Talk:Operation Cast Thy Bread

This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Cradle

The Cradle is red at WP:RSP and should not be used here. I don't want to hack away at somebody's new article, but whatever can't be sourced to something other than The Cradle should be removed from the article. Levivich (talk) 19:12, 7 September 2024 (UTC)

Source issues and balance

The following source errors are present in the current article and I will be cleaning up next week if there is not validation to the following issues.

• The middle east monitor is considered an unreliable source as per WP:RSP
• the New Arab source used exclusively is just repeating the Haaretz source, these should be consolidated
• the bibliography can and should be added to the references rather than using the current format
• Sources are incomplete, for instance the Maya Wind source should mention her publisher Verso Books
• Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies is the current name of Holy Land studies and should be updated to reflect this

For the sake of balance in the article the well poisoning antisemitism trope page should be linked to here along with the citations there about Abbas admitting to fabricating the narrative that wells were being poisoned. Bgrus22 (talk) 18:14, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

Several of the above have now been implemented, we still need to accomplish the following:

• the bibliography can and should be added to the references rather than using the current format
• the well poisoning antisemitism trope page should be linked to here
• the citations about Abbas admitting to fabricating the narrative that wells were being poisoned should be added here as well
• considering this topic I think we should format the article more akin to similar pages like U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B, Strategy of tension, and potentially the Gladio stuff in general all examples of supposed clandestine operations with some confirmation but a lack of government acknowledgement of the overall circumstances. This should be kept as a purported operation at the risk of the page taking a side on an ongoing unresolved topic.

Bgrus22 (talk) 05:44, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Seeing as no one has replied to this I will be starting with consolidation of the references and bibliography. Bgrus22 (talk) 07:59, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 3 June 2025

Stating that it started in April of 1948 and then linking it to the "War" that started in the middle of May of 1948 is disingenuous and downright deceiving. 2607:FEA8:3BE0:94D0:C5C0:5356:22C7:B2A0 (talk) 18:21, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Skitash (talk) 23:00, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Edit request 29 June 2025

Description of suggested change:

Diff:

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Operation Cast Thy Bread was a top-secret biological warfare operation

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Operation Cast Thy Bread (in Hebrew שַׁלַּח לַחְמְךָ, "Shallah Lahmekh") was a top-secret biological warfare operation

Ticobrau (talk) 16:18, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

Diff:

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Abba Eban, representative of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, strongly denied the operation and sought to block further investigations by accusing the Arab states of engaging in "antisemitic incitement".

+

Abba Eban, representative of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, strongly denied the operation and sought to block further investigations by accusing the Arab states of engaging in "antisemitic incitement".[This segment has no reference - please add reference to https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/636346?v=pdf pg 8.]

Ticobrau (talk) 16:18, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

Not done for now: Do you have a source for the first request? The second request is sourced within the body of the article, see MOS:LEADCITE – macaddct1984 ^{(talk | contribs)} 01:55, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 24 October 2025

If Operation Cast Thy Bread was started in April of 1948, why would you say it happened during the war that started in MAY of 1948? You do understand that time is linear, right? 2607:FEA8:3BE0:94D0:EC5B:5DD8:A95C:26DE (talk) 23:27, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: You do understand that the war began with a civil war that broke out in November 1947, right? Day Creature (talk) 06:33, 25 October 2025 (UTC)

Research vs. Application

Benny Morris is not asserting that biological warfare was used in 1948. Instead, the documents show that research was done into biological warfare, both for offense and defense. There is no proof of it being used in Acre or Egypt.

