View source for David Ben-Gurion

{{Short description|Prime Minister of Israel (1948–1953; 1955–1963)}}
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{{redirect|David Gruen|the Australian statistician and mathematician|David Gruen (economist)}}
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{{Use British English|date=December 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = David Ben-Gurion
| native_name         = {{Nobold|{{Script|Hebrew|דָּוִד בֶּן־גּוּרִיּוֹן}}}}
| native_name_lang    = he
| birthname           = David Grün
| image               = David Ben-Gurion (D597-087).jpg
| caption             = Ben-Gurion in 1960
| office              = [[Prime Minister of Israel]]
| term_start          = 3 November 1955
| term_end            = 26 June 1963
| president           = {{Plainlist|
* [[Yitzhak Ben-Zvi]]
* [[Zalman Shazar]]
}}
| predecessor         = [[Moshe Sharett]]
| successor           = [[Levi Eshkol]]
| term_start1         = 17 May 1948
| term_end1           = 7 December 1953
| predecessor1        = ''New office''
| successor1          = Moshe Sharett
| president1          = {{Plainlist|
* [[Chaim Weizmann]]
* Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
}}
| order3              = 1st [[Provisional government of Israel|Chairman of the Provisional State Council of Israel]]
| term_start3         = 14 May 1948
| term_end3           = 16 May 1948
| predecessor3        = ''New office''
| successor3          = Chaim Weizmann
| office4             = [[Ministry of Defense (Israel)|Minister of Defense]]
| primeminister4      = {{Plainlist|
* Moshe Sharett
* ''Himself''
}}
| term_start4         = 21 February 1955
| term_end4           = 26 June 1963
| predecessor4        = [[Pinhas Lavon]]
| successor4          = Levi Eshkol
| primeminister5      = ''Himself''
| term_start5         = 14 May 1948
| term_end5           = 26 January 1954
| predecessor5        = ''New office''
| successor5          = Pinhas Lavon
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1886|10|16|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Płońsk]], [[Congress Poland]], Russian Empire
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1973|12|1|1886|10|16|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Ramat Gan]], Israel
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Paula Ben-Gurion|Paula Munweis]]|1917|1968|end=d}}
| children            = 3
| citizenship         = {{Plainlist|
* Congress Poland
* [[Ottoman Empire]]
* [[British subject]]
* Israel
}}
| alma_mater          = [[Istanbul University|Dar ul-Funun]]<!--From {{cite news|title=Old Schools Scrapped in Turkey|newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]]|place=[[Baltimore]]|date=1 October 1933|page=[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/159112915/ 2]|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} - "Dar-ul-funun" was reformed into University of Istabul. -->
| party               = {{Plainlist|
* [[Poale Zion]] (1905–1919)
* [[Ahdut HaAvoda]] (1919–1930)
* [[Mapai]] (1930–1965)
* [[Rafi (political party)|Rafi]] (1965–1968)
* [[National List]] (from 1968)
}}
| signature           = David Ben-Gurion signature.svg
| resting_place       = [[Ben-Gurion Tomb National Park]]
}}
'''David Ben-Gurion''' ({{IPAc-en|b|ɛ|n|_|ˈ|ɡ|ʊər|i|ə|n}} {{respell|ben|_|GOOR|ee|ən}}; {{langx|he|דָּוִד בֶּן־גּוּרִיּוֹן}} {{IPA|he|daˈvid ben ɡuʁˈjon||He-David_Ben_Gurion.ogg}}; born '''David Grün'''; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary [[List of national founders|national founder]] and first [[Prime Minister of Israel|prime minister]] of the [[State of Israel]]. As head of the [[Jewish Agency]] from 1935, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he was the ''[[de facto]]'' leader of the [[Yishuv|Jewish community in Palestine]], and largely led the movement for an independent Jewish state in [[Mandatory Palestine]].

Born in [[Płońsk]], then part of [[Congress Poland]], to [[Polish Jewish]] parents, he immigrated to the [[Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem|Palestine]] region of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1906. Adopting the name of Ben-Gurion in 1909, he rose to become the preeminent leader of the Jewish community in British-ruled Mandatory Palestine from 1935 until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, which he led until 1963 with a short break in 1954–55. Ben-Gurion's interest for [[Zionism]] developed early in his life, leading him to become a major Zionist leader, and the executive head of the [[World Zionist Organization]] in 1946.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Brenner | first1 = Michael | last2 = Frisch | first2 = Shelley | title = Zionism: A Brief History | publisher=Markus Wiener Publishers | date = April 2003  | page = 184 }}</ref>

On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of Israel, and was the first to sign the [[Israeli Declaration of Independence]], which he had helped to write. Under Ben-Gurion's leadership, the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]] saw the uniting of the various Jewish militias into the [[Israel Defense Forces]] (IDF), the victory of Israel over the [[Arab League]], and the [[1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight|expulsion and flight]] of a majority of the Palestinian Arab population. Subsequently, he became known as "Israel's [[founding father]]".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/1/newsid_2492000/2492775.stm|title=1973: Israel's founding father dies|date=1 December 1973|access-date=31 August 2018|publisher=BBC}}</ref> Following the war, Ben-Gurion served as Israel's first prime minister and [[Ministry of Defense (Israel)|minister of defence]]. As prime minister, he helped build state institutions, presiding over national projects aimed at the development of the country. He also oversaw the absorption of [[Aliyah|Jewish immigrants]]. A major part of his foreign policy was improving relations with [[West Germany]] through a [[Reparations Agreement between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany|reparations agreement]] in compensation for Nazi confiscation of Jewish property during [[the Holocaust]].<ref>George Lavy, ''Germany and Israel: moral debt and national interest'' (1996) p. 45</ref>

In 1954, he resigned as prime minister and minister of defence but remained a member of the [[Knesset]]. He returned as minister of defence in 1955 after the [[Lavon Affair]] and the resignation of [[Pinhas Lavon]]. Later that year he became prime minister again, following the [[1955 Israeli legislative election|1955 elections]]. He backed Israel's [[reprisal operations]] to [[List of attacks against Israeli civilians before 1967|Arab guerrilla attacks]] and its invasion of Egypt, along with Britain and France, during the [[Suez Crisis]] in 1956. He stepped down from office in 1963, and retired from political life in 1970. He then moved to [[Ben-Gurion's hut|his modest "hut"]] in [[Sde Boker]], a [[kibbutz]] in the [[Negev]] desert, where he lived until his death. Posthumously, Ben-Gurion was named one of ''Time'' magazine's [[Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century|100 Most Important People of the 20th century]].

== Early life ==
[[File:Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - POALEI ZION.jpg|thumb|Poalei Zion's "Ezra" group in [[Płońsk]], 1905. David Grün (David Ben-Gurion) in the first row, third on the right]]
[[File:POALEI ZION GROUP "EZRA" IN PLONSK SHOWING DAVID GREEN (BEN GURION). קבוצת "עזרא" של פועלי ציון, בפלונסק בפולין. בין חברי הקבוצה דוד גרין (בן גוריון)..jpg|thumb|Ben-Gurion with Rachel Nelkin and members of Ezra on eve of their departure to Palestine, August 1906; his father and stepmother sitting in the windows]]
[[File:ראשון לציון - דוד בן גוריון עם חבריו לעבודה ביקב-JNF020521.jpeg|thumb|Ben-Gurion working at [[Rishon Lezion]] winery (front row, 6th from right), 1908]]

=== Childhood and education ===
David Ben-Gurion was born in [[Płońsk]] in [[Congress Poland]]{{Emdash}}then part of the [[Russian Empire]], to [[Polish Jewish]] parents. His father, Avigdor Grün, was a ''pokątny doradca'' (secret adviser), navigating his clients through the often corrupt Imperial legal system.<ref>[[Shabtai Teveth|Teveth, Shabtai]] (1987) ''Ben-Gurion. The Burning Ground. 1886–1948''. Houghton Mifflin. {{ISBN|978-0-395-35409-4}}. p. 7</ref> Following the publication of [[Theodore Herzl]]'s ''[[Der Judenstaat]]'' in 1896 Avigdor co-founded a [[Zionist]] group called ''Beni Zion''{{Emdash}}Children of Zion. In 1900 it had a membership of 200.<ref>[[Tom Segev|Segev, Tom]] (2018–2019 translation [[Haim Watzman]]) ''A State at Any Cost. The Life of David Ben-Gurion''. Apollo. {{ISBN|978-1-78954-463-3}}. pp. 24, 25</ref> David was the youngest of three boys with an older and younger sister. His mother, Scheindel (Broitman),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m7dtAAAAMAAJ&q=David+Ben-Gurion+Broitman|title=Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy|date=31 August 2018|publisher=G. Mokotoff|access-date=31 August 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref> died of [[sepsis]] following a [[stillbirth]] in 1897. It was her eleventh pregnancy.<ref>Segev (2019). pp. 20, 21</ref> Two years later his father remarried.<ref>Teveth (1987). p. 3</ref> Ben-Gurion's birth certificate, found in Poland in 2003, indicated that he had a twin brother who died shortly after birth.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/ben-gurion-may-have-been-a-twin-1.12453|title=Ben-Gurion may have been a twin|newspaper=Haaretz|date=18 April 2003|author=Tsahar Rotem}}</ref> Between the ages of five and 13 Ben-Gurion attended five different [[Cheder|heders]] as well as compulsory Russian classes. Two of the heders were 'modern' and taught in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] rather than [[Yiddish]]. His father could not afford to enrol Ben-Gurion in Płońsk's [[beth midrash]] so Ben-Gurion's formal education ended after his [[bar mitzvah]].<ref>Teveth (1987). pp. 12–13</ref> At the age of 14 he and two friends formed a youth club, ''Ezra'', promoting Hebrew studies and emigration to the Holy Land. The group ran Hebrew classes for local youth and in 1903 collected funds for the victims of the [[Kishinev pogrom]]. One biographer writes that ''Ezra'' had 150 members within a year.<ref name="Teveth 1987 p.14">Teveth (1987) p. 14</ref> A different source estimates the group never had more than "several dozen" members.<ref>Segev (2019). p. 23</ref>

In 1904 Ben-Gurion moved to [[Warsaw]] where he hoped to enrol in the Warsaw Mechanical-Technical School founded by [[Hipolit Wawelberg]]. He did not have sufficient qualifications to matriculate and took work teaching Hebrew in a Warsaw heder. Inspired by [[Tolstoy]] he had become a vegetarian.<ref name="Teveth 1987 p.14" /> He became involved in Zionist politics and in October 1905 he joined the clandestine Social-Democratic Jewish Workers' Party{{Emdash}}''[[Poale Zion|Poalei Zion]]''. Two months later he was the delegate from Płońsk at a local conference.<ref>Teveth (1987). pp. 28, 30</ref> While in Warsaw the [[Russian Revolution (1905)|Russian Revolution of 1905]] broke out and he was in the city during the clampdown that followed; he was arrested twice, the second time he was held for two weeks and only released with the help of his father. In December 1905 he returned to Płońsk as a full-time Poalei Zion operative. There he worked to oppose the anti-Zionist [[General Jewish Labour Bund|Bund]] who were trying to establish a base. He also organised a strike over working conditions amongst garment workers. He was known to use intimidatory tactics, such as extorting money from wealthy Jews at gunpoint to raise funds for Jewish workers.<ref>Segev (2019) pp. Warsaw 32, 35, college rejection 41, 1905 revolution 43, Poalie Zion 46, prison 47, labor boss 49</ref><ref>Teveth (1987). pp. revolution 25, Poale Zion 28,31, gunman 30</ref><ref name ="Shatz">Adam Shatz, [https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n20/adam-shatz/we-are-conquerors  "We Are Conquerors"], ''[[London Review of Books]]'' Vol. 41 No. 20, 24 October 2019</ref>

Ben-Gurion discussed his hometown in his memoirs, saying:

<blockquote>For many of us, anti-Semitic feeling had little to do with our dedication [to Zionism]. I personally never suffered anti-Semitic persecution. Płońsk was remarkably free of it ... Nevertheless, and I think this very significant, it was Płońsk that sent the highest proportion of Jews to Eretz Israel from any town in Poland of comparable size. We emigrated not for negative reasons of escape but for the positive purpose of rebuilding a homeland ... Life in Płońsk was peaceful enough. There were three main communities: Russians, Jews and Poles. ... The number of Jews and Poles in the city were roughly equal, about five thousand each. The Jews, however, formed a compact, centralized group occupying the innermost districts whilst the Poles were more scattered, living in outlying areas and shading off into the peasantry. Consequently, when a gang of Jewish boys met a Polish gang the latter would almost inevitably represent a single suburb and thus be poorer in fighting potential than the Jews who even if their numbers were initially fewer could quickly call on reinforcements from the entire quarter. Far from being afraid of them, they were rather afraid of us. In general, however, relations were amicable, though distant.<ref>Memoirs: David Ben-Gurion (1970), p. 36.</ref></blockquote>

In autumn of 1906 he left Poland to go to [[Eretz Israel|Palestine]]. He travelled with his sweetheart, Rachel Nelkin, and her mother, as well as [[Shlomo Zemach]], his comrade from ''Ezra''. His voyage was funded by his father.<ref>Teveth (1987). pp. 35, 36 Shlomo Zemach, Rachel Nelkin + her mother</ref>

