Paul Wolfowitz

Paul Dundes Wolfowitz (born December 22, 1943) is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, and President of the World Bank. He is currently a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, working on issues of international economic development, Africa and public-private partnerships,^[2] and chairman of the US-Taiwan Business Council.^[3] As Deputy Secretary of Defense, he was "a major architect of President Bush's Iraq policy and ... its most hawkish advocate."After serving two years, he resigned as president of the World Bank Group "ending a protracted and tumultuous battle over his stewardship, sparked by a promotion he arranged for his companion."

The second child of Jacob "Jack" Wolfowitz (1910–1981) and Lillian Dundes, Paul Wolfowitz "was born in Brooklyn, New York, into a Polish Jewish immigrant family, and grew up mainly in Ithaca, New York, where his father was a professor of statistical theory at Cornell University."^[10][11] "In addition to being prolific in research" and "very well read," according to Shelemyahu Zacks, Jacob Wolfowitz "fought at the time for the liberation of Soviet Jewry. He was a friend and strong supporter of the state of Israel, AIPAC member and had many friends and admirers there."^[12] Strongly influenced by his father, according to Eric Schmitt, Paul Wolfowitz became "a soft-spoken former aspiring-mathematician-turned-policymaker ... [whose] world views ... were forged by family history and in the halls of academia rather than in the jungles of Vietnam or the corridors of Congress ... [His father] ... escaped Poland after World War I. The rest of his father's family perished in the Holocaust."^[13] (Here Eric Schmitt is mistaken as Jacob Wolfowitz simply emigrated.)

As a boy, Wolfowitz devoured books about the Holocaust and Hiroshima—what he calls 'the polar horrors'".^[4] Speaking of the influence of the Holocaust on his views, Wolfowitz said:

"That sense of what happened in Europe in World War II has shaped a lot of my views ... It's a very bad thing when people exterminate other people, and people persecute minorities. It doesn't mean you can prevent every such incident in the world, but it's also a mistake to dismiss that sort of concern as merely humanitarian and not related to real interest."^[13]

Before first moving to Ithaca, in the fall of 1952 for his father's new post, the Wolfowitzes lived in Manhattan: "I was born in Brooklyn but we grew up in Manhattan, one block down on Morningside Drive ... from the President of Columbia who for part of that time was Dwight Eisenhower."^[14][15] After teaching for a year at Cornell, his father took a year long sabbatical and was accompanied by his family, spending half the time at UCLA, and half at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1957, Paul Wolfowitz lived in Israel, while his father was a visiting professor at the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion IIT), in Haifa.^[12][5]

Wolfowitz took classes at Cornell University while still a student at Ithaca High School.^[16] In the mid-1960s, while they were both undergraduate students at Cornell, he met Clare Selgin, who later became an anthropologist. They married in 1968, had three children, lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland, separated in 1999, and, according to some sources, became legally separated in 2001 and divorced in 2002.^{[10][11][5][17][18]}

In late 1999, Wolfowitz began dating Shaha Ali Riza. Their relationship led to controversy later, during his presidency of the World Bank Group.^[5][19]

Wolfowitz speaks five languages in addition to English; "Wolfowitz taught himself Arabic in the 1980s, when he was working at the State Department," and "He also speaks French, German, Hebrew, and Indonesian."

Cornell University

Wolfowitz entered Cornell University in 1961, on full scholarship. He was a member of the Telluride Association, a non-profit organization founded in 1910.^[11] He lived in the Telluride House through academic year 1962 to 1963, while philosophy professor Allan Bloom served as a faculty mentor living in the house.^[11] Schmitt observes that Wolfowitz first "became a protégé of the political philosopher Allan Bloom, and then of Albert Wohlstetter, the father of hard-line conservative strategic thinking at the University of Chicago."^[13] In August 1963, "when he was nineteen, he and his mother attended the civil-rights march on Washington organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. and others".^[5][11]

Though he "majored in mathematics and chemistry ... he was profoundly moved by John Hersey's Hiroshima and shifted his focus toward politics. 'One of the things that ultimately led me to leave mathematics and go into political science was thinking I could prevent nuclear war,' he said."^[13]

Wolfowitz graduated in 1965 with a Bachelor's degree degree in mathematics and chemistry. Against his father's wishes, Wolfowitz decided to go to graduate school to study politics.^[11]

University of Chicago

Following his graduation from Cornell, Wolfowitz attended the University of Chicago in order to study under Leo Strauss. He completed his PhD dissertation under Albert Wohlstetter. In the summer of 1969, Wohlstetter arranged for his students Wolfowitz, Wilson, and Richard Perle to join the Committee to Maintain a Prudent Defense Policy which was set up by Cold War architects Paul Nitze and Dean Acheson.

From 1970 to 1972, Wolfowitz taught in the Department of Political Science at Yale University, where one of his students was I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.^[20]

In 1972, Wolfowitz earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago, writing his doctoral dissertation on "nuclear proliferation in the Middle East".

In the 1970s Wolfowitz served as an aide to Democratic Senator Henry M. Jackson, who influenced several neoconservatives, including Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. Jackson "was the quintessential 'Cold War liberal.' He was an outspoken and influential advocate of increased military spending and a hard line against the Soviet Union, while supporting social welfare programs, civil rights, and the labor movement."^[22]

In 1972 U.S. President Richard Nixon, under pressure from Senator Jackson, dismissed the head of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) and replaced him with Fred Ikle. Ikle brought in a new team including Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz wrote research papers and drafted testimony, as he had previously done at the Committee to Maintain a Prudent Defense Policy. He traveled with Ikle to strategic arms limitations talks in Paris and other European cities. He helped dissuade South Korea from reprocessing plutonium that could be diverted into a clandestine weapons program.

