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Opinion | "In the Negev, the people of Israel will be examined": what Ben-Gurion would have said in 2021 | Israel today

2021-11-09T13:02:07.611Z


Twice Ben-Gurion retired from political activity to "seminars" in order to distance himself and re-learn crucial issues in the building of the state and the nation • One of them was the flowering of the Negev,


At the end of the summer of 1953, Prime Minister and Defense Minister David Ben-Gurion asked to take a seven-week vacation, left his office and appointed himself a substitute for both positions. Ben-Gurion devoted most of his vacation days in Tiberias to rethinking the field of security, at the end of which he presented the government with a short 18-point document. To this day, the document underlies us's concept of Israel's security. He explained to the members of the government that in order to make sure that their course of action corresponds to the changing reality, they must "forget as if what they have known for a long time, move away from prejudices and see everything in a new perspective." Ben-Gurion did not just say this: he went to the seminary because he wanted to examine issues of efficiency and economy in the army and left it when he raised the issue of non-military issues in national security.

This was not the first time that the "old man" had left his office and gone "to seminary," for a vacation of self-study. This also happened in the spring of 1947, a few months before the UN's dramatic decision on the partition of the land and the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. , And approached the subject from a fresh approach, while reading in depth and meeting with dozens of people, senior commanders and simple soldiers alike.

This approach, the ability to stop the daily preoccupation, the "routine" preoccupation and look at the world in a new perspective motivated Ben-Gurion in some of his key decisions as a leader: the choice to develop the concept of statehood and focus on the good for society as a whole; The decision to establish the IDF and dismantle the underground; the attempt to abolish education flows; the decision to continue mass immigration to Israel against the opinions of experts and officials; the establishment of relations with West Germany and the signing of the reparations agreement;

In all of these, Ben-Gurion's approach is characterized by a combination of what he called "vision and way." The ability to set a far-reaching vision on the one hand, and a roadmap that relies on careful planning on the other. In our view, the most fascinating test case for trying to combine vision and path is in the "old man"'s approach to the Negev. He saw in the land the sword that was considered unsuitable for settlement, great potential and placed in relation to it a far-reaching vision that for his contemporaries sounded like real science fiction: water desalination, solar electricity, desert agriculture and more. He believed that the realization of the potential in the Negev would not only help the state, but "bring blessing to all mankind" and sought to place Israel at the forefront of the war in the desert and as a leading factor in aid to developing countries. This vision was accompanied as usual along the way: many hundreds of meetings with scientists and intellectuals, engineers and teachers - from Israel and abroad.

On top of that, and no less important, Ben-Gurion himself "immigrated" to the Negev.

He wanted to participate himself in the "primordial act" of establishing a settlement and flowering the wilderness.

He also believed, and not only in the secret of his heart, that the people of Israel would follow him.

Has Ben-Gurion's vision come true?

Is the Negev potential a skin and tendon cream?

From the distance of time it is easy to look at Ben-Gurion's ideas with a critical eye: some succeeded but most failed, some had more than a hint of gloom, while others did not take into account perceptions and values ​​that guide us now.


Life in Israel in 2021 shows how complex the Ben-Gurion vision is and how complex the path to its realization is.

At the same time, a close reading of the many writings he left behind seems to teach us a different lesson: Ben-Gurion would not want us to sanctify his specific vision or walk the exact same path;

He calls on us from a distance over the years to develop the common vision that suits us as a society today and to find ways to bring it from strength to strength.

This reading is essential for contemporary Israeli society and is especially essential in relation to the Negev, which presents us with a long list of challenges.

"In the Negev, the people of Israel will examine," Ben-Gurion said more than 70 years ago.

In order for us to add the words "and in the Negev he also passed the test", a lot of work is still ahead of us.

It's time to go to the seminar, "to forget what we have known for a long time, to get rid of prejudices and see everything with a new perspective."

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-11-09

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