Jerusalem – A Graveside Battle Over Ben Gurion’s Legacy

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    Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and President Reuven Rivlin (2nd L) chat as they attend the annual memorial ceremony for Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, in Sde Boker, southern Israel November 27, 2014. REUTERS/ Amir Cohen Jerusalem – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former President Shimon Peres engaged in a graveside war of words in their polarized interpretations of the legacy of Israel’s founding prime minister David Ben Gurion.

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    The battle, in the moderate tones of camouflage, took place in Sde Boker at the ceremony marking the 41st anniversary of Ben Gurion’s death.

    Netanyahu, citing Ben Gurion’s writings and public speeches, crafted an interpretation that appeared to more than justify his determination to continue pushing his “Jewish state bill,” while Peres, who has been Ben Gurion’s life-long disciple, spoke sharply against it.

    Peres started off by saying that he had come to honor the legacy of the first prime minister of Israel, his philosophy and his vision, but on this occasion he was visiting the grave with a trembling heart, because he was fearful of the cracks that threaten to split the nation.

    In his mind, Peres could hear Ben Gurion’s voice querying the possibility that in Israel there is any definitive difference between a Jewish and a democratic state; and then asking which came first Jewish and democratic or democratic and Jewish.

    Like many others who are opposed to the controversial legislation, Peres insisted that the Declaration of Independence makes provision for Israel being the State of the Jewish people while simultaneously guaranteeing the equality of all Israeli citizens without religious ethnic or gender discrimination. In formulating the Declaration of Independence, Ben Gurion wisely struck the right balance between a Jewish and democratic state. The declaration – which serves as a guideline for Israel and a common denominator for uniting different sectors of the population – has stood the test of time, Peres continued.
    Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the annual memorial ceremony for Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, in Sde Boker, southern Israel November 27, 2014. REUTERS/Amir Cohen
    In a barb aimed at Netanyahu, Peres said that he did not know of any democracy in the world which needlessly and without any justification seeks to harm its own principles.

    “The voice of Ben Gurion calls to us today to be what Israel was intended to be – a model state, a rational and enlightened state, a state seeking justice, equality and peace, a state which inspires confidence and support from the whole world…”

    Peres said that to his sorrow there is a politically-motivated attempt to distort the Declaration of Independence and to distance people from it. He warned that history has taught that rifts in the nation lead to catastrophes and characterized the bill as political fallout that does damage to the basic values of the state and which could turn a political conflict into a religious conflagration.

    Current President Reuven Rivlin, who has previously spoken out against the nationality law called for national responsibility with regard to basic values, saying this is what is expected of elected public officials.

    Rivlin quoted from a letter that Ben Gurion had written to Jewish National Fund President Menachem Ussishkin in 1936 in which he had stated: “No external danger, even the greatest threat does not frighten me, but I am fearful of the danger from within – the danger of our political blindness…”


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    9 years ago

    How nauseating.

    Regardless of their pathetic squabbling, the State of Israel is, first and foremost, a state of shmad, a state committed to “normalizing” the Jewish people, ch”v, by changing them into just another nation among nations, a Jewish Esav.

    That lost soul who they are memorializing fancied himself a god, and heaped so much pain and disaster upon Jews, both as individuals and throughout the holy land as head of the Zionist enterprise which occupied that land usurping it from the Jews who, prior to Zionism (meaning before the 1900s), had lived in peace among the other inhabitants and with no political ambitions.

    Ironically, this news comes on an American holiday, a country that has helped its Jews flourish, BS”D.

    9 years ago

    Peres so ffearfull what Ben Gurion will say , i dont see him fearfull at all what our Rabbis say. He wasnt fearful when he became buddy buddy with Arafat and the rest of thePLO murderers. He blindnes might of caused hundreds of innocent jewish people to be slaughtered and i am not going back during the days of israel became a state and what he was involved in.
    This man is no good and time for him to tone down his blind vision. they were given Gaza and we got a missles at us and now he wants to give them a state i could just imagine what is in store. Peres it is time to go home.

    Crazykanoiy
    Crazykanoiy
    9 years ago

    Netanyahu is a disaster. Why does he insist on provocation? Is the Druze policeman who died in Har Nof to be labeled an outsider in his state?

    Haimov
    Haimov
    9 years ago

    Peres acts and talks more and more like Obama. Fortunately he does not have any power and becomes more irrelevant

    9 years ago

    Only THE most self hating of Jews could be against Israel declaring herself to be a Jewish state. And what a huge shame and embarrassment that it’s coming from a president and former president of Israel! These traitors to their land and their people should be removed from public office immediately.

    yjdraiman
    yjdraiman
    9 years ago

    No Jew has the right to yield the rights of the Jewish People in Israel –
    David Ben Gurion

    (David Ben-Gurion was the first Prime Minister of Israel and widely hailed as the State’s main founder).

    “No Jew has the right to yield the rights of the Jewish People in Israel.
    No Jew has the authority to do so.
    No Jewish body has the authority to do so.
    Not even the entire Jewish People alive today has the right to yield any part of Israel.
    It is the right of the Jewish People over the generations, a right that under
    no conditions can be cancelled.
    Even if Jews during a specific period proclaim they are relinquishing this right, they have neither the power nor the authority to deny it to future generations.
    No concession of this type is binding or obligates the Jewish People. Our right to the country – the entire country – exists as an eternal right, and we shall not yield this historic right until its full and complete redemption is realized.”

    (David Ben Gurion, Zionist Congress, Basel, Switzerland, 1937.)

    “No country in the world exists today by virtue of its ‘right’.
    All countries exist today by virtue of their ability to defend themselves against those who seek their destruction