Under President Gerald Ford, the American intelligence agencies had come under attack over their annually published National Intelligence Estimate. According to Mann: "The underlying issue was whether the C.I.A. and other agencies were underestimating the threat from the Soviet Union, either by intentionally tailoring intelligence to support Kissinger's policy of détente or by simply failing to give enough weight to darker interpretations of Soviet intentions." In an attempt to counter these claims, the newly appointed Director of Central Intelligence, George H.W. Bush authorized the formation of a committee of anti-Communist experts, headed by Richard Pipes, to reassess the raw data. Richard Pipes picked Wolfowitz, to serve on this committee, which came to be known as Team B: "'Richard Perle recommended him,' Pipes says of Wolfowitz today [2003, as quoted by Tanenhaus]. 'I'd never heard of him.'"^[23]

The team's report, delivered in 1976 and quickly leaked to the press, stated that "All the evidence points to an undeviating Soviet commitment to what is euphemistically called the 'worldwide triumph of socialism,' but in fact connotes global Soviet hegemony," highlighting a number of key areas where they believed the government's intelligence analysts had got it wrong. According to Jack Davis, Wolfowitz observed later:

The B-Team demonstrated that it was possible to construct a sharply different view of Soviet motivation from the consensus view of the [intelligence] analysts and one that provided a much closer fit to the Soviets' observed behavior (and also provided a much better forecast of subsequent behavior up to and through the invasion of Afghanistan). The formal presentation of the competing views in a session out at [CIA headquarters in] Langley also made clear that the enormous experience and expertise of the B-Team as a group were formidable.^[24]

The work of Team B, the accuracy of its conclusions, and its effects on U.S. military policies remain controversial.

In 1977, during the administration of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Wolfowitz moved to The Pentagon. He was employed as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Regional Programs for the U.S. Defense Department, under then U.S. Secretary of Defense Harold Brown.

In early 1980, Wolfowitz resigned from the Pentagon and went to work as a visiting professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. According to the Washington Post; "He said it was not he who changed his political philosophy so much as the Democratic Party, which abandoned the hard-headed internationalism of Harry Truman, Kennedy and Jackson."

In 1980, following the election of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, the newly appointed U.S. National Security Advisor Richard V. Allen put together the administration's foreign policy advisory team. Allen initially rejected Wolfowitz’s appointment but following discussions, instigated by former colleague John Lehman, Allen offered Wolfowitz the position of Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department.

President Reagan’s foreign policy was heavily influenced by the Kirkpatrick Doctrine, as outlined in a 1979 article in Commentary by Jeanne Kirkpatrick entitled "Dictatorships and Double Standards".

Although most governments in the world are, as they always have been, autocracies of one kind or another, no idea hold greater sway in the mind of educated Americans than the belief that it is possible to democratize governments, anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances.... (But) decades, if not centuries, are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits.

Wolfowitz broke from this official line by denouncing Saddam Hussein of Iraq at a time when Donald Rumsfeld was offering the dictator support in his conflict with Iran. James Mann points out: "quite a few neo-conservatives, like Wolfowitz, believed strongly in democratic ideals; they had taken from the philosopher Leo Strauss the notion that there is a moral duty to oppose a leader who is a 'tyrant.'" Other areas where Wolfowitz disagreed with the administration was in his opposition to attempts to open up dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and to the sale of Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft to Saudi Arabia. "In both instances," according to Mann, "Wolfowitz demonstrated himself to be one of the strongest supporters of Israel in the Reagan administration."

Mann stresses: "It was on China that Wolfowitz launched his boldest challenge to the established order." After Nixon and Kissinger had gone to China in the early 70s, U.S. policy was to make concessions to China as an essential Cold War ally. The Chinese were now pushing for the U.S. to end arms sales to Taiwan, and Wolfowitz used the Chinese incentive as an opportunity to undermine Kissinger's foreign policy toward China. Instead, Wolfowitz advocated a unilateralist policy, claiming that the U.S. did not need China’s assistance but that the Chinese needed the U.S. to protect them against the far-more-likely prospect of a Soviet invasion of the Chinese mainland. Wolfowitz soon came into conflict with U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig, who had been Kissinger’s assistant at the time of the visits to China. On March 30, 1982, The New York Times predicted that "Paul D. Wolfowitz, the director of policy planning ... will be replaced," because "Mr. Haig found Mr. Wolfowitz too theoretical." Instead, on June 25, 1982, George Schultz replaced Haig as U.S. Secretary of State, and Wolfowitz was promoted.

President of the World Bank

In March 2005, Wolfowitz was nominated to be president of the World Bank by U.S. President George W. Bush.^[48] Criticism of his nomination appeared in the media.^[49] Nobel Laureate in Economics and former chief economist for the World Bank Joseph Stiglitz said: "'The World Bank will once again become a hate figure. This could bring street protests and violence across the developing world.'"^[50] In a speech at the U.N. Economic and Social Council, economist Jeffrey Sachs also opposed Wolfowitz: "It's time for other candidates to come forward that have experience in development. This is a position on which hundreds of millions of people depend for their lives ... Let's have a proper leadership of professionalism."

In the U.S. there was some praise for the nomination. An editorial in The Wall Street Journal states: "Mr. Wolfowitz is willing to speak the truth to power ... he saw earlier than most, and spoke publicly about, the need for dictators to plan democratic transitions. It is the world's dictators who are the chief causes of world poverty. If anyone can stand up to the Robert Mugabes of the world, it must be the man who stood up to Saddam Hussein."^[52]

He was confirmed and became president on June 1, 2005. He soon attended the 31st G8 summit to discuss issues of global climate change and the economic development in Africa. When this meeting was interrupted by the July 7, 2005 London bombings, Wolfowitz was present with other world leaders at the press conference given by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Several of Wolfowitz's initial appointments at the Bank proved controversial, including two US nationals (Robin Cleveland and Kevin Kellems) formerly with the Bush administration, whom he appointed as close advisors with $250,000 tax-free contracts.^[53] Another appointee, Juan José Daboub was criticized by his colleagues and others for attempts to change policies on family planning and climate change towards a conservative line."^[54][55]

Wolfowitz gave special emphasis to two particular issues. Identifying Sub-Saharan Africa as the region most challenged to improve living standards, he traveled widely in the region. He also made clear his focus on fighting corruption. Several aspects of the latter program raised controversy. Overturning the names produced by a formal search process, he appointed a figure linked to the US Republican party to head the Bank's internal watchdog. Member countries worried that Wolfowitz's willingness to suspend lending to countries on grounds of corruption was vulnerable to selective application in line with US foreign policy interests. In a debate on the proposed Governance and Anti-Corruption Strategy at the Bank's 2006 Annual Meetings, shareholders directed Wolfowitz to undertake extensive consultations and revise the strategy to show how objective measures of corruption would be incorporated into decisions and how the shareholders' representatives on the Bank's Board would play a key role. Following the consultations and revisions, the Board approved a revised strategy in spring 2007.

