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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:

Quotes About Friends Tumblr Taglog Forever Leaving Being Fake Changeing With benefits and family let

Quotes About Life And Friends Biography