Ben Gurion, David

Childhood and Youth

David Joseph Green was born on October 16, 1886 into a Jewish family in the city of Plonsk, Plock province . In 1881, 5 years before the birth of David, out of 7,800 inhabitants of Plonsk, 4,500 were Jews ^[2] .

David's father, Victor (Avigdor) Green, respected Jewish traditions ^[3] (belonged to the Mitnagdim movement ^[1] ), was one of the founders of the Hovevei Zion (Loving Zion) in Plonsk, and later became a staunch Zionist . He worked as a court clerk with the right to fulfill the duties of a solicitor . This position allowed him to occupy a high place among the Jews of Plonsk. David's mother - Sheindl Green (née Friedman) - died when the boy was 10 years old, during the next birth. For David, very attached to his mother, her death was a big blow. David ignored his father’s new wife until her death ^[2] .

David's grandfather, Zvi Arie Green, spoke fluent Hebrew , Polish , German and Russian , taught Hebrew at a Jewish school and was well versed in the teachings and laws of the Torah . In addition to Victor, Zvi Arie had three more sons. He taught Hebrew to David and the rest of his six grandchildren. Both David’s grandfather and father were active members of the “Society of Friends of Knowledge and Torah,” founded by the Plonia intelligentsia in 1895 ^[2] .

At the age of five, David Green entered the cheder , a traditional Jewish elementary school ^{[1] [3]} . Under the influence of his father and older brother Abram, David was inspired by the ideas of Zionism ^{[4] [5]} .

In 1900, David Green, along with his friends Shlomo Zemakh and Shmuel Fuchs, created the Ezra Youth Society, one of the main goals of which was to spread Hebrew among the children of the Jewish poor Plonsk ^[6] .

Green believed that builders were needed to build a Jewish state ^[7] . Therefore, in 1904, he decides to go to Warsaw , where he lives with relatives and teaches at a Jewish school ^{[5] [8]} . While in the capital of the Kingdom of Poland , David tried to enter various educational institutions, such as the Polytechnic and the Technical School of Olberg, here he joined the Poalei Zion movement ^{[1] [6]} . After returning to Plonsk, Green organizes a local branch of Poalei Zion ^[1] and begins campaigning against the Bund , a Jewish non-Zionist organization ^[1] .

In 1906, as part of the second Aliyah , David Green emigrated to Palestine , then under the rule of the Ottoman Empire ^{[1] [9]} .

Early years in Palestine

September 7, 1906 David Green on a Russian ship arrives in Palestine, in the port of Jaffa ^[10] . Together with him, a group of his friends arrives in Palestine, a planer , among whom was his love, Rachel Nelkina ^[10] . Jaffa disappointed Zionist-idealist Green: the city was dirty, there were many Arab merchants, and, even more outraged by David, Jewish merchants ^{[11] [7]} . On the same day, Green, as a member of a group of fourteen newly arrived Jews, went to Petah Tikva , with his friend from Plonia, Shlomo Tzemakh, traveling all night, and in the morning, Shlomo and David got a job on an orange plantation in Petah Tikva ^[12] .

In the fall of 1906, David Green attended the first congress of the Poalei Zion party in Palestine, where he was elected to the party’s central committee. He was also elected to a special commission, which was to create a party program. Later, this program, which proclaimed the goal of creating a Jewish state in Palestine, was called the Ramla Platform ^{[13] [14]} . Soon after, it was decided to dissolve the central committee and replace it with an interim leadership center, which consisted of two people - David Green and Israel Shohet ^[14] . The party has set a task for the leading center - to reorganize the party. However, the creation of a leadership center was not a turning point in the history of the party, it was only a small shift, and Green's attempt to make Hebrew the official language of the party failed. In 1907, on the instructions of the party, he composed the appeals of the "Jewish Social Democratic Party in Eretz Yisrael" ^[14] .

In 1907, David Green sought “his place” in Palestine, in the winter of 1906–1907 he lived in Petah Tikva and Jaffa , in the spring he spent several days in the new Jewish settlement - Kfar Sava , and then went to Rishon Le Zion work in a winery. Then Green spent some time in Rehovot . He even wanted to move his family here from Plonsk, buy land and become a settler, but he departed from this idea because he wanted to live in a completely Jewish village, work side by side with Jewish farmers ^[15] . Once, Green met his friend from Plonia, Shlomo Zemakh, who told David about his life in Galilee . After that, Green decides to move to Galilee ^[15] . As part of a group led by Zemah, David Green went on foot to Galilee, and after three days of travel he reached the settlement of Sajer ^[15] .

In Sajere, Green found "his" Eretz Yisrael , in 1907 in this settlement - the only one in Palestine - all the work was done by the Jews. First, Green worked on an experimental farm, and later on the Rogachevsky farm ^[16] . In Sajere, David increasingly feels loneliness, about this he wrote in his last letter to his friend Shmuel Fuchs; Green did not receive an answer to this letter, and the connection between him and Fuchs was interrupted for many years. His other friend Shlomo Zemakh soon left to live in Metula , and his love Rachel Nelkina got married, this event made a strong impression on young David ^[16] .

His loneliness was aggravated by separation from his family. In 1908, David Green reached the military age in Russia. In September 1908, he boarded a steamboat in Jaffa and went to Russia so that his father would not have to pay 300 rubles for his failure to appear at the recruiting station ^[17] . David successfully reached Plonsk, met with his family and arrived at the recruiting station, where he swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar and soon deserted from the military camp. He crossed the German border on false documents and already at the end of December of that year returned to Palestine ^[17] .

Upon arrival in Palestine, Green settled in the village of Kineret , created during his absence in Palestine - the beauty of the lake of the same name , on the banks of which the village was located, amazed him. Soon, David Green arrived in the settlement of Milhamia , where he spent several weeks, after which he returned to Sajera, which at that time he considered his home ^[17] . Sajera during the described period was one of the exemplary Jewish settlements, most of the work was carried out by Jews, but the settlement was guarded by the Circassians . Residents of Sajers, including Green, were convinced that the protection should be transferred to the Jewish population. To do this, they had to go to the trick. Once, at night, the workers stole a mare from the head of the settlement of Krause. When the manager found the missing, the Circassian guard was already sleeping in the neighboring village. After this incident, the protection of the settlement was provided by the Jews ^[17] . During Passover in 1909, David Green witnessed the killing by Arabs of several of his comrades. This made a strong impression on him and influenced his views on defense. After this incident, Green joined the Hashomer military organization ^[18] .

In the fall of 1909, Green left Sajer and went to the settlement of Yavniel , on the road where he was robbed by an Arab. Soon the thief was caught, but the stolen property was not returned. After spending several weeks in Yavniel, David moved to Zikhron-Yakov , whom he liked and in which he decided to stay. Here, Green took up the study of French and Arabic. Shortly before that, in 1908, the Young Turks revolted as a result of which national minorities were given the right to be elected to the parliament of the Ottoman Empire , and David Green seriously considered becoming a representative of the Jewish labor movement in Palestine in the legislative organs of the metropolis. To accomplish this, Green decided to become a lawyer. To enter the university, he began to study foreign languages ​​even more persistently ^[18] .

At one of the meetings of the Poalei Zion party, Green delivered a fiery Hebrew speech, continuing to speak this language despite listeners' requests for a more understandable Yiddish . At the end of the speech, only three people remained in the hall - Green himself, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and Rachel Yanait . At the conference of the Poalei Zion party, which took place in the spring of 1910 , Yanait and Ben-Zvi demanded that Green be included in the editorial board of the party newspaper Ha-ahdut (Unity) ^[18] . To work in a newspaper, he had to move to Jerusalem , where he rented a small room in the Old City . Green received ten francs for his work at Ha-Ahdut, which was enough for him only to pay for housing and a meager lunch. After several months of half-starving life, David nevertheless decided to ask for an increase in the salary that he received, but still felt a lack of funds ^[19] . Green's first articles were published without the author’s name, as he did not dare to subscribe in his own name. In the next issue of the newspaper, he was already published under his new name - Ben-Gurion, which he took from the historical character of Joseph Ben-Gurion ^[19] . Ben-Gurion lived in Jerusalem for another year, at which time he was actively publishing in Ha-Akhdut and, together with Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, looked after Rachel Yanait ^[19] .

On August 1, 1911, Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi were to represent the Palestinian branch of Poalei Zion at the World Party Congress in Vienna . From Vienna, Ben-Gurion wrote to Palestine that after the conference he does not plan to return to Palestine and intends to move to Thessaloniki ^[20] .

Learning

On November 7, 1911, Ben-Gurion arrived in Thessaloniki , where he intended to learn the Turkish language , and then study law in Istanbul ^[21] . Ben-Gurion believed that Palestinian Jews should accept Turkish citizenship and fight for their interests through state institutions of the empire ^[20] . He intended to become a candidate for deputy of the Turkish parliament and, if elected, to promote the development of Jewish statehood in Palestine ^[20] .

David Ben-Gurion lived in Thessaloniki for one year. Despite the fact that the city had a large Jewish community, he felt lonely. Money for study was sent to him by his father, who was delighted to find out that his son had abandoned agriculture and was engaged in law. David studied the Turkish language with a Jew, a law student ^[21] . Friends of David Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and Israel Shohet also decided to get an education in Istanbul ^[20] .

In the spring of 1912, Ben-Gurion brilliantly passed the exams for admission to the School of Law at Istanbul University ^[21] . While studying at the university, David changed his image , after which the mustache, trimmed in the Turkish manner, long-necked frock coat and fez no longer made it possible to distinguish it from other residents of Istanbul ^[21] . The Italo-Turkish War , which began in 1911, eventually approached Istanbul, Istanbul University was closed, and students were sent to the front. Even before the university was closed, Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi decided to return to Palestine ^[21] .

Upon arrival in Palestine, Ben-Gurion, as part of the bacteriological commission of Strauss, went to Tiberias to look after infectious patients there. Four months later, he returned to Istanbul, where he was ill several times. He did not have enough money that his father sent him, whose financial situation was getting worse, and soon, on the advice of Rivka (David’s older sister), Victor Green suggested that his son leave school and return to Russia ; David, however, replied that only death can prevent the achievement of his goal ^[21] .

In December 1913, due to illness, Ben-Gurion was forced to spend several months in one of the Istanbul hospitals and after that he received money from his father to return to Plonsk . David spent two months in his hometown in the house of Sister Rivka, and then returned to Istanbul and passed all the exams for the year.

