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Ben-Gurion: The Burning Ground, 1886-1948
English, Hebrew (translation)
967 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1987
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August 28, 2024The most important chapter in this book is the final one, 'Disaster Means Strength' about Ben Gurion's cynical attitude to the holocaust. It is summed up in the chapter itself - the disaster of the holocaust meant strength for the Zionist movement and Shabtai Teveth explains why. He is quoting from Ben Gurion himself on page 853:
'Disaster is strength if channelled to a productive course. The whole trick of Zionism is that it knows how to channel our disaster, not into despondency or degradation, as is the case in the Diaspora, but into a source of creativity and exploitation. '
Teveth sums up Ben Gurions attitude to the holocaust when he said:
‘If there was a line in Ben-Gurion’s mind between the beneficial disaster and an all-destroying catastrophe, it must have been a very fine one.’ p.851
Ben-Gurion explained this to the Central Committee of Mapai (Israeli Labor Party) in February 1943 when he distinguished between ‘those Jews we can bring out of Europe, over here [and] those whom we cannot bring over here.’ Ben-Gurion insisted that:
…JA [Jewish Agency] funds be used only for rescue by immigration to Palestine, whereas rescue by assisting Jews to survive elsewhere was to be funded solely by private and organizational donations.
In November 1935 he argued that:
To the disaster of German Jewry we must offer a Zionist response, namely, we must convert the disaster into a source for the upbuilding of Palestine. [p.854]
Ben-Gurion explained his thinking in January 1933 to the Mapai Council when he warned that ‘Zionism… is not primarily engaged in saving individuals’ and that if there was ‘a conflict of interest between saving individual Jews and the good of the Zionist enterprise, we shall say the enterprise comes first.’
Ben-Gurion was not at all downhearted by the rise of Hitler. ‘The Nazis’ victory would become “a fertile force for Zionism.” [Tom Segev, The Seventh Million p.18]
After all, as he pointed out 'all the significant steps in the progress of Zionism were always related to the intensification of Jewish distress. '
To Ben-Gurion it was the role of Zionism ‘to cast the great Jewish tragedy in prodigious moulds of redemption.’ p.854
As Noah Lucas wrote in 'The Modern History of Israel' pp. 187-8
'‘As the European holocaust erupted, Ben-Gurion saw it as a decisive opportunity for Zionism... Ben-Gurion above all others sensed the tremendous possibilities inherent in the dynamic of the chaos and carnage in Europe…. In conditions of peace,… Zionism could not move the masses of world Jewry. The forces unleashed by Hitler in all their horror must be harnessed to the advantage of Zionism. ... By the end of 1942… the struggle for a Jewish state became the primary concern of the movement.’
Ben-Gurion ‘there were no “personal” cases, no individual Jews, there was only ‘the Jewish people’. pp. 855, 7
On the question of saving Jews Ben Gurion was quite clear
The Agency is bound to do... everything in the way of rescuing Jews by immigration to Palestine... That is its role. However... the tasks of assistance, of saving one more Jew, of doing all to prevent deportations, are very important... and must be assumed by another organization, to be set up and funded from other sources. (p.858)
And then there is the quote for which Ben Gurion has justly become famous. When Britain agreed to admit 10,000 German Jewish children after Kristallnacht, Ben Gurion and Weizmann were furious. They must go to palestine they whined. Ben Gurion told the Mapai Central Committee on 9 December 1938 that:
If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England, and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Yisrael, then I would opt for the second alternative. For we must weigh not only the life of these children, but also the history of the People of Israel.
And he followed this up a week later in a memo to the Zionist Executive:
If the Jews are faced with a choice between the refugee problem and rescuing Jews from concentration camps on the one hand, and aid for the national museum in Palestine on the other, the Jewish sense of pity will prevail and our people's entire strength will be directed at aid for the refugees in the various countries. Zionism will vanish from the agenda and indeed not only world public opinion in England and America but also from Jewish public opinion. We are risking Zionism's very existence if we allow the refugee problem to be separated from the Palestine problem.
And when Roosevelt called the Evian Conference to find a solution to the Jewish refugee problem in July 1938 the Zionists were outraged: Ben Gurion said that:
He hoped to hear in Evian that Eretz Israel remains the main venue for Jewish emigration. All other emigration countries do not interest him… The greatest danger is that attempts will be made to find other territories for Jewish emigration.' {Boaz Evron, Jewish State or Israeli Nation fn.3 p.260
Menahem Ussishkin described Evian as ‘a terrible danger for us’ warning that ‘they will try to find a territory for Jewish immigration.’ When Roosevelt expressed the opinion that Palestine could not solve the Jewish question, Ben-Gurion’s response was that ‘We must see to it that this dangerous tendency does not find expression at the conference. [Ibid]
Yoav Gelber, a Zionist historian at Yad Vashem observed:
The fight on the Jewish front for the Zionist solution removed the Zionists and the Yishuv, even before the war, from rescue attempts and strategies not connected to Eretz Yisrael. This is shown by Weizmann's refusal to attend the Evian Conference of 1938. [Zionist policy and the Fate of European Jewry – 1939-1942, p. 199].