=== Ottoman Empire and Constantinople ===
[[File:David Ben-Gurion, 1920-2.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Ben-Gurion aged 36]]
[[File:David Ben-Gurion 1912-5.1 V01-1.1A.jpg|thumb|A group portrait of Jewish Ottoman men, among them, [[Istanbul University|Dar al-Funun]] Law Students David Ben-Gurion (sitting row, third from right) and next to him [[Yitzhak Ben-Zvi]] (sitting row, second from right), İstanbul ("Kushta"), c. 1912]]
Immediately on landing in [[Jaffa]], 7 September 1906, Ben-Gurion set off, on foot, in a group of 14, to [[Petah Tikva]].<ref>[[Michael Bar-Zohar|Bar-Zohar, Michael]] (1978) ''Ben-Gurion''. Translated by [[Peretz Kidron]]. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London. {{ISBN|978-0-297-77401-3}}. Originally published in Israel 1977. p. 14</ref><ref>Teveth (1987). p. 40</ref> It was the largest of the 13 Jewish agricultural settlements and consisted of 80 households with a population of nearly 1,500; of these around 200 were [[Second Aliyah]] pioneers like Ben-Gurion. He found work as a day labourer, waiting each morning hoping to be chosen by an overseer. Jewish workers found it difficult competing with local villagers who were more skilled and prepared to work for less. Ben-Gurion was shocked at the number of Arabs employed. In November he caught [[malaria]] and the doctor advised he return to Europe. By the time he left Petah Tikva in summer of 1907 he had worked an average 10 days a month which frequently left him with no money for food.<ref>Teveth (1987). p. population 40, malaria 43</ref><ref>Segev (2019). p. hunger 64</ref> He wrote long letters in Hebrew to his father and friends. They rarely revealed how difficult life was. Others who had come from Płońsk were writing about tuberculosis, cholera and people dying of hunger.<ref>Teveth p. 42</ref>

On his disembarkation at Jaffa, Ben-Gurion had been spotted by [[Israel Shochat]] who had arrived two years previously and had established a group of around 25 Poale Zion followers. Shochat made a point of inspecting new arrivals looking for recruits. A month after his arrival at Petah Tikva, Shochat invited Ben-Gurion to attend the founding conference of the Jewish Social Democratic Workers' Party in the Land of Israel in Jaffa. The conference, 4–6 October 1906, was attended by 60 or so people. Shochat engineered the elections so that Ben-Gurion was elected onto the five-man Central Committee and the 10-man Manifesto Committee. He also arranged that Ben-Gurion was chosen as chairman of the sessions. These Ben-Gurion conducted in Hebrew, forbidding the translation of his address into Russian or Yiddish. The conference was divided: a large faction{{Emdash}}''Rostovians''{{Emdash}}wanted to create a single Arab–Jewish proletariat. This Shochat and Ben-Gurion opposed. The conference delegated the Manifesto Committee the task of deciding the new party's objectives. They produced ''The [[Ramleh]] Programme'' which was approved by a second smaller 15-man conference held in Jaffa the following January 1907. The programme stated "the party aspires to political independence<ref>Bar-Zohar. has "independence", Lockman, Zachary (1996) ''Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906–1948''. University of California Press. {{ISBN|978-0-520-20419-5}} has "autonomy"</ref> of the Jewish People in this country." All activities were to be conducted in Hebrew; there should be segregation of the Jewish and the Arab economies; and a Jewish trade union was to be established. Three members of the Central Committee resigned and Ben-Gurion and Shochat continued meeting weekly in Jaffa or [[Ben Shemen]] where Shochat was working. Ben-Gurion walked to the meetings from Petah Tikva until he moved to Jaffa where he gave occasional Hebrew lessons. His political activity resulted in the establishment of three small trade unions amongst some tailors, carpenters and shoemakers. He set up the ''Jaffa Professional Trade Union Alliance'' with 75 members. He and Shochat also brokered a settlement to a strike at the [[Rishon Le Zion]] winery where six workers had been sacked. After three months the two-man Central Committee was dissolved, partly because, at that time, Ben-Gurion was less militant than Shochat and the Rostovians. Ben-Gurion returned to Petah Tikva.<ref>Teveth (1987). pp. 39, 47–51, 72–73</ref><ref>Lockman (1996). pp. 46–47</ref><ref>Bar-Zohar (1978). p.17</ref><ref>Negev (2019). p.73</ref>

During this time Ben-Gurion sent a letter to ''Yiddish Kemfer'' ("''The Jewish Fighter''{{-"}}), a Yiddish newspaper in New York City. It was an appeal for funds and was the first time something written by Ben-Gurion was published.<ref>Teveth (1987). p. 48</ref>

The arrival of [[Yitzhak Ben-Zvi]] in April 1907 revitalised the local Poale Zion. Eighty followers attended a conference in May at which Ben-Zvi was elected onto a two-man [[Central Committee]] and all Ben-Gurion's policies were reversed: Yiddish, not Hebrew, was the language to be used; the future lay with a united Jewish and Arab [[proletariat]]. Further disappointment came when Ben-Zvi and Shochat were elected as representatives to go to the [[World Zionist Congress]]. Ben-Gurion came last of five candidates. He was not aware that at the next gathering, on Ben-Zvi's return, a secret para-military group was set up{{Emdash}}[[Bar-Giora (organisation)|Bar-Giora]]{{Emdash}}under Shochat's leadership. Distancing himself from Poale Zion activism Ben-Gurion, who had been a day-labourer at [[Kfar Saba]], moved to [[Rishon Lezion]] where he remained for two months. He made detailed plans with which he tried to entice his father to come and be a farmer.<ref>Teveth (1987). pp. 51–55</ref>

In October 1907, on [[Shlomo Zemach]]'s suggestion, Ben-Gurion moved to [[Sejera]]. An agricultural training farm had been established at Sejera in the 1880s and since then a number of family-owned farms, [[moshavah]], had been established forming a community of around 200 Jews. It was one of the most remote colonies in the foothills of north-eastern [[Galilee]]. It took the two young men three days to walk there.<ref>Segev p.87</ref> Coincidentally at the same time Bar Giora, now with about 20 members and calling themselves 'the collective' but still led by Shochat, took on the operating of the training farm. Ben-Gurion found work in the farm but, excluded from 'the collective', he later became a labourer for one of the moshav families. One of the first acts of 'the collective' was organising sacking of the farm's [[Circassians in Syria|Circassian]] nightwatchman. As a result, shots were fired at the farms every night for several months. Guns were brought and the workforce armed. Ben-Gurion took turns patrolling the farm at night.<ref>Segev p. 90</ref>

In the autumn of 1908 Ben-Gurion returned to Płońsk to be conscripted into the [[Imperial Russian Army#Jews in the Russian Army|army]] and avoid his father facing a heavy fine. He immediately deserted and returned to Sejera, travelling, via Germany, with forged papers.<ref>Bar Zohar p.22</ref>

On 12 April 1909 two Jews from Sejera were killed in clashes with local Arabs following the death of a villager from [[Kfar Kanna]], shot in an attempted robbery. There is little conformation of Ben-Gurion's accounts of his part in this event.<ref>Segev p.94</ref>

Later that summer, Ben-Gurion moved to [[Zichron Yaakov]]. From where the following spring he was invited, by Ben-Zvi, to join the staff of Poale Zion's new Hebrew periodical, [[Ha'ahdut]] (The Unity), which was being established in Jerusalem.<ref>Bar Zohar p. 26</ref> They needed his fluency in Hebrew for translating and proof reading.<ref name="Teveth 1987 p.72">Teveth 1987 p.72</ref> It was the end of his career as a farm labourer. The first three editions came out monthly with an initial run of 1000 copies. It then became a weekly with a print run of 450 copies.<ref>Segev pp.101, 103</ref><ref name="Teveth 1987 p.72" /> He contributed 15 articles over the first year, using various pen names, eventually settling for Ben Gurion.<ref>Teveth (1989) p.73</ref> The [[Hebraization of surnames|adopting]] of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] names was common amongst those who remained during the [[Second Aliyah]].  He chose Ben-Gurion after the historic [[Joseph ben Gurion]].<ref>Segev p.105</ref>

In the spring of 1911, faced with the collapse of the Second Aliyah, Poale Zion's leadership decided the future lay in "Ottomanisation". [[Yitzhak Ben-Zvi|Ben-Zvi]], [[Manya Shochat|Manya]] and [[Israel Shochat]] announced their intention to move to [[Istanbul#Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic eras|Istanbul]]. Ben-Zvi and Shochat planned to study law at [[Istanbul University]]; Ben-Gurion was to join them but first needed to learn [[Turkish language|Turkish]], spending eight months in [[Salonika#Jews of Thessaloniki|Salonika]], at that time the most advanced Jewish community in the area. Whilst studying he had to conceal that he was [[Ashkenazi]] due to local [[Sephardic]] prejudices. Ben-Zvi obtained a forged secondary school certificate so Ben-Gurion could join him in [[Istanbul University|Dar al-Funun]].<!--From {{cite news|title=Old Schools Scrapped in Turkey|newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]]|place=[[Baltimore]]|date=1 October 1933|page=[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/159112915/ 2]|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} - "Dar-ul-funun" was reformed into University of Istabul.--> Ben-Gurion was entirely dependent on funding from his father, while Ben-Zvi found work teaching. Struggling with ill health, Ben-Gurion spent some time in hospital.<ref>[[Tom Segev|Segev, Tom]] (2018–2019 translation [[Haim Watzman]]) ''A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion''. Apollo. {{ISBN|978-1-78954-463-3}} pp.109–115</ref><ref>[http://www.oswego.edu/~baloglou/misc/sephardim.html Oswego.edu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110530141514/http://www.oswego.edu/~baloglou/misc/sephardim.html |date=30 May 2011}}, Gila Hadar, "Space and Time in Salonika on the Eve of World War II and the Expulsion and Extermination of Salonika Jewry", ''Yalkut Moseshet'' 4, Winter 2006</ref>

=== Ben-Gurion in America, 1915–1918 ===
[[File:1918 Private BenGurion volunteer in Jewish Legion.jpg|thumb|Ben-Gurion in his [[Jewish Legion]] uniform, 1918]]

Ben-Gurion was at sea, returning from Istanbul, when the [[First World War]] broke out. He was not amongst the thousands of foreign nationals deported in December 1914.<ref>Teveth (1987). mass deportations p. 117</ref> Based in [[Jerusalem]], he and Ben-Zvi recruited forty Jews into a Jewish militia to assist the Ottoman Army. Despite his pro-Ottoman declarations he was deported to Egypt in March 1915.<ref>Segev (2019). pp. 116, 117</ref> From there he made his way to the United States, arriving in May. For the next four months Ben-Gurion and Ben Zvi embarked on a speaking tour planned to visit [[Poale Zion]] groups in 35 cities in an attempt to raise a pioneer army, [[Hechalutz]], of 10,000 men to fight on the Ottoman side.<ref>Teveth (1985). pp. 25, 26.</ref> The tour was a disappointment. Audiences were small; Poale Zion had fewer than 3,000 members, mostly in the New York area. Ben-Gurion was hospitalised with [[diphtheria]] for two weeks and spoke on only five occasions and was poorly received. Ben-Zvi spoke to 14 groups as well as an event in New York City and succeeded in recruiting 44 volunteers for Hechalutz; Ben-Gurion recruited 19.<ref>Teveth (1987). pp. membership 100, tour & illness 103, recruits 104</ref> Ben-Gurion embarked on a second tour in December, speaking at 19 meetings, mostly in small towns with larger events in [[Minneapolis]] and [[History of the Jews in Galveston, Texas|Galveston]].<ref>Teveth (1987). p. 107</ref> Due to the lack of awareness of Poale Zion's activities in Palestine it was decided to republish ''Yizkor'' in [[Yiddish]]. The [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] original was published in [[Jaffa]] in 1911; it consisted of eulogies to [[Zionist]] martyrs and included an account by Ben-Gurion of his Petah Tikva and Sejera experiences. The first edition appeared in February 1916 and was an immediate success; all 3,500 copies were sold. A second edition of 16,000 was published in August. [[Martin Buber]] wrote the introduction to the 1918 German edition. The follow-up was conceived as an anthology of work from Poale Zion leaders; in fact Ben-Gurion took over as editor, writing the introduction and two-thirds of the text. He suspended all his Poale Zion activities and spent most of the next 18 months in [[New York Public Library]]. Ben-Zvi, originally designated as co-editor, contributed a section on Jewish history in which he expounded the theory that the [[fellahin]] currently living in the area were descendants of pre-[[Bar Kokhba Revolt|Roman conquest]] Jews. ''Eretz Israel – Past and Present'' was published in April 1918. It cost $2 and was 500 pages long, over twice the length of ''Yizkor''. It was an immediate success, selling 7,000 copies in 4 months; second and third editions were printed. Total sales of 25,000 copies made a profit of $20,000 for Poale Zion. It made Ben-Gurion the most prominent Poale Zion leader in America.<ref>Teveth (1987). pp. 108, 115–117</ref><ref>Segev (2019) pp. 132–134</ref>