Wolfowitz's leadership of the World Bank Group

Beginning early in 2007, Fox News published on its website a series of investigative stories on the World Bank, based in part on leaks to Fox of internal bank documents.^[71]

On April 11, 2007, Reuters and Al Kamen, in his column in The Washington Post, reported that Wolfowitz and the World Bank board had hired the Williams & Connolly law firm to oversee an investigation into the leaking of internal bank documents to Fox News.^[72][73] Those reports cite an internal memo to the bank staff later posted on the internet, dated April 9, 2007, in which the World Bank's general counsel, Ana Palacio, states that the Bank's legal staff was scrutinizing two articles by investigative reporter Richard Behar published on the website of Fox News on January 31 and March 27, 2007.^[74] A day after the second report published by Behar, on March 28, 2007, Kamen had disclosed that "Bank records obtained by the Government Accountability Project" documented pay raises in excess of Bank policies given to Shaha Riza^[75]

On April 12, 2007 the London Financial Times reported that, in a 2005 memorandum, Wolfowitz had personally directed the Bank's human resources chief to offer Riza a large pay rise and promotion, according to two anonymous sources who told the Financial Times that they had seen the memo.^[76] The memo was part of a package of 102 pages of documents publicly released by the bank on April 14, 2007.^[76]

On April 14, 2007, after reviewing the 102-page document package, the Financial Times concluded that it was "a potentially fatal blow" to Wolfowitz.^[76] In contrast, Fox News concluded that the new documents might offer Wolfowitz a "new lifeline" in the scandal, because the Bank's ethics committee had launched a review of the Riza compensation case in early 2006 and concluded that it did not warrant any further attention by the committee.^[77]

Media speculations about Wolfowitz quitting his position as president of the World Bank intensified on April 19, 2007 after his failure to attend a high-profile meeting.^[78] The controversy about Wolfowitz's girlfriend Shaha Riza led to disruption at the World Bank when some employees wore blue ribbons "in a display of defiance against his leadership."^[79]

World Bank Group's board of executive directors and staffers complained also that Wolfowitz was imposing Bush Administration policies to eliminate family planning from World Bank programs. According to Nicole Gaouette, in her report published in the Los Angeles Times on April 19, 2007, Juan José Daboub—the managing director whom Wolfowitz had appointed who has also been criticized for overly-conservative policies concerning climate change^[55] and "a Roman Catholic with ties to a conservative Salvadoran political party"—repeatedly deleted references to family planning from World Bank proposals.^[54]

On May 14, 2007 the World Bank committee investigating the alleged ethics violations reported (in part):

• "Mr. Wolfowitz's contract requiring that he adhere to the Code of Conduct for board officials and that he avoid any conflict of interest, real or apparent, were violated";
• "The salary increase Ms. Riza received at Mr. Wolfowitz's direction was in excess of the range established by Rule 6.01";
• "The ad hoc group concludes that in actuality, Mr Wolfowitz from the outset cast himself in opposition to the established rules of the institution"; and
• "He did not accept the bank's policy on conflict of interest, so he sought to negotiate for himself a resolution different from that which would have applied to the staff he was selected to head."^[80]

Wolfowitz appeared before the World Bank Group's board of executive directors to respond on Tuesday, May 15, 2007, and, the following day, on Wednesday, May 16, in another board meeting, its executive directors would "consider the report and make a statement later in the week." Adams speculates that "With Mr Wolfowitz so far refusing to step down, the board may need to take radical action to break the stalemate. Members have discussed a range of options, including sacking Mr Wolfowitz, issuing a vote of no confidence or reprimanding him. Some board members argue that a vote of no confidence would make it impossible for him to stay in the job."^[81] If the World Bank's board of directors "votes him out," according to Michael Hirsh, in the May 21, 2007 issue of Newsweek, he would be "the first president dismissed in [its] 62-year history ..."^[82] By mid-afternoon, Wednesday, May 16, 2007, The New York Times, reported that "after six weeks of fighting efforts to oust him as president ... Wolfowitz began today to negotiate the terms of his possible resignation, in return for the bank dropping or softening the charge that he had engaged in misconduct ..."^[83] After recent expressions from the Bush administration that it "fully" supported Wolfowitz as World Bank president and its urging a "fair hearing" for him, President Bush expressed "regret" at Wolfowitz's impending resignation.^[84]

On May 17, 2007, in a statement published on its website, the World Bank Group's board of Executive Directors announced that Paul Wolfowitz would resign as World Bank Group president at the end of June 2007; their statement is followed by a statement from Wolfowitz about his tenure as president and his hopes for the World Bank's future success.

Paul Dundes Wolfowitz (1943. december 22. – ), Jacob Wolfowitz matematikus fia, korábban G.W.Bush politikai tanácsadója és az Egyesült Államok védelmiminiszter-helyettese Donald Rumsfeld alatt. Wolfowitz volt a Világbank tizedik elnöke.

Apja Jacob Wolfowitz matematikus volt, aki 1920-ban követte az 1914-ben Lengyelország orosz részéről kivándorolt édesapját. Anyja Lillian Dundes. Számos rokonát a holokauszt során Lengyelországban megölték.

Leo Strauss és Albert Wohlstetter által befolyásolva Wolfowitz neokonzervatívnak számít, aki vehemensen Izrael támogatását, és – az amerikai érdekeltségek biztosítása érdekében – az erős katonai jelenlétet vallja.

Matematika és kémia tanulmányait 1965-ben a Cornell Egyetemen zárta le. A Chicago Egyetemen politikatudományokat tanult.

Wolfowitz folyamatosan váltott a politika és a tanítás területei között. Már 1966–1967-ben kormányzati alkalmazott volt. 1970 és 1973 között a Yale Egyetemen tanított, ebben az időben az amerikai szociáldemokratákhoz (SDUSA), akik az Amerikai Szocialista Párt (SPA) jobboldali szárnyából tevődtek össze, állt közel. 1973-tól négy éven keresztül a Fegyverzetellenőrző és Lefegyverzési Ügynökségnél szolgált, ahol a Szovjetunióval való tárgyalásokon vett részt, és a nukleáris fegyverek elterjedésének megakadályozása témán dolgozott. Disszertációja is erről szólt: Nukleáris fegyverek elterjedése a Közel-Keleten: a nukleáris vízsótalanítás (?) politikája és gazdasága^[forrás?]. A téziseiből kiderül, hogy Wolfowitz az atomfegyverek ellen egy izraeli kontrollt képzelt el, mivel az arab országok szintén az atommal való felfegyverkezésben látták a jövőjüket.

