Jerusalem, 25 August, 2026 (TPS-IL) — President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday said the discovery of the Altalena ship’s remains should serve as a reminder of the need to prevent civil war in Israel, urging the country’s leaders to “lower the flames” amid growing social tensions.
“Precisely now, when the voices in Israeli society are becoming more acute, the responsibility of all of us, certainly of the country’s leaders, is to lower the flames,” Herzog said at an ORT schools conference. “We have very big arguments, but we have one country, one people and one future that we all share.”
The Altalena, a weapons ship operated by the Irgun underground, was shelled by Israeli forces in June 1948 after a dispute over its weapons cargo. Seeking to prevent civil war, Irgun leader and future prime minister Menachem Begin ordered his men not to retaliate.