David Ben-Gurion

Ben-Gurion, David, 1886-1973, Israeli statesman, b. Poland as David Grün. He settled in Palestine in 1906. He was an active Zionist and during World War I helped to organize the Jewish Legion in support of the British. In the struggle to found an independent Jewish state in Palestine he followed a policy of cooperation with the British during World War II. After the war, however, he led the political struggle against them and authorized sabotage activities. A founder and leader of the Labor (Mapai) party and an early leader of the Histadrut, he was the first (1948-53) prime minister of the newly created state of Israel. In 1955 he returned to the cabinet as defense minister under Moshe Sharett and later that year again became prime minister, reflecting a shift in Israeli policy toward confrontation with Israel's hostile Arab neighbors. Amid growing controversy he resigned in Feb., 1961, but was quickly returned to office. He again resigned in June, 1963. In retirement Ben-Gurion continued to be politically active, forming a splinter party from the dominant Labor party in 1965. A selection of his writings was published as Rebirth and Destiny of Israel (1954); he also wrote Israel: Years of Challenge (1965), Israel's Security (1960), The Jews in their Land (1966), Memoirs (1970), Israel: A Personal History (1971), and My Talks with the Arabs (1973).

orig. David Gruen

(born Oct. 16, 1886, Płońsk, Pol., Russian Empire—died Dec. 1, 1973, Tel Aviv–Yafo, Israel) First prime minister of Israel (1948–53, 1955–63). Introduced to Zionism by his father, Ben-Gurion immigrated to Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, in 1906, hoping to fulfill the Zionist aspiration of building a Jewish state in historic Israel. Expelled by the Ottomans at the outbreak of World War I (1914–18), he traveled to New York, where he married. Following the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, he joined the British army's Jewish Legion and returned to the Middle East. In the 1920s and '30s he led several political organizations, including the Jewish Agency, world Zionism's highest directing body. As Britain became more sympathetic to the interests of the Palestinian Arabs, thereafter restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine, he called on the Jewish community to rise against Britain. However, he again called for Jews to support the Allies during World War II (1939–45), while continuing the clandestine immigration of Jews to Palestine. On the establishment of the State of Israel (1948), he became prime minister and minister of defense. He succeeded in fusing the underground Jewish militias that had fought the British into a national army, which he used successfully to defend against Arab attacks. Unpopular with Britain and the U.S., he found an ally in France—then embroiled in its own war in the Arab world—which helped arm Israel in the period leading to the Suez Crisis (1956). He retired from the premiership in 1963 and from the Knesset (parliament) in 1970. Seealso Arab-Israeli wars.

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