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In Hebrew. 16 pages. 152 x 113 mm, David ben Gurion's clever way of explaining why he is not really dismantling he Palmach. David Ben-Gurion; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 - 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Born in Plonsk, then part of the Russian Empire, to Polish Jewish parents, he immigrated to the Eretz Israel, then part of the Ottoman Empire, in 1906. Adopting the name of Ben-Gurion in 1909, he rose to become the preeminent leader of the Jewish community in British-ruled Mandatory Palestine from 1935 until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, which he led until 1963 with a short break in 1954-55. Ben-Gurion's interest for Zionism developed early in his life, leading him to become a major Zionist leader and executive head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946. As head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he was the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and largely led the movement for an independent Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine. On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped writing. Under Ben-Gurion's leadership, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War saw the uniting of the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Ben-Gurion served as Israel's first prime minister and minister of defense. As prime minister, he helped build state institutions, presiding over national projects aimed at the development of the country. He also oversaw the absorption of Jewish immigrants. A major part of his foreign policy was improving relations with West Germany through a reparations agreement in compensation for Nazi confiscation of Jewish property during the Holocaust. In 1954, he resigned as prime minister and minister of defense but remained a member of the Knesset. He returned as minister of defense in 1955 after the Lavon Affair and the resignation of Pinhas Lavon. Later that year he became prime minister again, following the 1955 elections. He led Israel's reprisal operations to Arab guerrilla attacks, and its invasion of Egypt along with Britain and France during the Suez Crisis in 1956. He stepped down from office in 1963, and retired from political life in 1970. He then moved to his modest home in Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the Negev desert, where he lived until his death. David Ben-Gurion was born in P?o?sk in Congress Poland?then part of the Russian Empire, to Polish Jewish parents. His father, Avigdor Grün, was a pokatnym doradca (secret adviser), navigating his clients through the corrupt Imperial legal system. Following the publication of Theodore Herzl's Der Judenstaat in 1896 Avigdor co-founded a Zionist group called Beni Zion-Children of Zion. In 1900 it had a membership of 200. Between the ages of five and 13 Ben Gurion attended five different heders as well as compulsory Russian classes. Two of the heders were 'modern' and taught in Hebrew rather than Yiddish. His father could not afford to enroll Ben-Gurion in P?o?sk's Beth midrash so Ben Gurion's formal education ended after his Bar Mitzvah. At the age of 14 he and two friends formed a youth club, Ezra, promoting Hebrew studies and emigration to the Holy Land. The group ran Hebrew classes for local youth and in 1903 collected funds for the victims of the Kishinev pogrom. One biographer writes that Ezra had 150 members within a year. A different source estimates the group never had more than "several dozen" members. In 1904 Ben Gurion moved to Warsaw where he hoped to enroll in the Warsaw Mechanical-Technical School founded by Hipolit Wawelberg. He did not have sufficient qualifications to matriculate and took work teaching Hebrew in a Warsaw heder. Inspired by Tolstoy he had become a vegetarian. He became involved in Zionist politics and in October 1905 he joined, , , , Seller Inventory # 016506
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