Tag: Ben Gurion

June 10 – Ben Gurion’s Diary: From the profound to the lyrical

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I was honored to speak last night at “We Declare: Re-Reading Israel’s Declaration of Independence.”  The event was sponsored by BINA, the Jewish Movement for Social Change and held at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

This is what I said:

The Declaration of Independence was made possible by the UN partition vote six months earlier. David Ben Gurion, in his diary entry for that day, November 29, 1947, listed his 17 priorities. They range from the profound, “Government, Name, and Capital,” to the lyrical, “National Anthem.”

Courtesy of the Jacob Blaustein Institute at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, I have a copy of that page from his diary. Above that list of priorities is the heading, “Decision reached: 10:13:33.” Reading from right to left, that’s 33 votes for, 13 against, and 10 abstentions. An absolute majority. One of those votes was secured by Jacob Blaustein.

The next day’s entry has another vote tally. Tel Aviv Printing Workers: Hamiflaga, Hadshomer Hatzair, and Polalei T’Zion.

 

For Ben Gurion, a Histadrut labor leader:

כל הפוליטיקה היא מקומית   Kol Hapolitica He Mikomit.    Translated: All politics is local

 

“This is the day that the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”   So reads the 118th Psalm. Who knows how many of the signatories to the Proclamation of Independence thought of that verse that day in May 1948?

Four of them were rabbis, but most however, were secular and Socialist. Who knows how many of them would recite those words at the Kotel after the Old City was recaptured, as so many of us have?

The democracy they created was in a land sacred to three religions, where democracy would be tested by how the followers of those faiths get along – on matters profound and mundane.

On May 14, 1948, those signatories – 35 men and two women, including Golda Myerson, like their all-male counterparts in Philadelphia in 1776, pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor..

Side by side (June 14)

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Religions can exist side by side here, except when they don’t.

The remains of a synagogue and the home where Jesus lived when in the Galilee were discovered beside each other at Capernaum.

A 20th Century church was built above the church first built on the site of the latter.

In Nazareth, we visited the Catholic church marking the annunciation.  An Orthodox church is nearby.

At the Baha’i world center in Haifa, we learned that Baha’ullah, the man who declared himself God’s new prophet, was imprisoned by the British in Acre.

Decades later, so were eight members of the Irgun, Begin’s faction in pre-independence Israel.

We went to Baha’ullah’s tomb.  Members of the faith do not turn their backs on his remains.

Similarly, observant Jews do not turn their backs on the Western Wall.

We received a different message about religion from a pair of twenty-something Arab Christians at As Sennara newspaper.

“The solution to the mistreatment of Israel’s Arab citizens [those who live within Israel’s borders before the Six Day War in 1967] is a secular democratic society.”

Our professor said afterwards, “Even Ben Gurion, a secular Jew, was a passionate Jewish nationalist.”

No Israeli Prime Minisister will bargain away the country’s unique status as a homeland for the Jewish people – for those who move here by choice or to escape oppression.

But the necessity of striking the right balance between security and individual freedom remains.

December 9-11 A love of the place and of the game

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Today, I am a tourist.

I want to get an idea of what the divided city of Jerusalem was like before the Six Day War.

We drive beside the newly operational light rail system, which parallels the old seam line that divided the modern parts of the City.

My first stop is Ammunition Hill, where a crucial battle was fought. The video ends with incredibly moving footage of soldiers at the Western Wall, singing the Shehecheyanu prayer.

The Jewish people had returned to this holiest of places.

I also wanted to enter the Old City as the soldiers did that historic day – through the Lions gate. But the gate is under repair; scaffolding and plastic sheeting render it impenetrable.

So we retreat and walk around the City’s outer wall – from Lions Gate to Dung Gate, passing closer to the Golden Gate than I ever have and providing views and photos I’ve never seen before.

For the long flight home, two books that bear upon what I’ve seen in Israel and what awaits me at home:

Shimon Peres’ biography of David Ben Gurion quotes the first Prime Minister and founder of the state on its uniqueness:

“Eretz Yisrael must be a process of repairing and purifying our lives, changing our values in the loftiest sense of the term. If we merely bring the life of the ghetto into Eretz Yisrael, then what’s the difference if we live that life here or live it there?”

Chris Matthews’ Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero reminded me why I eagerly await the start of my 30th year as a member of the House of Delegates:

“Tip O’Neill was rich in stories, each shining with a love of the game that bonded him with Kennedy.”

And I might add, with future generations.

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