had tremendous popular support and used its political acumen to raise large funds. However, the Jewish Agency also was suspected of "cashing in" on Jewish tragedies; meaning that when Arabs killed Jewish settlers the contributions increased. The Irgun, which was a more aggressive group, was set up to meet the needs of the local population that were not adequately protected by the Haganah. These two groups at time fought side by side, but unfortunately, much energy was wasted in rivalry.

After the British withdrew from Palestine in May of 1948, and Ben Gurion, together with all the Jewish leaders, declared Palestine to become the independent state of Israel, war broke out. Israel was attacked by the Armies of the neighboring Arab states, and bitter fighting ensued. Ammunition and supplies were scarce. The Irgun leader, Menachem Begin pleaded with the Government leaders to give his brave soldiers supplies, but the leaders of the Jewish Agency, who had tremendous animosity towards the Irgun, were not forthcoming in sharing supplies.

In May of 1948, the Irgun, seeing the need for supplies, outfitted a boat, the Altalena, with a large amount of supplies, including rifles, machine guns, bombs, and bullets. In addition, nine hundred immigrant-soldiers were on board. It left France late, not in May, but in June of 1948. During this time a cease-fire was set up.

The Israeli forces were at this time tired from the heavy fighting and were desperate for munitions and supplies. Due to the animosity between the fighting forces, the Haganah, whose leaders feared that Begin's heroic though small army would pose a serious problem to the new government, refused to share munitions with them. When the Atalena approached the Israeli shores, the new Jewish government demanded that all supplies be given over to them to distribute as they saw fit. Begin refused to give it all over, but he pleaded with them that they give his fighters a percentage of the supplies.

As the Alalena approached the Israeli coast, the troops of the Palmach came down to the shore to prevent any unauthorized unloading of the boat. Begin, not willing to give over all the supplies that his group had bought and brought in at their own expense, tried negotiating with the Palmach commander. The commander was immovable. Begin then decided to go to the government heads to receive their personal assurances that they would get some of the supplies.

The Palmach commander began sending small skirmish boats to shoot at the Altalena and any one trying to either leave or board the boat. Begin protested to the commander, but to no avail. Light artillery was aimed at the boat and casualties were reported, but the soldiers on the Altalena, would not fire upon their Jewish brethren who were shooting at them, hoping that they would come to their senses. Later the Jewish commander began shelling in the direction of the Altalena, each shell coming closer and closer. The captain of the boat hoisted the white flag, but his flag was ignored. The shell came closer and closer. Finally, the boat was hit.

The entire boat was destroyed; Jewish soldiers were killed and wounded. All the supplies and armament were lost. This created a very deep riff between the followers of Menachem Begin and David Ben Gurion. Even after the war ended and peace was won, the two sides carried deep hatred towards each other. Ben Gurion went on to be the first Prime Minister of Israel, and his group, the Jewish Agency, developed into what is today the Labor party in Israel. Menachem Begin, became the head of the opposition in the Israeli Parliament (Keneset) and his group became what is today's Liked party.

Menachem Begin never publicly revealed the name of the commander that ruthlessly killed innocent Jewish soldiers and sunk the Altalena. However, unsubstaniated rumor has always named Yitzhak Rabin, the former Prime Minister of Israel, who himself was assassinated by another Jew as being the commander.

Whether it is true or not, the fact remains that much hatred and innocent Jewish lives were lost both directly (the soldiers on the Altalena) and indirectly (those who lose battles due to lack of supplies) by Jewish hatred with in our own ranks. Bitter as history can be, isn't it time that we take note of the lessons provided by history and begin to treat that other Jew, who thinks differently than us, with more respect?