In May 1918 Ben-Gurion joined the newly formed [[Jewish Legion]] of the [[British Army]] and trained at [[Fort Edward (Nova Scotia)|Fort Edward]] in [[Windsor, Nova Scotia]]. He volunteered for the 38th Battalion, [[Royal Fusiliers]], one of the four which constituted the Jewish Legion. His unit fought against the Ottomans as part of [[Chaytor's Force]] during the [[Sinai and Palestine Campaign|Palestine Campaign]], though he remained in a [[Cairo]] hospital with dysentery. In 1918, after a period of guarding prisoners of war in the Egyptian desert, his battalion was transferred to [[Sarafand al-Amar|Sarafand]]. On 13 December 1918 he was demoted from corporal to private, fined three days' pay and transferred to the lowest company in the battalion. He had been five days absent without leave visiting friends in [[Jaffa]]. He was demobilised in early 1919.<ref>Teveth (1987) pp. court martial 135, 136, demob 144</ref>

[[File:Paula Monbas and David Ben Gurion before their wedding in New York.jpg|thumb|David and Paula Ben-Gurion, 1 June 1918]]

=== Marriage and family ===
One of Ben-Gurion's companions when he made the [[Aliyah]] was Rachel Nelkin. Her stepfather, Reb Simcha Isaac, was the leading Zionist in Płońsk, and they had met three years previously at one of his meetings. It was expected that their relationship would continue when they landed in Jaffa but he shut her out after she was fired on her first day labouring{{Emdash}}manuring the citrus groves of Petah Tikva.<ref>Teveth (1987). pp. 20,37,43,44</ref><ref>Bar-Zohar. p. 20. "probably the most profound love he was ever to experience."</ref><ref>Segev p.50</ref>

Whilst in New York City in 1915, he met Russian-born [[Paula Ben-Gurion|Paula Munweis]] and they married in 1917. In November 1919, after an 18-month separation, Paula and their daughter Geula joined Ben-Gurion in [[Jaffa]]. It was the first time he met his one-year-old daughter.<ref>Teveth (1987). pp. 125, 146</ref> The couple had three children: a son, Amos, and two daughters, Geula Ben-Eliezer and Renana Leshem. Amos married Mary Callow, already pregnant with their first child. She was an Irish [[gentile]], and although Reform rabbi [[Joachim Prinz]] converted her to Judaism soon after, neither the Palestine rabbinate nor her mother-in-law Paula Ben-Gurion considered her a real Jew until she underwent an Orthodox conversion many years later.<ref name="Segev2019">{{cite book|author=Tom Segev|title=A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eb9uDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT466|date=24 September 2019|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=978-1-4299-5184-5|page=466}}</ref><ref name=uipppava>{{cite web|url=http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/authors.php?auid=36217|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104060124/http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/authors.php?auid=36217|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 November 2012|title=Mary Ben-Gurion (biographical details)|website=cosmos.ucc.ie|access-date=31 August 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/authors.php?auid=8242|title=Amos Ben-Gurion (biographical details)|website=cosmos.ucc.ie|access-date=31 August 2018|archive-date=31 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831035755/http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/authors.php?auid=8242|url-status=dead}}</ref> Amos became Deputy Inspector-General of the [[Israel Police]], and also the director-general of a textile factory. He and Mary had six granddaughters from their two daughters and a son, Alon, who married a [[Greeks|Greek]] gentile.<ref name="Thakur">{{cite book|author=Pradeep Thakur|title=The Most Important People of the 20th Century (Part-I): Leaders & Revolutionaries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WFZwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA26|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-0-557-77886-7|page=26}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=March 2024}} Geula had two sons and a daughter, and Renana, who worked as a microbiologist at the [[Israel Institute for Biological Research]], had a son.<ref name="apples trees">{{cite news|last=Beckerman|first=Gal|title=The apples sometimes fall far from the tree|url=https://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=23263|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post|date=29 May 2006}}</ref>

== Zionist leadership between 1919 and 1948 ==
After the death of theorist [[Ber Borochov]], the left-wing and centrist factions of Poalei Zion split in February 1919, with Ben-Gurion and his friend [[Berl Katznelson]] leading the centrist faction of the [[Labor Zionism|Labor Zionist]] movement. The moderate Poalei Zion formed [[Ahdut HaAvoda]] with Ben-Gurion as leader in March 1919.

[[File:הועדה השניה של ההסתדרות-JNF017606.jpeg|thumb|The Histadrut committee in 1920. Ben Gurion is in the 2nd row, 4th from the right.]]

In 1920 he assisted in the formation of the [[Histadrut]], the Zionist Labor Federation in Palestine, and served as its general secretary from 1921 until 1935. At Ahdut HaAvoda's 3rd Congress, held in 1924 at [[Ein Harod]], [[Shlomo Kaplansky]], a veteran leader from [[Poalei Zion]], proposed that the party should support the British Mandatory authorities' plans for setting up an elected legislative council in Palestine. He argued that a Parliament, even with an Arab majority, was the way forward. Ben-Gurion, already emerging as the leader of the [[Yishuv]], succeeded in getting Kaplansky's ideas rejected.<ref>Teveth, Shabtai (1985) ''Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs. From Peace to War.'' Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-503562-9}}. pp. 66–70</ref>

[[File:Ben Gurion Family 1929.jpg|thumb|From left: David Ben-Gurion and Paula with youngest daughter Renana on BG's lap, daughter Geula, father Avigdor Grün and son Amos, 1929]]

In 1930, [[Hapoel Hatzair]] (founded by [[A. D. Gordon]] in 1905) and [[Ahdut HaAvoda]] joined forces to create [[Mapai]], the more moderate Zionist labour party (it was still a left-wing organisation, but not as far-left as other factions) under Ben-Gurion's leadership. In the 1940s the left-wing of Mapai broke away to form [[Mapam]]. Labor Zionism became the dominant tendency in the [[World Zionist Organization]] and in 1935 Ben-Gurion became chairman of the executive committee of the [[Jewish Agency]], a role he kept until the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

During the [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine]], Ben-Gurion instigated a policy of restraint ("[[Havlagah]]") in which the [[Haganah]] and other Jewish groups did not retaliate for Arab attacks against Jewish civilians, concentrating only on self-defense.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kessler |first=Oren |title=Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict |date=2023 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-4880-8 |location=Lanham, Maryland |pages=61, 161}}</ref> In 1937, the [[Peel Commission]] recommended partitioning Palestine into Jewish and Arab areas and Ben-Gurion supported this policy.<ref>{{cite news|last=Morris|first=Benny|title=Two years of the intifada – A new exodus for the Middle East?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/oct/03/israel1|access-date=30 August 2010|newspaper=The Guardian|date=3 October 2002}}</ref> This led to conflict with [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] who opposed partition and as a result Jabotinsky's supporters split with the Haganah and abandoned Havlagah.

The house where he lived from 1931 on, and for part of each year after 1953, is now a [[historic house museum]] in Tel Aviv, the "[[Ben-Gurion House]]". He also lived in London for some months in 1941.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shindler |first1=Colin |title=How David Ben-Gurion stood with Britain in its darkest hour |url=https://www.thejc.com/news/features/how-david-ben-gurion-stood-with-britain-in-its-darkest-hour-1.489665 |access-date=11 August 2022 |work=The Jewish Chronicle |date=3 October 2019}}</ref>

In 1946, Ben-Gurion and North Vietnam's Politburo chairman [[Ho Chi Minh]] became very friendly when they stayed at the same hotel in Paris. Ho Chi Minh offered Ben-Gurion a Jewish home-in-exile in Vietnam. Ben-Gurion declined, telling Ho Chi Minh: "I am certain we shall be able to establish a Jewish Government in Palestine."<ref name="autogenerated1966">{{cite web |url=https://www.jta.org/1966/11/08/archive/ben-gurion-reveals-suggestion-of-north-vietnams-communist-leader |title=Ben-gurion Reveals Suggestion of North Vietnam's Communist Leader |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=8 November 1966 |access-date=5 September 2015}}</ref><ref name="nytimes1987">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/21/books/israel-was-everthing.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |title=Israel Was Everything |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=21 June 1987 |access-date=5 September 2015}}</ref>

== Views and opinions ==
{{Zionism sidebar|People}}
{{Socialism in Israel|People}}
[[File:DAVID BEN GURION SPEAKING AT THE CORNERSTONE LAYING CEREMONY FOR THE HISTADRUT BUILDING IN JERUSALEM. דוד בן גוריון נושא דברים בטקס הנחת אבן פינה לבני.jpg|thumb|right|Ben Gurion speaking at the cornerstone laying ceremony for [[Histadrut]] building in Jerusalem, 1924]]

=== Leninist views ===
According to his biographer [[Tom Segev]], Ben-Gurion deeply admired [[Lenin]] and intended to be a 'Zionist Lenin'.<ref>On his return from Moscow in 1922 he outlined what he admired in Lenin: "A man who disdains all obstacles, faithful to his goal, who knows no concessions or discounts, the extreme of extremes; who knows how to crawl on his belly in the utter depths in order to reach his goal; a man of iron will who does not spare human life and the blood of innocent children for the sake of the revolution ... he is not afraid of rejecting today what he required yesterday, and requiring tomorrow what he rejected today; he will not be caught in the net of platitude, or in the trap of dogma; for the naked reality, the cruel truth and the reality of power relations will be before his sharp and clear eyes ... the single goal, burning with red flame—the goal of the great revolution." [[Tom Segev]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=eb9uDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT108 ''A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion''], [[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]], {{isbn|978-1-429-95184-5}}. p. 182.</ref><ref>Assaf Sharon, [https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/11/04/david-ben-gurion-obstinate-little-man/ "This Obstinate Little Man"], ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', 4 November 2021. p. 45.</ref> In ''Ben-Gurion: A Political Life'' by [[Shimon Peres]] and [[David Landau (journalist)|David Landau]], Peres recalls his first meeting with Ben-Gurion as a young activist in the [[HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed|No'ar Ha'Oved youth movement]]. Ben-Gurion gave him a lift, and out of the blue told him why he preferred Lenin to [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]]: "Lenin was Trotsky's inferior in terms of intellect", but Lenin, unlike Trotsky, "was decisive". When confronted with a dilemma, Trotsky would do what Ben-Gurion despised about the old-style diaspora Jews: he manoeuvred; as opposed to Lenin, who would cut the [[Gordian knot]], accepting losses while focusing on the essentials. In Peres' opinion, the essence of Ben-Gurion's life work were "the decisions he made at critical junctures in Israel's history", and none was as important as the acceptance of the [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine|1947 partition plan]], a painful compromise which gave the emerging Jewish state little more than a fighting chance, but which, according to Peres, enabled the establishment of the State of Israel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forward.com/articles/147083/secrets-of-ben-gurions-leadership/?p=all |title=Secrets of Ben-Gurion's Leadership |date=5 December 2011 |publisher=Forward.com |access-date=17 May 2015}}</ref>

===1937 letter===
{{Main|1937 Ben-Gurion letter}}

The 1937 Ben-Gurion letter was written when he was head of the executive committee of the [[Jewish Agency]], to his son Amos on 5 October 1937. The letter is well known to scholars{{sfn|JPS|2012}} as it provides insight into Ben-Gurion's reaction to the report of the [[Peel Commission]] released on 7 July of the same year. It has also been subject to significant debate by scholars as a result of scribbled-out text that may or may not provide written evidence of an intention to "expel the Arabs" or "not expel the Arabs" depending on one's interpretation of whether such deletion was intended by Ben-Gurion.<ref>{{cite journal|title=JPS Responds to CAMERA's Call for Accuracy: Ben-Gurion and the Arab Transfer|last=JPS|journal=Journal of Palestine Studies|volume=41|number=2|year=2012|pages=245–250|publisher=University of California Press|jstor=10.1525/jps.2012.XLI.2.245|doi=10.1525/jps.2012.xli.2.245| issn=0377-919X}}</ref>

===Role in 1948 exodus of Palestinians===
{{Main|Causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus#Planning by Ben-Gurion}}

Israeli historian [[Benny Morris]] wrote that the idea of expulsion of Palestinian Arabs was endorsed in practice by mainstream Zionist leaders, particularly Ben-Gurion. He did not give clear or written orders in that regard, but Morris claims that Ben-Gurion's subordinates understood his policy well:<ref name="MorrisMorris2004">{{cite book|author1=Research Fellow Truman Institute Benny Morris|author2=Benny Morris|author3=Morris Benny|title=The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PA597|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-00967-6|pages=597–|quote=But no expulsion policy was ever enunciated and Ben-Gurion always refrained from issuing clear or written expulsion orders; he preferred that his generals 'understand' what he wanted. He probably wished to avoid going down in history as the 'great expeller' and he did not want his government to be blamed for a morally questionable policy.}}</ref>

{{cquote|From April 1948, Ben-Gurion is projecting a message of transfer. There is no explicit order of his in writing, there is no orderly comprehensive policy, but there is an atmosphere of [population] transfer. The transfer idea is in the air. The entire leadership understands that this is the idea. The officer corps understands what is required of them. Under Ben-Gurion, a consensus of transfer is created.<ref name = "Morris-20080108">{{Cite web |url=http://www.logosjournal.com/morris.htm |title=Morris in an interview with ''Haaretz'', 8 January 2004 |access-date=20 July 2007 |archive-date=4 April 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040404115018/http://www.logosjournal.com/morris.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

