Quotes About Life And Friends Biography
source(google.com.pk)
Life and Friend as David Green (Gruen) in Plonsk,
Poland. He is considered one of the three founding figures of Zionism beside
Chaim Weizmann and Herzl. Ben Gurion was the major factor behind Yishuv's
(a term that refers to the Jews in Palestine prior to 1948) military power and
is considered as the founder of the State of Israel. At an early stage, he developed a passion
for socialism and Zionism, and in 1906 he immigrated to Palestine. From
1921-1935, he served as the secretary general of the Histadrut, the General
Federation of Labor in Palestine, and in 1935 he was elected the chairman of the
Jewish Agency which he held until 1948. From 1948 until his retirement in
1963, except for a brief interval in the early 1950s, Ben-Gurion served as
Israel's Prime Minister and its Minister of Defense. Ben Gurion displayed a
great aptitude for learning languages. In addition to his native Yiddish-Hebrew, he
also learned Turkish, English, Russian, French, German, and later in life
Spanish and ancient Greek. Ironically, he never bothered to learn the language
of the people amongst whom he lived almost his entire life, Arabic.
Palestinians and Israeli often judge Ben-Gurion based on how he had hurt/served
their interests. Palestinians see Ben-Gurion as a cruel, insensitive, and a
racist individual since he was the primary force behind their dispossession. On
the other hand, many Jews, Zionists, and most Western people see him as the savior
of the "Jewish people" who was the primary force behind the creation of the "Jewish
state".
Zionism, as any other ideology, required leaders who were astute, articulate,
and charismatic to formulate its vision, and in that regard, Theodor
Herzl and Chaim Weizmann
played the major roles. On the other hand, ideology on its own would become just an
idea without the charismatic leaders who could implement its vision, and in that regard
Ben-Gurion and Moshe Sharett
played the major roles. After the implementation of the ideology, a new
leadership must evolve to manage what has been created, otherwise it would stay stuck
in the implementation phase. This is exactly one of the major problems Israelis
face, they are stuck in Zionism's implementation phase, and rarely they have
produced pragmatic leaders who can get their society to evolve to the next phase.
Whenever Israel was able to develop pragmatic leaders (such as Moshe Sharett,
Levy Eshkol, and even Moshe Dayan) who were capable of carrying it to the next
phase, they were often branded as "appeasers", "cowards",
and "naive". In a nutshell, Israel has been missing the Israeli
version of France's Charles de Gaulle.
Based on our research, we can show that Ben-Gurion's personality was
drastically transformed over the years, which can be broken down into three major phases as follows:
Idealism Phase: This phase started from the time he immigrated to Palestine
and ended just before the Nazis rose to power in Germany in 1933. During
this phase, Ben-Gurion is credited in building the Histadrut from the
ground up as an effective political, military, financial, educational, and
social organization that had roots in all sectors, almost a "Jewish
state" before May 14th, 1948. During this phase, he made a lot of
assumptions, many of which turned to be wrong. For example:
He saw Zionism as just, and thought that Palestinians and the neighboring Arab
states would benefit from Zionism, and that therefore, they would welcome the new
Jewish immigrants.
He envisioned that Jews from all over the world would immigrate to
Palestine in great numbers, and that over time they would become a majority or a fact on
the ground.
He did not think that Palestinians had any collective rights
whatsoever, such as the right of self-determination. He did not believe
that they had any sense of nationalism, therefore, they could be
ignored. Sometimes he argued that even if Palestinian nationalism did
exist, that it could be bought or bribed.
He contemplated Palestinian "transfer", where the use of
force would not be necessary. He envisioned that Palestinians could be
enticed to leaving their country in favor of the new Jewish
immigrants.
He did not envision Europe's Jews would die so quickly, and in such big numbers.
Transformation Phase: This phase dominated most of the 1930s and early
1940s, when Ben-Gurion started to confront events that contradicted many
of his earlier assumptions. From the quotes below, you will see how he
struggled to transform himself, from an idealist to realist. The
primary wrong assumptions that caused him extreme discomfort were:
He felt that the sword was hanging over Europe's Jewish citizens,
which forced him to re-examine many of his earlier assumptions.
Jews could not become a majority without infringing Palestinian rights.
Zionists were the primary force behind the maturing of the Palestinian
national movement. This became evident when the first popular
Palestinian uprising took place between 1936-1939.
Palestinian national movement could not be bought, but it could be curbed.
In other words, he became a believer of Ze'ev
Jabotinsky's famous doctrine, that of the
IRON WALL doctrine. When Jabotinsky first came out with his famous doctrine
in 1923, Ben-Gurion exploited its racist and inhuman nature to score political
points against Jabotinsky (similarly, Deir
Yassin's massacre had been used demonize the Herut and Likud parties in
spite of Haganah's role in the atrocity, click
here for details).
Although he passionately despised Jabotinsky
(actually, when Ben-Gurion was the Prime Minister, he had refused to let his
remains to be reburied in the "Jewish state"), the
evidence shows that Ben-Gurion was one of his major silent admirers.
During this phase, Ben-Gurion is credited with restraining the Haganah in
its actions against the Palestinian resistance during the 1st Intifada. Actually, he
demanded that the Yishuv play a low key, for almost three years,
despite of Jabotinsky's stinging criticisms. This policy was completely
reversed during the next phase, where Ben-Gurion transformed himself into a hawk.
Implementation Phase: This phase started soon after WWII ended, and shaped
his way of thinking all the way until the early 1960s. During this
phase, Ben-Gurion felt guilty for what happened during the holocaust (as Menachem
Begin did), and in a way also felt responsible. It agonized him that
Jews could be led to the gas chambers without fighting back. This fact
drastically changed him, and as a result he became cruel, insensitive,
inflexible, undiplomatic, and quick to use force to send a message, especially
to the neighboring Arab states. While self-restraint had been his motto
during the First Palestinian Intifada between 1936-1939, he now became the
complete opposite. As it will be proved from the quotes below, there are
ample evidence to show how Ben-Gurion was the primary force behind the collective
dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people during the
1948 war.
Finally, it should be pointed out that Ben-Gurion's transformation was one
of his major assets. However, he never admitted the transformation had happened, and he
never credited the Israeli political Right for shaping Israeli politics (regardless
if their policies were right or wrong). He was able to change course almost immediately
when proven wrong. The questions which beg to be asked are:
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