Shmuel Katz, one of the top leaders of Etzel (Irgun) during the 1948 Altalena affair, sets the record straight about the tragic episode.
Ben-Gurion and the Labor Zionist leadership have consistently portrayed the Altalena arms ship as a subversive initiative on Begin's part to undermine the unified Zionist military and ultimately execute a coup against the government of the fledgling state. Ben-Gurion, goes the story, saved Israeli democracy by sinking the vessel, thus demonstrating that the state would allow no underground militias.
In fact, as Katz explains, there was nothing subversive about the shipment; the delivery of desperately-needed weapons had long been coordinated with Ben-Gurion and the assault on it was premeditated. Its purpose: To discredit Begin and his supporters as an illegitimate political force, and - if possible - to kill him on the spot.
To this day, the Israeli left speak of the Altalena affair with reverence, proud of Ben-Gurion's crushing of his political opponents.
Allow me to shudder whenever I hear talk of the need for "a new Altalena".
2 comments:
Of course there are regular reminders what the Left wants like this truly offensive editorial. I have a cousin who is not at all religious. A few years ago I found out that he was actually quite a right winger when it came to Israel. He told me that he and a friend read through "Battleground" and that made them re-think their assumptions about the Middle East.
Atkins "Nightmare" Diet
When Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution was first published, the President of the American College of Nutrition said, "Of all the bizarre diets that have been proposed in the last 50 years, this is the most dangerous to the public if followed for any length of time."[1]
When the chief health officer for the State of Maryland,[2] was asked "What's wrong with the Atkins Diet?" He replied "What's wrong with... taking an overdose of sleeping pills? You are placing your body in jeopardy." He continued "Although you can lose weight on these nutritionally unsound diets, you do so at the risk of your health and even your life."[3]
The Chair of Harvard's nutrition department went on record before a 1973 U.S. Senate Select Committee investigating fad diets: "The Atkins Diet is nonsense... Any book that recommends unlimited amounts of meat, butter, and eggs, as this one does, in my opinion is dangerous. The author who makes the suggestion is guilty of malpractice."[4]
The Chair of the American Medical Association's Council on Food and Nutrition testified before the Senate Subcommittee as to why the AMA felt they had to formally publish an official condemnation of the Atkins Diet: "A careful scientific appraisal was carried out by several council and staff members, aided by outside consultants. It became apparent that the [Atkins] diet as recommended poses a serious threat to health."[5]
http://www.fairdiet.com
The warnings from medical authorities continue to this day. "People need to wake up to the reality," former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop writes, that the Atkins Diet is "unhealthy and can be dangerous."[6]
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