=== Views on Arab relations and coexistence ===

Ben-Gurion published two volumes setting out his views on relations between Zionists and the Arab world: ''We and Our Neighbors'', published in 1931, and ''My Talks with Arab Leaders'' published in 1967. Ben-Gurion believed in the equal rights of Arabs who remained in and would become citizens of Israel. He was quoted as saying, "We must start working in Jaffa. Jaffa must employ Arab workers. And there is a question of their wages. I believe that they should receive the same wage as a Jewish worker. An Arab has also the right to be elected president of the state, should he be elected by all."<ref>Efraim Karsh, "Fabricating Israeli history: the 'new historians'", Edition 2, Routledge, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0-7146-5011-1}}, p. 213.</ref>

Ben-Gurion recognised the strong attachment of [[Palestinian Arabs]] to the land. In an address to the United Nations on 2 October 1947, he doubted the likelihood of peace:

<blockquote>This is our native land; it is not as birds of passage that we return to it. But it is situated in an area engulfed by Arabic-speaking people, mainly followers of Islam. Now, if ever, we must do more than make peace with them; we must achieve collaboration and alliance on equal terms. Remember what Arab delegations from Palestine and its neighbors say in the General Assembly and in other places: talk of Arab-Jewish amity sound fantastic, for the Arabs do not wish it, they will not sit at the same table with us, they want to treat us as they do the Jews of Bagdad, Cairo, and Damascus.<ref>David Ben-Gurion, statement to the Assembly of Palestine Jewry, 2 October 1947</ref></blockquote>

[[Nahum Goldmann]] criticised Ben-Gurion for what he viewed as a confrontational approach to the Arab world. Goldmann wrote, "Ben-Gurion is the man principally responsible for the anti-Arab policy, because it was he who molded the thinking of generations of Israelis."<ref name=Goldman>Nahum Goldmann, ''The Jewish Paradox'' A Personal Memoir, translated by Steve Cox, 1978, {{ISBN|978-0-448-15166-3}}, pp. 98, 99, 100</ref> [[Simha Flapan]] quoted Ben-Gurion as stating in 1938: "I believe in our power, in our power which will grow, and if it will grow agreement will come..."<ref>Simha Flapan, ''Zionism and the Palestinians'', 1979, {{ISBN|978-0-85664-499-3}}, pp. 142–144</ref>

Goldmann reported that Ben Gurion had told him in private in 1956:<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Jewish Paradox |last=Goldmann |first=Nahum |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |year=1978 |isbn=0-297-77494-8 |location=London |language=en |url=https://archive.org/details/jewishparadox0000gold/page/99/mode/1up?q=%22Why+should+the+Arabs+make+peace%3F%22|access-date=30 December 2023 |translator-last=Cox |translator-first=Steve | page=99}}</ref>

{{Cquote|Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it's true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?}}

In 1909, Ben-Gurion attempted to learn Arabic but gave up. He later became fluent in [[Turkish language|Turkish]]. The only other languages he was able to use when in discussions with Arab leaders were English, and to a lesser extent, French.<ref>Teveth, Shabtai (1985) ''Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs. From Peace to War.'' Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-503562-9}}. p. 118.</ref>

=== Stances on British rule ===
The British [[White Paper of 1939|1939 White paper]] stipulated that Jewish immigration to Palestine was to be limited to 15,000 a year for the first five years, and would subsequently be contingent on Arab consent. Restrictions were also placed on the rights of Jews to buy land from Arabs. After this Ben-Gurion changed his policy towards the British, stating: "Peace in Palestine is not the best situation for thwarting the policy of the White Paper".<ref>[[Shabtai Teveth]], 1985, ''Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs'', p. 199</ref> Ben-Gurion believed a peaceful solution with the Arabs had no chance and soon began preparing the [[Yishuv]] for war. According to Teveth "through his campaign to mobilize the Yishuv in support of the British war effort, he strove to build the nucleus of a 'Hebrew Army', and his success in this endeavor later brought victory to Zionism in the struggle to establish a Jewish state."<ref>S. Teveth, 1985, ''Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs'', p. 200</ref>

During the Second World War, Ben-Gurion encouraged the [[Yishuv|Jewish population]] to volunteer for the [[British Army]]. He famously told Jews to "support the British as if there is no White Paper and oppose the White Paper as if there is no war".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bgarchives.bgu.ac.il/moreshet/ben_gurion/horshi.html |title=Ben-Gurion's road to the State |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060215143209/http://bgarchives.bgu.ac.il/moreshet/ben_gurion/horshi.html |archive-date=15 February 2006 |publisher=Ben-Gurion Archives|language=he}}</ref> About 10% of the Jewish population of Palestine volunteered for the British Armed Forces, including many women. At the same time Ben-Gurion assisted the illegal immigration of thousands of European Jewish refugees to Palestine during a period when the British placed heavy restrictions on Jewish immigration.

In 1944, the [[Irgun]] and [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]], two Jewish right-wing armed groups, declared [[Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine|a rebellion]] against British rule and began attacking British administrative and police targets. Ben-Gurion and other mainstream Zionist leaders opposed armed action against the British, and after Lehi assassinated [[Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne|Lord Moyne]], the British Minister of State in the Middle East, decided to stop it by force. While Lehi was convinced to suspend operations, the Irgun refused and as a result, the [[Haganah]] began supplying intelligence to the British enabling them to arrest Irgun members, and abducting and often torturing Irgun members, handing some over to the British while keeping others detained in secret Haganah prisons. This campaign, which was called the [[The Saison|Saison]] or "Hunting Season", left the Irgun unable to continue operations as they struggled to survive. Irgun leader [[Menachem Begin]] ordered his fighters not to retaliate so as to prevent a civil war. The Saison became increasingly controversial in the Yishuv, including within the ranks of the Haganah, and it was aborted at the end of March 1945.<ref name=Hoffman>[[Bruce Hoffman|Hoffman, Bruce]]: ''Anonymous Soldiers'' (2015)</ref><ref name=Bell>[[J. Bowyer Bell|Bell, Bowyer J.]]: ''Terror out of Zion'' (1976)</ref>

At the end of World War II, the Zionist leadership in Palestine had expected a British decision to establish a Jewish state. However, it became clear that the British had no intention of immediately establishing a Jewish state and that limits on Jewish immigration would remain for the time being. As a result, with Ben-Gurion's approval the Haganah entered into a secret alliance with the Irgun and Lehi called the [[Jewish Resistance Movement]] in October 1945 and participated in attacks against the British. In June 1946, the British launched [[Operation Agatha]], a large police and military operation throughout Palestine, searching for arms and arresting Jewish leaders and Haganah members in order to stop the attacks and find documentary evidence of the alliance the British suspected existed between the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi. The British had intended to detain Ben-Gurion during the operation but he was visiting Paris at the time. The British stored the documents they had captured from the Jewish Agency headquarters in the [[King David Hotel]], which was being used as a military and administrative headquarters. Ben-Gurion agreed to the Irgun's plan to bomb the King David Hotel in order to destroy incriminating documents that Ben-Gurion feared would prove that the Haganah had been participating in the violent insurrection against the British in cooperation with the Irgun and Lehi with the approval of himself and other Jewish Agency officials. However, Ben-Gurion asked that the operation be delayed, but the Irgun refused. The Irgun carried out the [[King David Hotel bombing]] in July 1946, killing 91 people. Ben-Gurion publicly condemned the bombing. In the aftermath of the bombing, Ben-Gurion ordered that the Jewish Resistance Movement be dissolved. From then on, the Irgun and Lehi continued to regularly attack the British, but the Haganah rarely did so, and while Ben-Gurion along with other mainstream Zionist leaders publicly condemned the Irgun and Lehi attacks, in practice the Haganah under their direction rarely cooperated with the British in attempting to suppress the insurgency.<ref name=Hoffman/><ref name=Bell/><ref>[[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]], ''A History of the Jews'', p. 523.</ref>

Due to the Jewish insurgency, bad publicity over the restriction of Jewish immigrants to Palestine, non-acceptance of a partitioned state (as suggested by the United Nations) amongst Arab leaders, and the cost of keeping 100,000 troops in Palestine the British Government referred the matter to the United Nations. In September 1947, the British decided to terminate the Mandate. In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution approving the [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine]]. While the Jewish Agency under Ben-Gurion accepted, the Arabs rejected the plan and the [[1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine]] broke out. Ben-Gurion's strategy was for the Haganah to hold on to every position with no retreat or surrender and then launch an offensive when British forces had evacuated to such an extent that there would be no more danger of British intervention. This strategy was successful, and by May 1948 Jewish forces were winning the civil war. On 14 May 1948, a few hours before the British Mandate officially terminated, Ben-Gurion [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|declared Israeli independence]] in a ceremony in Tel Aviv. A few hours later, the State of Israel officially came into being when the British Mandate terminated on 15 May. The [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]] began immediately afterwards as numerous Arab nations then invaded Israel.<ref name=Bell/>

=== Attitude towards conquering the West Bank ===
[[File:Flickr - Israel Defense Forces - Life of Lt. Gen. Yitzhak Rabin, 7th IDF Chief of Staff in photos (17).jpg|thumb|David Ben-Gurion with [[Yigal Allon]] and [[Yitzhak Rabin]] in the [[Negev]], during the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]]]]

After the ten-day campaign during the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War|1948 war]], the Israelis were militarily superior to their enemies and the Cabinet subsequently considered where and when to attack next.<ref name="BM315">Benny Morris (2008), pp. 315–316.</ref> On 24 September, an incursion made by the Palestinian irregulars in the Latrun sector, killing 23 Israeli soldiers, precipitated the debate. On 26 September, Ben-Gurion put his argument to the Cabinet to attack Latrun again and conquer the whole or a large part of West Bank.<ref name="autogenerated1967">Benny Morris (2008), p. 317.</ref><ref>Uri Ben-Eliezer, ''The Making of Israeli Militarism'', Indiana University Press, 1998, p. 185 writes: "Ben-Gurion describes to the Minister his plans to conquer the entire West Bank, involving warfare against entire Jordan's Arab Legion, but to his surprise the ministers rejected his proposal."</ref><ref name="BG-latrun"/><ref name="Benny Morris 2008, p. 318">Benny Morris (2008), p. 318.</ref> The motion was rejected by a vote of seven to five after discussions.<ref name="Benny Morris 2008, p. 318"/> Ben-Gurion qualified the cabinet's decision as {{transliteration|he|bechiya ledorot}} ("a source of lament for generations") considering Israel may have lost forever the Old City of Jerusalem.<ref>Mordechai Bar-On, ''Never-Ending Conflict: Israeli Military History'', Stackpole Books, 2006, p. 60 writes: "Originally, this was an idiom that Ben-Gurion used after the government rejected his demand to attack the Legion and occupy Samaria in the wake of a Mujuhidin's attack near Latrun in September 1948."</ref><ref>Yoav Gelber, ''Israeli-Jordanian Dialogue, 1948–1953'', Sussex Academic Press, 2004, p. 2.</ref><ref name="autogenerated1968">Benny Morris (2008), pp. 315.</ref>

There is a controversy around these events. According to Uri Bar-Joseph, Ben-Gurion placed a plan that called for a limited action aimed at the conquest of Latrun, and not for an all-out offensive. According to David Tal, in the cabinet meeting, Ben-Gurion reacted to what he had been just told by a delegation from Jerusalem. He points out that this view that Ben-Gurion had planned to conquer the West Bank is unsubstantiated in both Ben-Gurion's diary and in the Cabinet protocol.<ref name="Shalom2002p155"/><ref name="Shalom2002p160"/><ref name="Tal2004p406"/><ref name="Bar-Joseph2013p115"/>

The topic came back at the end of the 1948 war, when General Yigal Allon also proposed the conquest of the West Bank up to the Jordan River as the natural, defensible border of the state. This time, Ben-Gurion refused although he was aware that the IDF was militarily strong enough to carry out the conquest. He feared the reaction of Western powers and wanted to maintain good relations with the United States and not to provoke the British. Moreover, in his opinion the results of the war were already satisfactory and Israeli leaders had to focus on the building of a nation.<ref name="Shapira2014p173"/><ref name="Morris2009p79"/><ref name="Shalom2002p174"/>

According to Benny Morris, "Ben-Gurion got cold feet during the war. ... If [he] had carried out a large expulsion and cleansed the whole country -the whole Land of Israel, as far as the Jordan River. It may yet turn out that this was his fatal mistake. If he had carried out a full expulsion rather than a partial one- he would have stabilized the State of Israel for generations."<ref>Ari Shavit, ''Survival of the fittest : An Interview with Benny Morris'', Ha'aretz Friday Magazine, 9 January 2004.</ref>

=== Religious parties and status quo ===
In order to prevent the coalescence of the religious right, the Histadrut agreed to a vague status quo agreement with [[Mizrachi (political party)|Mizrahi]] in 1935.