So the first two sources (Morris's research, and a newspaper's summary of it) can not be used to say "Israel did biological warfare." Only that it had a program to research the idea. Operation Cast Thy Bread was a secret research program.ItsRainingCatsAndDogsAndMen (talk) 03:18, 7 December 2025 (UTC)

‘Cast thy bread’: Israeli biological warfare during the 1948 War by Benny Morris & Benjamin Z. Kedar: "With its back to the wall, the Haganah upped the ante and unleashed a clandestine campaign of poisoning certain captured village wells with bacteria - in violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925"

&

"Yaacov Pundaq, a Haganah company commander in the 21st Battalion, Carmeli Brigade, responsible for the Western Galilee town of Nahariya and surrounding kibbutzim – an area designated in the UN partition resolution of November 1947 to form part of the Arab state - had previously repeatedly damaged the Kabri aqueduct that fed the Arab town of Acre. But the Arabs had repeatedly repaired it. He now poured flasks full of typhoid (or typhoid and dysentery) bacteria into the aqueduct, near the Arab village of al-Kabri. According to his later testimony, the flasks, with instructions, had been handed to him by Moshe Dayan. This turned out to be the most serious and potent use of CTB during the 1948 War."

(If you can't access the original document, here's a PDF online, see pg. 8 of 26) Butterscotch Beluga (talk) 17:31, 7 December 2025 (UTC)

This quote was attributed to Yaacov Pundaq only after his death, and by a controversial historian who isn't a reliable source. So we have secondhand hearsay. It also doesn't pass the smell test, as a company commander is only in charge of a hundred guys, why would Moshe Dayan go to him personally and hand him a flask.

So its worth mentioning, as Benny Morris does, that these accusations exist. But all Morris or anyone else could prove is that a research program exists.ItsRainingCatsAndDogsAndMen (talk) 03:12, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

You said that "Benny Morris is not asserting that biological warfare was used in 1948." which as the quotes above show, was obviously not true. Now you're saying that it's not a reliable source & are questioning the cited testimony's authenticity. This is a moving goal post & an unnecessary dismissal of existing sources. We follow what reliable sources say & this source explicitly supports the article's content.

Unless you can supply high quality, reliable sources to rebut this article's contents, your objections lack a basing in policy & are thus unactionable. Butterscotch Beluga (talk) 05:35, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

The following is a note in the Morris/Kedar article you linked.

"Interview with Dr Uri Milstein, 2020, who had interviewed Pundaq sometime in the 1980s. According to Milstein, Pundaq took him to the spot near Kabri where he had poured the bacteria into the water channel after he had received them from Dayan. In his memoirs, Shuʿal Qeravot, 1919–2005 [The warrior fox, 1919–2005], ed. E. Stark (n.p., 2006), Pundaq does not mention the incident. Interviewed in 1993 by Sarah Leibowitz-Dar, he angrily responded: ‘Why are you looking now for problems relating to forty-five years ago. I never did any such thing in my life. I do not know anything about this. What will you gain by publishing this even if it …’ and at this point, mid-sentence, he clammed up."

So the source for the claim is Uri Milstein, a very controversial historian. Did you know he denies the Deir Yassin Massacre? He claims he interviewed Pundaq about it, but it isn't in Pundaq's book and he denied it. So that's pretty flimsy evidence. The study likely included it for completeness, but obviously it can't be asserted as fact if even the source of the claim denies it.ItsRainingCatsAndDogsAndMen (talk) 07:33, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

On Wikipedia we follow the sources. We don't try to second-guess them or do our own analysis of them. Especially not by selecting a little of what they wrote and ignoring the rest. M&K cite many official documents that the bacteria were delivered at various locations, and their interpretation of the evidence is what matters for us. Zero^talk 10:32, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

I quoted a note from M/K that showed the only evidence of their use in Acre, a controversial historian quoting a man who denied he said it. There is no "official documents that the bacteria were delivered at various locations." Only documentation that the research program exists. If I'm wrong, please quote the relevant parts.ItsRainingCatsAndDogsAndMen (talk) 11:51, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

Regardless, Morris is considered reliable. You've been provided with plenty of sourcing from @Butterscotch Beluga and others within the article. We don't base articles exclusively on official documents. Smallangryplanet (talk) 13:08, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

ItsRainingCatsAndDogsAndMen, you are not reporting M&K correctly.

