As in any of the last 19 years on David Ben-Gurion Memorial Day, he and I will meet this morning.
I always come to it early, before the government of Israel and good people gather near his grave, which overlooks the field of Nahal Tzin in a magical ancient landscape.
We sit down at a table with a white tablecloth, two glasses of water with a lemon and a notebook for each one, and he always impresses.
He will ask me the three constant questions: The spirit of the people - how strong is it? The younger generation - leading the pioneering missions in settlement, security, immigration and education? Settlement in the Negev - in a focused way, what is our situation? On the spirit of the people I will answer that it returns to its strength, but it has cracks in it for the most part; That we are less united, less dreaming and initiating in a big way; That the national ethos is reserved for beauties, celebrities and money-makers; That a great battle has broken out over the Hebrew spirit, the spirit of the founders, but that it has islands of good hope and that the spirit is still blowing.
I will try to be precise and say that a wonderful and wonderful young generation grew up here, a generation that responds to war against all predictions of being careless and irresponsible. A generation that wants to fulfill, but lacks track, freedom and creative tools that are able to adapt to its great character and aspirations, to the new language spoken in the world. I will reveal to him my encounters with thousands of teenagers, national service girls and military servants, the students who want to stay after their studies in the Negev and the Galilee and bridge the great fall of the gap between the will and the ability to do and realize their great aspirations.
Then we will reach the highlight - settlement in the Negev. He will remind me how much awaited us and our shoulders, the dreamers and the warriors, and will echo his secret in a whisper, which to my ears will sound like a loud shout: The Negev is not the issue; Interest is the basis for our continued existence, our ability to be united. With virtue and role model, not in leading the financial markets but in exporting solutions to society in the areas of community, health, education, culture, infrastructure, housing and more. The Negev is the place where we will examine not only how well we were able to settle it, but how we were able to do so.
I will tell him about the vision of "Israel 2048 - a common future" of the Or movement, and I will see tears welling up in his eyes. Is that so? Will ask. Will you really turn the Negev and the Galilee into the new centers of Israel? Will you really bring in four million residents and a million jobs? Will you really establish the sustainability of the Hebrew people in his country? He will look at the map of initiatives and shout: "How is it possible that all this has not yet arisen? How is there not a city of a million inhabitants in the Negev? How is it that there are not another hundred thousand students? And how did our relationship with the Bedouin reach such an abyss? Are you the end of my life? "
I will assure him that the right to live will be translated into the fulfillment of the sacred duty of continuing the establishment of the state, of continuing the reduction of the wind and the conquest of the wilderness, I swear that as long as the spirit and the soul of the movement
We will turn to the landscape and look at it together, the glasses of water, the table and the tablecloth will disappear, and only the figure of one man who proved in his life that if we want and create - Israel will be the best country to live in.
In the world.