Ben-Gurion was aware that world Jewry could and would only feel comfortable to throw their support behind the nascent state if it was shrouded with religious mystique. That would include an orthodox tacit acquiescence to the entity. Therefore, in September 1947 Ben-Gurion decided to reach a formal [[Status quo (Israel)|status quo agreement]] with the Orthodox [[Agudat Yisrael]] party. He sent a letter to Agudat Yisrael stating that while being committed to establishing a non-[[theocracy|theocratic]] state with freedom of religion, he promised that the [[Shabbat]] would be Israel's official day of rest, that in state-provided kitchens there would be access to [[Kashrut|kosher]] food, that every effort would be made to provide a single jurisdiction for Jewish family affairs, and that each sector would be granted autonomy in the sphere of education, provided minimum standards regarding the curriculum be observed.<ref>[http://w3.kfar-olami.org.il/asaf/pedagogical/ezrahut/status.doc The Status Quo Letter] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716140145/http://w3.kfar-olami.org.il/asaf/pedagogical/ezrahut/status.doc |date=16 July 2011 }}, in Hebrew</ref> To a large extent this agreement provided the framework for religious affairs in Israel till the present day, and is often used as a benchmark regarding the arrangement of religious affairs in Israel.

=== Religious belief ===
Ben-Gurion described himself as an [[irreligious]] person who developed [[atheism]] in his youth and who demonstrated no great sympathy for the elements of traditional Judaism, though he quoted the Bible extensively in his speeches and writings.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/biography-david-ben-gurion/5810.aspx|title=Biography: David Ben-Gurion: For the Love of Zion|website=vision.org|access-date=31 August 2018}}</ref> Modern Orthodox philosopher [[Yeshayahu Leibowitz]] considered Ben-Gurion "to have hated Judaism more than any other man he had met".<ref name="CmPrior2012">{{cite book|author1=Michael Prior|title=Zionism and the State of Israel: A Moral Inquiry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mg_9qEmkISsC&pg=PT293|access-date=20 May 2013|date=12 November 2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-62877-3|pages=293–}}</ref> He was proud of the fact that he had only set foot in a synagogue once in Israel,<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Zvi Zameret|author2= Moshe Tlamim |year=1999 |title= Judaism in Israel: Ben-Gurion's Private Beliefs and Public Policy  |publisher= Indiana University Press|journal= Israel Studies|volume= 4. Fall, 1999|issue=2|pages=64–89|jstor= 30245511 |quote="He prided himself on not having set foot inside a synagogue in Eretz Israel, except on one occasion: "Only once did I go inside, when independence was declared, at the request of Rabbi Bar-Ilan of the Mizrachi Party. However, he added, when abroad he enjoyed attending synagogue on Sabbath. Away from Israel his tastes changed: he viewed the synagogue as a natural meeting place for Jewish brethren, a kind of community center."}}</ref> worked on [[Yom Kippur]] and ate pork.<ref name="Segev2019"/>

In later time, Ben-Gurion refused to define himself as "secular", and he regarded himself a believer in God. In a 1970 interview, he described himself as a [[pantheism|pantheist]], and stated that "I don't know if there's an afterlife. I think there is."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kinsolving |first1=Lester |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19700131&id=n8tNAAAAIBAJ&pg=7266,3292043&hl=en |title=An Interview with David Ben Gurion |newspaper=The Free Lance-Star |date=21 January 1970 |via=Google News |access-date=31 August 2018}}</ref> In 1969 he combined his Zionism with a moderate religious view: "In 1948 the establishment of a Hebrew state and the independence of Israel were declared, because our people were sure that their prayer would be answered if they would return to the land".<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Ben-Gurion | first1 = David | title = Ben-Gurion looks at the Bible | publisher= [[W. H. Allen & Co.|W. H. Allen]] (translated by Kolatch, Jonathan from "Iyunim BaTanach" (Original Hebrew edition, 1969)) | date = 1972  | isbn=0491-00603-9| page = 289 }}</ref> During an interview with the leftist weekly ''Hotam'' two years before his death, he revealed, "I too have a deep faith in the Almighty. I believe in one God, the omnipotent Creator. My consciousness is aware of the existence of material and spirit ... [But] I cannot understand how order reigns in nature, in the world and universe{{Emdash}}unless there exists a superior force. This supreme Creator is beyond my comprehension . . . but it directs everything."<ref name="muse.jhu.edu">{{cite journal|title=Judaism in Israel: Ben-Gurion's Private Beliefs and Public Policy|first1=Tsevi|last1=Tsameret|first2=Moshe|last2=Tlamim|date=1 July 1999|journal=Israel Studies|volume=4|issue=2|pages=64–89|doi=10.1353/is.1999.0016|s2cid=144777972}}</ref>

In a letter to the writer Eliezer Steinman, he wrote "Today, more than ever, the 'religious' tend to relegate Judaism to observing dietary laws and preserving the Sabbath. This is considered religious reform. I prefer the Fifteenth Psalm, lovely are the psalms of Israel. The Shulchan Aruch is a product of our nation's life in the Exile. It was produced in the Exile, in conditions of Exile. A nation in the process of fulfilling its every task, physically and spiritually ... must compose a 'New Shulchan'—and our nation's intellectuals are required, in my opinion, to fulfill their responsibility in this."<ref name="muse.jhu.edu"/>

== Military leadership ==
[[File:Ben Gurion at First Fighter Squadron.jpg|thumb|right|David Ben-Gurion visits [[101 Squadron (Israel)|101 Squadron, the "First Fighter Squadron"]].]]

During the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]] Ben-Gurion oversaw the nascent state's military operations. During the first weeks of Israel's independence, he ordered all militias to be replaced by one national army, the [[Israel Defense Forces]] (IDF). To that end, Ben-Gurion used a firm hand during the [[Altalena Affair]], a ship carrying arms purchased by the [[Irgun]] led by Menachem Begin. He insisted that all weapons be handed over to the IDF. When fighting broke out on the Tel Aviv beach he ordered it be taken by force and to shell the ship. Sixteen Irgun fighters and three IDF soldiers were killed in this battle. Following the policy of a unified military force, he also ordered that the [[Palmach]] headquarters be disbanded and its units be integrated with the rest of the IDF, to the chagrin of many of its members. By absorbing the Irgun force into Israel's IDF, the Israelis eliminated competition and the central government controlled all military forces within the country. His attempts to reduce the number of [[Mapam]] members in the senior ranks led to the [[The General's Revolt|"Generals' Revolt"]] in June 1948.

As head of the [[Jewish Agency for Palestine|Jewish Agency]] from 1935, Ben-Gurion was de facto leader of the Jewish population even before the state was declared. In this position, Ben-Gurion played a major role in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. When the IDF archives and others were opened in the late 1980s, scholars started to reconsider the events and the role of Ben-Gurion.<ref>See e.g. [[Benny Morris]], the ''Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem'' and ''The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited''</ref>{{Clarify|date=January 2015}}

David Ben-Gurion oversaw and approved Israel's [[biological warfare]] poisoning operations against [[Palestinians|Palestinian Arab]] civilians in [[Operation Cast Thy Bread]] during the 1948 war. The poisoning operations involved targeting dozens of Palestinian water wells with typhoid and dysentery bacteria, as well as the aqueducts in Palestinian cities such as [[Acre, Israel|Acre]]. These operations caused typhoid epidemics and mass infections.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last1=Morris |first1=Benny |author-link1=Benny Morris |last2=Kedar |first2=Benjamin Z. |author-link2=Benjamin Z. Kedar |date=2023 |title='Cast thy bread': Israeli biological warfare during the 1948 War |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00263206.2022.2122448 |journal=[[Middle Eastern Studies (journal)|Middle Eastern Studies]] |language=en |volume=59 |issue=5 |pages=752–776 |doi=10.1080/00263206.2022.2122448 |issn=0026-3206 |s2cid=252389726|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Aderet |first=Ofer |date=14 October 2022 |title='Place the Material in the Wells': Docs Point to Israeli Army's 1948 Biological Warfare |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-10-14/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/documents-confirm-israelis-poisoned-arab-wells-in-1948/00000183-d2b2-d8cc-afc7-fefed64d0000 |access-date=7 September 2024 |work=Haaretz}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Documents Reveal Israeli Army Poisoned Water Wells in Palestinian Towns During 1948 War |url=https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3932421/documents-reveal-israeli-army-poisoned-water-wells-palestinian-towns-during |access-date=28 August 2024 |website=english.aawsat.com |language=en}}</ref>

===Plan Dalet===
{{Main|Plan Dalet}}

Plan Dalet was a plan worked out by the [[Haganah]] in [[Mandatory Palestine]] in March 1948, requested by Ben Gurion, consisting of a set of guidelines to take control of Mandatory Palestine, declare a Jewish state, and defend its borders and people, including the Jewish population outside of the borders, "before, and in anticipation of" the invasion by regular Arab armies.<ref name="Tal">{{cite book |author=David Tal|title=War in Palestine, 1948: strategy and diplomacy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_F8YXt3EKQC&pg=PA165 |year=2004 |publisher=Psychology Press |pages=165–|isbn=978-0-203-49954-2}}</ref><ref name="Morris.The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited">{{cite book|author=Benny Morris|title=The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Benny Morris, Cambridge University Press, pg 155}}</ref> According to the Israeli [[Yehoshafat Harkabi]], Plan Dalet called for the conquest of Arab towns and villages inside and along the borders of the area allocated to the proposed Jewish State in the [[UN Partition Plan]].<ref name="Harkabi">{{cite book |author=Yehoshafat Harkabi |title=Arab Attitudes to Israel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ocybbUgguOEC&pg=PA366 |access-date=12 April 2011 |date=June 1974 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |isbn=978-0-470-35203-8 |pages=366–}}</ref> In case of resistance, the population of conquered villages was to be expelled outside the borders of the Jewish state. If no resistance was met, the residents could stay put, under military rule.<ref name="gelber2006p306">{{cite book|author=Yoav Gelber|title=Palestine 1948: War, Escape And The Emergence Of The Palestinian Refugee Problem|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UcSUgrDsD_sC|access-date=13 July 2013|date=1 January 2006|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-84519-075-0|pages=306| quote=Instructions called for demolition of villages that could not be held permanently. Another paragraph detailed the method for taking over an Arab village: Surround the village and search it (for weapons). In case of resistance—annihilate the armed force and expel the population beyond the border... If there is no resistance, a garrison should be stationed in the village ... The garrison commander should expropriate all weapons, radio receivers and vehicles. All political suspects should be arrested. After consulting the appropriate political authorities, appoint local institutions for administering the village internal affairs.  The text clarified unequivocally that expulsion concerned only those villages that would fight against the Hagana and resist occupation, and not all Arab hamlets. Similar guidelines related to the occupation of Arab neighborhoods in mixed towns.  In his article written in 1961, Khalidi and those who followed in his footsteps presented the guideline instructing the Hagana units to expel the Arab villagers as the principal issue of Plan D. Furthermore, they have distorted its meaning by portraying it as a general order embracing all Arabs in all villages. The text, however, is clear enough: reading Plan D as it is, without deconstructing it to change its meaning, show that there is no correlation between the actual text, and the significance, background and outcomes that the Palestinian scholars and their Israeli colleagues assign it. These paragraphs of Plan D were of marginal significance, and their contribution to shaping a policy towards the Arab population was immaterial. Arab policies were decided either locally, by commanders in the field and their local advisors on Arab affairs, or by the Arabists within Ben- Gurion’s inner circle of advisors who advised their superiors. Ber, Pasternak and even Yadin did not pretend to be authorities on Arab affairs or any other issues of high policy. Their concerns were just military, and the scheme’s purpose was preparing for the Arab invasion, not expelling the Palestinians.}}</ref><ref name="MEW">MidEast Web, [http://www.mideastweb.org/pland.htm ''Plan Daleth (Plan D)'']</ref><ref name="Gelber2006">{{cite book |author=Yoav Gelber |title=Palestine, 1948: war, escape and the emergence of the Palestinian refugee problem |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UcSUgrDsD_sC&pg=PA98 |access-date=14 April 2011 |date=January 2006 |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |isbn=978-1-84519-075-0 |pages=98–}}</ref><ref name="Diplo">[http://mondediplo.com/1997/12/palestine Ten years of research into the 1947-49 war - The expulsion of the Palestinians re-examined]. By Dominique Vidal. ''[[Le Monde diplomatique]]''. December 1997.</ref>

The intent of Plan Dalet has been long debated by historians. Some assert that it was entirely defensive {{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}, while others say it was a deliberate plan with the purpose of expulsion or [[ethnic cleansing]] {{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}.

== Founding of Israel ==
[[File:Declaration of State of Israel 1948 2.jpg|thumb|left|David Ben-Gurion proclaiming independence beneath a portrait of [[Theodor Herzl]], founder of modern [[Zionism]]]]

On 14 May 1948, on the last day of the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate]], Ben-Gurion declared [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|the independence of the State of Israel]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sherzer |first=Adi |date=January 2021 |title=The Jewish past and the 'birth' of the Israeli nation state: The case of Ben-Gurion's Independence Day speeches |editor1-last=Kedourie |editor1-first=Helen |editor2-last=Kelly |editor2-first=Saul |journal=[[Middle Eastern Studies (journal)|Middle Eastern Studies]] |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=310–326 |doi=10.1080/00263206.2020.1862801 |s2cid=231741621 |eissn=1743-7881 |issn=0026-3206 |lccn=65009869 |oclc=875122033}}</ref> In the Israeli declaration of independence, he stated that the new nation would "uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of religion, race".

