Arms for...Eshkol

The "Feinberg" in this May 20, 1965 document snippet is Abe Feinberg, who, among other things, was President of Americans for the Hagana and organizer of Truman's "whistle-stop" tour that gained him the election (he "came up with a pledge to raise the money for a whistle stop") -

The context is the internal political fight between David Ben-Gurion and Levy Eshkol (see below).

Whether those tanks ever arrived, I do not, as yet, know but I remind you that in 1967, the US joined in on the ban for Israel to have tanks participate in the Independence Day parade, but that's another story.

In any case, America has a long history of internal interference in Israeli elections.


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On the Ben-Gurion/Eshkol dispute from May 17, 1965:

The Mapai Party Secretariat, after two days of deliberations, today decided to express full confidence in Prime Minister Eshkol and to back him in his dispute with former Premier David Ben-Gurion which came to a head last week, when Ben-Gurion called Mr. Eshkol “unfit” to lead the party and the country...While superficially, Mapai seemed to be on the verge of a split, party leaders today expressed confidence that no split would develop.
...Mr. Eshkol [had] declared: “If there are members of the Government who think about me the way ‘that man’ does, I suggest they free themselves from their posts.” He added that despite the sharp attack on him, he intended to continue his policies until the end of the Government’s term.
...In addressing the Mapai Secretariat during the weekend, Premier Eshkol took up Ben-Gurion’s charge that he had opposed a renewed investigation of the Lavon Affair on grounds it would open a “Pandora’s Box” of issues involving Israel’s security activities. Ben-Gurion had said that any individual afraid of Pandoras Boxes should not be Premier even if the party’s center elected him...Also attacking Mr. Ben-Gurion, Foreign Minister Golda Meir told the Secretariat that, while there were no actual differences between the majority and the minority on the issue, there was “merciless slander and libel and personal war directed at eliminating certain comrades.”...Education Minister Zalman Aranne deplored the “evil spirit” that was hovering over the party and charged that Ben-Gurion was treating Premier Eshkol the way he treated former Premier Moshe Sharett ten years ago.