David Ben Gurion, a Polish Jew born in October of 1886, had a traditional upbringing, complete with a Hebrew education. However, he became keenly aware of the great amount of anti-Semitism that existed worldwide and thus he dedicated his life to Zionism at an early age. This was exemplified in his leadership of a Zionist youth group known as Ezra when he was still in his mid teens. This Zionist movement, which David supported, sought to establish a Jewish homeland in the Middle East where it had been located thousands of years earlier prior to the scattering of Israel. In order to further the cause, Ben Gurion in 1906 settled in Palestine from which the state of Israel was eventually created. “He became a pioneer, a farmhand, active with early Zionist-socialist groups.”² Soon he became too much of a problem for the Ottoman government to deal with, so they extradited him. “In 1915 Ben-Gurion, [after he was] expelled from Palestine for his nationalist and socialist activities, chose to go to New York City, where he hastily taught himself English, [married a Russian immigrant] and plunged head on into perpetrating the local Zionist-socialist movement.”² After the end of WWI, he was allowed to return to Israel where he played a key role in the founding of several trade unions and also the national federation. One such organization that he founded was Mapai which later became a leading political party.

In the early part of the 20th century time was running out on the British Palestinian Mandate and the situation looked very poor for the Israelis. They were not allowed to arm themselves against the Arab onslaught they knew would come when the British left. Not only were the Jews under-armed, they also were in the minority. David Beb Gurion sought every means possible to increase the Jewish population, even to the extent of propagating illegal immigration. Yet through the strong leadership of men and direct help from God, the impossibility of an Israeli state became a reality. An example of Ben Gurnion’s astuteness can be seen when he encouraged thousands of Jews to join British ranks in order to give them military experience for the conflicts he knew would come in the future. Ben Gurion was the man who stood up in front of the world and declared Israel a state; it was at this point that the United Nations partitioned the territory, giving part to the Jews and part to the Arabs.

Following the seeming impossibility of surviving their war for independence, Israel faced many trials. Yet good leadership played a large role in this success. “Ben Gurion led Israel during its War of Independence and on January 25, 1948 became its Prime Minister, serving three terms until 1963 except for two years of interruption between 1953 – 1955.”³

David Ben Gurion was faced with a problem when in 1956, Abdul Nasser decided that he would nationalize the Suez Canal. This posed a disaster because it cut off Israeli shipping. Britain and France were also displeased because their banks held high stocks in the canal. A secret meeting was held between Britain, France, and Israel in which they agreed that Israel would invade the Canal Zone in payback for the constant Egyptian raids. Following this, Britain and France would step in to intervene and then they would keep some of their forces in the land to make sure that their interests were maintained. But the US with the UN stepped in and made the three countries back down. This whole situation was known as the Suez War or the 1956 War. However, this situation later caused David Ben Gurion to step down from his charge in 1963 because of some of the differences in his government concerning the way he had dealt with the affair. Ben Gurion occasionally made forays into politics, but after three decades of leading Israel, he retired on his kibbutz at the age of 84 where he resided until his death in 1973.

Ben Gurion left an untold legacy in Israel. He led her through some of the hardest years of existence, as the Jews sought to establish a Jewish homeland in the Middle East. Perhaps he was chosen to be Israel’s leader because he had the iron will to do it as shown by what he said. “Let me first tell you one thing: It doesn't matter what the world says about Israel; it doesn't matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers .”³ For this he was voted by Time Magazine as one of the top 100 people who shaped the 20th century.

1BibleGateway.com. 1995-2005. . (30 Apr. 2005).

3David Ben-Gurion. Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia. 11 Apr 2005. . (30 Apr. 2005).

2David Ben Gurion. Time Inc 2003. . (30 Apr. 2005).

David Ben-Gurion. Jewish Virtual Library. 2005. . (30 Apr. 2005).

Kimball, Charles. The Xenophile Historian. Chapter 13: THE NEW AGE OF NATIONAL ISRAEL. A Biblical Interpretation of World History. 1998. . (30 Apr. 2005).