Language:
English
Year of publication:
2021
Titel der Quelle:
Middle Eastern Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
57,2 (2021) 310-326
Keywords:
Ben-Gurion, David, Political and social views
;
Independence Day (Israel) History
;
Zionism Attitudes
;
Zionism Philosophy 20th century
;
History
;
Judaism and state Philosophy
Abstract:
The article focuses on David Ben-Gurion’s past image using a series of programmatic and widely distributed speeches he made during Israel’s first Independence Days (1948-1958). The article argues that while the founding of the state was defined as a turning point it was certainly not portrayed as a ‘beginning’, and that both the ancient sovereign and the exilic Jewish experience had a central place in Ben-Gurion’s relevant past. At the centre of discussion stand five main characteristics of the speeches: the continuation between the state and the Jewish ancient past; the central place of a secularized messianism as a bridge between the exilic past and the sovereign present; the attempt to portray a widely accepted shared past using consensus-based terminology; the simplification of the Zionist rebellion against the exile; and the fundamental differentiation between the Jewish symbolic past and the realistic Israeli present. These five elements are analysed against the background of other texts by Ben-Gurion and his image in the research. Finally, this case study is placed within a wider context which demonstrates the Israeli quest for a Jewish framework of meaning that would authenticate the new national myths and charge them with meaning.
DOI:
10.1080/00263206.2020.1862801
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
