David Ben-Gurion
Israel’s future prime minister watched Churchill up close in war-time London, and then sounded Churchillian notes when called upon to rally his own nation.
Going by the usual telling of the founding, religious and secular Jews clashed over whether Israel’s declaration should evoke God’s covenantal promise. How accurate is that account?
The declaration came together so hurriedly that if the drafters had argued for even a few hours more it would have read much differently.
The beginning of a new series investigating how the Israeli Declaration of Independence came about, and what the text reveals about the country it brought into being.
Israel famously has no constitution. It turns out that’s no accident but rather the will of its first prime minister, who explains his thinking here.
The author of a new book about Israel’s diplomatic history joins us to discuss the enduring lessons he’s learned from surveying 3,000 years of Jewish history.
Born within four years of each other, David Ben-Gurion and Abdullah bin Hussein emerged out of the same political womb to forge Israel and Jordan in battle. Both nations should be grateful.
As a new biography shows, David Ben-Gurion could be petty, harsh, and stubborn. He also decisively shaped almost every institution that would form the state of Israel.
Labor’s collapse was sped up by the failure of Oslo, but its roots run deeper.
And helped organize one of the war’s worst massacres.
Ever? Judea? Zion?
From Ben-Gurion vs. Weizmann to Rabin vs. Peres.
In 1948, he served as a stark counter-example to the view (which he mostly held) that history is driven by material factors and not by great leaders.
Ancient Jewish history, with which he was well acquainted, showed what could happen in the absence of a central military command. He made sure it wouldn’t happen again.