2005. március 31-én a Világbank Végrehajtótanácsa, amelyben 184 tagország 24 elnökkel van képviselve, egyhangúlag választotta Paul Wolfowitzot elnökké. Nem volt ellenjelölt. 2005 márciusában jelölte őt a posztra az amerikai elnök. Régóta köztudott volt G. W. Bush kívánsága, miszerint Wolfowitz kerülne a Világbank élére. James David Wolfensohnt követte a hivatalban, aki a tízéves hivatali idő lejárta után 2005. június 1-jén leköszönt posztjáról.

Hagyományosan az USA – mint legnagyobb résztulajdonos – jelöli a Világbank elnökét, miközben a Nemzetközi Valutaalap (IMF) üzletvezetői igazgatóját a szabályok szerint az európaiak nevezik meg.

Wolfowitz jelölése az USA-ban, viszont különösen Európában jelentős kételkedéseket váltott ki. Attól tartottak, hogy Wolfowitz a Világbankot az amerikai érdekek előtérbe helyezésével, a szegényebb országok kárára fogja kormányozni, továbbá Wolfowitz nem rendelkezett megfelelő tapasztalattal a nemzetközi fejlesztéspolitika terén sem. Wolfowitznak sikerült a kételyeket hamar szétoszlatni, amikor Brüsszelben európai fejlesztési politikusokkal ismertette programját – újdonság az intézmény történetében. Hangsúlyozta, hogy nem fog semmilyen konkrét forgatókönyv alapján dolgozni, hanem a Világbankot minden tag értelmében kívánja vezetni.

Wolfowitz elismerte, hogy „hibázott”^[1], amikor 2005-ben élettársának és egyben alkalmazottjának Shaha Ali Rizanak jelentős béremelést, illetve pozíció emelkedést biztosított. A Világbank Elnöksége utalásainak következtében Wolfowitz 2007. június 30-án hagyta el a hivatalt.

Theodor Herzl

Theodor Herzl (Hebrew: בנימין זאב הרצל‎ (Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl)) (May 2, 1860–July 3, 1904) was a Hungarian Jewish journalist who was the father of modern political Zionism.
Herzl was born in Pest, the Kingdom of Hungary (today the eastern half of Budapest, then a separate city) to a Jewish family originally from Zemun, the Kingdom of Hungary (today in Serbia). When Theodor was 18 his family moved to Vienna, Austria-Hungary. There, he studied law, but he devoted himself almost exclusively to journalism and literature, working as a correspondent for the Neue Freie Presse in Paris, occasionally making special trips to London and Istanbul. Later, he became literary editor of Neue Freie Presse,and wrote several comedies and dramas for the Viennese stage.
As a young man, Herzl was engaged in a Burschenschaft association, which strove for German unity under the motto Ehre, Freiheit, Vaterland ("Honor, Freedom, Fatherland"), and his early work did not focus on Jewish life. His work was of the feuilleton order, descriptive rather than political.

As the Paris correspondent for Neue Freie Presse, Herzl followed the Dreyfus Affair, a notorious anti-Semitic incident in France in which a French Jewish army captain was falsely convicted of spying for Germany. He witnessed mass rallies in Paris following the Dreyfus trial where many chanted "Death to the Jews!" Herzl came to reject his early ideas regarding Jewish emancipation and assimilation, and to believe that the Jews must remove themselves from Europe and create their own state.[1]
In June, 1895, he wrote in his diary: "In Paris, as I have said, I achieved a freer attitude toward anti-Semitism... Above all, I recognized the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-Semitism." In Der Judenstaat he writes:
"The Jewish question persists wherever Jews live in appreciable numbers. Wherever it does not exist, it is brought in together with Jewish immigrants. We are naturally drawn into those places where we are not persecuted, and our appearance there gives rise to persecution. This is the case, and will inevitably be so, everywhere, even in highly civilised countries—see, for instance, France—so long as the Jewish question is not solved on the political level. The unfortunate Jews are now carrying the seeds of anti-Semitism into England; they have already introduced it into America."[2]
From April, 1896, when the English translation of his Der Judenstaat (The State of the Jews) appeared, Herzl became the leading spokesman for Zionism.

Herzl complemented his writing with practical work to promote Zionism on the international stage. He visited Istanbul in April, 1896, and was hailed at Sofia, Bulgaria, by a Jewish delegation. In London, the Maccabees group received him coldly, but he was granted the mandate of leadership from the Zionists of the East End of London. Within six months this mandate had been approved throughout Zionist Jewry, and Herzl traveled constantly to draw attention to his cause. His supporters, at first few in number, worked night and day, inspired by Herzl's example.
In June 1896, he met for the first time with the Sultan of Turkey, but the Sultan refused to cede Palestine to Zionists, saying, "if one day the Islamic State falls apart then you can have Palestine for free, but as long as I am alive I would rather have my flesh be cut up than cut out Palestine from the Muslim land."[3]
In 1897, at considerable personal expense, he founded Die Welt of Vienna, Austria-Hungary and planned the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. He was elected president (a position he held until his death in 1904), and in 1898 he began a series of diplomatic initiatives intended to build support for a Jewish country. He was received by the German emperor on several occasions, was again granted an audience by the Ottoman emperor in Jerusalem, and attended The Hague Peace Conference, enjoying a warm reception by many other statesmen.
In 1902–03 Herzl was invited to give evidence before the British Royal Commission on Alien Immigration. The appearance brought him into close contact with members of the British government, particularly with Joseph Chamberlain, then secretary of state for the colonies, through whom he negotiated with the Egyptian government for a charter for the settlement of the Jews in Al 'Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula, adjoining southern Palestine.