Return to Palestine

July 28, 1914 Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi boarded the Russian ship Kornilov. They learned about the beginning of the First World War on August 1 , when two German ships ( Geben and Breslau ) chased after Kornilov, who, after an exhausting race, nevertheless arrived in Jaffa ^[21] .

At this time, the Turks introduced a special tax for Jews, and Jews who were not subjects of the Ottoman Empire began to be expelled from the country. In response, leading Zionist leaders ( Jabotinsky , Weizmann and others) called on Palestinian Jewry to support Entente member countries. Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi opposed this and launched a campaign among the Jews for accepting Turkish citizenship. They feared that if the Jews opposed the Turks, they would expel them from Palestine . They even managed to get permission to form a company of Jewish militia, but it was dissolved by the decision of Jemal Pasha , who also closed the Ha-Akhdut newspaper and declared the Zionists enemies of the empire. Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi were interrogated and in April 1915 they were expelled from Palestine for connection with the Zionist movement ^[22] .

Life in America

In the spring of 1915, Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi boarded the Greek ship "Patros" and sailed to the United States of America . Soon they arrived in New York , where they were met by members of the Poalei Zion party. Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi arrived in the United States to organize branches of the Geghalutz movement there. Upon arrival, they appealed to the party leadership with a request to organize a tour of the country for them in order to create a cell in the new movement in each city they visit. Ben-Gurion traveled around the country, spoke, but only a few entered the new movement. "Geghalutz" was an expression of his views, he believed that Jews should own Eretz Yisrael , use and cultivate its land ^[22] .

In the same 1915, he delivered a speech at the Poalei Zion congress in Cleveland . Ben-Gurion opposed the creation of a Jewish state immediately after the end of World War I. ^[23]

Despite the efforts of Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi, the Geghalutz movement did not become popular in the United States. Then they released two collections of “Halutz”. A book called Izkor was also published, telling about the heroic deaths of Jews - members of self-defense units. Since the book was a great success, it was decided to release another book about Palestine . While preparing material for this book, Eretz Yisrael, Ben-Gurion spent a lot of time in major libraries in New York and Washington . For work on the book he received ten dollars a month from Poalei Zion. In the spring of 1918 the book was published ^[23] .

In 1917, David Ben-Gurion met Pauline Monbaz , a Jewish woman from Minsk , who at that time was working as a nurse in a New York hospital and began to help him collect materials for the book. On December 5, 1917, they got married, the couple rented an apartment on Edport Street in Brooklyn , where the Ben-Gurions lived only four months ^[23] .

On November 2, 1917, the Balfour Declaration was released, in which British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour informed Lord Rothschild that the British government favors the idea of ​​creating a national center for the Jewish people in Palestine . Against the background of general glee, Ben-Gurion was skeptical of this document: he still believed that the Jews themselves would regain their homeland ^[24] . It soon became clear that the Ottoman Empire was losing the war, and then Ben-Gurion, like other Zionist leaders, advocated the creation of a Jewish compound in the army of one of the Entente countries. He travels to Washington, where he meets with Louis Brandeis , a member of the U.S. Supreme Court and a Zionist. Ben-Gurion told Brandeis about his idea to create a Jewish regiment as part of the United States Army, which would have to be sent to fight in Palestine ^[24] . This idea interested Brandeis, and he presented it to US President Woodrow Wilson . However, he rejected this proposal, since the United States fought with Germany , and not with Turkey.

However, the Jewish regiment was still created at the suggestion of Jabotinsky , but already as part of the British army . On April 26, 1918, Ben-Gurion decided to join the Jewish Legion , which upset his wife, who at that time was in her fourth month of pregnancy. On May 28, he swore allegiance to Britain, and on May 29 he left for a training camp in Windsor , Canada . Upon arriving at the camp, David met his friend Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who had arrived there a week earlier ^[24] .

In 1918, Ben-Gurion was already thirty-two years old, he was an established political figure and at every rally he demonstrated his talent as a speaker. His superiors noticed him, and he was offered to accept the rank of corporal , but Ben-Gurion refused him, because he believed that he would be more useful as an ordinary soldier. However, the major convinced him to accept the rank, since after the landing of troops on another continent the leadership will be concentrated in the hands of military commanders, and not elected committees ^[24] .

On July 11, 1918, Ben-Gurion sailed to Great Britain; on August 14, his military unit was transferred to Egypt , where he arrived on August 28 ^[24] . A week after arriving in Egypt, David fell ill with dysentery , after which he spent several weeks in the hospital. There he received a telegram from his wife, Polina, that they had a daughter. On November 3, Ben-Gurion arrived in Palestine without participating in the hostilities: by this time the Sinai-Palestinian campaign had ended and Palestine had passed into the hands of the British. ^[24]

British Mandate Period

Even at the time when Ben-Gurion was lying in a Cairo military hospital, he read Berl Katznelson 's article “Towards the Coming Days”, the main idea of ​​which was the construction of a Jewish state by the hands of Jewish farmers . After reading this article, David Ben-Gurion realized that he and Katsnelson were like-minded ^[25] . From the hospital, David goes to the Jewish Legion camp, where he meets with Katznelson and invites him to unite all the workers' parties in Palestine into a single party. Without much enthusiasm, Katznelson accepts his proposal ^[24] .

Soon the legion was transferred to Palestine, where it was stationed in Sarafand , not far from Ramla . After some time, Corporal Ben-Gurion left the military camp for four days. After his return, a military tribunal was waiting for him, as a result of which he was demoted to privates and transferred to another company, and after a few days received a month's leave, from which he did not return ^[25] .

In February 1919, Ben-Gurion made an important speech at the congress of the Poalei Zion party, in which he urged party members to vote for unification with the HaPoel HaZaire party. Despite the unpopularity of the young Ben-Gurion among party members, they accepted his proposal, but the Ha-Poel Ha-Zair congress rejected this proposal, largely due to pressure from its leader, Joseph Shprintsak ^[25] .

After an unsuccessful attempt to unite the large workers' parties, Katznelson and Ben-Gurion convened the "Eretz Israel General Workers Conference", which was attended by over eighty delegates who supported the unification plan. The delegates decided to name the new association " Ahdut Ha-Avoda ." However, the new party did not unite all the Jewish workers of Palestine, and although some members of the HaPaul HaZaire joined ^[26] , in general, it continued to operate separately ^[25] .

In the spring of 1920, on behalf of the Ahdut Ha-Avoda party, Ben-Gurion went to the UK, where he was to establish contacts with the Labor Party and head the Bureau of the Poale Zion World Union. He spent some time in London , and then went to Vienna to the Poalei Zion congress. During the congress, he received a telegram from Polina’s wife and he was forced to return to London ^[25] .

In December 1920, the first (constituent) conference of Histadrut , the General Federation of Workers Eretz Yisrael, was held in Haifa , but Ben-Gurion could not attend it, as it was abroad ^[25] . In 1921 he returned to Palestine and in December of that year he was introduced to the secretariat of Histadrut, which, at his suggestion, moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem . Ben-Gurion and another party secretary, David Zakay, was instructed to issue the official newspaper (organ) of the Histadrut. Living in Jerusalem, Ben-Gurion experienced financial difficulties, most of his small salaries he sent to his wife and children, also sending money to his father in Plonsk. Despite the lack of money, during this period Ben-Gurion buys a lot of books on a variety of topics ^[27] .

Carrying out the affairs of the labor movement, Ben-Gurion traveled a lot around the country, tried to help solve the problems of the working class, and delivered speeches at rallies ^[27] . In August 1923, Ben-Gurion visited the USSR during the All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft Exhibition in Moscow , in which Histadrut also participated ^{[28] [29]} . While working in Histadrut, Ben-Gurion proved to be a good organizer, six departments were formed, which became the prototypes of future ministries ^[30] .

David Ben-Gurion strove to unite all the labor movements of Palestine, and in 1930 with his active participation the MAPAI Party (Eretz Yisrael Workers Party) was created, within the framework of which Ahdut Ha-Avoda and Ha-Poel Ha Tsar. " Ben-Gurion became its first leader, and since MAPAI was also an international force, Ben-Gurion now became the leader of international Zionism ^[31] .

At the Zionist Congress in Prague ( 1933 ), Ben-Gurion was elected one of the members of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Agency , an organization that had power over the Jewish population of Palestine . In 1935, Ben-Gurion was elected chairman of the Jewish Agency ^[31] . Since 1933, Ben-Gurion actively contributed to the emigration of Jews from Nazi Germany under the Haavar agreement .

After the start of the Arab uprising in 1936, Ben-Gurion was one of the initiators of the policy of restraint . The main principle of this policy was to strengthen forces and to refrain from large-scale attacks on Arab nationalists attacking the Jewish population and to avoid harming civilians. In 1937 , along with Chaim Weizmann and Moshe Charet , he supported the recommendations of the Peel Commission , according to which the territory of Eretz Yisrael to the west of the Jordan River should be divided into two parts. Ben-Gurion himself will later write about this in a letter to his son:

The Jewish state in [Palestine] is not the end, but the beginning ... possession of the territory is important not only as such ... thanks to it, we will increase our strength, and any increase in our strength makes it easier to take control of the whole country. The creation of a [small] state ... will serve as a very powerful lever in our historical effort to restore the whole country.

Original text

[A] Jewish state in part of [Palestine] is not the end but beginning ... Our possesion is important not only for itself ... through this we increase our power, and every increace in power facilitates getting hold of the country in its enternity. Establishing a [small] state ... will serve a very potent lever in our historical efforts to redeem the whole country. ^[32]

The Arab population sharply condemned any section of Palestinian territory and frustrated this initiative. Under pressure from Arab protests, the British authorities were forced in 1939 to issue a White Paper , which limited the return of Jews to their historical homeland , and also limited the sale of land to Jews. All these measures were supposed to prevent the growth of the Jewish population of the country.

Ben-Gurion moved from a passive (containment) policy to an active one, which included illegal immigration and the creation of new settlements in places where it was prohibited by British law.

World War II

On September 1, 1939, German troops invaded the territory of the Polish Republic , and on September 3, David Ben-Gurion returned to Palestine from a trip abroad. At a meeting of the leaders of the “ Hagana ” - the Jewish Yishuv Self-Defense Forces - he delivered a speech in which he developed the idea that this war represented a real chance to create a Jewish state, and, first of all, it was necessary to create a Jewish army. Ben-Gurion hoped to improve relations between the Jewish population and the British government and weaken the White Book regime, but this did not happen, Britain, on the contrary, tightened its policy. On February 28, 1940, an anti-Zionist land law was published that divided Palestinian territory into three sectors. Only in one of them, which included the Sharon Valley , could Jews buy land. The next day, Ben-Gurion resigned from his post as chairman of the board of the Jewish Agency ^[33] .

