Our Own Altalena Moment

In June 1948, the newly formed IDF opened fire on the Altalena—a ship carrying Jewish fighters and weapons belonging to the Irgun—one of pre-state Palestine’s Jewish paramilitary groups.

This episode was the physical embodiment of a clash between two visions of what the state of Israel would be. On one side, the statesman David Ben-Gurion and the IDF. On the other, Menachem Begin and the radical Irgun. 

Ben-Gurion’s decision to sink the Altalena was wrenching and remains controversial, but his motive was clear. If the new Jewish state was to be viable, it could not contain competing sources of authority. It needed one government and one army. This was a decision rooted in Ben-Gurion’s political philosophy of mamlachtiyut—the idea that a state must behave as a unified sovereign entity, not a loose conglomeration of gangs and sects. 

Seeing that the Irgun wasn’t ready to give up their army, Ben Gurion ordered the ship sunk. By the time it hit the seafloor, sixteen Irgun soldiers and three IDF soldiers were dead—Jewish victims of Jewish fire in the new Jewish state. 

Menachem Begin, leader of the Irgun, quickly took to the radio cautioning his followers not to seek vengeance. His rivalry with Ben-Gurion was real, but his commitment to the project of Jewish state-building took precedence. He later stated that he hoped to be remembered “above all, as someone who prevented a civil war.”

I thought of the Altalena affair last week as I watched Jewish settlers rampage in the Palestinian village of Jit. The attack on Jit, which caused one fatality, was a horrifying example of what happens when bigotry and extremism go unchecked in a society.

As if that weren’t bad enough, we have seen that there is no shortage of people willing to justify the violence. Writing in Srugim—a leading outlet for the Religious-Zionist community—a far-right activist named Uri Kirshenbaum wrote in defense of the attack, stating that a new generation of settlers are “taking care of their own security, understanding the methods needed to deter the enemy and most importantly – realizing that what they will not do themselves will simply not happen.”

The Kahanist MK Itamar Ben-Gvir has been encouraging this mentality for months by flooding the West Bank with guns. Those who worried that the far-right wanted to annex the West Bank into the state of Israel may have been wrong. Their real goal may have been to turn all of Israel into the West Bank, which is to say a frontier governed by roving armed militias. 

When these militias find themselves at cross-purposes with the IDF, they are increasingly willing to treat the IDF the way they treat their Palestinian neighbors—with brutality. In addition to storming IDF bases, they will actively prevent the IDF from doing their job.

When these militias find themselves at cross-purposes with the IDF, they are increasingly willing to treat the IDF the way they treat their Palestinian neighbors—with brutality. In addition to storming IDF bases, they will actively prevent the IDF from doing their job. 

As the extremists rampaged in Jit, for instance, a so-called “Civil Defense Squad” from the nearby settlement of Havat Gilad could be seen actively preventing the IDF from making arrests and restoring order. 

When the Altalena was sunk, the Nazis had barely been defeated in Europe and the Jews already found themselves facing a second existential threat in the form of seven Arab armies committed to their extermination. 

How is it that these pressing external threats weren’t enough to bring unity to the people? Perhaps it’s something in our nature.

Today as well we are ringed by enemies threatening to wipe us off the map, and yet here we are. Another Altalena is sailing over the horizon. On deck are Israelis whose violent hatred of Palestinians comes above every other value—Jews who care not that they have become their neighbors’ tormentors. 

A true leader would address this threat to the state’s authority with courage—locking up the offenders, offering protection to the Palestinian villages, and proactively going after those who incite such violence. These simple actions would sink this new Altalena to the ocean floor. 

But instead of Ben Gurion we have Bibi Netanyahu. And instead of Menachem Begin we have Ben Gvir. 

Both are standing on the shore and waving in the ship. On board, civil war, strife, and destruction ready to be unloaded.

Matthew Schultz is a Jewish Journal columnist and rabbinical student at Hebrew College. He is the author of the essay collection “What Came Before” (Tupelo, 2020) and lives in Boston and Jerusalem.