On the failure of that scheme, which took him to Cairo, he received, through L. J. Greenberg, an offer (August 1903) on the part of the British government to facilitate a large Jewish settlement, with autonomous government and under British suzerainty, in British East Africa. At the same time, the Zionist movement being threatened by the Russian government, he visited St. Petersburg and was received by Sergei Witte, then finance minister, and Viacheslav Plehve, minister of the interior, the latter of whom placed on record the attitude of his government toward the Zionist movement. On that occasion Herzl submitted proposals for the amelioration of the Jewish position in Russia. He published the Russian statement, and brought the British offer, commonly known as the "Uganda Project," before the Sixth Zionist Congress (Basel, August 1903), carrying the majority (295:178, 98 abstentions) with him on the question of investigating this offer, after the Russian delegation stormed out.
In 1905, after investigation, the Congress decided to decline the British offer and firmly committed itself to a Jewish homeland in the historic Land of Israel.

Herzl did not live to see the rejection of the Uganda plan; he died in Edlach, Lower Austria in 1904 of heart failure at age 44. His will stipulated that he should have the poorest-class funeral without speeches or flowers and he added, "I wish to be buried in the vault beside my father, and to lie there till the Jewish people shall take my remains to Palestine".[4] In 1949 his remains were moved from Vienna to be reburied on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State, 1896) written in German, was the book that announced the advent of Zionism to the world. It is a pamphlet-length political program.
His last literary work, Altneuland (in Eng. The Old New Land), is a novel devoted to Zionism. The author occupied his free time for three years in writing what he believed might be accomplished by 1923. It is less a novel, though the form is that of romance, than a serious forecasting of what could be done within one generation. The keynotes of the story are the love for Zion, the insistence upon the fact that the changes in life suggested are not utopian, but are to be brought about simply by grouping all the best efforts and ideals of every race and nation; and each such effort is quoted and referred to in such a manner as to show that Altneuland, though blossoming through the skill of the Jew, will in reality be the product of the benevolent efforts of all the members of the human family.
Herzl envisioned a Jewish state which combined both a modern Jewish culture with the best of the European heritage. Thus a Palace of Peace would be built in Jerusalem, arbitrating international disputes—but at the same time the Temple would be rebuilt, but on modern principles. He did not envision the Jewish inhabitants of the state being religious, but there is much respect for religion in the public sphere. Many languages are spoken—Hebrew is not the main tongue. Proponents of a Jewish cultural rebirth, such as Ahad Ha'am were critical of Altneuland.
In Altneuland Herzl did not foresee any conflict between Jews and Arabs. The one Arab character in Altneuland, Reshid Bey, who is one of the leaders of the "New Society", is very grateful to his Jewish neighbors for improving the economic condition of Palestine and sees no cause for conflict. All non-Jews have equal rights, and an attempt by a fanatical rabbi to disenfranchise the non-Jewish citizens of their rights fails in the election which is the center of the main political plot of the novel.
Altneuland was written primarily for the world, not for the Zionists. Herzl wanted to win over non-Jewish opinion for Zionism.[5] In his diary he wrote that land in Palestine was to be gently expropriated from the Palestinian Arabs and they were to be worked across the border "unbemerkt" (surreptitiously), e.g. by refusing them employment.[5] Herzl's draft of a charter for a Jewish-Ottoman Land Company (JOLC) gave the JOLC the right to obtain land in Palestine by giving its owners comparable land elsewhere in the Ottoman empire. According to Walid Khalidi this indicates Herzl's "bland assumption of the transfer of the Palestinian to make way for the immigrant colonist."[6]
The name of Tel Aviv is the title given to the Hebrew translation of Altneuland by the translator, Nahum Sokolov. This name, which comes from Ezekiel 3:15, means tell—an ancient mound formed when a town is built on its own debris for thousands of years—of spring. The name was later applied to the new town built outside of Jaffa, which went on to become the second-largest city in Israel. Nearby is Herzlia, named in honor of Herzl.

Herzl's grandfathers, both of whom he knew, were more closely related to traditional Judaism than his parents, yet two of his paternal grandfather's brothers and his maternal grandmother's brother exemplify complete estrangement and rejection of Judaism on the one hand, and utter loyalty and devotion to Judaism and Eretz Israel. Herzl's paternal grandfather Simon Loeb Herzl, reportedly attended the Sephardic Zionist Rabbi Judah Alkalai's synagogue in Semlin, Serbia, and the two frequently visited. Grandfather Simon Loeb Herzl "had his hands on" one of the first copies of Alkalay's 1857 work prescribing the "return of the Jews to the Holy Land and renewed glory of Jerusalem." Contemporary scholars conclude that Herzl's own implementation of modem Zionism was undoubtedly influenced by that relationship.[7] Herzl’s grandparents' graves in Semlin can still be visited.[8] Alkalai himself, was witness to the rebirth of Serbia from Ottoman rule in the early and mid 19th century, and was inspired by the Serbian uprising and subsequent re-creation of Serbia.
Jacob Herzl (1835-1902), Theodor's father, was a highly successful businessman. Herzl's mother, Jeanette (née Diamant) was a handsome and wise woman. She took pride in her son, but did not have a successful relationship with her daughter-in-law. Herzl had one sister, Pauline, a year older than he was, who died suddenly on February 7, 1878 of typhus.[9] Theodor lived with his family in a house next to the Dohány Street Synagogue (formerly known as Tabakgasse Synagogue) located in Belváros, the inner city of the historical old town of Pest, in the eastern section of Budapest[10][11]. The remains of Herzl's parents and sister were re-buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
In 1889 he married Julie Naschauer, daughter of a wealthy Jewish businessman in Vienna. The marriage was unhappy, although three children were born to it. Herzl had a strong attachment to his mother, who was unable to get along with his wife. These difficulties were increased by the political activities of his later years, in which his wife took little interest.[12]
All three children died tragically.
Pauline suffered from mental illness and drug addiction. She died in 1930 at the age of 40, apparently of a morphine overdose. Hans, a converted Catholic, committed suicide (gunshot) the day of sister Pauline's funeral.[13] He was 39. In 2006 the remains of Pauline and Hans were moved from Bordeaux, France, and placed alongside their father.,[14] .[15]
The youngest daughter, Trude Margarethe, (officially Margarethe, 1893-1943) married Richard Neumann. He lost his fortune in the economic depression. He was burdened by the steep costs of hospitalizing Trude, who was mentally ill, and was finding it difficult to raise the money required to send his son Stephan, 14, to a boarding school in London. After spending many years in hospitals, Trude was taken by the Nazis to Theresienstadt where she died. Her body was burned.[13]
Trude's son (Herzl's only grandchild), Stephan Theodor Neumann (1918-1946) was sent to England, 1937-1938, for his safety, as rabid Austrian anti-Semitism grew. In England, he read extensively about his grandfather. Stephan became an ardent Zionist. He was the only immediate descendant of Herzl to be a Zionist. Anglicizing his name to Stephen Norman, during WWII, Norman enlisted in the British Army rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Artillery. In late 1945 and early 1946, he took the opportunity to visit the British Mandate of Palestine "to see what my grandfather had started." He wrote in his diary extensively about his trip. What impressed him the most was that there was a "look of freedom" in the faces of the children, not like the sallow look of those from the concentration camps of Europe. He wrote upon leaving Palestine, "My visit to Palestine is over... It is said that to go away is to die a little. And I know that when I went away from Erez Israel, I died a little. But sure, then, to return is somehow to be reborn. And I will return."
Once discharged from the military in Britain, he took a minor position with a British Economic and Scientific mission in Washington, D.C. in Autumn 1946, where he learned that his family had been exterminated. He became deeply depressed over the fate of his family and the seemingly eternal suffering of the Jews, continuing with the survivors of the Holocaust languishing in European displaced persons camps. Unable to endure the suffering any further, he jumped from the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge in Washington, D.C. to his death. Norman was buried by the Jewish Agency in Washington, D.C. His tombstone reads simply, 'Stephen Theodore Norman, Captain Royal Artillery British Army, Grandson of Theodore Herzl, April 21, 1918 - November 26, 1946'.[16] Norman was the only member of Herzl's family to have been to Palestine. He loved the land and the people. A major Zionist effort is underway to return the last descendant and only Zionist in Herzl's family to be reburied with his family on Mt. Herzl on December 5, 2007.

