64 Friday, April 16, 1982
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Israel, Jewry and the World: Ben-Gurion's Analysis
By DAVID BEN-GURION
World Zionist Press Service
(Editor's note: The fol-
lowing article by the late
prime minister of Israel is
excerpted from "Israel
and Diaspora," pub-
lished in the "Jewish
Frontier Anthology,
1945-1967" by the Jewish
Frontier Association.) .
It is clear that the found-
ers and the immediate buil-
ders of the state of Israel
were the immigrants who
came to the country, lived in
it, built it in the sweat of
their brow, and carried out
in their lives a three-fold
transformation; they
changed their country, lan-
guage and way of life.
Before the establishment
of the state, these founders
and builders came mainly
from Europe, starting in the
last quarter of the 19th Cen-
tury and continuing until
close to the rise of the state;
they came from the Jewry in
which the idea of Hibat
Zion (the Love of Zion) and
later the political Zionist
movement, took shape.
The immigration was
marked by strongly ideolog-
ical characteristics, and
from the 19th Century, even
before the publication of
Herzl's "Judenstaat" and
the convening of the first
Zionist Congress in Basle,
this idea was given the
name of "Zionism." The
meaning behind the idea
was the will to return to
Zion and to reassemble the
nation in its own land.
One of the causes of
Zionism was no doubt
distress, economic, polit-
ical and cultural, of var-
ious types and fluctuat-
ing intensities. But dis-
tress alone is' not suffi-
cient to impel people to
migrate to a country
where they meet with
even greater difficulties
than those they knew in
the countries they came
from.
It is impossible to under-
stand everything that has
happened in our days — the
renewal of the Jewish state
and the immigration of tens
of thousands of Jews who
never read Hess, Pinsker
and Herzl, and perhaps had
never even heard the name
of Zionism — without con-
sidering the vision of Mes-
sianic redemption which is
implanted deep in the heart
of the Jewish people, not
only since the destruction of
the second Temple, but ever
since the days of the first
literary prophets, if not be-
fore the departure from
Egypt.
This vision fills the very
air of Jewish history, and in
various countries at differ-
ent times it has been the
motive force in powerful
movements, which at the
time deeply. stirred the
Jewish people, sometimes
as a whole and sometimes in
part.
They were the profound
and never-failing sources
from which the Jews, dis-
persed in exile for hundreds
of years, drew the moral and
spiritual strength to face all
the difficulties of life in
foreign lands and to survive
until the coming of national
salvation.
Anyone who does not
realize that the vision of
Messianic redemption is
the central feature of the
uniqueness of the Jewish
people, does not under-
stand the central truth of
Jewish history and the
cornerstone of the faith
of Israel. The God of Is-
David Ben-Gurion is shown in his later years in
his study at his home at Kibutz Sde Boker in the
Negev.
rael was not like the God demption of the world. We
of the Vendanta — a shall not succeed without an
metaphysical entity or a effort. Redemption must
supreme force beyond come from within ourselves.
The Messianic vision
good and evil — but a
moral entity, personify- that has lighted up our
ing the supreme values of path for thousands of
righteousness, mercy years has prepared and
and love; and man, ac- fitted us to be a light to
cording to the Jewish the nations. Moreover, it
scriptures, was created has imposed upon us the
in the image of this God. duty of becoming a model
The aspiration of our people and building a
people's prophets and model state.
It is through the force of
teachers was for complete
national redemption in the this ideal with which we are
Promised Land. The vision, imbued that we have suc-
however, was not limited to ceeded in achieving the re-
the Jewish people, but newal of our independence
brought tidings of peace, — the "beginnings of the
righteousness and equality redemption"; without the
to all peoples, in other hope for Messianic redemp-
words, complete redemption tion and the profound at-
for the human race and an tachment to the ancient
end to all tyranny and wic- homeland, the state of Is-
rael would never have been
kedness in the world.
Our redemption will not established.
When the aspiration for
come about, however,
merely as a result of the re- Messianic redemption was
combined with the pioneer-
ing drive that was reawak-
ened in the 19th Century
and directed, first a thin
trickle, and then a growing
stream of the Jewish migra-
tion to the Homeland (this
migration was rightly re-
ferred to as aliya), when the
aliya was fertilized by the
idea of labor, and young
people from towns and cities
in the Diaspora became
land-workers, road-
builders, drainers of
swamps and factory work-
ers in the Homeland — then
the material foundations
have been laid for the re-
newal of Israel's sovereign
independence and the first
stages in the realization of
the vision of the redemption
of our people, as Jews and as
human beings.
And although it was
only the immigrants who
were the actual builders
and founders of the state,
the creation of the poten-
tiality of an independent
Israel was the work of the
entire Jewish people, not
only of those living in our
days, but of all the gener-
ations in our history; for
it was only the faith, the
vision and the spiritual
heroism of past genera-
tions that made possible
the achievements of our
own day.
Only in sovereign Israel
does the full opportunity
now arise for molding the
life of the Jewish people ac-
cording to its own needs and
values, in loyalty to its own
character and its spirit, to
its historic heritage and its
vision for the future. In Is-
rael the barrier between the
Jew and the man is de-
stroyed; the state has as-
sured its people of integrity
-
and completeness as Jews
and as men.
In Israel the Jews are a
nation like all the nations,
and at the same time they
are Jews in every fiber of
their bodies and every feel-
ing in their hearts, as no
Jew can possibly be abroad.
In this respect there
is no difference between Or-
thodox, religious, freethink-
ing and non-religious Jews.