Now he wanted to devote himself to fighting the British authorities. On February 29, at the suggestion of Ben-Gurion, there was a general strike of Palestinian Jewish workers, a wave of demonstrations swept through the country, which sometimes turned into clashes with the police. In large cities, people took to the streets with pickaxes and stones, as well as with flags and slogans. On March 5, there were clashes with the police, in which Hagan also participated ^[33] . Armed resistance to the authorities split Yishuv, according to some it was a help to the Third Reich, which Britain then fought against. Ben-Gurion was adamant and urged that the struggle continue, but at a meeting of the Jewish Agency on April 8, 1940, his proposals were rejected and he resigned. After other members of the Board refused to accept her, he leaves for nine months ^[34] .

In London, Ben-Gurion met with Zionist figures, from whom he sought support for his ideas, but even here he did not meet support. Meanwhile, the war broke out with renewed vigor, Germany attacked several more countries. In view of this, Ben-Gurion put forward a new slogan: "We will fight against Hitler, as if there is no White Paper, and we will fight against the White Book as if there is no Hitler." Chamberlain soon resigned, Winston Churchill became the new Prime Minister of Great Britain, who had a positive attitude to Zionism and had several pro-Zionist-minded people in his circle ^[34] .

With the outbreak of World War II, Ben-Gurion supported Jewish volunteers joining the British army , while at the same time he considered it necessary to continue to fight against Britain in Palestine.

During this period, activities to counter the British authorities were suspended. The British army began to recruit Jews into the army, and a Jewish national unit, the Jewish Brigade , was also created. At the beginning of the war, the militant Jewish organizations ETSEL and LEKHI also suspended their activities against the British, but later these organizations resumed the struggle against the British authorities. The official Yishuv and Hagana, led by Ben-Gurion, sharply condemned the actions of ETSEL and LEKHI.

In 1942, David Ben-Gurion traveled to the United States to clarify the position of Yishuv on key issues, at the same time he unveiled the Biltmore Program , which opened the struggle of the Jews for the creation of their state in Eretz Israel. During and after World War II, Ben-Gurion opposed Great Britain, which, like other powers, ignored the position of European Jewry.

After the war, the Yishuv leadership intensified the struggle against the British, an active political struggle was launched for the creation of a Jewish state. During this period, Ben-Gurion received a position in the Jewish Agency in charge of security. In this position, he contributed to the creation of Jewish resistance for the organization of a joint struggle with the British by three underground organizations. He took urgent steps to purchase weapons and prepare for their delivery in order to turn the Hagan organization into an army that could withstand not only the irregular forces of local Arabs, but also the attacks of the armies of the Arab countries.

In September 1947, Ben-Gurion wrote a letter sent to the leaders of the Agudat Israel religious movement. In the letter, he promised to make several concessions in the field of law in the future state. In particular, he promised to proclaim Saturday a day of rest. Ben-Gurion also promised to abandon civil marriages and ensure the autonomy of religious education. The reason for writing this letter was the desire to enlist the support of all circles of Jewish society in the territory of Mandatory Palestine. This letter determined the domestic policy of the State of Israel for decades, strengthening the position of the religious sector in the state.

Ben-Gurion led the struggle of the official institutions of Yishuv and the Zionist movement for the approval of the UN plan for partition of Palestine at the UN (recommendations of the UNSCOP Commission and General Assembly decision of November 29, 1947 on the division of Eretz Israel into two states - Jewish and Arab). He made a decision to proclaim the State of Israel, despite intense, until the last minute, resistance to this step by influential people from the right, left, religious, and also from within his own MAPAI party.

Public Service

Creation of the State

On May 15, 1948, the end of the British Mandate on Palestine was scheduled, the Jews were given a chance to create their own state. However, opinions on this subject were divided. US opposition and the threat of the capture of Palestine by the Arab armies made many think about the possibility of creating a state ^[35] . These sentiments also penetrated into MAPAY . Prominent party leaders ( Eliezer Kaplan , David Remez and others) opposed the immediate creation of the state, David Ben-Gurion took the opposite position, who was supported by most ordinary party members ^[35] .

A meeting of the MAPAI Central Committee took place on May 11, at which Ben-Gurion delivered a fiery speech and presented his position. At the height of the meeting, Golda Meir entered the room, having just returned from a secret trip to Amman , where she was negotiating with the Emir of Transjordan Abdallah . Meir’s attempts to persuade the emir to sign a non-aggression pact were unsuccessful: Abdullah, who was not interested in an independent Arab state in the right-bank Palestine, nevertheless believed that only annexed mandated territory to Transjordan could prevent the war, in the parliament of which Jews would get 50% of the seats. Golda Meir rejected this offer. On the same day, Moshe Charet returned from the USA, who spoke there with American politician George Marshall ^[35] . The Americans proposed delaying the creation of the state and tried to intimidate Chareth with the threat of an Arab invasion of Palestine ^[35] .

On May 12, Jordanian Legion forces invaded Palestine. On this day, Ben-Gurion was at a meeting of the People’s Government, where the issue of creating a state was being decided. At the end of the day, the board decided to create a Jewish state in Palestine on May 14, 1948. Voted for the proposal: David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Charet , Aaron Ziesling , Mordechai Ben-Tov , Moshe Shapiro and Pepper Bernstein , against: Eliseer Kaplan , David Remez , Pinchas Rosenblit , Behor Sheetrit . After the decision to create the state, another important issue remained unresolved - the inclusion of the description of the exact boundaries in the text of the Declaration of Independence . Ben-Gurion believed that this should not be done, since he believed that in the future it would be possible to expand the territory of the state ^[36] . On May 14, Moshe Charet wrote the text of the Declaration of Independence, and on the night of the same day Ben-Gurion revised it ^[37] .

On May 14, Ben-Gurion arrived at the building of the Tel Aviv Museum , where at four o'clock he read out the Declaration of Independence, thereby proclaiming the creation of the State of Israel ^[37] . On the night of the same day, the United States recognized Israel de facto , and in the early morning of May 15, Ben-Gurion delivered a speech to the Americans ^[37] .

War of Independence

Immediately after the creation of Israel, it was attacked by the armies of the Arab countries, while the young state did not yet have enough weapons. The main goal of Ben-Gurion during this period was to gain time, which is why he refused to evacuate Jewish settlements, insisting on the continuation of battles and the further holding of the enemy. Meanwhile, the situation worsened, a difficult situation developed in the Jordan Valley , the morale of the fighters fell, they asked for weapons that Ben-Gurion could not give. Only when four guns arrived in Israel did he agree to transfer them to the Jordan Valley for a day, where at the settlement of Dgania these guns forced the Syrians to retreat ^[38] .

On May 22, 1948, the Arab armies broke through in several sectors of the front at once, but by Sunday the situation began to stabilize, and Ben-Gurion, who had not slept for many hours, was finally able to rest. After May 23, the situation began to improve rapidly; weapons from Europe began to arrive in Israel. When the ship arrived with five thousand rifles and forty-five guns, Ben-Gurion wrote: “This will be the beginning of a turning point!” ^[38] . After the arrival of this ship, Ben-Gurion began to develop a new strategic plan of the war - a plan to defeat the Arab armies, he believed that an offensive should be launched immediately, and he considered Jerusalem to be the most important sector of the front from the political and moral point of view. He planned, having defeated the Arab armies, to create a Christian state in southern Lebanon , since he believed that the power of Muslims in Lebanon is weak ^[39] .

The main strategic idea of ​​the Ben-Gurion plan is a crushing blow to the enemy on one front and deterrence on other fronts. Later, such tactics were used in the Six Day War and the Doomsday War . The most powerful enemy military formation Ben-Gurion considered the Arab Legion , and it was against him that a strong blow should be directed. The choice fell on the legion, including due to the fact that Ben Gurion gave an important place to Jerusalem. In his opinion, the invasion of the Arab armies in Palestine made it impossible to implement the UN plan for the partition of Palestine ^[39] .

Ben-Gurion tried to throw as much power as possible into the capture of Jerusalem, however, Jewish forces were defeated at the Latrun fortress, several times the Israelis attacked Latrun, but all attempts were unsuccessful and the Old City soon fell. Nevertheless, Jewish control over other parts of Jerusalem was maintained, a road was laid in the mountains, and food convoys began to arrive in the city ^[39] .

A ceasefire was concluded on June 11, 1948, and now Israel was not in danger of being destroyed ^[39] . At this time, Ben-Gurion faces the challenge of completing the unification of Jewish military units. After the murder of the diplomat Volke Bernadotte by the Jewish radicals, the independence of the ECL and LEKHI organizations was liquidated ^[40] . Ben-Gurion also decided to put an end to the isolation of the Palmach organization; the MAPAM party opposed this decision. At a joint meeting of the Israeli workers' parties, most of the participants finally agreed with Ben-Gurion's point of view, and on November 7, 1948, the headquarters of the “Palmach” self-dissolved ^[40] . The dissolution of the headquarters was not the ultimate goal of Ben-Gurion. Despite his promises, at the end of the war he dismissed the entire "Palm" ^[40] .

October 15, 1948 began the first in the history of Israel, the offensive of his army. Soon, due to the threat of the environment, the Egyptian units began to retreat. In the midst of the fighting on October 19, the UN Security Council demanded an end to the fighting between Israel and Egypt. Ben-Gurion tried to postpone the response for several days to enable the Israeli forces to achieve the greatest possible success in the battle. For six days of the operation, the Negev’s blockade was lifted and Beer Sheva captured, followed by a ceasefire. Now Ben-Gurion was about to improve the situation on the northern front. He ordered the commander of the northern front, Moshe Carmel, to act, and soon the good news came to him: Israeli troops captured 14 villages and stopped the offensive at the Litani River ^[41] . Meanwhile, the foreign policy situation began to deteriorate, England and China prepared a draft resolution, which demanded that Israel retreat to the borders on October 14. Ben-Gurion in this situation tried to do everything so as not to give up an inch of Israeli land ^[41] .

