Last week I had the opportunity to enjoy the unseasonably warm and beautiful weather with a walk along the Tel Aviv boardwalk as marathoners from around the world ran along HaYarkon Street several meters away. On my way, I happened across a memorial to the Altalena and just beyond it a statue [see photo] of our first prime minister, David Ben Gurion in his iconic “head-stand on the beach” pose. With these three events in mind I proceeded to do what tour guide self is prone to do – I thought about how the intersection of these things could be an interesting topic in my guiding.
For a bit of background: the Altalena was a ship purchased and filled with weapons by the Irgun (sometimes referred to as Etzel) under Menachem Begin just prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. With said establishment, David Ben Gurion, now Prime Minister, set out to bring all the various fighting groups under the auspices of the newly formed Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Needless to say there was quite a bit of dissent among the Irgun when Ben Gurion declared that 80% of the weaponry would be distributed to the general IDF and not to the Irgun forces within the IDF. One thing led to the next, someone fired a shot, someone did or did not miss, and in the end, the Altalena burned and sank with roughly two-thirds of the desperately needed armament still on board. Nineteen soldiers died, the Irgun was disbanded and the legacy of the Altalena was born.
When I guide, Ben Gurion often comes into the conversation. He had such dreams for this land and the people – to see a return of the people to the land from around the world, to see the desert bloom, to create a better life, not only for the citizens but for all, and of course, to have a state. I often joke that we know we are getting there based on the Ben Gurion quote “We will know we have become a normal country when Jewish thieves and Jewish prostitutes conduct their business in Hebrew.”1 Well, they do. (This idea by the way comes from Hayim Nahman Bialik in the 1920s).
In Kibbutz Sde Boker, in the middle of nowhere, the Negev, Ben Gurion’s “desert home” has been preserved as a site of learning and discussion. Just down the road overlooking the stunning Zin Valley and Avdat waterfall we find the burial site of this first prime minister and his wife Paula – in the midst of the desert he loved so much. Sitting among the acacia trees and the ibex in this national memorial is a wonderful place to struggle with the dr
eams of David Ben Gurion as have so many leaders and non-leaders alike in our history and today. Having dreams is the beginning (Herzl comes to mind of course), pursuing those dreams is essential and taking the time to review those same dreams and one’s progress toward them also important.
We struggle in this country with those dreams and their implementation. To begin with, we don’t all have the same “big dream” – what kind of a country are we, from where do our basic values come, to where do we hope to proceed in the future? Just the tip of the conversation… We struggle with the polarization of our society, with the Israeli-Palestinian issues, with Israel’s place in the region, with legitimacy issues and more. But there are strong and amazing things which unite us, which make us stronger, more resilient and open to the world – our immediate presence around the world after natural and man-made disasters (even for our ‘enemies’); our contributions to the world in the areas of technology, science, and medicine; our struggle to make a better state and world; and of course our ‘happiness quotient’.
That is the macro – lets look for a bit at the micro. I love when I have the opportunity to head south to the Negev. To experience anew this place where I can sit with Jews and non-Jews, young and old alike, at the edge of the canyon, in the midst of the desert he loved so much, to discuss the following quote from Ben Gurion. We break it down, semi-colon by semi-colon, and see if the Israel of today has met, is meeting or is in the process of meeting each of these goals.
“[My goal] was the creation of a model society which could become, in the language of the biblical prophets, “a light unto the nations.” I wanted the new Israel to be a democratic society; to be idealistic; to follow the injunction of helping your neighbor; to work hard in pioneering the desert spaces and rebuilding our long neglected land; for all to work in harmony with each other without the one being exploited by the other; to give homogeneity to the diverse immigrant groups to whom we opened our gates on the very first day of our state; to raise the educational, social and economic level of those who came from primitive lands to a standard of equality with the veteran settlers; to harness to boons of modern scientific discovery to the ancient moral teachings of our forebears.”
Lets start with his opening – “a light unto the nations.” Thank you Isaiah (49:6) for that beautiful description which has caused us so much angst trying to understand, emulate and run away from. But forget the baggage for a moment. This secular man, this leader of a modern nation uses a idea from a historical/religious text, 28 centuries old, to sum up his hopes for this baby country of Israel.
I invite you to take the time to look at the remainder of the quote – what do you think. Are we there? Where do we still need more work? Are they still good goals (and what is the underlying baggage/assumptions in some of them that may no longer be accurate)? It is a fantastic way to really look at some of the history and current affairs in Israel, to learn more about this homeland, people, struggles and amazing, amazing accomplishments. (I, of course, invite you to bring a group and we can have this conversation together at this special site!)
Take a few minutes to google quotes of Ben Gurion. The breadth of ideas continues to impress upon me how we can so easily use them as a paradigm through which we can examine Israel today.
In the interest of full disclosure… that quote above continues and I think in the continuation is the humanity, the reality and part of greatness of David Ben Gurion…
“Of course, the moment you are in power, things look very different from the way they look to a theoretician. You realize that not everything that needs to be done can be done at once…”