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.”

“Instead of letting it unload,” he lamented, “the Haganah men on the beach opened fire.”

The Altalena was brought to Israel by Menachem Begin’s right-wing Irgun militia during the country’s War of Independence in June 1948.

With the state and its military only a few weeks old, Ben-Gurion, who was at bitter odds with Begin, demanded that the ship and cargo be turned over to the newly formed IDF, sparking an armed confrontation.

As the ship reached the coast and then ran aground on a sandbank, a standoff ensued that ended in a shootout between Irgun members aboard and IDF and Palmach soldiers on the shore, who were ordered to destroy the vessel. The ship was set ablaze by artillery fire by the forces on the shore under the command of a young Yitzhak Rabin, later the IDF chief of staff and prime minister.

Sixteen Irgun members and three IDF soldiers were killed during the sinking of the Altalena.

The husk of the ship remained visible off the shore for about a year, until it was dragged out to sea and sunk in 1949.

While it is generally accepted that a sovereign state cannot tolerate an independent militia, such as........

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