JTA — The discovery this week of the sunken arms ship the Altalena, which almost sparked an Israeli civil war just one month after the fledgling state was created in 1948, has become a political battleground for right-wing politicians seeking support in advance of the October 27 elections.

“There is no more mobilizing ethos on the right than Altalena,” Udi Lebel, a leading scholar of the affair at Bar-Ilan University, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The ship’s detection, he said, bolstered what he viewed as efforts by both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of the far-right Otzma Yehudit to campaign in this election on identity and victimhood rather than policy.

The Altalena had arrived from France in June 1948 carrying about 900 Jewish immigrants and a large shipment of weapons acquired by the Irgun, the more militant pre-state paramilitary group led by Menachem Begin. Its rival, the Haganah, was the largest military organization in pre-state Israel and formed the main foundation of the newly established IDF.

Begin wanted 20% of the weapons on board the Altalena for Irgun forces in Jerusalem, while then-prime minister David Ben-Gurion insisted that armed forces and weapons come under the authority of the newly established state. Sixteen Irgun members and three IDF soldiers were killed in the fighting, during which a shell hit the ship, setting it ablaze as it was moored off the Tel Aviv shore.

Until the battle, the Irgun had been a separate force from the emerging national army. The Altalena shelling established the authority of the army over all military forces, ensuring that the right-most flank of the war effort would be subordinate to the new leadership.

The burned-out vessel remained there for more than a year before being towed farther out to sea and deliberately sunk. Its precise location was subsequently lost, prompting repeated searches over the decades. The story of the ship has remained embedded in Israel’s national consciousness as a warning of how internal discord can spiral toward civil war.

In a joint statement Monday, Ben Gvir and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, both from Otzma Yehudit, announced that the vessel had been located at a depth of about 1,650 feet, roughly 12 miles offshore.

The search, commissioned by the Heritage Ministry and carried out by the government’s mapping body called the Survey of Israel, was conducted without involvement from the IDF. It used a specially equipped ship with advanced sensors and underwater mapping systems, the ministers said, adding that the wreck was found largely intact.

Lebel questioned whether the wreck had been located in its entirety, saying the government had yet to produce clear photographic evidence and citing archival records he said documented repeated efforts under Ben-Gurion to destroy and sink the vessel. He also noted that no American naval experts had been brought in, despite the vessel’s origins as a World War II US Navy landing ship.

Taking Begin’s legacy

Monday’s announcement of the discovery quickly became part of the election campaign, with Netanyahu and Ben Gvir invoking Begin’s legacy to make competing appeals to right-wing voters.

Ben Gvir publicized the find without first........

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