Israel Studies

During 1942–1947, when European Jewry was destroyed and the political struggle of the Zionist movement to found a Jewish State continued, a severe political confrontation developed between Chaim Weizmann, president of the Zionist movement, and David Ben-Gurion, then the head of the Jewish Agency. Moshe Sharett as head of its political department became the “go between” of these two national leaders. The political and personal clash was first and foremost about the authority of the president vis-à-vis the power of the Jewish Agency Council, and second, about the policy toward Britain and the U.S. Ben-Gurion demanded an immediate political turn of the orientation of the Zionist movement from Britain to the U.S., and Weizmann negated such an extreme change. Moshe Sharett supported on one hand Ben-Gurion’s activist policy toward Britain, and on the other hand was, together with Weizmann, very careful not to break off completely the political ties with the British government. This article is an effort to understand Moshe Sharett’s political way of compromise in that issue, which might throw light on his political leadership as foreign minister of the State of Israel and as prime minister as well.