The ancient Jewish past has
suddenly become close, in-
timate, real, complete, as it
is reflected in the Book or
Books.
Nevertheless, the fate o.
the state is involved in the
fate of world Jewry, and vice
versa. The state of Israel is
only the beginning of the
redemption; its survival
and the fulfillment of its
mission cannot be assured
without the continuation of
the ingathering of the
exiles.
Jewry in the Diaspora,
and above all in its two
great centers, is already
far gone in the process of
assimilation, although its
Jewish consciousness
has not yet disappeared.
Without mutual bonds
between Israel and the
Diaspora communities it is
doubtful whether Israel will
survive, and whether Jewry
in the Diaspora will not
perish by euthanasia or suf-
focation. Apart from the
prophetic heritage, there
are also geopolitical reasons
for the fact that Israel is not,
and cannot be, only like
other states.
"The House of Israel is not
like all the nations" — that
is not only a religious and
ethical dogma, but an his-
torical imperative, the de-
cree of fate.
100 Heroes of Yad Mordehai Saved Tel Aviv in 1948
Even as the state of Israel armored battalion and
was joyfully proclaimed on one artillery regiment to
JERUSALEM — Of all May 14, 1948, war loomed overpower the kibutz.
The settlers of Yad Mor-
the tales of heroism which ominously. Before dawn the
characterize Israel's War of next day, the five regular dehai had less than 60 male
Independence, few can Arab armies started their members to defend the
match Yad Mordehai, a attack on the new state. The kibutz. Joined by a group of
kibutz in the south where Egyptian army of 10,000 teenage refugees who had
100 Jewish fighting men began pushing northwards been saved from the Euro-
were called upon in 1948 to toward Tel Aviv and pean Holocaust, as well as
block the way to Tel Aviv of Jerusalem. Yad Mordehai some young Hagana
a 2,000 strong Egyptian was one of the settlements soldiers, the fighting force
was rounded out to 100.
blocking the way.
brigade.
The children and their
On May 19, an Egyptian
Founded in the barren
wasteland of the Negev brigade was dispatched nurses were evacuated to a
Desert in 1943, Yad Mor- to liquidate Yad Mor- kibutz further inland and
dehai was named after the dehai, nestled close to the thought to be safe from at-
Warsaw Ghetto fighter coastal highway linking tack. Crowded into the shel-
Mordehai Anilewicz. A col- the Egyptian bases of ters, they heard bombing
league of many of the Gaza and Majdal. Al- and knew the raging battle
settlers from the Hashomer though they outnum- was directed against their
Hatzair youth movement in bered Yad Mordehai by fathers.
Two of the children's
Poland, 22-year-old Mor- 100 to 1, the Egyptians
dehai fell commanding the planned the attack care- nurses climbed a water
ghetto uprising against the fully and assigned two in- tower for a glimpse of Yad
fantry battalions, one Mordehai. They saw puffs of
Germans in 1943.
By JANET MOSHE
World Zionist Press Service
smoke from the cannons,
flames engulfing the
houses, and heard the exp-
losions rocking the settle-
ment.
In shock, they thought
the kibutz had certainly
fallen under the heavy at-
tack. "We could not im-
agine that anyone was
left alive in Yad Mor-
dehai," they later re-
ported.
As 2,000 Egyptian
soldiers attacked the
kibutz, the situation in the
settlement was a living
nightmare. Things seemed
hopeless as the defenders
did not even have enough
weapons to supply their
soldiers. After the injuries
and casualties of the first
day, however, there were
enough weapons to go
around.
After a sleepless night,
the men manned their posts
and once again awaited a
fresh attack. Many still be-
lieved that they could hold
out until reinforcements
could join them or Israeli
forces would attack the
Egyptian flank.
Word came that the
wounded were to be
evacuated, and many men
wrote letters to be sent out.
Moshe Kalman's wife had
been evacuated with the
children, and he scribbled
her a quick note including
these words: "If we manage
to beat off the enemy and
not let them capture this
place, we will not have
given our lives for nothing."
He was killed two days la-
ter.
For five torturous days
the defenders managed
to hold out, even after
Egyptian forces and a
tank had broken into the
kibutz. As outposts all
over Israel were fighting
for their lives, and the
struggle for Jerusalem
was in full swing, it was
doubtful that enough
reinforcements could be
spared to help the defen-
ders of Yad Mordehai.
In the wake of 26 deaths
and numerous injuries, and
a depleted supply of ammu-
nition (even their last
machine gun was out of ac-
tion), the defenders, before
dawn on May 24, decided to
abandon Yad Mordehai.
It was a broken group of
110 men, women and youth
that crept through the
enemy lines, carrying their
wounded to a nearby kibutz.
However, their sacrifice
was not in vain. The
Encyclopedia Judaica notes
that "the five days of resis-
tance proved crucial in hold-
ing up the Egyptian ad-
vance and preparing the de-
fenses of Tel Aviv through
dispatching reinforcements
to the south and acquiring
heavier weapons and some
fighter planes."
Within six months of
the fall of Yad Mordehai
the war changed its
course. The kibutz was
liberated. The settlers
hastened to return hoar
and set about rebuildir,_
Although the settlement
and its fields were de-
stroyed, the graves that had
been hurriedly dug during
the battle were undis-
turbed, and the bullet-
riddled water tower of the
kibutz was still standing.
Thirty-four years later,
the kibutz is no longer a
lonely Negev outpost. It is
still only several miles from
the Gaza Strip, but now it is
a thriving settlement of
more than 500 persons. Vis-
itors today can see a recon-
struction of the Egyptian
attaelr