The Altalena ship on fire off the coast of Tel Aviv, in June 1948. (Credit: Israel Preker/Wikicommons)
"Tonight, we wrote a page of history," Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliahou said on Aug. 24. That same day, Tel Aviv announced the discovery of the Altalena wreck, which sank in June 1948, shortly after the proclamation of the "State of Israel." Departing from France, the ship, which was clandestinely transporting weapons and fighters from the Irgun militia, was targeted by the Israeli army on the orders of then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, at the height of the war with Arab countries. Its sinking remains a symbol of the risks of internal divisions in the face of external enemies — enough to stoke competition between Benjamin Netanyahu and his national security minister, the ultranationalist Itamar Ben Gvir, ahead of the Oct. 27 parliamentary elections. Meanwhile... A reservist general and an Arab...
"Tonight, we wrote a page of history," Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliahou said on Aug. 24. That same day, Tel Aviv announced the discovery of the Altalena wreck, which sank in June 1948, shortly after the proclamation of the "State of Israel." Departing from France, the ship, which was clandestinely transporting weapons and fighters from the Irgun militia, was targeted by the Israeli army on the orders of then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, at the height of the war with Arab countries. Its sinking remains a symbol of the risks of internal divisions in the face of external enemies — enough to stoke competition between Benjamin Netanyahu and his national security minister, the ultranationalist Itamar Ben Gvir, ahead of the Oct. 27 parliamentary elections. Meanwhile... A reservist general and an Arab...