The discovery of the remains of the Altalena has ignited yet another round of verbal broadsides between the right and the left over responsibility for that tragic historical episode. But the exchange has obscured the Altalena’s most important lesson – one that remains relevant 78 years later.
The danger of anarchy still looms. So does the danger of civil war. The only safeguard against both is mamlachtiyut – an ethos that places state authority and the common good above factional interests. Sukkot and his allies, acting in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) as though there were no sovereign, no army, and no law, threaten to drag us into the abyss of chaos, trampling what little remains of that ethos along the way. The leadership that emerges after the elections must make mamlachtiyut, in this context and more broadly, an ethical North Star.
The Altalena, a ship carrying arms brought to Israel by the Irgun in the midst of the War of Independence, was ultimately sunk by the newly formed IDF. In this battle between brothers, while war raged on Israel’s borders, 16 Irgun fighters and three IDF soldiers were killed.
Rivers of ink have been spilled over the Altalena affair and the circumstances in which the shooting began. Stripped to its essentials, however, one thing is clear: Menachem Begin, then the leader of the Irgun and later prime minister, prevented his men from widening the circle of violence and turning the terrible incident into a full-fledged civil war. “There will be no civil war while the enemy is at the gate,” he told his men through tears.
But the truly historic decision was the more difficult one taken by David Ben-Gurion.
Israel’s first prime minister coined the term mamlachtiyut and elevated it into a core value. Even before the establishment of the state, Ben-Gurion worked to entrench the principle that decisions concerning the governance and future of the Yishuv – and later Israel – must be based on the shared interest and the common good. Only in this way could Israel, in all its diversity, become one polity – one state.
The Altalena affair was the ultimate test of this principle. At the core of a state’s power, and at the foundation of its existence, lies the authority to use force. Externally, against enemies at the gate; internally, in enforcing the law and maintaining security. A fundamental condition of statehood is the state’s monopoly on the use of force. So long as force is exercised by the state, or with its authorization, it is legitimate. Once that monopoly is broken, and civilians or groups outside the state begin using weapons and exercising force, anarchy inevitably follows.
Ben-Gurion acted to prevent the young State of Israel from sliding down that slope into anarchy, to preserve the state’s monopoly on arms, and to defend mamlachtiyut.
Smashing the remains of mamlachtiyut
Seventy-eight years after the Altalena, the state’s exclusive authority to use weapons and force can no longer be taken for granted. In recent years, small but genuinely dangerous groups have repeatedly resorted to violence – sometimes using firearms – to “create deterrence” and retaliate for terrorist attacks in the hills of the West Bank.
The persistent failure to enforce the law against these groups has given rise to deep suspicion in Israel – and absolute certainty elsewhere in the world – that those charged by the Israeli government with enforcing the law in the territory are turning a blind eye to this dangerous phenomenon.
MK Zvi Sukkot’s reckless conduct gives these militias a tailwind. After misleading the IDF and putting soldiers at risk for political purposes, Sukkot embarked on a campaign of smashing Palestinian gravestones, using force without authority and taking the law into his own hands – behaving not like a public leader but like just another hilltop rioter.
Along with the gravestones, Sukkot smashed what remained of mamlachtiyut in Israel.
Beyond the incalculable damage that he and his allies are doing to Israel and the settlement enterprise in the international arena, their violent actions endanger us all.
To survive, Israel must reclaim mamlachtiyut. That means ensuring that force is wielded only by the state – but it means more than that. This civic ethos must become the North Star of every branch and level of government. Only then can we continue to disagree while preserving fair and responsible governance – and prevent ourselves from sliding into civil war.
The writer is director-general of the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) and a senior lecturer in law at the Peres Academic Center.