Ben-Gurion was clear: ‘It is the job of Zionism not to save the remnant of Israel in Europe but rather to save the Land of Israel for the Jewish people.’ Ben-Gurion identified rescue almost exclusively with immigration to Palestine, even though very few were saved that way. [Segev p.98]
Ben Gurion's belief that the fight for a Jewish State must take priority over saving the refugees was the policy of the Zionist movement throughout the holocaust. Only emigration to Palestine was supported by the Zionist movement. Emigration elsewhere must be opposed.
'Disaster is strength if channelled to a productive course. The whole trick of Zionism is that it knows how to channel our disaster, not into despondency or degradation, as is the case in the Diaspora, but into a source of creativity and exploitation. '
Teveth sums up Ben Gurions attitude to the holocaust when he said:
‘If there was a line in Ben-Gurion’s mind between the beneficial disaster and an all-destroying catastrophe, it must have been a very fine one.’ p.851
Ben-Gurion explained this to the Central Committee of Mapai (Israeli Labor Party) in February 1943 when he distinguished between ‘those Jews we can bring out of Europe, over here [and] those whom we cannot bring over here.’ Ben-Gurion insisted that:
…JA [Jewish Agency] funds be used only for rescue by immigration to Palestine, whereas rescue by assisting Jews to survive elsewhere was to be funded solely by private and organizational donations.
In November 1935 he argued that:
To the disaster of German Jewry we must offer a Zionist response, namely, we must convert the disaster into a source for the upbuilding of Palestine. [p.854]
Ben-Gurion explained his thinking in January 1933 to the Mapai Council when he warned that ‘Zionism… is not primarily engaged in saving individuals’ and that if there was ‘a conflict of interest between saving individual Jews and the good of the Zionist enterprise, we shall say the enterprise comes first.’
Ben-Gurion was not at all downhearted by the rise of Hitler. ‘The Nazis’ victory would become “a fertile force for Zionism.” [Tom Segev, The Seventh Million p.18]
After all, as he pointed out 'all the significant steps in the progress of Zionism were always related to the intensification of Jewish distress. '
To Ben-Gurion it was the role of Zionism ‘to cast the great Jewish tragedy in prodigious moulds of redemption.’ p.854
As Noah Lucas wrote in 'The Modern History of Israel' pp. 187-8
'‘As the European holocaust erupted, Ben-Gurion saw it as a decisive opportunity for Zionism... Ben-Gurion above all others sensed the tremendous possibilities inherent in the dynamic of the chaos and carnage in Europe…. In conditions of peace,… Zionism could not move the masses of world Jewry. The forces unleashed by Hitler in all their horror must be harnessed to the advantage of Zionism. ... By the end of 1942… the struggle for a Jewish state became the primary concern of the movement.’
Ben-Gurion ‘there were no “personal” cases, no individual Jews, there was only ‘the Jewish people’. pp. 855, 7
On the question of saving Jews Ben Gurion was quite clear
The Agency is bound to do... everything in the way of rescuing Jews by immigration to Palestine... That is its role. However... the tasks of assistance, of saving one more Jew, of doing all to prevent deportations, are very important... and must be assumed by another organization, to be set up and funded from other sources. (p.858)
And then there is the quote for which Ben Gurion has justly become famous. When Britain agreed to admit 10,000 German Jewish children after Kristallnacht, Ben Gurion and Weizmann were furious. They must go to palestine they whined. Ben Gurion told the Mapai Central Committee on 9 December 1938 that:
If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England, and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Yisrael, then I would opt for the second alternative. For we must weigh not only the life of these children, but also the history of the People of Israel.
And he followed this up a week later in a memo to the Zionist Executive:
If the Jews are faced with a choice between the refugee problem and rescuing Jews from concentration camps on the one hand, and aid for the national museum in Palestine on the other, the Jewish sense of pity will prevail and our people's entire strength will be directed at aid for the refugees in the various countries. Zionism will vanish from the agenda and indeed not only world public opinion in England and America but also from Jewish public opinion. We are risking Zionism's very existence if we allow the refugee problem to be separated from the Palestine problem.