On November 16, the UN Security Council decided that Israel and the Arab countries should begin negotiations for peace, but the Egyptian side refused to do so. Then Ben-Gurion ordered the start of a new operation against this country ^[41] . The purpose of Operation Khorev was to complete the liberation of the Negev , to encircle and destroy the Egyptian forces in the Gaza Strip. For the operation, five army brigades were assigned, headed by Igal Alon ^[41] . On December 28, 1948, Egyptian Prime Minister Nukrashi Pasha was killed, Egypt fell into a difficult military and political situation. However, on December 31, England intervened in the situation, which, according to the agreement, was going to attack the Israeli troops if they did not stop the offensive. Ben-Gurion was forced to issue a retreat order ^[41] . Soon Ben-Gurion received a message from US President Harry Truman , in which he asked Israel to retreat from Egypt ^[42] . Now, Egypt itself agreed to a ceasefire in the event of a ceasefire. On January 7, fighting stopped, and on January 13, peace talks began on the island of Rhodes . In the spring and summer of 1949, Israel entered into armistice agreements with all Arab countries except Iraq. The war of independence was over. ^[42]

First Premier Term

After the war ended, Ben-Gurion's main goal was to gather the Jewish people in Israel. Some prominent MAPAI members and Israeli government ministers feared that the country's economy would not withstand the influx of hundreds of thousands of returnees . Therefore, Ben-Gurion had to impose his position on other associates. He set a new task: to double the Jewish population of the state in four years. In four years, more than half a million people arrived in Israel (various Ben-Gurion biographers refer to the numbers 585 748 ^[43] and 686 748 returnees ^[44] ). The conditions of the arrivals were difficult, they had to settle in tents, and the indigenous inhabitants of the country were heavily taxed, the state treasury more than once turned out to be empty ^[43] .

In January 1949, elections were held in the Knesset of Israel, the MAPAY party received 46 out of 120 seats. Ben-Gurion dreamed of creating a broad coalition, but his dreams were not destined to come true. The Party of General Zionists , which received 5 seats, refused to join the coalition, as did the left Zionist party MAPAM . The coalition created by Ben-Gurion included only religious parties and the Progressive Party of Israel ^[43] . Ben-Gurion took over as prime minister and defense minister in the first government of Israel. ^[45]

On December 9, 1949, the UN General Assembly granted Jerusalem the status of an international city, in response, Ben-Gurion at the next meeting of the government called for the transfer of the capital to this city. Soon, the Knesset decided to transfer the capital to Jerusalem, which caused a storm of indignation throughout the world, but no measures were taken against Israel. Only two ministries remained in Tel Aviv - the Israeli Ministry of Defense, which was not transferred for security reasons, and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs . The head of this ministry, Moshe Charet refused to move his office to Jerusalem - the minister was afraid that foreign diplomats would not want to go to the capital of the state ^[46] .

In 1952, the country's economic situation began to deteriorate rapidly, so on March 12 of the same year, Israel put forward to the allied countries that occupied Germany a demand for Germany to pay about a half billion dollars for Jewish property in Europe. German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer agreed to payments, after which Ben-Gurion informed the Knesset and his government about this, which caused a public outcry in Israel. Prominent MAPAI figures such as Golda Meir , Joseph Shprintsak and Dov Yosef opposed negotiations with Germany. The Zionist right-wing Herut Party and MAPAM held rallies against negotiations. On January 7, the question of accepting reparations from Germany was put to a vote in the Knesset, where Ben-Gurion delivered a speech. At the same time, not far from the Knesset building, in the center of Jerusalem, Menachem Begin delivered a fiery speech. Begin decided to continue his speech at the Knesset building so that the Israeli parliamentarians would hear him and the crowd would follow him. Police cordons broke through a stream of people, and the Knesset was stoned. Herut’s deputy Johanan Bader burst into the courtroom shouting that they used gas against the Jews (although the police used tear gas , an analogy was made with the recent use of gas chambers by the Nazis). Passion began to calm down only on January 9, when the vote on the adoption of reparations from Germany took place. In the end, the proposal was accepted by sixty-one votes to fifty. An agreement was concluded on Germany's payment of $ 822 million over twenty years ^[47] .

On July 19, 1953, Ben-Gurion went on a three-month vacation, which he devoted almost entirely to inspection trips to the military units of the country. On October 18, Ben-Gurion completed editing the 18-point program for “reorganizing the high command of the army and strengthening the armed forces”. After 2 weeks, he suddenly defiantly resigned from all posts ^[48] .

Leaving Politics

Ben-Gurion left all posts due to fatigue. Having been in power for several years, he fulfilled many important tasks: the foundations of the State of Israel were laid, the country's population was doubled, the Israeli army was created, the political course of the young state was determined, all of this was due to Ben-Gurion. However, he was strongly influenced by political upheavals, disagreements in his own party, the need for a constant search for compromises. All this led him to disappointment. The resignation of Ben-Gurion was also ideological in nature, during this period he was visited by thoughts that he, like all residents of Israel, should contribute to the development of the country. He decides to move to the kibbutz Sde-Boker , which he saw back in the spring of 1953, returning from Eilat ^[48] .

On December 7, Ben-Gurion made a short farewell speech on the radio, quoting David 's psalm : “Lord, my heart was not taunted, and my eyes were not lifted up, and I did not enter into the great and unattainable for me” ( Psalm 131: 1 ). Ben-Gurion transferred the post of prime minister to MAPAI ally Moshe Chareth ^[48] .

On December 14, 1953, Ben-Gurion and his wife Polina left their home in Tel Aviv and moved to a barrack in the kibbutz Sde-Boker. On his first working day, the former head of government was engaged in the transport of manure. He felt like an ordinary kibbutznik, but many letters constantly came to him, none of which he did not leave unanswered ^[49] . Also, high-ranking officials often came to the kibbutz to ask Ben Gurion for advice on a particular issue. Ben-Gurion biographer Michael Bar-Zohar claims that this was due to a lack of authority among the current head of government, Moshe Sharet ^[50] .

At the same time, the situation on the borders of Israel escalated, and relations between Chareth and Lavon , which had completely opposite views on what was happening, worsened. Chareth pursued a moderate political line, and Lavon acted in a belligerent position, as did Ben-Gurion. In the summer of 1954, Ben-Gurion came to the conclusion that his successors were not able to properly manage the state. Despite this, he refuses his associates asking him to return ^[51] .

After Pinchas Lavon resigned due to an unsuccessful military intelligence operation , Ben-Gurion’s companions persuaded him to return to the government, and he agreed, writing that day in his diary: “Army and defense first” ^[52] .

Minister of Defense

On February 21, 1955, Ben-Gurion and his wife Pauline arrived in Jerusalem. Ben-Gurion's first significant step as Minister of Defense was to carry out a punitive operation against the Egyptian army in the Gaza Strip. This action was a response to the killings of peaceful Israelis near the border of Gaza. 149 Israeli paratroopers under the command of Ariel Sharon fought with the Egyptians, who as a result lost about forty people killed and more than thirty wounded, while the Israelis lost only eight people. Ben-Gurion considered this action heroic, but Chareth thought differently, he was afraid of an international reaction to this event. Ben-Gurion’s policy during this period can be called belligerent, he believed that only a decent response to Egypt’s actions against Israel could prevent a military conflict between the two countries ^[53] .

Egypt soon responded to Israel by staging a military action against civilians. Egyptian militants attacked Patish moshavim when they celebrated their wedding, one man was killed and more than twenty were injured. Despite this, Ben-Gurion continued to believe that retaliatory action was needed. In addition to the awesome factor, he talked about the moral factor. The state of Israel was to show the Jews who came from countries where they were subjected to inequality on a national basis that they were citizens of an independent democratic state, which was responsible for their lives ^[53] .

The Patish massacre prompted the Minister of Defense to develop a plan for a military operation to capture the Gaza Strip , but the head of government and its members for the most part rejected this bold plan. After that, relations between Ben-Gurion and Chareth became aggravated ^{[53] [54]} .

At the end of July 1955, elections to the Knesset of Israel were held, the Herut movement strengthened in the new convocation, the Ahdut Ha-Avoda party appeared, which split from MAPAM, and some MAPAI supporters joined the same party. According to Ben-Gurion, the reason for the weakening of MAPI was Chareth's soft policy. Therefore, he set the condition that he would return only if the party supported his position on the military question, which consisted in a response by force to force ^[54] .

In September 1955, the Soviet Union, on behalf of Czechoslovakia, concluded a deal with Egypt on the sale of weapons. The Egyptian side received about two hundred military aircraft, more than two hundred tanks, a hundred self-propelled guns , six submarines and other weapons. The balance of armaments in the region was disrupted, Cairo radio sounded threats against Israel, panic swept Israeli society. The Israelis began to donate money to the Defense Fund , and Israeli diplomats asked Western Europe for help ^[54] .

Second Premier Term

Suez Crisis

On November 2, 1955, Ben-Gurion introduced his new government to the Knesset, and he devoted his opening address to the upcoming war with Egypt. On the night of the second to the third of November, the Israel Defense Forces conducted an operation against Egyptian troops invading the territory of the Jewish state in the Nitsana region ^[55] .

Ben-Gurion was afraid of the growing military power of Egypt, in his opinion Egypt could soon become strong enough to start a war with Israel. He sought a way out of this situation from October to December 1955, during which he was torn before two lines of behavior. One of them was to increase the number of weapons in Israel, this could keep Egypt from attacking. Another was the beginning of a preventive war against the Arab neighbor. On November 9, President of the United States Dwight Eisenhower announced his country's readiness to consider the Israeli request for arms. In Ben Gurion, confidence in a peaceful resolution to the conflict was strengthened, but Moshe Dayan (at that time the chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces ) proposed a military operation to prevent the war. In December 1955, the plan of operation was submitted to the government, which rejected it ^[55] .

In February 1956, Ben-Gurion supported the proposal of Abba Even to conclude a defensive alliance between Israel and the United States. Negotiations came to a standstill, Eisenhower nevertheless refused to supply modern weapons to Israel, thereby, according to Michael Bar-Zohar, pushing the Jewish state into a new war ^[56] .

The first half of 1956 was very difficult for Ben-Gurion, a group of ministers of his government led by Moshe Charet opposed the offensive operations, and the Chief of General Staff Dayan, on the contrary, demanded an immediate start of a preventive war against Egypt ^[57] .

In early April, the situation on the border with Egypt worsened again, several Israeli soldiers were killed by the Egyptians, the Egyptian army fired Israeli moshavim with artillery shells. Groups of fidaines against civilians and infrastructure were sent to Israel ^[57] .