In his War Diaries in February 1948, Ben-Gurion wrote: "The war shall give us the land. The concepts of 'ours' and 'not ours' are peace concepts only, and they lose their meaning during war."<ref name="Mêrôn Benveniśtî 1948, p. 120">Mêrôn Benveniśtî, ''Sacred landscape: the buried history of the Holy Land since 1948'', p. 120</ref> Also later he confirmed this by stating that, "In the Negev we shall not buy the land. We shall conquer it. You forget that we are at war."<ref name="Mêrôn Benveniśtî 1948, p. 120"/> The Arabs, meanwhile, also vied with Israel over the control of territory by means of war, while the Jordanian ''[[Arab Legion]]'' had decided to concentrate its forces in [[Bethlehem]] and in [[Hebron]] in order to save that district for its Arab inhabitants, and to prevent territorial gains for Israel.<ref>Sir [[John Bagot Glubb]], ''A Soldier with the Arabs'', London 1957, p. 200</ref> Israeli historian [[Benny Morris]] has written of the massacres of Palestinian Arabs in 1948, and has stated that Ben-Gurion "covered up for the officers who did the massacres."<ref>[[Ari Shavit]][https://www.haaretz.com/survival-of-the-fittest-1.61345 'Survival of the fittest,'] [[Haaretz]] 8 January 2004:"The worst cases were [[Saliha]] (70–80 killed), [[Deir Yassin]] (100–110), Lod (250), [[Dawayima]] (hundreds) and perhaps [[Abu Shusha]] (70). There is no unequivocal proof of a large-scale massacre at [[Tantura]], but war crimes were perpetrated there. At Jaffa there was a massacre about which nothing had been known until now. The same at Arab al Muwassi, in the north. About half of the acts of massacre were part of [[Operation Hiram]] [in the north, in October 1948]: at [[Safsaf]], Saliha, [[Jish]], [[Eilaboun]], Arab al Muwasi, [[Deir al-Asad|Deir al Asad]], [[Majd al-Krum|Majdal Krum]], [[Sa'sa'|Sasa]]. In [[Operation Hiram]] there was a unusually high concentration of executions of people against a wall or next to a well in an orderly fashion.That can't be chance. It's a pattern. Apparently, various officers who took part in the operation understood that the expulsion order they received permitted them to do these deeds in order to encourage the population to take to the roads. The fact is that no one was punished for these acts of murder. ''Ben-Gurion silenced the matter. He '''covered up''' for the officers who did the massacres''."</ref>

[[File:Truman receives menorah.jpg|thumb|U.S. President [[Harry S. Truman]] in the Oval Office, receiving a [[Menorah (Hanukkah)|Menorah]] as a gift from the Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion (center). To the right is [[Abba Eban]], the Ambassador of Israel to the United States.]]

===First tenure as prime minister===
After leading Israel during the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]], Ben-Gurion was elected [[Prime Minister of Israel]] when his Mapai (Labour) party won the largest number of [[Knesset]] seats in the first national election, held on 14 February 1949. He remained in that post until 1963, except for a period of nearly two years between 1954 and 1955. As prime minister, he oversaw the establishment of the state's institutions. He presided over various national projects aimed at the rapid development of the country and its population: [[Operation Magic Carpet (Yemen)|Operation Magic Carpet]], the airlift of Jews from Arab countries, the construction of the [[National Water Carrier of Israel|National Water Carrier]], rural development projects and the establishment of new towns and cities. In particular, he called for pioneering settlement in outlying areas, especially in the [[Negev]]. Ben-Gurion saw the struggle to make the Negev desert bloom as an area where the Jewish people could make a major contribution to humanity as a whole.<ref name=bgarchives/> He believed that the sparsely populated and barren Negev desert offered a great opportunity for the Jews to settle in Palestine with minimal obstruction of the Arab population,{{dubious|I moved this sentence from "Zionist leadership" paragraph. It seems to fit here, except for the "obstruction of the Arab population" bit, and the URL leads to dead link...|date=May 2015}} and set a personal example by settling in kibbutz [[Sde Boker]] at the center of the Negev.<ref name=bgarchives>{{Cite web |url=http://bgarchives.bgu.ac.il/moreshet/ben_gurion/mash.html |title=Importance of the Negev |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223082404/http://bgarchives.bgu.ac.il/moreshet/ben_gurion/mash.html |archive-date=23 February 2007 |author=David Ben-Gurion |date=17 January 1955|language=he}}</ref>

====Reprisal operations====
{{See also|Reprisal operations|Qibya massacre}}

[[File:Haifa (997008136360005171).jpg|thumb|right|Ben-Gurion at the Parade of the Israel Defense Forces in 1953, Haifa]]

During this period, [[Palestinian fedayeen]] repeatedly infiltrated into Israel from Arab territory. In 1953, after a handful of unsuccessful retaliatory actions, Ben-Gurion charged [[Ariel Sharon]], then security chief of the northern region, with setting up a new commando unit designed to respond to fedayeen infiltrations. Ben-Gurion told Sharon, "The Palestinians must learn that they will pay a high price for Israeli lives." Sharon formed [[Unit 101]], a small commando unit answerable directly to the [[General Staff (Israel)|IDF General Staff]] tasked with retaliating for fedayeen raids. During its five months of existence, the unit launched repeated raids against military targets and villages used as bases by the fedayeen.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.specwar.info/special-forces/israel/unit-101/ |title=Unit 101 (Israel) &#124; Specwar.info &#124;&#124; |publisher=En.specwar.info |access-date=9 September 2012}}</ref> These attacks became known as the [[reprisal operations]]. One such operation gained international condemnation of Israel, after an Israeli army attack on the village of [[Qibya]] in the then Jordanian-ruled [[West Bank]], ended with a massacre of 69 Palestinian villagers, two thirds of them women and children.<ref name=uneasy>{{citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G820rBq299AC&pg=PA191|page=191|title=An Uneasy Relationship: American Jewish Leadership And Israel, 1948–1957|first=Zvi|last=Ganin|publisher=Syracuse University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-8156-3051-7}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CW7GbiUkri0C&pg=PA91| last = Shlaim| first = Avi| title = The Iron Wall| publisher = Norton  | year = 1999  | isbn = 978-0-393-04816-2|page=91}}</ref><ref name="Benny Morris 1993, pp. 258-9">Benny Morris, ''Israel's Border Wars, 1949–1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation and the Countdown to the Suez War'', Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. 258–9.</ref> Ben Gurion denied involvement of the army and placed blame on Israeli civilians, a fabrication which was repeated by him at the UN. He was seen as having protected involved subordinates in the military from accountability.<ref name="BG">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcAwCwAAQBAJ|title=The International Diplomacy of Israel's Founders|author=John Quigley|year=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-13873-5 }}</ref>

===Acting prime minister===
In 1953, Ben-Gurion announced his intention to withdraw from government and was replaced by [[Moshe Sharett]], who was elected the second Prime Minister of Israel in January 1954. However, Ben-Gurion temporarily served as acting prime minister when Sharett visited the United States in 1955. During Ben-Gurion's tenure as acting prime minister, the IDF carried out [[Operation Olive Leaves]], a successful attack on fortified Syrian emplacements near the northeastern shores of the [[Sea of Galilee]]. The operation was a response to Syrian attacks on Israeli fishermen. Ben-Gurion had ordered the operation without consulting the [[Cabinet of Israel|Israeli cabinet]] and seeking a vote on the matter, and Sharett would later bitterly complain that Ben-Gurion had exceeded his authority.<ref>Vital (2001), p. 182</ref>

===Second tenure as prime minister===
[[File:Ben Gurion 1959.jpg|thumb|Ben-Gurion in 1959]]
[[File:Kennedy&Gurion.jpg|thumb|[[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] and Ben-Gurion in 1961]]
[[File:דוד בן גוריון נואם בועידת רפ'"י 1965, צלם משה פרידן לע"מ.jpg|thumb|Ben-Gurion addressing an election meeting of [[Rafi (political party)|Rafi]] party in [[Hadar Yosef]] in 1965]]

Ben-Gurion returned to government in 1955. He assumed the post of defence minister and was soon re-elected prime minister. When he returned to government, Israeli forces began responding more aggressively to Egyptian-sponsored Palestinian guerrilla attacks from Gaza, which was under Egyptian rule. Egypt's President [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] signed the [[Egyptian-Czech arms deal]] and purchased a large number of modern arms. The Israelis responded by arming themselves with help from France. Nasser blocked the passage of Israeli ships through the [[Straits of Tiran]] and the Suez Canal. In July 1956, the United States and Britain withdrew their offer to fund the Aswan High Dam project on the Nile and a week later, Nasser ordered the nationalisation of the French and British-controlled Suez Canal. In late 1956, the bellicosity of Arab statements prompted Israel to remove the threat of the concentrated Egyptian forces in the Sinai, and Israel invaded the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. Other Israeli aims were elimination of the fedayeen incursions into Israel that made life unbearable for its southern population and opening the blockaded [[Straits of Tiran]] for Israeli ships.<ref name="ShemeshTroen2005p5"/><ref name="Alteras1993p192"/><ref name="Caraccilo2011p113"/><ref name="Dowty2005p102"/><ref name="Bickerton2009p101"/> Israel occupied much of the peninsula within a few days. As agreed beforehand, within a couple of days, Britain and France invaded too, aiming at regaining Western control of the [[Suez Canal]] and removing the Egyptian president Nasser. The United States pressure forced the British and French to back down and Israel to withdraw from Sinai in return for free Israeli navigation through the Red Sea. The United Nations responded by establishing its first peacekeeping force, ([[United Nations Emergency Force|UNEF]]).  It was stationed between Egypt and Israel and for the next decade it maintained peace and stopped the fedayeen incursions into Israel.

In 1957, Ben-Gurion was injured by a grenade thrown into the Knesset plenum by a troubled Jewish immigrant from Syria, [[Moshe Dwek]], who claimed that nobody was being attentive to his needs.<ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-12-07/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/newly-recovered-historic-treasure-reveals-david-ben-gurions-unlikely-correspondence/00000193-9fb4-ddde-addb-ffb6cedc0000 Newly Recovered Historic Treasure Reveals David Ben-Gurion's Unlikely Correspondence With His Would-be Assassin]</ref>

In 1959, Ben-Gurion learned from West German officials of reports that the notorious Nazi war criminal, [[Adolf Eichmann]], was likely living in hiding in Argentina. In response, Ben-Gurion ordered the Israel foreign intelligence service, the [[Mossad]], to capture the international fugitive alive for trial in Israel. In 1960, the mission was accomplished, and Eichmann was tried and convicted in an internationally publicised [[Eichmann trial|trial]] for various offences including [[crimes against humanity]] and was subsequently executed in 1962.

Ben-Gurion is said to have been "nearly obsessed" with Israel's obtaining [[nuclear weapon]]s, feeling that a nuclear arsenal was the only way to counter the Arabs' superiority in numbers, space, and financial resources, and that it was the only sure guarantee of Israel's survival and the prevention of another [[Holocaust]].<ref>Zaki Shalom, ''Israel's Nuclear Option: Behind the Scenes Diplomacy Between Dimona and Washington'', (Portland, Ore.: Sussex Academic Press, 2005), p. 44</ref> During his final months as premier Ben-Gurion was engaged in a, now declassified, diplomatic standoff with the United States.<ref name="Haaretz2019">{{Cite news | url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-how-a-standoff-with-the-u-s-almost-blew-up-israel-s-nuclear-program-1.7193419 |title = How a Standoff with the U.S. Almost Blew up Israel's Nuclear Program|newspaper = Haaretz|date = 3 May 2019|last1 = Cohen|first1 = Avner}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2019-05-02/battle-letters-1963-john-f-kennedy-david-ben-gurion-levi-eshkol-us-inspections-dimona | title=The Battle of the Letters, 1963: John F. Kennedy, David Ben-Gurion, Levi Eshkol, and the U.S. Inspections of Dimona &#124; National Security Archive| date=29 April 2019}}</ref>

Ben-Gurion stepped down as prime minister on 16 June 1963. According to historian Yechiam Weitz, when he unexpectedly resigned:

<blockquote>He was asked to reconsider his decision by the cabinet. The country, however, seemed to have anticipated his move and, unlike the response to his resignation in 1953, no serious efforts were made to dissuade him from resigning.... [His reasons include] his political isolation, suspicion of colleagues and rivals, apparent inability to interact with the full spectrum of reality, and belief that his life's work was disintegrating. His resignation was not an act of farewell but another act of his personal struggle and possibly an indication of his mental state.<ref>Yechiam Weitz, "Taking Leave of the'Founding Father': Ben-Gurion's Resignation as Prime Minister in 1963". ''Middle Eastern Studies'' 37.2 (2001): 131–152, from Abstract at {{doi|10.1080/714004392}}</ref></blockquote>

Ben-Gurion chose [[Levi Eshkol]] as his successor. A year later a bitter rivalry developed between the two on the issue of the [[Lavon Affair]], a failed 1954 Israeli covert operation in Egypt. Ben-Gurion had insisted that the operation be properly investigated, while Eshkol refused. After failing to unseat Eshkol as Mapai party leader in the [[1965 Mapai leadership election]], Ben-Gurion subsequently broke with Mapai in June 1965 and formed a new party, [[Rafi (political party)|Rafi]], while Mapai merged with [[Ahdut HaAvoda]] to form [[Alignment (political party)|Alignment]], with Eshkol as its head. Alignment defeated Rafi in the November 1965 [[1965 Israeli legislative election|election]], establishing Eshkol as the country's leader.