Herzl Tivadar Pesten született egy Dohány utcai házban. Itt ma a Zsidó Múzeum és a nagy zsinagóga egyik fő épületszárnya van. A múzeum falán emléktábla őrzi, hogy itt született a Zsidó Állam megálmodója.

A politikus és író, a Zsidó Állam megálmodója, a cionista politika atyja, a Cionista Világszervezet megalapítója neológ zsidó légkörben nevelkedett. Középiskolai tanulmányait a Budapesti Evangélikus Gimnáziumban fejezte be.
1878-ban családjával Bécsbe költözött, ahol az egyetemen jogot és irodalmat tanult. 1884-ben szerzett jogi doktorátust. 1891-ben a Neue Freie Presse c. bécsi lap párizsi tudósítója lett.

Párizsban érte az igazi nagy megrázkódtatás: ő tudósította lapját a Dreyfus-ügyről és megtapasztalta a per kapcsán erőteljesen megnyilvánuló antiszemitizmust.
Az első cionista kongresszust, amely 1897-ben volt, Herzl Tivadar szervezte és ez később elnökévé választotta. Ezt a tisztséget haláláig viselte. Útjának elején kudarcok érték, amikor megpróbálta rávenni a leggazdagabb zsidókat, hogy támogassák a cionista elképzelések megvalósítását. A siker akkor következett be, amikor a kelet-európai zsidó tömegek felé fordult, akik igent mondtak kezdeményezésére és elfogadták őt vezetőnek.
Apja mellé temették Döblingben, de földi maradványait – végakaratának megfelelően – 1950-ben Izraelbe vitték és Jeruzsálemben temették el.

Herzl és Heltai Jenő unokatestvérek voltak.

David Ben-Gurion

David Ben-Gurion (Hebrew: דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרְיּוֹן‎, born David Grün on 16 October 1886, died 1 December 1973) was the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, culminated in his instrumental role in the founding of the state of Israel. After leading Israel to victory in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Ben-Gurion helped build the state institutions and oversaw the absorption of vast numbers of Jews from all over the world. Upon retiring from political life in 1970, he moved to Sde Boker, where he lived until his death. Posthumously, Ben-Gurion was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Important People of the Century.

Ben-Gurion was born in Płońsk, Congress Poland which was then part of the Russian Empire. His father, Avigdor Grün was a lawyer and a leader in the Hovevei Zion movement. His mother, Scheindel, passed away when he was 11 years old.

Ben-Gurion grew up to be an ardent Zionist. As a student at the University of Warsaw, he joined the Marxist Poale Zion movement in 1904. He was arrested twice during the Russian Revolution of 1905. He immigrated to Ottoman Palestine in 1906, shocked by the pogroms and anti-Semitism of life in Eastern Europe, and became a major leader of Poale Zion with Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.
In Palestine, he first worked in agriculture, picking oranges. In 1902 he volunteered with HaShomer, a force of volunteers who helped guard isolated Jewish agricultural communities. In 1912 he moved to Turkey to study law at Istanbul University together with Ben-Zvi and adopted the Hebrew name Ben-Gurion, after the medieval historian Yosef ben Gurion. He also worked as a journalist. In 1915, Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi were expelled from Palestine, then under Ottoman rule, for their political activities.
Settling in New York City in 1915, he met Russian-born Paula Munweis. They were married in 1917, and had three children. He joined the British Army in 1918 as part of the 38th Battalion of the Jewish Legion (following the Balfour Declaration in November 1917). He and his family returned to Palestine after World War I following its capture by the British from the Ottoman Empire.