On 17 May the Negev Brigade reported: ‘A Cast Thy Bread operation was carried out south of Halsa [Halutza]’. On 9 June the brigade reported that its 8th Battalion had carried out ‘a Cast thy Bread operation in the Beersheba area’. Two days later, Sarig reported that Cast Thy Bread ‘operations’ had successfully been carried out in the Beersheba area.

All of these actual operations are cited to original Israeli military reports. And that's just a fraction of the evidence. But you (ItsRainingCatsAndDogsAndMen) need to reread my previous comment, which is straight-up Wikipedia policy. You aren't going to convince anyone to violate that policy so you should drop the stick. Zero^talk 01:19, 9 December 2025 (UTC)

@ItsRainingCatsAndDogsAndMenand @Butterscotch Beluga Honestly I would argue this falls more into a purported operation, like how gladio is described. The Israeli government has denied it time and again, arab leaders have denied the veracity of the claims prior to the more recent reports like Morris coming out, and there is a connection to conspiracies via the historic tropes of poisoning wells. Lets say there are claims and evidence but highlight that its not acknowledged by the wider international community, since it is not. Bgrus22 (talk) 20:10, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

I'm unsure what you mean exactly by "[A]rab leaders have denied the veracity of the claims", but Israel's denial of the operation is already included within the article (Similar to how Operation Gladio only includes the US' denial, rather then actively questioning its existence).

Do you have any reliable sources that state that Operation Cast Thy Bread isn't "acknowledged by the wider international community"?

As it is, the article's current citations support that it happened, backed by primary documents detailing the operation from those who participated & ordered the operation. You'd have to supply some high-quality sources to support the exceptional claim that the international community doesn't acknowledge this. Butterscotch Beluga (talk) 21:01, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

@Butterscotch Beluga If you go to the Well poisoning page it lists several citations of Abbas having claimed without evidence and then retracting the claim that Jews in Israel had been poisoning Arab water supplies. No country outside of Egypt has acknowledged this operation, where as much of the EU has recognized Gladio.

If we were to provide more balance it would have to be writing the page from a more neutral perspective than showing the accusation with the Israeli denial at the end. That being said, I am unsure how we would provide balance between the stances. Outright denial vs disagreement of scope, scale, and methods may be enough of a difference that this page can't be adapted without simply writing continuously that "advocates claim," "documents show," and "Israel has denied these allegations" numerous times. Bgrus22 (talk) 17:26, 13 July 2026 (UTC)

Denials from before Morris and Kedar exposed the internal evidence must not be confused with denials made afterwards. Zero^talk 00:59, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

Edit request 5 July 2026

Description of suggested change: Important nuance is missing albeit it is in Morris's article that is already cited.

Diff:

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The Haganah used typhoid bacteria to contaminate drinking water wells in violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Its objective was to frighten and prevent Palestinian Arabs from returning to their captured villages and to make conditions difficult for Arab armies attempting to retake territories. The operation resulted in severe illness among local Palestinian citizens.

+

The Haganah reportedly used non-lethal typhoid bacteria to contaminate drinking water wells, in violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Its objective was to deter militia forces from returning to their captured villages and attacking Jewish settlements. The operation led to widespread illness among local Palestinian residents. The scientists who developed and supplied the bacteria expected that the availability of antibiotics and vaccines would limit fatalities, as appears to have occurred, while still impairing the combat effectiveness of Arab forces.

Yuvalko8 (talk) 17:26, 5 July 2026 (UTC)

 Not done: Your proposed change is potentially controversial and will require a consensus before it can be implemented. Day Creature (talk) 17:34, 5 July 2026 (UTC)

Does the citation support this or is that original work thats going on in the proposed edit? Bgrus22 (talk) 17:28, 13 July 2026 (UTC)

The citation does in fact explicitly supports this but it apparently isn't enough...? Yuvalko8 (talk) 22:29, 13 July 2026 (UTC)

"Basically non-lethal" is not the same as "non-lethal". 🏰 Richard Nevell (talk) 22:42, 13 July 2026 (UTC)

The suggested bhange ce adjusted. Omitting it entirely would be rather worse. Yuvalko8 (talk) 09:52, 14 July 2026 (UTC)

References