In 1956, Israel had a new ally - France, with which a contract was signed for the supply of a huge number of weapons. Negotiations with France were conducted in secret from Foreign Minister Moshe Charet, who professed views that were contrary to the views of Ben-Gurion, which led to his resignation as Minister on July 19, 1956. Golda Meir was appointed the new Foreign Minister. ^[58] In July 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal , in response to this, France and Britain brought their troops on alert. The United States opposed the military conflict, and Britain began to lean toward the same position. Left alone, France was looking for a new ally, such was Israel ^[59] .

In the second half of October 1956, Ben-Gurion flew to Sevres (France), where he met with representatives of France and England. Ben-Gurion wanted to be sure that England, along with Israel and France, would enter the war. As a result of the Sevres meeting, a secret document was signed. It was decided that Israel would attack Egypt, after which European powers would also oppose the Arab country ^[60] .

On October 28, 1956, the Israeli government supported Ben Gurion's decision to launch a military operation against Egypt. Israel carried out mobilization of the population, and French aviation moved part of its aircraft to Israeli airports ^[61] .

Ben-Gurion’s grave mental state these days turned into a physical malaise, he was at home with a high fever, and at that time the leaders of Israeli parties came to him to whom he informed about the impending attack ^[61] .

On October 29, 1956, as part of Operation Kadesh, Israeli troops attacked the positions of the Egyptian army on the Sinai Peninsula , and on November 5, Israel occupied Sinai ^[61] . On October 31, 1956, France and Great Britain joined the war, but due to the nuclear threat from the USSR, they soon had to abandon hostilities. On November 7, Ben-Gurion delivered a speech in the Knesset, in which he suggested that Israel could annex the Sinai. ^[62]

The UN , the USA and the USSR in every possible way forced Israel to withdraw its troops from Sinai, the situation was tense, the world was on the verge of a nuclear war . Ben-Gurion was forced to submit to the United States, in his letter to Eisenhower, he agreed to withdraw Israeli troops from the Sinai Peninsula, provided that international forces were introduced into the Suez Canal zone ^[63] . Gathering his strength, he spoke to the Israelis on the radio, ending his speech like this:

Despite promises, Ben-Gurion wanted to delay the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the occupied territories, which would allow him to better clarify his position to the world, he wanted to wait until the fear of the USSR disappears and the world can take a balanced look at the situation. His other goal was to achieve political concessions for Israel in exchange for territory. The third, his hidden goal, was that the UN would reconcile with the presence of Israel in the Gaza Strip and in the straits. However, these goals could not be achieved; the UN each time threatened Israel with sanctions if it did not withdraw its troops. Israel lost support in the international arena, it has only one ally left - France ^[64] .

Announcing the withdrawal of troops from Sinai on November 15, 1956, Ben-Gurion delayed this event, only on December 3, Israeli troops retreated thirty miles from the Suez Canal. Under international pressure, Israel was forced to continue the retreat (weekly twenty-five miles). Israeli troops left Egypt only in mid-January 1957 ^[64] .

During the Sinai Campaign, relations between Ben-Gurion and US President Eisenhower, who personally participated in resolving the situation on the Sinai Peninsula, deteriorated significantly. In early February 1957, Ben-Gurion received a letter from the US President in which the latter threatened Israel with sanctions if it does not comply with the UN decision (leave Gaza and the Straits). Ben-Gurion was furious with this letter, he wrote an answer to it, in which he explained that Israeli citizens have the right to security. He also reminded the American president that Egypt had failed to comply with the UN decision many times, but there were no sanctions against it ^[65] .

On February 27, 1957, Ben-Gurion supported the plan of French Foreign Minister Pinault , which envisaged the transfer of the Gaza Strip to UN administration, and in the case of the return of Egyptian troops, provided for Israel’s right to self-defense. The plan was originally supported by the United States ^[65] . On March 1, Golda Meir announced the Pinot plan at the UN, but contrary to the agreement, the American representative did not support her proposal, voicing the idea that Israel should return the Gaza Strip to Egypt. Israel withdrew all its troops from Gaza and the Straits, and the Egyptians soon returned there ^[66] .

Despite the fact that the Sinai campaign did not bring Israel new territories, it was important. During the war, it became clear that the Israel Defense Forces have superiority over the armies of neighboring Arab countries. A quick victory instilled in the Israelis a belief in the possibility of a quiet life in the country. In the Arab countries, the point of view on the Arab-Israeli conflict has changed, before they believed that the armies of the Arab countries could wipe Israel off the face of the earth, but now it has become clear that this is not so. Israel’s ties with other states strengthened, the United States saw in it a stronghold of democracy and Western culture in the Middle East, France found an ally in Israel, third world countries - an example to follow ^[67] .

Further Premiership

Israel’s success in the Sinai company was also Ben Gurion’s personal success. Biographer Michael Bar-Zohar writes that success in the Sinai opened a golden era in the life of Ben-Gurion ^[67] .

Ben-Gurion was afraid of the increasing influence of the Soviet Union in the Middle East. Syria became the object of Soviet expansion. In August 1957, the country received significant military assistance from the USSR, which included not only equipment, but also specialists. At the same time, there were several border conflicts between Syria and Israel, several Israelis were killed and wounded. However, the Israeli government did not respond to Syrian aggression, the Prime Minister again chose a policy of restraint.

The United States was also concerned about the situation in Syria and even tried to carry out a coup, which ended unsuccessfully. An attempt at military pressure on Syria also failed. Against the background of the launch of the USSR, the artificial satellite Ben-Gurion sent his Minister of Foreign Affairs Golda Meir to the United States to participate in negotiations with Dulles . Ben-Gurion expected from the United States new military supplies, international guarantees in the implementation of Israeli security, as well as assistance in expanding ports and airfields, which could play a role in an attempt to military intervention in Syria. However, the negotiations were unsuccessful, and Israel was forced to look for other ways to neutralize the Syrian threat ^[68] .

Israel is now seeking support from Middle Eastern states interested in weakening the positions of the USSR and Egypt. One such state was Ethiopia , a Christian enclave in the predominantly Muslim region of North Africa. Between Israel and Ethiopia, economic, political and cultural ties were established. Another ally state was Iran , which was interested in the development of agriculture and the economy, but did not have advanced technologies. Israel was ready to provide all possible assistance to Iran in these fields of knowledge ^[69] .

The increase in Syria’s military might seriously troubled the Turkish leadership. Turkey was caught between two well-armed states, which cast doubt on its very existence as an independent state. However, Turkey hesitated, the final decision was made after the Iraq revolution of 1958 . Secretly, a meeting was held between the prime ministers of Turkey and Israel, where they came to an understanding. The alliance between Ethiopia, Iran, Turkey and Israel is called the “peripheral pact” ^[69] .

Ben-Gurion described the goals of the new alliance in a letter to Eisenhower :

On October 29, 1957, a Jewish extremist blew up a grenade in the Knesset conference room; Ben-Gurion was slightly injured ^{[70] [71]} .

In 1957-1958, cooperation between Israel and France was established, especially in the military sphere. In October 1957, an agreement was signed on the joint construction of a nuclear reactor in Dimona . However, after de Gaulle came to power, there is some cooling in relations between the two countries. Another allied state, according to the Prime Minister, was to become West Germany , which had considerable industrial potential and a sense of guilt against Israel ^[72] . Soon Ben-Gurion met with Chancellor Adenauer , it was decided to provide significant assistance to the Jewish state in the military sphere, as well as to provide a large loan in the amount of half a billion dollars for a period of 10 years ^[73] .

In 1960, Ben-Gurion met with Charles de Gaulle, the leaders reached a complete understanding, and soon France confirmed its obligations in the field of the construction of a nuclear reactor. However, at the same time, information about the reactor appeared in the world media, which angered the US leadership ^[72] .

In May 1961, David Ben-Gurion paid an official visit to Canada and then to the United States of America, where he met with the newly elected President John F. Kennedy . Kennedy and Ben-Gurion did not find understanding on issues of Arab-Israeli regulation, in addition, the American president refused to supply anti-aircraft missiles to Israel. In June 1961, Ben-Gurion met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , as well as French President Charles de Gaulle ^[72] .

In 1959, there was a major political crisis caused by the vote of the MAPAM and Ahdut ha-Avoda parties against the supply of arms to the FRG ^[74] .

Final Period of Reign

On August 15, 1961, early parliamentary elections were held, the Ben-Gurion party lost five seats, but the general situation in the Knesset did not change and a new government was formed in November of that year. Ben-Gurion considered the construction of a nuclear reactor in Dimon to be of primary importance; he organized fundraising from private individuals for the construction of the reactor ^[75] .

In the final period of Ben-Gurion’s reign, a difficult period begins in relations between the USA and Israel. President Kennedy proposed a plan to resolve the problem of Arab refugees by resettling them in Israel and other countries in the Middle East. This plan was unacceptable for Israel, since the Jewish state did not receive any guarantees on the fulfillment by the Arab countries of their obligations. Ben-Gurion strongly opposed this plan, which was finally buried after the Kennedy assassination in 1963 ^[75] .

On the other hand, relations were established between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany , negotiations were underway to provide a large loan for Israel, the FRG supplied Israel with modern weapons at low prices, and negotiations were underway to establish official interstate relations ^{[76] [77]} .

Another issue that occupied Ben-Gurion was the settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict . He tried in every possible way to meet with Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser , inviting him - of course, through intermediaries - to visit Israel or make an appointment in any other country, but Nasser refused such a meeting ^[75] .

In the early 1960s, a scandal erupted in the Israeli press over the participation of German scientists in the development of new Egyptian missiles capable of carrying chemical and atomic weapons. Against this background, rapprochement with the Federal Republic of Germany seemed impossible, for which Ben-Gurion was criticized ^[76] .

Problems inside MAPAI , disagreements with their own supporters, loneliness forced Ben-Gurion to resign from the post of Prime Minister of the State of Israel . The leaders of the party, army and state asked him to remain in office, but Ben-Gurion could not be convinced. In his diary, he wrote that the decision to resign was deliberate, but the reason for the resignation was the disagreement with Golda Meir about the relations between Israel and Germany. Ben-Gurion wrote that even before the last election, he was ready to resign as head of state, however, the reluctance to give up power in the Herut movement and Menachem Begin made him remain in his post for another two and a half years ^[76] . Ben-Gurion recommended Levi Eshkol to the post of his successor as prime minister ^[4] .