== Later political career ==
[[File:David-Ben-Gurion-TIME-1948.jpg|thumb|upright|Ben-Gurion on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' (16 August 1948)]]

In May 1967, [[Egypt]] began massing forces in the [[Sinai Peninsula]] after expelling UN peacekeepers and closed the [[Straits of Tiran]] to Israeli shipping. This, together with the actions of other Arab states, caused Israel to begin preparing for war. The situation lasted until the outbreak of the [[Six-Day War]] on 5 June. In Jerusalem, there were calls for a [[national unity government]] or an emergency government. During this period, Ben-Gurion met with his old rival [[Menachem Begin]] in Sde Boker. Begin asked Ben-Gurion to join Eshkol's national unity government. Although Eshkol's [[Mapai]] party initially opposed the widening of its government, it eventually changed its mind.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3407901,00.html |title=The Six Day War – May 1967, one moment before |newspaper=Ynetnews |date=20 June 1995 |access-date=9 September 2012|last1=Druckman |first1=Yaron }}</ref> On 23 May, IDF Chief of Staff [[Yitzhak Rabin]] met with Ben-Gurion to ask for reassurance. Ben-Gurion, however, accused Rabin of putting Israel in mortal danger by mobilising the reserves and openly preparing for war with an Arab coalition. Ben-Gurion told Rabin that at the very least, he should have obtained the support of a foreign power, as he had done during the Suez Crisis. Rabin was shaken by the meeting and took to bed for 36 hours.{{citation needed|date=February 2014}}

After the Israeli government decided to go to war, planning a preemptive strike to destroy the Egyptian Air Force followed by a ground offensive, Defense Minister [[Moshe Dayan]] told Ben-Gurion of the impending attack on the night of 4–5 June. Ben-Gurion subsequently wrote in his diary that he was troubled by Israel's impending offensive. On 5 June, the [[Six-Day War]] began with [[Operation Focus]], an Israeli air attack that decimated the Egyptian air force. Israel then captured the Sinai Peninsula and [[Gaza Strip]] from Egypt, the [[West Bank]], including [[East Jerusalem]] from Jordan, and the [[Golan Heights]] from Syria in a series of campaigns. Following the war, Ben-Gurion was in favour of returning all the captured territories apart from East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and [[Mount Hebron]] as part of a peace agreement.<ref>Randolph Churchill, Winston Churchill, ''The Six Day War'', 1967 p. 199 citing ''The World at One'', BBC radio, 12 July 1967</ref>

On 11 June, Ben-Gurion met with a small group of supporters in his home. During the meeting, Defense Minister [[Moshe Dayan]] proposed autonomy for the West Bank, the transfer of Gazan refugees to Jordan, and a united Jerusalem serving as Israel's capital. Ben-Gurion agreed with him but foresaw problems in transferring Palestinian refugees from Gaza to Jordan, and recommended that Israel insist on direct talks with Egypt, favouring withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in exchange for peace and free navigation through the Straits of Tiran. The following day, he met with Jerusalem mayor [[Teddy Kollek]] in his Knesset office. Despite occupying a lower executive position, Ben-Gurion treated Kollek like a subordinate.<ref name="political struggle">Shalom, Zaki: ''Ben-Gurion's political struggles, 1963–1967''</ref>

Following the Six-Day War, Ben-Gurion criticised what he saw as the government's apathy towards the construction and development of the city. To ensure that a united Jerusalem remained in Israeli hands, he advocated a massive Jewish settlement programme for the Old City and the hills surrounding the city, as well as the establishment of large industries in the Jerusalem area to attract Jewish migrants. He argued that no Arabs would have to be evicted in the process.<ref name="political struggle"/> Ben-Gurion also urged extensive Jewish settlement in Hebron.

In 1968, when Rafi merged with Mapai to form the [[Alignment (political party)|Alignment]], Ben-Gurion refused to reconcile with his old party. He favoured electoral reforms in which a constituency-based system would replace what he saw as a chaotic proportional representation method. He formed another new party, the [[National List]], which won four seats in the [[1969 Israeli legislative election|1969 election]].

== Final years and death ==
[[File:Sde Boker (997008137110405171) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Ben-Gurion working in kibbutz Sde Boker, 1953]]
Ben-Gurion retired from politics in 1970 and spent his last years living in a modest home in kibbutz [[Sde Boker]], working on an 11-volume history of Israel's early years. In 1971, he visited Israeli positions along the [[Suez Canal]] during the [[War of Attrition]].

On 18 November 1973, shortly after the [[Yom Kippur War]], Ben-Gurion suffered a [[cerebral haemorrhage]], and was taken to [[Sheba Medical Center]] in [[Tel HaShomer]], Ramat Gan<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance -->. His condition began deteriorating on 23 November and he died a few days later, on 1 December.<ref>''The Evening Independent'' (1 December 1973 issue)</ref> His body lay in state in the Knesset compound before being flown by helicopter to Sde Boker. Sirens sounded across the country to mark his death. He was buried alongside his wife Paula in the [[Ben-Gurion Tomb National Park]] at [[Midreshet Ben-Gurion]]. <!-- presumably the person referred to (his body) is David Ben-Gurion and not his grandson; it's not entirely clear; perhaps the sentence about his grandson should be moved or rewritten for clarification; otherwise it makes it sound like his grandson's body is being referred to; I assume the sentence was put here because of the fact his grandson was wounded around the same time as Ben-Gurion died -->

== Awards ==
* In 1949, Ben-Gurion was awarded the [[Solomon Bublick Award]] of the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]], in recognition of his contributions to the State of Israel.<ref>"[https://www.jta.org/1949/08/10/archive/ben-gurion-receives-bublick-award-gives-it-to-university-as-prize-for-essay-on-plato Ben Gurion Receives Bublick Award; Gives It to University As Prize for Essay on Plato]" (10 August 1949). Jewish Telegraphic Agency. www.jta.org. Retrieved 1 July 2016.</ref>
* In both 1951 and 1971, he was awarded the [[Bialik Prize]] for Jewish thought.<ref name=bialik>{{cite web|url=http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Hebrew/_MultimediaServer/Documents/12516738.pdf |title=List of Bialik Prize recipients 1933–2004 |publisher=Tel Aviv Municipality website |language=he |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217143811/http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Hebrew/_MultimediaServer/Documents/12516738.pdf |archive-date=17 December 2007 }}</ref>

== Commemoration ==
* Israel's largest airport, [[Ben Gurion International Airport]], is named in his honour.
* One of Israel's major universities, [[Ben-Gurion University of the Negev]], located in [[Beersheva]], is named after him.
* Numerous streets, as well as schools, throughout Israel have been named after him.
* An Israeli modification of the British [[Centurion Tank]] was named after Ben-Gurion
* [[Ben Gurion's Hut|Ben-Gurion's Hut]] in Kibbutz [[Sde Boker]] which is now a visitors' center.
* A desert research center, [[Midreshet Ben-Gurion]], near his "hut" in Kibbutz [[Sde Boker]] has been named in his honour. Ben-Gurion's grave is in the research center.
* An [[English Heritage blue plaque]], unveiled in 1986, marks where Ben-Gurion lived in London at 75 [[Warrington Crescent]], [[Maida Vale]], W9.<ref name='EngHet'>{{cite web| url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/ben-gurion-david-1886-1973|title=Ben-Gurioin, David (1886–1973)|publisher=English Heritage| access-date=20 October 2012}}</ref>
* In the [[7th arrondissement of Paris]], part of a riverside promenade of the [[Seine]] is named after him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ejpress.org/article/43542|date=15 May 2010|access-date=10 November 2011|publisher=European Jewish Press|first=Joseph|last=Byron|title=Paris Mayor inaugurates David Ben-Gurion esplanade along Seine river, rejects protests|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405162528/http://www.ejpress.org/article/43542|archive-date=5 April 2012}}</ref>
* His portrait appears on both the 500 lirot<ref>{{cite web |url=http://banknote.ws/COLLECTION/countries/ASI/ISR/ISR0042.htm |title=BANKNOTE COLLECTION |publisher=Banknote.ws |access-date=3 August 2012}}</ref> and the 50 (old) sheqalim notes issued by the Bank of Israel.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://banknote.ws/COLLECTION/countries/ASI/ISR/ISR0046.htm |title=BANKNOTE COLLECTION |publisher=Banknote.ws |access-date=3 August 2012}}</ref>

== Controversies ==

Ben Gurion was among the Zionist leaders who prioritized Zionist goals over rescuing Jews during the Holocaust. 
The following 1938 quote by him summarizes this view: 
"''If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by transporting them to England, and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Israel, I would choose the second – because we are not only accounting for these children, but also for the history of the Jewish people.''"<ref>Quoted in Shabtai Teveth pp. 855–856</ref> Whereas at the time he probably could not have imagined the extent of the imminent great tragedy, the ideology remained a cornerstone of mainstream Zionist ideology all through the Holocaust.

When [[Revisionist Zionist]] founder [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] died visiting a Zionist self-defense camp in the Catskill region in 1940, he was buried in [[Farmingdale, New York]] in accordance to his will about being buried where he died while also wishing that his remains be "transferred to the Land of Israel only at the express order of the Jewish government of that country." Ben-Gurion had great animosity toward Jabotinsky (once calling him "Vladimir Hitler") and refused to allow his reburial in Israel after independence in the decade leading to his retirement in 1963.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.jta.org/archive/cabinet-refuses-to-bring-jabotinskys-remains-to-israel-for-reburial | title=Cabinet Refuses to Bring Jabotinsky's Remains to Israel for Reburial }}</ref> Much later, Prime Minister [[Levi Eshkol]] gave permission for reburial in Jerusalem's [[Mount Herzl]] in 1964.

== See also ==
* [[List of prime ministers of Israel]]
* [[List of Defense Ministers of Israel|List of defence ministers of Israel]]
* [[Jewish Agency for Israel]]
* [[Bialik Prize|List of Bialik Prize recipients]]
* [[Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="BG-latrun">{{cite web|title=Ben Gurion proposal to conquer Latrun, the cabinet meeting, 26 sept 1948 (hebrew)|url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4gkA1aknU64cHdtcFd2QmpFWXpibWhqVFYwR1VuamRXS3pF/view|website=Israel state archive blog|publisher=israelidocuments.blogspot.co.il/2015/02/1948.html (Hebrew)}}</ref>

<ref name="Shalom2002p155">{{cite book|author=Zaki Shalom|title=David Ben-Gurion, the State of Israel and the Arab World, 1949–1956|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KMTm5zOzUugC&pg=PA155|year=2002|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-902210-21-6|page=155|quote="A great satisfaction with the armistice borders…(Concerning the) area intended to pass into Israeli…(Ben Gurions') statements reveal the ambiguity over this subject"}}</ref>

<ref name="Shalom2002p160">{{cite book|author=Zaki Shalom|title=David Ben-Gurion, the State of Israel and the Arab World, 1949–1956|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KMTm5zOzUugC&pg=PA160|year=2002|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-902210-21-6|page=160 |quote="If BG had been fully convinced that the IDF should have fought more aggressively for Jerusalem and the surrounding area, then Sharet's opposition would not have stood in the way of government consent"}}</ref>

<ref name="Tal2004p406">{{cite book|author=David Tal|title=War in Palestine, 1948: Israeli and Arab Strategy and Diplomacy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vs2PAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA406|date=24 June 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-77513-1|pages=406–407|quote=Nothing of this sort appears in the diary he kept at the time or in the minutes of the Cabinet meeting from which he is ostensibly quoting... Ben Gurion once more raised the idea of conquering Latrun in the cabinet. Ben Gurion was in fact reacting to what he had been told by a delegation from Jerusalem... The "everlasting shame" view is unsubstantiated in both Ben Gurion's diary and in the Cabinet protocol.}}</ref>

<ref name="Bar-Joseph2013p115">{{cite book|author=Uri Bar-Joseph|title=The Best of Enemies: Israel and Transjordan in the War of 1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=db9mAgAAQBAJ|date=19 December 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-17010-3|page=115|quote=the plan place by BG before the government call not for an all-out offensive, but rather for a limited action aimed at the conquest of Latrun…more than 13 years later ..(he) claim that his proposal had been far more comprehensive}}</ref>

<ref name="Shapira2014p173">{{cite book|author=Anita Shapira|title=Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2eEdBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA173|date=25 November 2014|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-18273-6|pages=173–|quote=(Ben Gurion) He also did not flinch from provoking the United Nations by breaking the truce agreement. But the limit of his fearlessness was a clash with a Western power. Vainly, the right and Mapam accused him of defeatism. He did not flinch from confronting them but chose to maintain good relations with the United States, which he perceived as a potential ally of the new state, and also not to provoke the British lion, even though its fangs had been drawn. At the end of the war, when Yigal Allon, who represented the younger generation of commanders that had grown up in the war, demanded the conquest of the West Bank up to the Jordan River as the natural, defensible border of the state, Ben-Gurion refused. He recognized that the IDF was militarily strong enough to carry out the conquest, but he believed that the young state should not bite off more than it had already chewed. There was a limit to what the world was prepared to accept. Furthermore, the armistice borders—which later became known as the Green Line—were better than those he had dreamed of at the beginning of the war. In Ben-Gurion's opinion, in terms of territory Israel was satisfied. It was time to send the troops home and start work on building the new nation.}}</ref>

<ref name="Morris2009p79">{{cite book|author=Benny Morris|title=One state, two states: resolving the Israel/Palestine conflict|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ZztAAAAMAAJ|year=2009|publisher=Yale University Press|page=79|isbn=978-0-300-12281-7|quote=in March 1949, just before the signing of the Israel-Jordan armistice agreement, when IDF general Yigal Allon proposed conquering the West Bank, Ben-Gurion turned him down flat. Like most Israelis, Ben-Gurion had given up the dream}}</ref>

<ref name="Shalom2002p174">{{cite book|author=Zaki Shalom|title=David Ben-Gurion, the State of Israel and the Arab World, 1949–1956|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KMTm5zOzUugC&pg=PA174|year=2002|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-902210-21-6|pages=174–|quote="The clearest expression of this 'activist' approach is found in a "personal, top secret" letter sent by Yigal Allon to BG shortly after ... We cannot imagine a border more stable than the Jordan River, which runs the entire length of the country "}}</ref>

<ref name="ShemeshTroen2005p5">{{cite book|author1=Moshe Shemesh|author2=Selwyn Illan Troen|title=The Suez-Sinai Crisis: A Retrospective and Reappraisal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GNGPAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA185|date=5 October 2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-77863-7|page=5|quote=The aims were to be threefold: to remove the threat, wholly or partially, of the Egyptian rmy in the Sinai, to destroy the framework of the fedaiyyun, and to secure the freedom of navigation through the straits of Tiran.}}</ref>

<ref name="Alteras1993p192">{{cite book|author=Isaac Alteras|title=Eisenhower and Israel: U.S.-Israeli Relations, 1953–1960|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ydRHCPWngioC&pg=PA192|year=1993|publisher=University Press of Florida|isbn=978-0-8130-1205-6|pages=192–|quote=the removal of the Egyptian blockade of the Straits of Tiran at the entrance of the Gulf of Aqaba. The blockade closed Israel's sea lane to East Africa and the Far East, hindering the development of Israel's southern port of Eilat and its hinterland, the Nege. Another important objective of the Israeli war plan was the elimination of the terrorist bases in the Gaza Strip, from which daily fedayeen incursions into Israel made life unbearable for its southern population. And last but not least, the concentration of the Egyptian forces in the Sinai Peninsula, armed with the newly acquired weapons from the Soviet bloc, prepared for an attack on Israel. Here, Ben-Gurion believed, was a time bomb that had to be defused before it was too late.  Reaching the Suez Canal did not figure at all in Israel's war objectives.}}</ref>

<ref name="Dowty2005p102">{{cite book|author=Alan Dowty|title=Israel/Palestine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9iFxq6NPPgEC&pg=PA102|date=20 June 2005|publisher=Polity|isbn=978-0-7456-3202-5|pages=102–|quote=Gamal Abdel Nasser, who declared in one speech that "Egypt has decided to dispatch her heroes, the disciples of Pharaoh and the sons of Islam and they will cleanse the land of Palestine....There will be no peace on Israel's border because we demand vengeance, and vengeance is Israel's death."...The level of violence against Israelis, soldiers and civilians alike, seemed to be rising inexorably.}}</ref>

<ref name="Caraccilo2011p113">{{cite book|author=Dominic Joseph Caraccilo|title=Beyond Guns and Steel: A War Termination Strategy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FDA8dQyaQ9MC&pg=PA113|date=January 2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-39149-1|pages=113–|quote=The escalation continued with the Egyptian blockade of the Straits of Tiran, and Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal in July 1956. On October 14, Nasser made clear his intent:"I am not solely fighting against Israel itself. My task is to deliver the Arab world from destruction through Israel's intrigue, which has its roots abroad. Our hatred is very strong. There is no sense in talking about peace with Israel. There is not even the smallest place for negotiations." Less than two weeks later, on October 25, Egypt signed a tripartite agreement with Syria and Jordan placing Nasser in command of all three armies. The continued blockade of the Suez Canal and Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping, combined with the increased fedayeen attacks and the bellicosity of recent Arab statements, prompted Israel, with the backing of Britain and France, to attack Egypt on October 29, 1956.}}</ref>

<ref name="Bickerton2009p101">{{cite book|author=Ian J. Bickerton|title=The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Yca69_RUhMC&pg=PA101|date=15 September 2009|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1-86189-527-1|pages=101 |quote="(p. 101) To them the murderous fedayeen raids and constant harassment were just another form of Arab warfare against Israel...(p. 102) Israel's aims were to capture the Sinai peninsula in order to open the straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, and to seize the Gaza strip to end fedayeen attacks."}}</ref>

}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|2}}
* Aronson, Shlomo. "Leadership, preventive war and territorial expansion: David Ben-Gurion and Levi Eshkol." ''Israel Affairs'' 18.4 (2012): 526–545.
* Aronson, Shlomo. "David Ben-Gurion and the British Constitutional Model." ''Israel Studies'' 3.2 (1998): 193–214. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30245718 online]
* Aronson, Shlomo. "David Ben-Gurion, Levi Eshkol and the Struggle over Dimona: A Prologue to the Six-Day War and its (Un) Anticipated Results." ''Israel Affairs'' 15.2 (2009): 114–134.
* {{cite book |first=Shlomo |last=Aronson |title=David Ben-Gurion and the Jewish Renaissance |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-521-19748-9 }}.
* Cohen, Mitchell. "Zion and State: Nation, Class and the Shaping of Modern Israel" (Columbia University Press, 1987)
* Eldar, Eran. [https://www.academia.edu/42167563/David_Ben_Gurion_and_Golda_Meir_from_partnership_to_enmity "David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir: from partnership to enmity"] {{registration required}}. ''Israel Affairs'' 26.2 (2020): 174–182.
* Friling, Tuvia, and Ora Cummings. ''Arrows in the Dark: David Ben-Gurion, the Yishuv Leadership, and Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust'' (2 vol.; University of Wisconsin Press, 2005).
* Gal, Allon. ''David Ben-Gurion and the American Alignment for a Jewish State'' (Indiana UP, 1991).
* Getzoff, Joseph F. "Zionist frontiers: David Ben-Gurion, labor Zionism, and transnational circulations of settler development." ''Settler Colonial Studies'' 10.1 (2020): 74–93.
* Kedar, Nir. ''David Ben-Gurion and the Foundation of Israeli Democracy'' (Indiana UP, 2021).
* Oren, Michael B. "Ambivalent Adversaries: David Ben-Gurion and Israel vs. the United Nations and Dag Hammarskjold, 1956–57." ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 27.1 (1992): 89–127.
* Pappe, Ilan. "Moshe Sharett, David Ben‐Gurion and the 'Palestinian option,' 1948–1956." ''Studies in Zionism'' 7.1 (1986): 77–96.
* Peres, Shimon. ''Ben-Gurion'' (Schocken Pub.,  2011) {{ISBN|978-0-8052-4282-9}}.
* Reynold, Nick. ''The War of the Zionist Giants: David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).
* Rosenberg-Friedman, Lilach. "David Ben-Gurion and the 'Demographic Threat': His Dualistic Approach to Natalism, 1936–63." ''Middle Eastern Studies'' 51.5 (2015): 742–766.
* Sachar, Howard Morley. ''A history of Israel: From the rise of Zionism to our time'' (Knopf, 2007).
* St. John, Robert William. ''Builder of Israel; the story of Ben-Gurion'', (Doubleday, 1961) [https://archive.org/details/builderofisraels00stjo online]
* Segev, Tom. ''A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion'' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019) Finalist for 2019 National Jewish Book Award.
** Shatz, Adam, "We Are Conquerors" (review of [[Tom Segev]], ''A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion'', Head of Zeus, 2019, 804 pp., {{ISBN|978 1 78954 462 6}}), ''[[London Review of Books]]'', vol. 41, no. 20 (24 October 2019), pp.&nbsp;37–38, 40–42. "Segev's biography... shows how central exclusionary nationalism, war and racism were to Ben-Gurion's vision of the Jewish homeland in Palestine, and how contemptuous he was not only of the Arabs but of Jewish life outside Zion. Liberal Jews may look at the state that Ben-Gurion built, and ask if the cost has been worth it." (p.&nbsp;42 of Shatz's review.)
* {{cite book|first=Shabtai|last=Teveth|title=Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs: from peace to war|year=1985|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-503562-9}}
* {{cite book|first=Shabtai|last=Teveth|title=Ben-Gurion and the Holocaust|url=https://archive.org/details/bengurionholocau0000teve|url-access=registration|year=1996|publisher=Harcourt Brace & Co.|isbn=978-0-15-100237-5}}
* {{cite book|first=Shabtai|last=Teveth|title=The Burning Ground. A biography of David Ben-Gurion|year=1997|publisher= Schoken, Tel Aviv.}}
* Shapira, Anita. ''Ben-Gurion'' (Yale UP, 2014).
* Shiff, Ofer. "Abba Hillel Silver and David Ben‐Gurion: A Diaspora Leader Challenges the Revered Status of the 'Founding Father'" ''Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism'' 10.3 (2010): 391–412.
* Weitz, Yechiam. "The Founding Father and the General: David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan." ''Middle Eastern Studies'' 47.6 (2011): 845–861.
* Witzthum, David. "David Ben-Gurion and Konrad Adenauer: Building a Bridge across the Abyss." ''Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs'' 13.2 (2019): 223–237.
* Zweig, Ronald W. ''David Ben-Gurion: Politics and Leadership in Israel'' (Routledge, 2013).

=== Historiography ===
* Keren, Michael. "Biography and Historiography: The Case of David Ben-Gurion." ''Biography'' (2000): 332–351. {{JSTOR|23540133}}.
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
* {{MKlink|id=684}}
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/israel_at_50/profiles/81279.stm Special Report David Ben-Gurion]—[[BBC News]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061001222800/http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/people/bios/bg.html "David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973)"]—[[Jewish Agency for Israel]]
* [http://www.shapell.org/Collection/Jewish-Figures/Ben-Gurion-David David Ben-Gurion personal manuscripts]—[[Shapell Manuscript Foundation]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100505014035/http://alsos.wlu.edu/qsearch.aspx?browse=people%2FBen+Gurion%2C+David Annotated bibliography for David Ben-Gurion] from the [[Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120119073758/http://www.defeatist-diary.com/index.asp?p=lang_new10504&period=18%2F1%2F2011-25 March 2011 Ben-Gurion and Tewfik Toubi finally meet (28 October 1966)]
* {{PM20|FID=pe/001449}}

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{{s-ttl|title = Chairman, Provisional State Council|years=14–16 May 1948}}
{{s-aft|after = [[Chaim Weizmann]]}}
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{{S-ttl|title=[[Prime Minister of Israel]]|years=1948–1954}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Moshe Sharett]]}}
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{{S-ttl|title=[[Prime Minister of Israel]]|years=1955–1963}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Levi Eshkol]]}}
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{{s-ttl|title = [[Mapai|Leader of Mapai]]|years=1948–1954}}
{{s-aft|after = [[Moshe Sharett]]}}
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{{s-ttl|title = [[Mapai|Leader of Mapai]]|years=1955–1963}}
{{s-aft|after = [[Levi Eshkol]]}}
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{{s-ttl|title = [[Rafi (political party)|Leader of Rafi]]|years=1965–1968}}
{{s-aft|after = ceased to exist}}
{{s-bef|before = new party}}
{{s-ttl|title = [[National List|Leader of the National List]]|years=1968–1970}}
{{s-aft|after = [[Yigael Hurvitz]]}}
{{S-end}}
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[[Category:Jewish Israeli politicians]]
[[Category:Jewish Israeli writers]]
[[Category:Jewish Legion personnel]]
[[Category:Jewish socialists]]
[[Category:Jews from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Leaders of political parties in Israel]]
[[Category:Mandatory Palestine people of World War II]]
[[Category:Mapai leaders]]
[[Category:Members of the 1st Knesset (1949–1951)]]
[[Category:Members of the 2nd Knesset (1951–1955)]]
[[Category:Members of the 3rd Knesset (1955–1959)]]
[[Category:Members of the 4th Knesset (1959–1961)]]
[[Category:Members of the 5th Knesset (1961–1965)]]
[[Category:Members of the 6th Knesset (1965–1969)]]
[[Category:Members of the 7th Knesset (1969–1974)]]
[[Category:Members of the Assembly of Representatives (Mandatory Palestine)]]
[[Category:Ministers of defense of Israel]]
[[Category:Ministers of education of Israel]]
[[Category:Ministers of justice of Israel]]
[[Category:Ministers of transport of Israel]]
[[Category:National List politicians]]
[[Category:Pantheists]]
[[Category:People from Płońsk]]
[[Category:Poale Zion politicians]]
[[Category:Polish Ashkenazi Jews]]
[[Category:Polish Zionists]]
[[Category:Prime ministers of Israel]]
[[Category:Rafi (political party) politicians]]
[[Category:Royal Fusiliers soldiers]]
[[Category:Signatories of the Israeli Declaration of Independence]]
[[Category:Solomon Bublick Award recipients]]
[[Category:Writers on Zionism]]