Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- A Note on United Nations Committees
- Abbreviations
- 1 A Public Relations Imperative
- 2 Promises, Promises
- 3 Pranks in Paris and Geneva
- 4 Courting the Commissar
- 5 Saving Europe's Jews – Our Way
- 6 Smoke and Mirrors at the YMCA
- 7 The Ship that Launched a Nation
- 8 Cocktails at the Consulate
- 9 Causing Chaos
- 10 Denying the Undeniable
- 11 A Peace-Loving State?
- 12 Joining the World with Fingers Crossed
- 13 Israel: 1, United Nations: 0
- 14 A Phantom Attack
- 15 Sabras in Sinai: Pardon My French
- 16 Suez Smoke-Screen
- 17 Mr. Nasser, Please Attack
- 18 Abba Eban's Finest Hour
- 19 Old Issues, New Lies
- 20 An Organization Turned Sinister
- 21 Prevarication Pays
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - The Ship that Launched a Nation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2016
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- A Note on United Nations Committees
- Abbreviations
- 1 A Public Relations Imperative
- 2 Promises, Promises
- 3 Pranks in Paris and Geneva
- 4 Courting the Commissar
- 5 Saving Europe's Jews – Our Way
- 6 Smoke and Mirrors at the YMCA
- 7 The Ship that Launched a Nation
- 8 Cocktails at the Consulate
- 9 Causing Chaos
- 10 Denying the Undeniable
- 11 A Peace-Loving State?
- 12 Joining the World with Fingers Crossed
- 13 Israel: 1, United Nations: 0
- 14 A Phantom Attack
- 15 Sabras in Sinai: Pardon My French
- 16 Suez Smoke-Screen
- 17 Mr. Nasser, Please Attack
- 18 Abba Eban's Finest Hour
- 19 Old Issues, New Lies
- 20 An Organization Turned Sinister
- 21 Prevarication Pays
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Jewish Agency did not confine itself to testifying and telling the Special Committee what it thought its members might believe. It appointed two young Jewish Agency representatives as liaison officers to the Committee. One was David Horowitz, the economist who testified. The other was a young linguist named Aubrey Eban. Horowitz and Eban were tasked by the Jewish Agency with shepherding the Committee members on field trips. They took them on what Eban called “an encyclopedic sightseeing tour” of Palestine. “Between tours, conversation and hearings,” recalled Eban, he and Horowitz “were required to fill the minds of committee members with some ideas on a future solution.” So they pushed partition as the desired outcome, reinforcing what the Jewish Agency spokespersons said in the formal sessions.
They particularly focused on Ralph Bunche. They figured out early on that his role would be central, and that, in fact, it would be he, not any member of the Special Committee, who would draft its findings. “The Jewish Agency boys,” Bunche would relate, apparently referring to Horowitz and Eban, “obviously have it figured out that I will prepare the first draft of the report and are cultivating me steadily.” Shertok as well buttonholed Bunche privately to make the case for partition.
As further reinforcement of the Jewish Agency's testimony to the Committee, the Mossad staged a dramatic publicity stunt for the Special Committee. It organized a ship to sail from France to Palestine, with 4500 European Jewish refugees on board. Mossad had been arranging such voyages since the end of the war, over and against the wishes of the British government, which was trying to limit migration into Palestine to the numbers it specified in the White Paper of 1939. The British authorities tried to keep these ships from unloading passengers in Palestine.
This particular voyage had a special purpose. The arrival in Palestine waters was timed to the presence in Palestine of the Special Committee. A ship purchased in the United States was specially outfitted. It was renamed Exodus 1947, to dramatize its purpose. It was provisioned in a port in Italy, overseen by Ada Sereni, who was Mossad's chief operative in Italy. Sereni later wrote about her experiences shepherding refugee ships to Palestine.
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- The International Diplomacy of Israel's FoundersDeception at the United Nations in the Quest for Palestine, pp. 62 - 71Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2016