Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reveled on Monday in the discovery of the wreck of the Altalena cargo ship, which was sunk amid a deadly 1948 confrontation between Israel’s nascent army and the right-wing Irgun militia, and criticized Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, for ordering the military to attack the vessel.
The Altalena affair was the most prominent incident of violent conflict between Jews during Israel’s War of Independence, and almost pulled the fledgling state into a civil war.
Netanyahu, in his pre-recorded video statement shot on the Tel Aviv promenade overlooking the beach, chose to reopen the bitter wound over Ben-Gurion’s decision to fire on the ship, while simultaneously using the incident to illustrate the dangers of civil war.
Although he was preaching unity, the prime minister also took the opportunity to denigrate his political opponents, and irritated allies by deciding to record a video rather than appear alongside National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir at a live press conference on the discovery.
Summarizing the deadly violence in his own words, Netanyahu said that Ben-Gurion had made a “tragic decision to open fire” on the ship while it was “bringing essential weapons to our fighters in the War of Independence.”