Subsequent Political Life

After his resignation, Ben-Gurion demanded that the Lavon case be tried, but the current Prime Minister Levi Eshkol refused to do so. In 1965, a congress of the MAPAI party was held in Tel Aviv, where Ben-Gurion also demanded a trial in the Lavon case. Ben-Gurion was criticized by Moshe Charet , Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir . Especially sharply he took criticism of Golda Meir, with which before that he was associated with a special ideological proximity ^[78] .

Ben-Gurion decided to form his list, which would be part of a single party, but the MAPAI secretariat rejected this interpretation, deciding that the former prime minister and like-minded people left MAPAI. Thus, the List of Israeli Workers ( Reshimat Po'alei Israel , abbreviated as RAFI ) became an independent party. Following Ben-Gurion, Shimon Peres and Moshe Dayan joined the new party. One of the toughest election campaigns in Israeli history has unfolded, and Ben-Gurion suffered a crushing defeat. His party received only 10 mandates ^[78] .

With ten mandates, the RAFI party could not have any significant influence on politics ^[78] , Ben-Gurion could only criticize the incumbent prime minister and his government ^[79] . Anticipating the approach of war with Egypt, he proposes to raise in parliament the question of the resignation of Eshkol, but this proposal did not receive support in his own party. In those days, he met with the head of the Israeli general staff, Yitzhak Rabin, who wanted to know his opinion about what was happening. Ben-Gurion convinced Rabin of the need to stop the escalation of the conflict, not believing in its successful outcome ^[79] .

Moshe Dayan wrote that Ben-Gurion is aging and becoming too inert , he does not see the increased power of the Israeli army, does not believe in its victory. In addition, he continued to speak positively of Charles de Gaulle , who by that time had moved to closer cooperation with the Arab states, and not with Israel ^[79] .

In Israeli society, proposals were made to change Eshkol to a more decisive Ben-Gurion. Proponents of this position believed that he would immediately begin a victorious war with Egypt. Menachem Begin, the former implacable political opponent of Ben-Gurion, even suggested that Eshkol step down from his post and cede him to Ben-Gurion, who would head the government of national unity , but Eshkol rejected the offer, and Begin himself refused.

Soon, a member of the RAFI Moshe Dayan was appointed Minister of Defense of Israel , Ben-Gurion supported the appointment, but on condition that he himself will be an adviser to Dayan. Dayan was not going to consult with Ben-Gurion, and the decision to start military operations against Egypt was made without his participation ^[79] .

Ben-Gurion was suppressed by the outbreak of war, a few days later his opinion began to change due to the successful outcome of Operation Moked , but he did not approve of the protracted actions on the Syrian front and tried in every way to influence the course of events. Ben-Gurion believed that the conquered territories should be returned to the Arab countries, but only in exchange for a lasting peace ^[80] .

After the war ended, Ben-Gurion himself realized that he was losing his true idea of ​​what was happening in the political arena. Gradually he retires, in the elections to the 7th Knesset ( 1969 ) Ben-Gurion headed the “ State List ”, which received only four mandates, while “ Maarah ” - the MAPAY block and “ Ahdut ha-Avoda ”, supported by also by the majority of former deputies from the RAFI - scored forty-six ^[81] . After a year, Ben-Gurion leaves the Knesset and withdraws from political life ^[80] .

End of life

In 1970, Ben-Gurion finally left the Knesset and refused to participate in the country's political life. He took up memoirs , in which he returned to his youth and youth. Biographer Michael Bar-Zohar notes the peace of Ben-Gurion during this period: he no longer criticizes anyone, but, on the contrary, reconciles with many of his opponents. He has a neutral relationship with Golda Meir , Menachem Begin and Pinchas Lavon .

In 1971, Ben-Gurion's 85th birthday was celebrated throughout the country, on which day Prime Minister Golda Meir and other members of the government visited Kibbutz Sde-Boker . Ben-Gurion himself was honored to speak in parliament, while not being a member of it. His talk about the future of the Jewish people on the land of their ancestors caused a storm of applause. In the same year, he made his last trip abroad, visiting Brussels , where a conference in support of Soviet Jewry was held ^[80] .

Ben-Gurion was rapidly aging, he had problems with memory, he was subject to severe pain in his right hand. Ben-Gurion's mental state also shook, the death of his wife, who died in 1968 , was a strong blow for him. The Doomsday War , which Ben-Gurion met a lonely old man in his Tel Aviv apartment, had a huge impact on his health. Ben-Gurion suffered a cerebral hemorrhage , spent two weeks in a hospital, and died on December 1, 1973 ^[80] .

In his will, Ben-Gurion requested that he be buried next to his wife, on top of a rocky cliff near Sde Boker. According to his wishes, no speeches were made at the funeral, nor was there a gun salute ^[80] .

Youth

David Yosef Greene was born in the family of Avigdor Green, who was one of the first members of the Plow’s cell “ Hovevei Zion ” and whose house became the meeting place of the organization ^[2] . Zionist speeches were made in the house and disputes were held about the fate of the Jewish people, later Ben-Gurion recalled it this way:

In 1896, Theodor Herzl published his book The Jewish State . Avigdor Green became a furious Zionist, his eldest son Abraham, and then the youngest son David, joined the Zionist movement.

In 1900, David Green, together with his friends Shlomo Zemah and Shmuel Fuchs, created the Ezra Youth Society, one of the main goals of which was to spread Hebrew among the Jewish children of the poor Plonsk ^[6] . At the very first meeting of the society, Green delivered a speech on the topic "Zionism and Culture." Together with friends, he begins to publish a youth magazine, where he publishes his poems ^[5] . In the same 1900, he joined the Poalei Zion movement ^[82]. Subsequently, when a Jewish pogrom took place in Chisinau in 1903, the Ezra society began to raise funds for the victims of the pogrom. While studying Hebrew in Ezra, Green decided to move to Palestine ^{[1] [7]} .

In August 1903, David and his friends Shlomo and Shmuel learned about the Ugandan program , which was proposed by Herzl at the Sixth Zionist Congress . They were disappointed to learn about the existence of such an idea, as they believed that the future Jewish state should be in Palestine. Then three friends decide that the most effective way to combat “Ugandanism” is to move to Palestine; Green later wrote to his father:

Soviet period

In the late 1910s and early 1920s , Ben-Gurion's views were a mixture of Soviet- style socialism and communism . He called himself a Bolshevik ^[28] . Despite the fact that Ben-Gurion was a supporter of communism, Jewish national Zionist ideas were much more important for him; he was repelled by communism by the totalitarian regime in Soviet Russia and the dictatorship that Moscow imposed on the world socialist movement.

In 1921, he proposed the creation of a commune from the Ahdut Ha-Avoda party , which was supposed to be so organized as to be able to seize the dominant position in Histadrut ^[28] . However, the party rejected this revolutionary idea, and Ben-Gurion left all party posts. In the same period, Ben-Gurion proposed transforming the Histadrut into an equalizing commune, where all cooperative farms should enter. The new society was to provide workers with all the necessary goods, as well as supervise all public work in Palestine. A “workers' society” would become a labor army, where the distribution of labor and goods would be strictly subordinate to the charter. This proposal was sharply criticized, then Ben-Gurion reworked it. In the new plan, Ben-Gurion removed the concepts of a “working army” and a commune with military discipline, but this plan was rejected ^[28] .

In the last, third version of this plan, Ben-Gurion completely abandoned Bolshevik ideas. Now his idea did not provide for the creation of a universal commune, military discipline and unlimited power of leaders over subordinates. The Workers' Society was to be subject to the financial services of Histadrut. Such an option suited the members of the organization, and such a society was created under Histadrut ^[28] .

In 1923, Ben-Gurion visited the Soviet Union, this visit caused a storm of feelings in him. When Ben-Gurion arrived in Odessa in the fall of 1923, he was struck by the number of poor and suffering people ^[28] . Palestinian products at the exhibition in Moscow aroused great interest from both local Jews and Russians. Then Ben-Gurion decided that it was necessary to strengthen ties between the Zionists and Soviet Russia, his plans were to open a branch of Bank Apoalim Bank in Moscow and create a joint trading commission. At the same time, Ben-Gurion could not deny the hostile attitude of the Soviet authorities towards Zionism, but he believed that everything must be done so that a correct understanding of Zionism would come to the USSR. On the way to Palestine, Ben-Gurion wrote down lines in his diary in which he expressed his admiration for Lenin ^[28] .

In 1924-1928, the “red” period of Ben-Gurion's life ended, his faith in communism gradually collapsed ^[28] .

Fourth Aliyah

In the spring of 1924, the Fourth Aliyah began, with some 65,000 Jews arriving in Palestine, most of them middle-class . Ben-Gurion was suspicious of aliyah of the bourgeoisie, since he believed that the driving force of the Jews in Palestine should be workers ^[83] .

Soon attacks on the Jewish labor movement in Palestine began, which for many years believed that it would determine the path of development of Eretz Yisrael . One of the first attacks on the socialists was launched by Vladimir Zhabotinsky , and then by other Zionists and Zionist organizations ^[83] . The Zionist bourgeois criticized the economic miscalculations of the workers, in their opinion many settlements were not viable, and the enterprises of Histadrut were in crisis ^[83] .

At the 14th and 15th Zionist congresses during the settlement of Eretz Yisrael, urban settlements were preferred over rural areas; to wealthy repatriates, not to poor Halutzim . Thus, according to the world Zionist movement, the development of Palestine was to take place on a capitalist basis ^[83] . Ben-Gurion criticized the bourgeois in response:

In 1926, Aliya began to decline, and the economic situation worsened, and many emigrant bourgeois began to leave the country en masse ^[83] . Ben-Gurion wrote about it this way:

Views of the British Mandate Period

After the emigrants of the fourth aliyah began to leave Palestine, Ben-Gurion decided again to direct the Zionist movement along the socialist path, for which he needed to gain leadership positions in the movement. He wanted to accomplish this through the creation of a socialist organization parallel to the World Zionist Organization . To create such an organization, it was first required to unite the largest workers' parties, Ahdut HaVoda and HaPoel HaZair ^[84] . However, prominent figures of the Ha-Poel Ha-Tsair party did not take steps to unite the parties, despite this, in early January 1930 a conference was held to unite the two parties, as a result of January 5, the MAPAI ( Workers' Party of the Land of Israel ) party was created ^[85] .

