Last update - 00:00 18/11/2007
PM Olmert's speech at Memorial Ceremony in Honor of David Ben-Gurion
Honorable President of the State of Israel,
Ben-Gurion Family,
Honorable President of Liberia, Dr. Ellen Sirleaf,
Honorable Speaker of the Knesset,
Honorable President of the Supreme Court,
Honorable Chief Rabbis,
Ministers, Members of Knesset,
Distinguished Guests,
Every fall at this time, for 34 years, the leaders of the State of Israel
head south to this place, the burial plot of the architect of the rebirth -David Ben-Gurion. Here, on this cliff overlooking the ancient vista of Nahal Tzin, the ?big shoulders of a generation?, as the poet Natan Alterman sobeautifully and succinctly put it, chose to be buried.
Here, in the presence of this spectacular and open desert landscape,
Ben-Gurion asked to raise his final flag, with the word ?Negba!? on it. And since then, all of us who have come after him, stand here year after year at this place, near his headstone and his will, ashamed, because his vision was great and so little of it was realized.
The cases are rare in the history of a nation in which there was such an
accurate and miraculous synergy between the right man and the right time. It is only at those crossroads at which the right leader meets the elusive, historic opportune moment, and the leaders know to strongly grasp the horns of history and divert it from its path.
David Ben-Gurion was the emissary of Jewish history at the fateful
crossroads of our people between the Holocaust and the rebirth. It seems
that the divine guiding force summoned and invited him to do so.
The time is too brief to list fully the great deeds of Ben-Gurion as a
leader who guided us and shaped the rebirth of Israel in its land, the War
of Independence, the establishment of the IDF, the ingathering of the
exiles, the foundation for the State and its institutions. Therefore, I will make do with noting two points, two fateful decisions, without which the State of Israel would not be what it is today, and it is doubtful if it would even exist.
On May 12, 1948, two days before the end of the British Mandate, the members of the People?s Administration - the embryonic Government - gathered to discuss and decide on whether to declare the establishment of the State or to avoid doing so.
In the background, there was the certainty that, immediately upon the
declaration of the State, five enemy armies would immediately invade with
the stated goal of drowning it in blood;
In the background was the memory of the Holocaust just three years
previously, and the danger of losing the last safe haven for the Jewish
people;
In the background was the fate of all that was built and established in the Jewish settlement of the Land of Israel through hard labor, sweat and blood over 50 years of Zionism;
In the background was the severe warning made by the American Secretary of State, General George Marshall, to the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Moshe Sharett, that there was no chance for a Jewish state, if declared, to survive the attack by the regular armies surrounding it;
In the background was the opinion of the representative of the General
Staff, the Operations Officer Yigal Yadin, that there was a fifty-fifty
chance, but that the enemy had a great advantage;
And in the background, during the meeting itself the cries of despair were
heard from a besieged Gush Etzion under attack, which was conquered and fellwith a heavy cost in blood.
Ben-Gurion knew that he did not have a guaranteed majority in the People?s
Administration to declare a State, but he had no intention of allowing this historic opportune moment to slip away, no matter the risks. He used the full force of his influence, he manipulated, he pressured, he ignored
suggested compromises to declare a Government and not a State, and finally
he achieved his goal by one vote. Two days later the State of Israel was
established, five Arab regular armies, equipped with heavy arms immediately invaded its borders, but under David Ben-Gurion?s leadership, the young Israel, against all odds, withstood the campaign through sacrifice and supreme valor - and succeeded.
The second fateful decision made by Ben-Gurion was regarding Jerusalem.
During the War of Independence, Ben-Gurion granted supreme importance to
ensuring the contiguity and totality of Hebrew Jerusalem in the borders of
the State of Israel, in opposition to the UN Resolution. His decision to
launch a complex and dangerous military operation to break through to
Jerusalem, while risking other parts of the country due to the concentration of large forces for the operation - is only part of a long list of fateful decisions regarding the future of Jerusalem.
When the UN tried again in December 1949 to uproot Hebrew Jerusalem from the State of Israel in a second resolution regarding the internationalization of the city, Ben-Gurion decided to face the world head-on. While overcoming objections at home, Ben-Gurion immediately passed a Government and Knesset Resolution declaring Jerusalem the eternal capital of the State of Israel.
He declared: ?Jewish Jerusalem is an organic and inseparable part of Israeli history, its faith and of the soul of our people. Jerusalem is the heart of the State of Israel? Israelis would give their lives for Jerusalem no less than British people would for London, Russians for Moscow and Americans for Washington.?
The international response was furious; there were threats; there were
boycotts; but Jerusalem the capital was an unshakeable and decisive fact,
and it will remain so forever.
These are only two of the numerous historic and fateful decisions made by
Ben-Gurion, and indeed they are engraved in letters of gold in the history
of the days of Israel.
Fifty-five years ago, David Ben-Gurion spoke of the obligation of the Prime Minister - all Prime Ministers - of Israel to exhaust all chances for peace, but to maintain security. He said:
?I would think it would be a grave sin not only towards our generation, but towards the following generations, if we would not do everything possible in order to reach mutual understanding with our Arab neighbors, and if the following generations could accuse the Government of Israel of missing some opportunity for peace? I would not want to be the man whose grandchildren or great-great grandchildren accuse that there may have been a chance for Jewish-Arab peace and he missed it. However, together with the necessity and spiritual ability to lie in wait for every opportunity for peace, we command - because our lives depend on it - constant readiness for war??
Sometimes, late at night when the formal obligations of the role of Prime
Minister are over, at that same intermediate time in which agonizing
thoughts of what to do and how to act and what to decide pass through my
mind, I allow myself, from the distance of time and changed circumstances,
to think about David Ben-Gurion?s loneliness during those days and hours in which he had to make decisions when faced with the weight of history,
against the advice of his good friends and colleagues, when no one stood
beside him except his conscience, his sense of responsibility and his G-d.
As we stand here today at the graves of David Ben-Gurion and his loyal wife Paula, we will cherish, remember and recognize with gratitude the greatest leader of the State of Israel.
May the memories of David and Paula Ben-Gurion be blessed.