Joe Ben Malin is an American hesder yeshiva student in Jerusalem who is in the process of drafting to the Israeli Defense Forces.
The victors write history and Zionist history is no different. With Ben Gurion Day coming up it is important to have an objective perspective on David Ben Gurion. He accomplished major feats that propelled the Jewish people to heights not seen in 2000 years, yet anyone celebrating the man must also have knowledge of his darker side.
Ben Gurion literally created the state of Israel, there is no doubt about that. He stepped up to the plate and declared independence while the British mandate was still ongoing. Ben Gurion led Israel to a decisive victory in the War of Independence and didn't just keep the country alive during its first uncertain years but helped it thrive. Yet all these accomplishments do not excuse the injustices he committed.
He was not his brother’s keeper.
In 1944, Menachem Begin, the future prime minister and the newly appointed leader of the Irgun, an underground army during the British mandate, declared a revolt against the British. Ben Gurion’s response to Begin was one of anger. The order was given to begin the ‘Saison,” an operation to hunt down Irgun and Lehi soldiers and hand them over to the British to face punishment for their crime of fighting for a Jewish state. And again in 1947 after Ben Gurion himself declared a revolt against the British, another ‘Saison’ was declared to once again sabotage Irgun's efforts against the British.
The Altalena affair
During the war for independence, the Altalena, an Irgun supply ship with enough military supplies to turn the tide of the war, and perhaps capture Jerusalem, which seemed unlikely at the time, was making its way to Israel from France.
Begin informed Ben Gurion of the shipment and explained that it would be for the IDF, but the priority must be Jerusalem and Irgun units within the newly formed IDF which were lacking equipment . Ben Gurion agreed that Jerusalem should receive more equipment but not the Irgun units within the IDF.
The Altalena started unloading on the beach with permission from Ben Gurion, who feared a takeover was being planned. Less than half of the cargo was unloaded when the IDF surrounded the beach and ordered the Altalena to surrender. The IDF opened fire on the ship and in the end 19 Jews were killed, the ship sank, its precious cargo was lost, and the IDF was not able to gain control of Jerusalem because the much needed reinforcements and aid never arrived and the battle for Jerusalem was lost. Begin is famous for saying, as commander of the ship, that there must be no shooting back to prevent a civil war.
Perfidy
One of the worst scandals in recent history had strong ties straight to Ben Gurion. Rudolf Kastner, the man who ran the Jewish Agency’s “rescue committee” for Jews in Hungry was outed as a Nazi sympathizer. Before he was outed Kastner was a respected high-ranking member of the Israeli government. Malchiel Greenwald, an old crippled man was the one who brought forth the claims that Kastner was a Nazi sympathizer in his small weekly journal. The State of Israel sued Mr Greenwald, but the trial quickly turned into a prosecution of Kastner.
In an Israeli court, Kastner testified under oath that he knew of the deportations to Auschwitz and still convinced his fellow Jews to board the trains to hell. Not only did he know this but the information was also sent to the Jewish Agency and they suppressed the news of Auschwitz from the public. It is impossible to know the extent of Ben Gurion’s involvement in the cover up.
Before Katsner’s second trial began and he was able to divulge who in the Jewish Agency helped him in this scheme, he was mysteriously assassinated. The only witness to the assassination was a former officer in Ben Gurion’s Haganah. Is it safe to assume Ben Gurion knew of the deportations to Auschwitz and ordered them to be kept from the public? Considering he was the head of the Jewish Agency, that is a moot point.
Hiding behind a mask
How was David Ben Gurion able to uphold his reputation after these scandals? Early Israel was quite authoritarian, to disagree with the state was a sin, and anyone who had disagreements with how the state was run was viciously attacked. Malchiel Greenwald is a prime example, a poor old man whose journal only got a handful of readers was prosecuted by the state of Israel. Another example is Israel Eldad, a Jewish hero and underground leader during the illegal British occupation, who verbalized his disagreements with the newly formed Jewish state’s policies. In turn, Ben Gurion himself ordered Eldad to be fired.
Another example of Ben Gurion overusing his power to solidify his dominance of Israeli politics was when Ben Gurion did not allow Jabotinsky, his long-time political riva,l to be buried in Israel, his long-time political rival. Through these means and many others, Ben Gurion and his labor party could control Israel’s perception of him and silence the opposition. (Note: He never said Menachem Begin's name in the Knesset, calling him "the man sitting next to MK Bader.")
I am not ignoring Ben Gurion's bringing of Jews of North Africa and the Middle East to Israel, but that would have to include his attempt to change the lifestyles of those mostly religious Sephardic Jews when they arrived in the Holy Land.
To celebrate or not
Whether or not Ben Gurion’s merits outweigh his sins, Ben Gurion is still the father of the state of Israel, and to speak only of his misdeeds would be to paint a dark picture of the early years of the Jewish state. It is up to you to decide whether to look past David Ben Gurion’s darker side or to hold him accountable. I will not be celebrating Ben Gurion Day, but I encourage you to reflect deeply and decide for yourself.