After the death of theorist Ber Borochov, the left-wing and right-wing of Poale Zion split in 1919 with Ben-Gurion and his friend Berl Katznelson leading the right faction of the Labor Zionist movement. In 1920 he assisted in the formation and subsequently became general secretary of the Histadrut, the Zionist Labor Federation in Palestine. In 1930, Poale Zion Right and Ahdut HaAvoda joined forces to create Mapai, the more right-wing Zionist labor party (it was still a left-wing organization, but not as far left as other factions) under Ben-Gurion's leadership. The left-wing of Labour Zionism was represented by Mapam. Labor Zionism became the dominant tendency in the World Zionist Organization and in 1935 Ben-Gurion became chairman of the executive committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, a role he kept until the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Ben-Gurion instigated a policy of restraint ("Havlagah") in which the Haganah and other Jewish groups did not retaliate for Arab attacks against Jewish civilians, concentrating only on self-defence. In 1937, the Peel Commission recommended partitioning Palestine into Jewish and Arab areas and Ben-Gurion supported this policy. This led to conflict with Jabotinsky who opposed partition and as a result Jabotinsky's supporters split with the Haganah and abandoned Havlagah.
Ben-Gurion had a realistic view of the strong attachment of Palestinian Arabs to the land. In 1938 he said: 'In our political argument abroad we minimize Arab opposition to us. But let us not ignore the truth among ourselves. [...] A people which fights against the usurpation of its land will not tire so easily.'[1] According to Flapan, Ben-Gurion's assessment of Arab feelings led him to emphasize the need to build up Jewish military strength: 'I believe in our power, in our power which will grow, and if it will grow agreement will come...'.[2]
The British 1939 White paper stipulated that Jewish immigration to Palestine was to be limited to 15,000 a year for the first five years, and would subsequently be contingent on Arab consent. Restrictions were also placed on the rights of Jews to buy land from Arabs. After this Ben-Gurion changed his policy towards the British, stating: "Peace in Palestine is not the best situation for thwarting the policy of the White Paper".[3] Ben-Gurion believed a peaceful solution with the Arabs had no chance and soon began preparing the Yishuv for war. According to Teveth 'through his campaign to mobilize the Yishuv in support of the British war effort, he strove to build the nucleus of a "Hebrew army", and his success in this endeavor later brought victory to Zionism in the struggle to establish a Jewish state.'[4]
During the Second World War, Ben-Gurion encouraged Palestine's Jews to volunteer for the British Army. He famously told Jews to "support the British as if there is no White Paper and oppose the White Paper as if there is no war".[5] About 10% of the Jewish population of Palestine volunteered for the British Army, including many women. At the same time Ben-Gurion helped the illegal immigration of thousands of European Jewish refugees to Palestine during a period when the British placed heavy restrictions on Jewish immigration.
In 1946 Ben-Gurion agreed that the Haganah could cooperate with Menachem Begin's Irgun in fighting the British. Ben-Gurion initially agreed to Begin's plan to carry out the 1946 King David Hotel bombing, with the intent of embarrassing (rather than killing) the British military stationed there. However, when the risks of mass killing became apparent, Ben-Gurion told Begin to call the operation off; Begin refused.[6]
Illegal Jewish migration led to pressure on the British to either allow Jewish migration (as required by the League of Nations Mandate) or quit - they did the latter in 1948 on the heels of a United Nations resolution partitioning the territory between the Jews and Arabs.
In September 1947 Ben Gurion reached a status quo agreement with the Orthodox Agudat Yisrael party. He sent a letter to Agudat Yisrael promising that the Shabbat would be Israel's official day of rest, there would be no civil marriages, and the Orthodox sector would be granted autonomy in the sphere of religious education.
Ben Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948. In the Israeli declaration of independence, he stressed that the new nation would "uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or gender."
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Ben-Gurion oversaw the nascent state's military operations. During the first weeks of Israel's independence, he ordered all militias to be replaced by one national army, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). To that end, Ben-Gurion gave the order to sink on the Altalena, a ship carrying arms purchased by the Irgun. About 16 Irgun fighters were killed in this attack.

Ben-Gurion believed that the sparsely populated and barren Negev desert offered a great opportunity for the Jews to settle in Palestine with minimal obstruction of the Arab population. He set a personal example by choosing to settle in kibbutz Sde Boker at the centre of the Negev and established the National Water Carrier to bring water to the area. He saw the struggle to make the desert bloom as an area where the Jewish people could make a major contribution to humanity as a whole.

As head of the Jewish Agency, Ben-Gurion was de-facto leader of Israel's Jews even before the state was declared. In this position, Ben-Gurion played a major role in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the resulting Palestinian exodus. In a study published in 1988 and revisited in 2003 and 2008,[9] Benny Morris studied the events that lead to the Palestinian exodus. Among the different causes, he suggests that Ben Gurion and the Haganah leadership expelled Arab civilians from the area between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv in March-April 1948 in an effort to remove hostile Palestinian-Arab towns and villages from Jewish controlled areas before the start of the Arab invasion which was expected when the British left in May. In an interview with Ha'aretz in 2003, Morris affirmed that Ben Gurion had probably ordered the expulsion of Palestinians from Lydda and from villages attacked during Operation Hiram in October 1948.

Ben-Gurion led Israel during its War of Independence. He became Prime Minister on 14 May 1948 and would remain in that post until 1963, except for a period of nearly two years between 1954 and 1955. As Premier, he oversaw the establishment of the state's institutions. He presided over various national projects aimed at the rapid development of the country and its population: Operation Magic Carpet, the airlift of Jews from Arab countries, the construction of the National Water Carrier, rural development projects and the establishment of new towns and cities. In particular, he called for pioneering settlement in outlying areas, especially in the Negev.
In 1953 Ben-Gurion announced his intention to withdraw from government and settle in kibbutz Sde Boker, in the Negev. He had a major role in the reprisal operations that lead to the Qibya massacre at the end of 1953. He returned to office in 1955 assuming the post of Defense Minister and later prime minister.
When Ben-Gurion returned to government, Israeli forces responded more aggressively to Palestinian guerilla attacks from Gaza—still under Egyptian rule. The growing cycle of violence led Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser to build up his arms with the help of the Soviet Union. The Israelis responded by arming themselves with help from France. Nasser blocked the passage of Israeli ships through the Red Sea and Suez Canal. In July 1956, America and Britain withdrew their offer to fund the Aswan High Dam project on the Nile and a week later Nasser ordered the nationalization of the French and British controlled Suez Canal.[citation needed] Ben-Gurion collaborated with the British and French to plan the 1956 Sinai War in which Israel stormed the Sinai Peninsula thus giving British and French forces a pretext to intervene in order to secure the Suez Canal. Intervention by the United States and the United Nations forced the British and French to back down and Israel to withdraw from Sinai in return for promises of free navigation through the Red Sea and Suez Canal. A UN force was stationed between Egypt and Israel.
Ben-Gurion stepped down as prime minister for what he described as personal reasons in 1963, and chose Levi Eshkol as his successor. A year later a rivalry developed between the two on the issue of the Lavon Affair. Ben-Gurion broke with the party in June 1965 over Eshkol's handling of the Lavon affair and formed a new party, Rafi which won ten seats in the Knesset. After the Six-Day War, Ben-Gurion was in favour of returning all the occupied territories apart from Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Mount Hebron.

