David Ben-Gurion and the Jewish Renaissance

by Shlomo Aronson , Translated by Naftali Greenwood

• ISBN13: 9780521197489
• ISBN10: 0521197481
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-01
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book offers a reappraisal of David Ben-Gurion's role in Jewish-Israeli history from the perspective of the twenty-first century, in the larger context of the Zionist "renaissance," of which he was a major and unique exponent. Some have described Ben-Gurion's Zionism as a dream that has gone sour, or a utopia doomed to be unfulfilled. Now - after the dust surrounding Israel's founding father has settled, archives have been opened, and perspective has been gained since Ben-Gurion's downfall - this book presents a fresh look at this statesman-intellectual and his success and tragic failures during a unique period of time that he and his peers described as the "Jewish renaissance." The resulting reappraisal offers a new analysis of Ben-Gurion's actual role as a major player in Israeli, Middle Eastern, and global politics.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Intellectual Origins of Ben-Gurion's Zionism	p. 18
The European Renaissance and Its Interpretations	p. 18
Humanism	p. 19
The Future of Individual, Society, and State	p. 22
A Zionist Utopia or a Unique Historical Approach?	p. 29
The Humanists	p. 40
The Influence of Berdyczewski and Heinrich Heine - Reality and Allegory	p. 48
The Crisis of Traditional Jewish Society	p. 66
On "Politics," Politicization, and Statecraft	p. 78
Western Culture versus "Uniqueness and Destiny"	p. 87
The Holocaust and Its Lessons	p. 94
The Trap Is Set	p. 94
The Glass House	p. 100
A Smaller Than Average Brain	p. 104
"Not Truly a Nation" and the Question of Chosenness	p. 107
"Chauvinists, Capitalists, Conservatives"	p. 110
A Non-Nation Nation in a Trap	p. 112
Rescue Efforts and Relations with the West	p. 134
Ben-Gurion between Right and Left	p. 151
Ben-Gurion and the Zionist Right	p. 151
The Road to Biltmore	p. 168
From Biltmore to the "Grand Season"	p. 172
Further Remarks about the "Calculating Machine"	p. 178
The War of Independence and the Protracted State of Emergency	p. 182
Ben-Gurion and the Israel Defense Forces - From Formation to the Suez-Sinai Campaign of 1956	p. 191
The British Army as a Model	p. 191
The Creation of the IDF and the Decision to Disband the Separate Staff of the Palmach	p. 202
The Givens, Aspirations, and Strategic Realities of Israeli Society	p. 211
The New IDF and a New Strategic Doctrine Based on the Holocaust and Lessons of the War of Independence	p. 214
Further Development of Ben-Gurion's Strategic Thinking	p. 223
The Constitutional Debate and Ben-Gurion's Criticism of Israel's Political System	p. 228
The Birth of the Nuclear Option	p. 242
The Road to the 1956 War	p. 248
The 1956 War: Reality and Perceptions	p. 253
From the 1956 War to the "Lavon Affair"	p. 261
The Controversy over Ben-Gurion's Interest in the Jewish Messianic Vision	p. 261
The Nuclear Project and the Affair	p. 272
Germany and the Affair	p. 275
From the "Lavon Affair" to the Six Day War	p. 283
The 1960 Affair and the 1961 General Elections	p. 283
The 1961 Elections and the German Complex	p. 296
Ben-Gurion's Resignation in 1963 and Prime Minister Levi Eshkol	p. 302
Eshkol's Administration and Ben-Gurion's Criticism from Today's Perspective	p. 313
1966 - From the "Big Blunder" to Operation Samu	p. 332
Ben-Gurion and the Six Day War	p. 334
Epilogue: The Renaissance That Waned and Its Leader	p. 349
Archives	p. 355
Interviews	p. 357
Abbreviations	p. 359
Notes	p. 361
Published Sources	p. 425
Name Index	p. 439
Ben-Gurion Subject Index	p. 451
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