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PM Sharon's speech -Ben Gurion memorial ceremony. |
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| 21/11/2001 |
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke today (Wednesday) 21.11.2001, at Midreshet Sde Boker on the occasion of the memorial ceremony for the 28th anniversary of the passing of David Ben-Gurion. Following is the text of the speech:
We have been meeting for 28 years here, in the heart of the Negev, fortress of the future of Israel and object of our vision, at the resting place of the architect of the birth of the Jewish people in their land David Ben-Gurion and his wife Paula.
Ben-Gurion carried the torch of the renewal of the Jewish nation in its land even at times when others despaired. He succeeded in being the one to light the menora of the restoration and independence of Israel after it had been extinguished for 2000 years of exile.
Ben-Gurion not only returned to the Jews, through the creation of the state, the right of self-defense which is the condition of the existence of any nation, he also exercised that right over and over again, as was needed.
It is true that we live in a different world today, but the basic principles remain true to this very day. Ben Gurion said in October 1956: The UN mechanism has once again proven its inability to eliminate the continuous and systematic murder of Israeli civilians. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only country in the world whose citizens are not secure in their lives because the rulers of neighboring countries dispatch gangs of murderers against them. I cannot imagine any other nation in the world that would accept the abandonment of its citizens to the hands of murderers organized by neighboring governments
Ben-Gurion concluded by saying: The Government of Israel will not allow its country to be turned into hell, and leave the murderers and their controllers without punishment, without serious punishment.
I had the great honor to meet with Ben-Gurion many times during a 20-year period, many of these meetings were at important crossroads of fateful decisions. There were discussions of military issues, but mainly issues of immigration and the ingathering of the exiles as a realization of the Jewish Peoples dream, settlement and the full right of Jews to their land in which Jewish life never ceased, not even for one day, since the destruction of the Second Temple, and especially discussions on the vision which burned like fire in our bones: the vision of the Negev the future of the State of Israel.
Those were meetings in which, of course, more than saying anything I listened and learned.
For me, Ben-Gurion was a man who combined vision with action. There are those who would say that he is the outstanding representative of practical Zionism. I would define him as the leader of the Zionist daring which we need to renew today.
The younger generation, whose familiarity with Ben-Gurion is through his picture with his thunderous white hair, would be well off knowing that beyond being a spiritual man, a man of vision and a sharp politician, he was also a daring strategist and the supreme commander during the War of Independence. Ben-Gurion, a man whose origins were in the diaspora, and yet, was so distant from it, can be used as proof and an example of judgment and leadership, until this very day, for every prime minister and defense minister.
On 2.1.48, even before the declaration of the state, Ben-Gurion said to the commanders of the fledgling army: Fortifications or mobility? I raised doubt regarding portions of the investments spread amongst fortifications outside the Negev, except for isolated and surrounded places. Instead of investing three, four hundred pounds in fortifications, it would be better to enlarge our firepower and mobile capabilities, that is to say, additional machine guns and fast armored vehicles.
On 12.5.48 three days before the invasion, Ben Gurion told the National Council (the government in those times) that in his opinion: Even until now we have not taken enough advantage of the power that could have been turned into mobile fighting power. Too many people are sitting in Tel Aviv and other places, also in Jerusalem. When there was a lull in Jerusalem, Ben Gurion adds, This force could have been utilized to capture a number of surrounding villages, and that would have liberated Atarot and Neveh Yaakov.
On 14.5.48 Ben Gurion wrote in his journal: Almost all the staff officers opposed my view to storm with larger forces and more persistent drive the expanses surrounding the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road. I did not want, without a clear government decision, to give a command overruling the staff officers, although I feel that we are missing an opportunity to capture ground that could determine the fate of Jerusalem, and even the fate of the whole campaign.
Even in wars and struggles that have been forced upon us, Ben Gurion saw our relative advantage in the Jewish peoples spirit and yearning for peace, and that is what he wrote (in the book War and Vision):
We respond to war only through lack of choice, and war and victory is nothing but a means to something else --
and it will grant us an advantage that our enemies are lacking, that the followers of the ideology of violence are lacking: The vision of independence, liberty, equality and peace to the Jewish people and all the peoples of the world.
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