And when Roosevelt called the Evian Conference to find a solution to the Jewish refugee problem in July 1938 the Zionists were outraged: Ben Gurion said that:
He hoped to hear in Evian that Eretz Israel remains the main venue for Jewish emigration. All other emigration countries do not interest him… The greatest danger is that attempts will be made to find other territories for Jewish emigration.' {Boaz Evron, Jewish State or Israeli Nation fn.3 p.260
Menahem Ussishkin described Evian as ‘a terrible danger for us’ warning that ‘they will try to find a territory for Jewish immigration.’ When Roosevelt expressed the opinion that Palestine could not solve the Jewish question, Ben-Gurion’s response was that ‘We must see to it that this dangerous tendency does not find expression at the conference. [Ibid]
Yoav Gelber, a Zionist historian at Yad Vashem observed:
The fight on the Jewish front for the Zionist solution removed the Zionists and the Yishuv, even before the war, from rescue attempts and strategies not connected to Eretz Yisrael. This is shown by Weizmann's refusal to attend the Evian Conference of 1938. [Zionist policy and the Fate of European Jewry – 1939-1942, p. 199].
Ben-Gurion was clear: ‘It is the job of Zionism not to save the remnant of Israel in Europe but rather to save the Land of Israel for the Jewish people.’ Ben-Gurion identified rescue almost exclusively with immigration to Palestine, even though very few were saved that way. [Segev p.98]
Ben Gurion's belief that the fight for a Jewish State must take priority over saving the refugees was the policy of the Zionist movement throughout the holocaust. Only emigration to Palestine was supported by the Zionist movement. Emigration elsewhere must be opposed.
January 23, 2022
Dreadful. Hard to follow. Teveth needed a decent editor. He eschews commas, which makes his prose difficult to parse. Also he gives dates without stating the year, so it's nearly impossible to figure out when things are happening. He portrays Weizmann as a spineless wimp and Ben Gurion's wife, Paula, as a shrew. Ben Gurion, meanwhile, has numerous affairs to which Teveth does not seem to object. All in all, it was not worth slogging through this enormous tome. I learned precious little from it.
January 14, 2020
This is a detailed biography of the man, but also a detailed account of the progress of Zionism from 1919 to 1948. On that ground alone it provides a wealth of historical detail. At 990 pages, it is a demanding read, but I would stress that it is not a difficult one. The language is clear and for the most part one can zip through it. Recommendable.
April 26, 2015
I really enjoyed reading this Book about David Ben-Gurion, I Hadn't really studied or read specifically about him. I knew about him in context to Israeli history and the forming of a Nation and as Prime minister. I really didn't know the man, through this book you get more than a glance. This is a good biography well researched and Shows an in-depth look into his character, his strengths and his flaws. He was an ambitious and extremely driven to Zionism through unlimited immigration and eventually to form an Israeli Government.He focused on Zionism as a young teenager, teaching Hebrew in Poland.He wanted the nation of Israel to be a Hebrew speaking Nation, At the time Hebrew was beginning to be a dead Language, Ben-Gurion and the Zionist resurrected it. By his leadership and his uncompromising Goals for the Jewish people and Zionism.His political instincts were far superior to most in the Zionist leadership. He spent most of his time fighting with the Zionist leadership about installing his vision for the future of Zionism and the state of Israel. He was a bibliophile to the extreme, he amassed an incredible personal Library, even going into debt to buy books, he loved books and he would spend a large percentage on books on his Travels all over the world. He was dedicated to contest the implementation Of the White letter by England by all means at his disposal morally legal are not. He had a few extramarital affairs, at the same time not as we know was not entertaining to leave his wife. He was a distant and absent y father, mainly due to his traveling and his long hours at work. He had an on going power Struggle with the popular Zionist, DR. Chaim Weizmann, Which he eventually Won. He tried to use the American Jewish and popular opinion to persuade President FDR and the American to apply pressure to the British Government to repeal the White letter and to allow unlimited immigration and a larger portion of land in Palestine. There was and will always be debate over the rights of Zionism to settle and give ownership of a portion of Palestine to the Jewish people and deny it to the Arabs. The Battle for Palestine is probably one of the longest family feuds throughout history going all the way back to Isaac and Ishmael, and then Esau and Jacob.And I see no end to this blood feud, Until the Return of Christs rule on earth.
The real tragedy is the Millions of Jews who died in the Holocaust and how many could have been saved by the American Government and the British Government would Have allowed immigration of European Jewry into Palestine. This is the story of not one man but of an entire people and a nation
The real tragedy is the Millions of Jews who died in the Holocaust and how many could have been saved by the American Government and the British Government would Have allowed immigration of European Jewry into Palestine. This is the story of not one man but of an entire people and a nation
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews