JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

elath, eliahu
cutting through the hilly area make planning and communications
difficult.
The renewed blockade of the Tiran Straits in May 1967 by
Egypt threatened Eilat’s existence and future as Israel’s gateway
to East Africa, South and East Asia, and Australia. That move
led to the *Six-Day War, in which the Egyptian plan (according
to documents found in Sinai) to cut off the city from the
interior of Israel by pushing through to Jordanian territory in
the Aravah Valley was foiled by Israel’s victory, which subsequently
accelerated Eilat’s progress. From time to time in the
period following June 1967, Arab saboteurs made attempts to
attack Eilat despite the Jordanian government’s fear that Israel’s
countermeasures against Jordan’s only port, Akaba, would
constitute an incomparably heavier blow for Jordan.
Great efforts were directed to creating the city’s infrastructure.
In 1957 the Eilat–Mizpeh Ramon–Beersheba road
was built, and opened to traffic in January 1958. In 1967, the
Eilat–Sedom highway was put into use. In 1969, construction
began on the road leading from Eilat southward to Sharm
el-Sheikh. With the sea bottom sloping steeply from the Eilat
shore, port building there is relatively easy. From 1957 the
original anchorage was repeatedly enlarged to cope with the
mounting sea cargo traffic, and an oil port was installed in
the southwest of the city. A new port was built at an investment
of IL 20,000,000 (about $ 5,700,000) and opened in
1964; in 1968, it employed 500 laborers and handled approximately
1,000,000 tons of import and export goods. Mineral
exports (potash, phosphates, copper) through Eilat amounted
to 110,000 tons in 1966/67. Because of Eilat’s distance from Israel’s
central sectors, air communications are vital. The Elath
airfield, situated just east of the city, was enlarged, and in 1969
10–12 daily flights (operated by Arkia Company) connected
Eilat with Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The city’s water shortage was
gradually reduced by seawater desalination. An experimental
plant employing the freezing method, developed by Alexander
*Zarchin, was closed down after a few years of operation. In
1965, a thermal distillation plant was opened, which simultaneously
supplied electricity to the town; its daily capacity was
4,000 m3 (over a million gallons) of practically salt-free water
which, when blended with brackish spring water, made the
latter potable. In 1970 another plant was opened with a capacity
of 2,000 m3 (c. half a million gallons) a day.
Air conditioning is an absolute necessity in the Eilat climate
and the local “desert cooler,” which is relatively inexpensive
to operate, reduces the temperature, and increases
air humidity, was gradually introduced in all buildings in the
city. The first 16 in. oil pipeline connecting Eilat with Haifa
was laid in 1958/59. Work on the large 42 in. pipeline from Eilat
to Ashkelon began in 1968 and was finished in 1970. A decisive
factor in Eilat’s economic life were the *Timna Copper
Works, which in 1968 employed 1,000 workers, nearly all residing
in Eilat. However, in 1975 they were closed due to economic
difficulties. Local industry, mostly small and mediumsize
enterprises, included branches connected with the local
building trade, several jewelry workshops (for processing the
malachite “Eilat stone”), diamond-polishing plants, fish processing,
metal products, and gypsum. Tourism and recreation
always constituted one of the major branches in Eilat’s economy.
In 1968, Eilat had a marine museum and a modern art
museum, municipal libraries, a concert and lecture hall, and
an amphitheater. In 1970 the city’s hotels had 2,000 beds; at
the turn of the 20th century around 11,000 in five hotels, with
considerable income derived from tourist services. Tourism
was the main reason for the great Eilat shoreline project, providing
for a number of artificial lagoons and land tongues. To
encourage tourism further, the city received a VAT exemption
in 1985. One of the city’s tourist attractions is the coral reef in
the Gulf of Elath where the diversified marine species of the
Red Sea can be observed. Every year Eilat hosts two major cultural
events: a jazz festival and a classical music festival with
international participation.
[Izhak Noam / Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: Y. Ben-Zvi, She’ar Yashuv (1937), 97–119; N.
Glueck, The Other Side of the Jordan (1940), 86–113; idem, in: AASOR,
15 (1934–35), 46ff.; A. Konikoff, Transjordan (1946), 80–82; The Israel
Exploration Society, Elath (Heb., 1963); Z. Vilnay, Guide to Israel
(19663 ); Aharoni, Land, index; Avi-Yonah, Geog, index; Press, Ereẓ,
1 (19512), 16–17. MODERN: Fenton and Steinitz, in: Ariel, 20 (1967),
61–72. Website: www.eilat.muni.il.
ELATH (Epstein), ELIAHU (1903–1990), Israeli diplomat
and Arabist. Born in Snovsk, Russia, Elath was active in the
Zionist movement in Russia before settling in Palestine in
1924. He worked as a laborer in a number of settlements for
a few years, meanwhile making a special study of the Bedouin.
From 1934 to 1945 he was director of the Middle East
section in the Jewish Agency’s Political Department. As head
of the Agency’s Political Office in Washington, D.C., during
1945–48, Elath received the U.S. government recognition of
the State of Israel in May 1948. With the de facto recognition
of Israel he was appointed special representative of the Provisional
Council of the Government of Israel, and from 1949
Israeli ambassador to Washington. From 1950 to 1959 he was
ambassador in London. He served as president of the Hebrew
University (1962–68) and chairman of the board of governors
of the Afro-Asian Institute (1959–62). His books include Ha-
Bedu’im (1933); Ukhlosei Ever ha-Yarden ve-Ḥayyeihem (1936);
Ḥaj Amin al-Ḥusseini (Heb., 1968); San Francisco Diary (Heb.,
1971); Shivat Ẓiyyon ve-Arav (“The Return to Zion and the
Arabs,” 1974) which deals with the contacts made between
the Zionist and Arab leaders and the attempts to arrive at
an understanding with them before the establishment of the
State; The Struggle for Statehood: Washington 1945–1948 (Heb.,
3 vols., 1979–82).
Bibliography: D. Lazar, Rashim be-Yisrael, 1 (1953), 185–
288 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6
91.
[Benjamin Jaffe]
ELAZAR, DANIEL J. (1934–1999), political scientist. Elazar
was born in Minneapolis and received his M.A. and Ph.D.
from the University of Chicago. He was appointed professor