⋯ The newly unearthed documents show that this operation was much broader in scope than earlier believed and that other top military and political figures besides Ben-Gurion were involved.

⋯ Most of the material related to the episode is censored, but when searched through the IDF archives for any mention of the operation by name, numerous documents were discovered.

⋯ Moshe Dayan – then calling himself, in code, “Moshe Neptune” – cabled Yigal Yadin:

“Cast Thy Bread will be activated by Nahshon [meaning Operation Nahshon forces, which included the Harel Brigade] on Monday or Tuesday. I will come down mid-week with all the material.”

⋯ Yadin instructed senior IDF commanders: “There is an immediate need to appoint in your HQ a special officer for Cast Thy Bread matters. The matter is of utmost importance and must be kept in great secrecy by you.”

⋯ In another cable, Yadin writes: “Place in the wells material of the Cast Thy Bread type.” And in another cable: “Is there authorization to use B [the Hebrew letter Bet] in the areas that will be evacuated by us [i.e., Israel]?”

⋯ The plan was to poison wells in abandoned Arab villages as well as in Jewish locales that were due to be evacuated by the state-in-the-making. The idea was to prevent Arabs from returning to their villages and from settling in Jewish locales that would fall into their hands.

⋯ On the scientific side, the production of the poison, were people from the IDF Science Corps Bet, a subunit in the Science Corps that dealt with biological warfare. It was headed by Alex Keinan, who went on to found the Israel Institute for Biological Research in Nes Tziona.

⋯ The scientific work was overseen by the Katchalski (Katzir) brothers: biophysicist Ephraim Katzir, the first commander of the Science Corps and later an Israel Prize laureate and the fourth president of Israel

⋯ The operation echoed the plan of the “Avengers” led by Abba Kovner to poison water and food sources in Germany after World War II to cause mass killing. Katzir was involved in this operation.

Poisoning wells... not an anti-Semitic trope?

Link to Haaretz' article (paywall) about the ‘Cast Thy Bread’ operation: www.haaretz.com/israel-ne…

Lebanon recorded 9 new Cholera cases and 1 new death, raising the overall to 43 cases and 2 deaths.

Reserve Major General Amir Avivi:

"Israel made a concession of strategic wealth and territory because of Hezbullah's threats."

MP Bilal Abdullah (PSP) pleaded to "monitor the Syrian refugee camps and ask the UNHCR to intensify its efforts against the spread of cholera."