Two former Israeli Navy commanders disagreed today over the claim by the former Governor of Cherbourg province, Jacques Bruneau, that the French authorities were aware that Israel planned to spirit away five embargoed missile boats from Cherbourg harbor ten years ago and would not have protested if the affair had remained secret.
The five boats, built in France and paid for in Full, were refused delivery to Israel doe to the arms embargo declared by President Charles DeGaolle in December, 1968 after Israeli poops blew up several Lebanese planes at the Beirut airport. On Christmas Eve, 1969, Israeli crews surreptitiously took over the boats and put to sea under the eyes of the French, causing considerable embarrassment to the regime of then President Georges Pompidou. Bruneau was forced to retire after the incident.
He said in an article published in Le Monde this week that he had notified the then Foreign Minister Maurice Schumann and Defense Minister Michel Debre in advance of the Israelis intentions and sent a copy of his letter to the Elysee Palace. But it was ignored, Bruneau wrote, indicating that the government was prepared to look the other way. When the event made world headlines, France protested vehemently. Mordechai Limon, the former Navy Commander who headed the Israeli purchasing mission in Paris at the time, was declared persona non grate.
Limon said today however that the French had been taken completely by surprise and their protest we genuine. However, another former Navy commander, Benjamin Telem, who was in Cherbourg at the time, said it was inconceivable that the French did not know what was about to happen.
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