In August 1929, unrest erupted in Palestine, as a result of which the British Government issued a White Paper . In this document, Britain actually abandoned the idea of ​​creating a Jewish state in Palestine ^[86] . Ben-Gurion, who returned to his homeland, was annoyed by this event and, furious at the MAPAI meeting, called for an uprising:

However, his proposal did not receive support in the party - on the contrary, many prominent Zionist figures, such as Chaim Arlozorov and Moshe Shertok , criticized Ben-Gurion. Soon he himself abandoned this idea, starting to develop a new course, looking for positive moments in a difficult political crisis. Ben-Gurion claimed that the very return of the Jews to Palestine was caused by the crisis ^[86] .

Ben Gurion and Weizmann

During the struggle for power in the Zionist movement, Ben-Gurion's main rival was the president of the World Zionist Organization, Haim Weizmann . Weizmann played an active role in the adoption of the Balfour Declaration , which laid the foundations for the existence of the State of Israel ^[31] .

Shimon Peres , an Israeli politician and statesman, noted that despite disagreements between the two largest Zionist leaders, they were able to find a compromise for the common good ^[87] . Dr. Alec Epstein believes that the differences in views of Weizmann and Ben-Gurion are caused by the difference in their biographies ^[88] .

The main discrepancy between Ben-Gurion and Weizmann was their attitude to the British position on the Jewish state, Weizman traditionally supported Britain ^[88] , even after the release of the White Paper , which limited Jewish immigration to Palestine. Ben-Gurion believed that the whole work of Weizmann is based only on Jewish-British cooperation ^[31] . In one of his articles written in 1926 , Ben-Gurion positively assesses the role of Great Britain, however, after the release of the White Paper, Ben-Gurion decides to reorient the policy of Jewish Yishuv towards cooperation with the United States ^[31] (later on, Shimon Peres writes that it was Ben-Gurion, overcoming the resistance of ideological opponents, who managed to establish pro-American sentiments in Israeli society ^[89] ).

Another stumbling block for the two Zionist leaders was the issue of the diaspora . Ben-Gurion was dismissive of the diaspora, believing that all Jewish culture, politics and life are focused on the historical homeland of the Jewish people . Weizmann, being older than Ben-Gurion, developed primarily as the national leader of the Jewish people, and not as a politician of Palestinian Jewry , he moved freely throughout Europe, moving to Palestine only closer to old age. Ben-Gurion's life was inextricably linked with Palestine ^[88] .

During a period of special devotion to Marxist ideals, Ben-Gurion believed that the Arab nobility of Palestine was the class enemy of the Jewish and Arab proletariat ^[31] . Veciman devoted particular influence to the Arab question, preferring to solve it with leaders of the Arab states and the British government ^{[88] [90]} . Ben-Gurion was a supporter of the equality of Jewish and Arab citizens in the future state ^[31] .

Weizmann was a cosmopolitan and liberal , a man of Western culture who was actively involved in diplomacy. Ben-Gurion was a socialist and preferred diplomacy to the practical construction of a Jewish state in Palestine ^[88] .

Ben Gurion and Jabotinsky

Biographer Michael Bar-Zohar writes that Jabotinsky and Ben-Gurion were largely antipodes to each other ^[91] . Political scientist Alec Epstein notes that Ben-Gurion was one of the most harsh critics of Jabotinsky ^[92] . At the same time, an Israeli politician Benjamin Netanyahu in one of his articles argued that despite the fact that Ben-Gurion and Jabotinsky diverged in understanding many issues, it was Ben-Gurion who embodied part of Jabotinsky's theses ^[93] .

The main point of disagreement between Ben Gurion and Jabotinsky was the discrepancy in the economic sphere. Jabotinsky advocated a free market and a liberal economy , while Ben-Gurion was a supporter of the ideas of socialism ^[93] .

The conflict between Ben-Gurion and Jabotinsky began at the 17th Zionist Congress , when Ben-Gurion accused the revisionist movement of "educating young people in the spirit of racism and hatred of workers." Ben-Gurion feared Jewish fascism , which more and more captured the masses. On his trip to Europe ( 1933 ), Ben-Gurion campaigned against the ideas of the revisionists ^[94] . Ben-Gurion called his adversary “Vladimir Hitler ” ^[94] and “Duce” (by analogy with Benito Mussolini ) ^[95] .

A special hostility to Jabotinsky and his followers arose after the assassination in 1933 of Chaim Arlozorov , the young leader of the socialist Zionist movement . Ben-Gurion blamed the revisionists for this murder. ^[96]

After the victory of Ben-Gurion in the elections to the executive committee of the Jewish Agency, he believed that the revisionists would no longer regain power and popularity among Jews. However, Ben-Gurion decided to abandon the struggle, because of the danger of a split in the entire Zionist movement. In October 1933, Ben-Gurion met with Jabotinsky many times, they tried to reconcile the left and right Zionists, but the agreements they developed were not supported by representatives of their own movements. A flurry of discontent fell upon both leaders. During this period, friendly relations arose between Jabotinsky and Ben-Gurion, they were imbued with respect for each other, but gradually returned to the confrontation caused by the creation of the New Zionist Organization , whose president became Jabotinsky ^[97] . The creation of this organization meant a split in the Zionist movement ^[98] .

Jabotinsky died in 1940 , he bequeathed to rebury his ashes in Israel, but Ben-Gurion opposed this, and Jabotinsky’s will was fulfilled only in the years when Levi Eshkol became prime minister ^[98] .

Arabic Question

David Ben-Gurion was neutral about the Arab population of Palestine, right up to the riots in Palestine in 1929, he even believed that the Jewish working class and the Arab peasantry had similar interests. The Israeli statesman, the sixth president of Israel, Haim Herzog, wrote that after the pogroms of 1929, Ben-Gurion decided that the only possible way to achieve security for Palestinian Jews was to create a Jewish majority in this territory ^[99] .

In 1928, David Ben-Gurion voiced twenty-eight principles of Jewish statehood. According to this document, in the Jewish state it is necessary to guarantee the use of the Arabic language in all state institutions, as well as the equality of all citizens before the state, regardless of nationality or religion. Ben-Gurion was not a supporter of the forcible transfer of Arabs from the territory of the future Jewish state; he advocated a peaceful transfer of Jews from the territory of the future Arab state , along with a peaceful and voluntary transfer of Arabs from the territory of Israel ^[100] . When the new Labor government of Great Britain, led by Clement Attlee, offered to transfer the Arabs to resolve the Palestinian problem, Ben-Gurion sharply opposed the Labor plans, saying that Palestinian Jews are against the transfer and “do not consider it possible to evict even one Arab from the country” ^{[100 ]} .

Ben-Gurion believed that the Arab question is one of the most acute problems for the Jewish state. Once he expressed one of the solutions to the problem, proposing to assimilate the Arab minority as a Jewish majority, declaring the Palestinian Arabs descendants of the Jews. However, this idea was not implemented ^[101] .

The period of state independence

Foreign Policy

David Ben-Gurion believed that Israel should rely on world Jewry in its foreign policy. In his opinion, the Jews of Israel and all other Jews are inextricably linked, and Israel is responsible for all world Jewry ^[102] .

Ben-Gurion was wary of the USSR, avoiding direct confrontation with the Soviet Union, and also noted the benevolent attitude of the Scandinavian countries , the USA and France towards the Jewish state. Ben-Gurion's attitude toward Britain was negative until 1951 ^[46] , which was associated with British politics in Mandate Palestine ^[102] . After the resignation in 1951 of Ernst Bevin from the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, relations between the two countries are warming ^[103] .

When the United States refused to supply arms to Israel in 1956 , Ben-Gurion considered it necessary to establish closer ties with France. It was then that the strong ties of Israel and France in the military sphere were laid ^[102] .

Ben-Gurion believed that the United States was the strongest power in the Western Hemisphere and therefore alliance with it was strategically important. In addition, the largest Jewish community in the world at that time lived in the United States, so the establishment of strong friendly relations with the United States was identified as the primary task of Israeli diplomacy ^[102] .

According to the plan of David Ben-Gurion, the Middle East policy of Israel should be based on strong ties with non-Arab countries of the region, such as Turkey , Ethiopia and Iran ^[104] .

In 1956, Mossad agents received a copy of the report of N. S. Khrushchev at the XX Congress of the CPSU, dedicated to debunking the Stalin personality cult ^[105] . When Ben-Gurion read the text of the report, he stated that if the report is not a fake, then the USSR is doomed to disintegrate in the future (he made a mistake with the date, “letting go” of the Soviet Union another 20 years of existence) ^[106] .

Domestic Policy

Israel Defense Forces

Even before the advent of the State of Israel , Jewish militarized organizations such as Haganah , Palmah , Etzel and Lehi were formed in Mandate Palestine . Ben-Gurion believed that the new state should have not only a single government, but also a single army, which will become an institution cementing a diverse society, blurring the differences between immigrants from different Jewish communities ^[107] .

By tough methods, Ben-Gurion succeeded in merging all of the above organizations into the Israel Defense Forces ^[40] , however, until the resignation of Ben-Gurion, representatives of the Palms, ETsEL and LEKHI officers were not appointed to the post of chief of the AOI General Staff . After the 1st Knesset elections, Ben-Gurion banned the inclusion of active army officers in party lists for the Knesset elections, thereby achieving the de-politicization of the Israeli army ^[107] .

Attitude to the Arab Sector

During the War of Independence of Israel, Ben-Gurion issued an instruction prohibiting the burning of Arab settlements, the expulsion of the Arab population, and the expulsion of the Arab population without the permission of the Israeli Minister of Defense ^[108] . After the mass exodus of Arabs from Palestine during the days of the war and the emergence of the problem of Palestinian refugees, he, however, proceeded from the position that this problem should not be solved by returning them to Israel ^[102] . Ben-Gurion believed that the flight of Arabs from the territory of Mandatory Palestine showed their true attitude to their land ^[108] .

David Ben-Gurion dreamed of joining the West Bank of the Jordan River to the State of Israel, but when this opportunity presented itself, he refused to recapture these territories from Jordan. He was frightened by the demographic superiority of the Arabs; in his opinion, Israel could not afford to annex another million Arabs, who, due to high birth rates, would become a majority in Israel. Ben-Gurion said: “Our main problem is the lack of Jews, not the lack of territories” ^[109] .

