David Ben Gurion.
Photo: NOTICIAS DEL ESTE
Half a century ago, David Ben-Gurion, the man after whom Tel Aviv airport is named, died. In 1948, he first read the Jewish State’s Declaration of Independence and served twice as prime minister. In an interview with KP, orientalist, specialist in the history of the Jewish state and the Arab-Israeli confrontation, Artem Kirpichenok expressed the opinion that the principles of Israeli policy established by Ben Gurion can still be seen today.
CONSUMABLES
– Is Ben-Gurion for Israel the same as Lenin for the Soviet Union?
– In a way, you can say it. For his contemporaries he was, of course, the greatest man. Since then, however, Israeli society has drifted far to the right in its views, and Ben-Gurion’s legacy and image have undergone a serious overhaul. Today, for Israelis, the most important figures are Jabotinsky and other representatives of the right. And here we can really draw a parallel with Lenin: how his personality was rethought in the late 80s and after the collapse of the USSR.
– When you read his biography, at first you are surprised by his tranquility… He called the Jews to return to Israel, to work the land…
– I don’t think this has anything to do with tranquility. At the beginning of the 20th century there was such a movement: worker Zionism. His followers said that while the Jews lived in exile, they degenerated and became merchants and moneylenders. They say we need to return to Palestine and do productive work to create new Jews and a new state. Ben-Gurion was a supporter of this theory. For him, this was the way to gradually recover the territory, the only one possible at that time. Later, in 1938, he stated: “If I had known that everyone [еврейских] The children of Germany could be saved by taking them to England, and only half by transporting them to Palestine, I would choose the latter, because we are not only concerned with the personal interests of these children, but also with the historical interest of the Jewish People.”
I wouldn’t describe Ben Gurion as some kind of herbivorous preacher of peaceful work. He, for example, considered fellow believers living outside Palestine almost expendable. They were to go to the Promised Land and, if necessary, give their lives for its interests. In July 1948, on his order, people who had just disembarked from the ship were massacred at the Arab Legion position near Latrun.
Israeli army soldiers at the entrance to Ben-Gurion’s house, 1948.
Photo: NOTICIAS DEL ESTE
DECLARATION WITHOUT BORDERS
– Ben-Gurion supported the UN decision to divide Palestine. How was he going to establish relations with the Arab population?
– In words, it was guided by the principle of “voluntary transfer”. That is, the Arabs had to gradually and voluntarily leave the Jewish lands, and the Jews, on the contrary, had to move to Israel. But what is a “voluntary transfer”? Residents of the Gaza Strip are now also being offered to move voluntarily to the South. And they leave, completely voluntarily, because otherwise they risk falling under the bombs.
Something similar happened in the late 1940s. For example, guys from the Stern gang (a Jewish terrorist organization) came and completely massacred an Arab village. And then a car with a loudspeaker arrived in the neighboring towns: “Go away or the same thing will happen to you.” Leaders of the Zionist movement, including Ben-Gurion, supported such ethnic cleansing; You cannot delete the lyrics of the song. In the village of Tantura, on May 22-23, 1948, the Israel Defense Forces, which were subordinate to the government, carried out a massacre.
– Now there are battles on the west bank of the Jordan. According to one version, Ben Gurion was afraid to occupy this territory due to the demographic superiority of the Arabs. He feared that the Jewish population would dissolve…
– Indeed, there were such concerns among Israeli politicians, but Ben Gurion was not among them. He adhered to the principle that it was necessary to annex territories that could be reached. How to populate them and what to do with the Arabs is the second question. He said that a Jewish state in part of Palestine was only the beginning, that sooner or later it would be possible to control the entire territory.
By the way, when they wrote the Israeli Declaration of Independence, there was a proposal to indicate the borders of Israel. But it was Ben-Gurion who convinced everyone that this was not necessary: Israel’s border would pass through where an Israeli soldier’s boot would be. Since then this line has prevailed. When the Israeli army occupied the Sinai Peninsula in 1956, Ben Gurion did not want to leave there, saying that the Third Kingdom of Israel had arrived. Only under pressure from the international community was it necessary to liberate the territories. In general, if it were not for the international community, it is difficult to say how far Israel’s ambitions would have reached. In different periods, Tel Aviv’s aspirations were restrained by Britain and the USSR. Even the United States was at one time against the expansion, this was one of the reasons why Israel did not acquire large territories under Ben-Gurion. But his successors attempted to continue his policy of expansion whenever possible.
Ben-Gurion delivers a historic speech on the creation of the State of Israel, 1948.
Photo: NOTICIAS DEL ESTE
JURY BY RUSSIA AND ENGLAND
It would be an exaggeration for the Russians to call David Green a compatriot (this is his real name and Ben-Gurion a pseudonym). He was born in the city of Plonsk in Poland, which was then part of the Russian Empire. In 1908, when he turned 21, the boy specially returned from Palestine to Russia to be drafted into the army. It is true that he did it so that his father would not pay a fine of 300 rubles. Having sworn allegiance to the Russian sovereign, the future founder of Israel escaped safely. Here ends Ben Gurion’s connection with Russia. It is true that in 1923 he came to Moscow for an agricultural exhibition, but he was not satisfied and did not seek contacts with the leaders of the USSR.
But David Ben-Gurion’s main passion was the restoration of Israel. For many years he worked in Jewish committees and newspapers and created the left-wing Mapai party, which became the main political force in the new country. He was a soldier in the Jewish Legion of the British Army and also swore allegiance to it. And then he fought with the British who ruled Palestine. After the creation of the Jewish State, Ben-Gurion served twice as Prime Minister (1948-1953 and 1955-1963), as well as Minister of Defense in the first ten governments.
In 1917, in the United States, Ben Gurion married a Minsk native, Paula Moonways, and lived with her his entire life. They had three children. Upon retirement, Ben-Gurion settled in a small house on a kibbutz, worked in the fields and even hauled manure. And yet he influenced state policy, giving advice to politicians on the most pressing issues.
5 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BEN-GURION
– David Green had a twin brother, he died shortly after birth. This was not clear until 2003, when a lost birth certificate was found in Poland.
– Ben Gurion was one of the smallest politicians, his height was only 150 cm.
– Ben-Gurion kept a diary, but the entries were brief. On the day of the wedding he wrote: “I got married before lunch.”
– Ben-Gurion offered the position of president of Israel to Albert Einstein. He refused, citing lack of experience.
– Ben-Gurion was not a religious man. “I don’t go to the synagogue,” he said, “but the synagogue I don’t go to is an Orthodox synagogue.”
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS