Page 369 - המהפכה הימית

In the fourth and final chapter we examine the three years between
the end of the Second World War and the establishment of the State
of Israel. The chapter surveys the primary events surrounding the
new state of affairs with the British departure and the establishment
of the State of Israel in mid-1948. By then, the Yishuv had a national
shipping company (Zim), had an absolute hold on the country’s
three active ports (Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jaffa), had made significant
progress in fish farming and in fish ponds in particular, had expanded
the nautical training school, and had enhanced activity in all kinds of
sports associations.

All of the processes examined in the book, which took place during
the period of British rule in Palestine, indicate a transition: whereas at
the beginning of the period surveyed only peripheral importance was
attributed to the sea, by the eve of the Israel’s establishment a full and
growing recognition of the sea’s importance prevailed; the Yishuv had
transitioned to maritime independence in the sea’s various realms. From
then on, these served as a vital infrastructure for the founding of the
overall Jewish hold on the land’s expanse as an independent state.

The events examined in the book are presented against the backdrop
of some of the tensions and opposing views on the subject that
characterized the Yishuv at the time. The national-Zionist attitude to the
role of the sea was expressed, on one hand, by the central leadership
of the Yishuv and the Jewish Agency, which reflected the view of the
workers. These saw, at least until the mid-thirties, the land’s terrestrial
boundaries as the significant ones for the “redemption of the land”
and “conquering the desolation.” On the other hand, the Revisionist
Movement had always held a territorial outlook that was borderless, in
which the sea was a central element; in that framework it was Jabotinsky,
it appears, who coined the term “conquest of the sea.” The political
view of the socialist camp, siding with ideas of collective agricultural
settlement, focused on working the land. In stark contrast stood the
reality of the lives of the seamen, who spent their time aboard boats,
far from the group and from their homes for long periods of time — and
thus were perceived as harming or opposing the principles of the group.
From the socioeconomic standpoint, private and anti-establishment
enterprise appeared in the various maritime realms, often representing