Ben-Gurion insisted on maintaining military control in the Arab settlements of Israel, considering it a guarantee of the security of the State of Israel. When a new, bilingual (in Hebrew and Arabic ) Israeli citizenship certificate was issued, Ben-Gurion refused to receive it ^[110] . He believed that Arabs have the right to live in the Land of Israel , but only the Jewish nation has the right to their statehood in this territory ^[110] .

Disputed Territories

During the Israeli War of Independence, Ben-Gurion proposed an Israeli offensive on most of the West Bank , but the Israeli government rejected the proposal. Ben-Gurion subsequently regretted that such an offensive had been foiled, and the Old City of Jerusalem , as well as the Judean Mountains, remained part of Transjordan ^[111] .

It was Ben Gurion who made the decision to transfer the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Ben-Gurion believed that cities such as Jerusalem and Hebron should be part of Israel, and the rest of the West Bank could be abandoned in order to establish peace in the region. At the same time, Ben-Gurion was against the return of these territories to Jordan, offering to transfer the West Bank to Palestinian control ^[111] .

Ben-Gurion was opposed to the return of the Golan Heights of Syria , but considered it possible to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in exchange for strong peace and free shipping for Israeli ships in the Gulf of Eilat and the Suez Canal ^[111] .

First love

The first love of David Green was Rachel Nelkina. When in 1905 young Green returns from Warsaw , he sees in front of him another Rachel, not the one he left when he left Plonsk ^[10] . The girl turned into a girl, and very beautiful, and David immediately fell in love with her. His girlfriend, Sarah Kwashne, who at the same time fell in love with David Green, recalled:

Rachel reciprocated, one day she went with David for a walk around the city, conservative plonchians condemned this act, after which some parents forbade their children to communicate with Rachel. Ben-Gurion later recalled that his city at that time was very conservative ^[10] .

Loving Green dedicated to Rachel poetry, once she found a whole notebook of verses in his house, later the notebook was lost, but after some time David gave her a notebook of personally rewritten verses by Haim Bialik ^[16] .

On September 7, 1906, Rachel Nelkina and David Green, as part of a large group of pilgrims, arrived in Jaffa ^[10] . Upon arriving in Palestine, Rachel worked side by side with David. However, her hands were not adapted for rough work, including for agriculture. Seeing this, the community leader fired her, and Rachel was very ashamed. This behavior caused reproaches from the friends of the party, among whom was David. Young Green spoke out against her not because he fell out of love with her, but because her behavior did not match his idea of ​​conquering Eretz Yisrael through physical labor. At this time, Rachel appears rival. Malka in almost everything except beauty is opposite to Rachel. Relations between the girls began to deteriorate when David had a fever attack, and he was put in the house where Malka lived. Malka did not let Rachel come to visit him, it took a long time before the girls reconciled ^[16] .

Despite the fact that David liked Malka, he loved Rachel, whom he had never married. At that time, David, like his friends, did not think about marriage. This was due to the fact that he was still too young and did not want to marry, and because he did not want to have children at such an early age. Ben-Gurion justified this by the backwardness of Palestine from other countries; children simply could not have received a normal Jewish education ^[16] .

David Green’s life at that time was very mobile, he traveled a lot, met different people, performed, and Rachel needed another person who could be next to her, protect her, pay attention to her. And in the end she fell in love with another and in 1908 she married Iehezkel Beit Halahmi (according to Michael Bar-Zohar, breaking David’s heart with this act) ^[16] .

Marriage

David Ben-Gurion met his future wife Polina (Paula) in the USA , in the house of his friend Elsberg, she was six years younger than him. David was already thirty years old, while Polina was still a very young girl. She did not differ in special beauty - the chubby girl was about the same height as Ben-Gurion himself, and wore glasses. Pauline was born in Minsk , then emigrated to the United States, while she worked as a nurse in a hospital ^[23] .

Ben-Gurion seemed to her a great man, despite his appearance, she was attracted to his mind, his oratory. Polina showed a desire to help Ben-Gurion in the preparation of his book about Eretz Yisrael , and gradually they fell in love. However, David did not confess her love, only a few months after the wedding, he told her:

Before proposing to her, Ben-Gurion warned her that if she married him, she would have to leave for Palestine with him. Despite this, she agreed ^[23] .

They got married on the morning of December 5, 1917 , Polina left the hospital for a while, and Ben-Gurion was already waiting for her at the New York City Hall, where they registered their marriage. After that, she returned to the hospital, and he went to a meeting of the Poalei Zion committee ^[23] .

On April 26, 1918, Ben-Gurion informed his wife that he was going to join the Jewish Legion in order to liberate Palestine from the Turks . Polina painfully took this news. She was in her fourth month of pregnancy, and she did not want to be left without a husband. While in the army, Ben-Gurion wrote a will, he decided to leave the property to an unborn child, whom he bequeathed to be called Yariv (if a boy was born) or Geula (if a girl was born), he also wanted the child to be transported to Palestine and study Hebrew. He bequeathed books to the Jerusalem Library, and he bequeathed his works to a book in Hebrew ^[24] .

Family life

When Ben-Gurion was in Cairo , he received a telegram from his wife in which she announced the birth of her daughter Geula ^[23] .

On November 15, 1919 , after more than a year of separation, Ben-Gurion's wife and daughter arrived in Jaffa ^[25] . Then he first saw his daughter - Geulu ^[23] .

In 1920, the Ben-Gurion family went with him to London . In August of the same year, when Ben-Gurion was in Vienna, Pauline called him to London by urgent telegram. David went to London; a week after his arrival, his son Amos was born ^[25] .

David Ben-Gurion appreciated his wife for his ability to understand people, which, by his own admission, he did not know how to do. A year spent far from Tel Aviv in the kibbutz Sde-Boker brought David and Paul closer, who found it difficult to live far from their usual surroundings ^[113] .

Ben-Gurion did not pay much attention to his children and grandchildren; most of all, Ben-Gurion loved the youngest daughter Renana, in whom he appreciated the craving for knowledge, good study and achievements in the scientific field. He loved to visit Renana, to meet with representatives of the scientific community at her evenings ^[113]

Friendship

Ben-Gurion's life was filled with communication with different people. However, he wrote that he had only three true friends. The first of these was Yitzhak Ben-Zvi , the future president of the State of Israel , whom the young Ben-Gurion met at the beginning of his life in Palestine ^[76] .

Another congenial man was Shmuel Yavneeli , one of the workers of the labor movement ^[114] . Ben-Gurion and Yavneel met in the settlement of Segera . Ben-Gurion's third friend was Berl Katznelson , a prominent Zionist figure who met Ben-Gurion in Egypt in 1919 ^[76] .

During the years preceding the Second World War , and throughout it, the leadership of the Zionist movement lost such figures as Zeev Jabotinsky , Chaim Arlozorov , Eliyahu Golomb and others. The only person who could lead the Zionist movement was Ben-Gurion. Therefore, when Berl Katznelson dies in 1944, Ben-Gurion is left alone ^[115] .

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi died shortly before the Independence Day of Israel in 1963 , in a letter to Rachel Beit Halahmi, Ben-Gurion writes that he now feels “ orphaned ” and about the nearness of his own death ^[76] .

Strong and trusting relationships connected David Ben-Gurion with his secretary Nehemiah Argov . Ben-Gurion heavily rescheduled the message about the suicide of Nehemiah, at a subsequent meeting in the Knesset, Ben-Gurion made a speech in honor of the deceased comrade, and also asked the Knesset to honor his death with a moment of silence ^[116] .

• "Letters to Paula and the Children" (1958)
• The Sinai Campaign (1960)
• “Things as They Are” (1965)
• The Father's House (1966)
• “On uniqueness and purpose” (1971)
• "Messages of David Ben-Gurion" (1971-1974)
• “From Place to People” (1974)
• The Renewed State of Israel (1974)
• “Memories” (1973-1975)
• “My Talks with Arab Leaders” (1975)
• "Ideology and Zionist politics" (1978)
• "War Diary: The War of Independence 1948-1949" (1982)

• The name of Ben-Gurion was the Israeli international airport near Lod .
• In honor of David, Ben-Gurion was renamed in 1973 Ben-Gurion University in the Negev , located in Beersheba ^[117] . Ben-Gurion is also named after Sde-Boker Kibbutz College ^[118] .
• In accordance with a law passed by the Knesset in 1976, the Ben-Gurion Institute for the Study of the Heritage, the Institute for the Study of the Desert, and the Ben-Gurion House Museum in Tel Aviv were established ^[119] . The Ben Gurion House Museum also operates in the kibbutz Sde-Boker.
• Streets and districts in many cities of Israel, in Berlin ^[120] , Nuremberg ^[121] , and also the embankment in Paris ^[122] are named after Ben Gurion.
• In its part, is named.

• Brief Jewish Encyclopedia , Ed. Jewish Community Research Islands. Jerusalem: 1976-2005.
• Kornilov A. A. Sword and plow of David Ben-Gurion / Main edition of oriental literature of the Nauka publishing house. - N.N .: Publishing house of NNNGU , 1996. - 218 p. - ISBN 5-85746-181-2 .
• Bar-Zohar M. I // Ben-Gurion / Per. from Hebrew Sima Wexler. Under the total. edited by Jacob Zur. - Tel Aviv, Israel: Jacob Press, 1985.
• Bar-Zohar M. II // Ben-Gurion / Per. from Hebrew Sima Wexler. Under the total. edited by Jacob Zur. - Tel Aviv, Israel: Jacob Press, 1985.
• Ashkinazi L. The man who gave the name to the State. - 1998 .-- 44 p. - ISBN 5-222-00414-7 . .
• Shterenshis M. Ben-Gurion - the creator of Israel. - ISRADON / IsraDon, 2009 .-- 128 p. - ISBN 978-5-94467-077-9 . .
• Grugman R.A. , Zhabotinsky and Ben-Gurion: the right and left poles of Israel - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 2014, ISBN 978-5-222-22663-6

• Shimʿon Peres , David Landau. Ben-Gurion: A Political Life . - Schocken Books, 2011 .-- ISBN 978-0-8052-4282-9 .

• Ben-Gurion David - article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
• David Ben-Gurion and the History of the Formation of the State of Israel
• Central Zionist Archive (Jerusalem) : Office of David Ben-Gurion (S44), Personal papers (AK63). (Hebrew) (English)
• The President and Prime Minister Memorial Council
• The grave of David and Paul Ben-Gurion in Sde-Boker