In 1968, when Rafi merged with Mapai to form the Alignment, Ben-Gurion refused to reconcile with his old party. He favoured electoral reforms in which a constituency-based system would replace what he saw as a chaotic proportional representation method. He formed another new party, the National List, which won four seats in the 1969 election. Ben-Gurion retired from politics in 1970 and spent his last years living in a modest home on the kibbutz.
Ben-Gurion is buried alongside his wife Paula at a site in Midreshet Ben-Gurion in the Negev desert.
1886. október 16-án született a cári Oroszország által irányított lengyelországi Plonskban. Apja az Avigdor Green által alapított modern chéderbe, azaz zsidó elemi iskolába járt.

Ben Guriont ma is hatalmas tisztelet övezi Izraelben. Sokak szerint nélküle nem így alakult volna Izrael első pár évtizede, vagy talán létre sem jött volna Izrael.

Már fiatal korában cionista ifjúsági társaságot alapított. 1904-ben utazott Varsóba, ahol a Poale Zion baloldali cionistákhoz csatlakozott. Itt nyilatkozott először az Ugandában létrehozandó zsidó álam tervével kapcsolatban: minden olyan felvetést ellenzett, ami egy Palesztinán kívüli zsidó állam megalapítását javasolta.

1906-ban alijázott (zarándokolt) Erec Jiszraelbe (Izrael); 1910-ig mezőgazdasági munkásként dolgozott Júdeában, majd északon Galileában. Ugyanebben az évben vett részt a Cion ramlei konferenciáján, ahol egy pártplatformot hoztak létre. Itt már felemelte hangját a Poale Cion programmal szemben, és hangsúlyozta, hogy milyen fontos a Palesztina-központúság. A héber nyelvet részesítette előnyben a jiddissel szemben.

Az 1908-09-es ifjútörök forradalom felkeltette figyelmét, hiszen lehetőséget látott arra, hogy a zsidók is megtalálják helyüket egy modern államrendszerben. 1910-ben Jeruzsálembe költözött, ahol a párt „Az egység” című lapjának szerkesztője lett.

1911-ben Szalonikibe ment, ahol megtanult törökül, valamint helybeli zsidó munkáscsoportokkal épített ki kapcsolatot.

1912. nyarán beiratkozott a konstantinápolyi (ma Isztambul) egyetem jogi karára. Politikai karrierje egyre magasabbra ívelt: részt vett a XI. Bécsi cionista kongresszuson, ahol a vezető testületbe is beválasztották.

Az első világháború kitörésekor – félve a Palesztinából való kiutasítástól –, felvette az ottomán állampolgárságot. Erre bíztatta a palesztinai zsidó közösség többi polgárát is. Hiába, mert mindez nem sokat segített rajta, mivel Ahmed Jamal, a palesztinai és szíriai csapatok parancsnoka kijelentette, hogy a Poale Cion programja szemben áll az Ottomán Birodalom érdekeivel – Guriont tehát hamarosan száműzték.

Alexandriában találkozott Yosef Trumpeldorsal és Vladimír Jabotinskyvel, akik zsidó menekültek közül igyekeztek hadsereget toborozni a törökök ellen. Gurion a szervezkedés ellenében foglalt állást.

1918. elején javasolta, hogy szervezzenek az USA-ban zsidó légiót, mely a brit hadsereg kötelékében harcol az ekkor már csak részben török uralom alatt álló Palesztinában. Maga is jelentkezett, így visszatérhetett Palesztinába.

1919-ben létrejött az új munkáspárt, az Achdut Haavoda, aminek létrehozásában Ben Gurion is aktívan részt vett.

1921 és 1935 között főtitkára volt az általa is alapított Hisztadrut szakszervezetnek. 1930-ban egyesült az Achdut Ha’avoda és a Hapoel Hacair, amiből létrejött a Mapai, vagyis az Erec Jiszraeli Munkások Pártja, melynek Gurion lett a vezetője.

Tisztségében “kétfrontos” harcot kellett vívnia: egyfelől saját pártjának baloldali szélsőségeivel, a dogmatikus marxistákkal, akik a proletárforradalmat hirdették, másfelől pedig a jobboldali cionistákkal, és azok radikális elképzeléseivel. Ben Gurion mindig síkra szállt azért, hogy csak zsidók végezhessenek fizikai munkát Palesztinában, ugyanakkor az osztályharcot nem tartotta alkalmazható eszköznek addig, míg ki nem épül a zsidó társadalom teljes vertikuma, illetve osztályviszonyai. Éppen ezért nem utasította el a tőke részvételét az ország felépítésében.

1937-ig, egészen a Peel-féle brit felosztási tervig ellenezte a revizionisták azon cionista mozgalmát, ami a britek ellenében teremtett volna zsidó államot, ugyanakkor lemondott volna Erec Jiszrael zsidó többségéről.

1934. októberében a békülés jegyében megegyezett Vladimír Jabotinsky-val, a revizionisták vezetőjével, de 1935-ben a párt többi tagja azonban referendumban utasította el a megegyezést.

1935 és 1943 között a Jewish Agency executivája, vagyis a Végrehajtó Bizottság elnöke volt Palesztinában. Támogatta a Peel Bizottságnak az ország felosztására vonatkozó javaslatait, ezért 1939-ben részt vett a zsidó delegáció munkájában, a londoni kerekasztal-konferencián.

Ben Guriont mélyen felháborította a britek által létrehozott Fehér Könyv, de a háború kapcsán mégiscsak azt a kijelentést tette, hogy: „úgy kell harcolni az anticionista Fehér Könyv ellen Anglia oldalán, mintha a Fehér Könyv nem is létezne.”

Gurion felismerte, hogy a britek nem akarják végrehajtani a Palesztinai Mandátumot is tartalmazó Balfour-deklaráció határozatait, ezért új céljának a zsidó állam kikiáltását tekintette.
1942-ben egyik megalkotója volt a zsidó államszövetség létrehozását tervbe vevő Biltmore-i Programnak. Mivel a brit munkáspárti kormány a háború után is a Fehér Könyv politikáját akarta folytatni, Ben Gurion jóváhagyta a jisuv vezetőinek britekkel szembeni fegyverkezését, ami a bevándorlás segítését is jelentette. Ekkor ugyanis a jórészt koncentrációs táborokból Palesztinába menekülő zsidók hajóit visszafordították, vagy a ciprusi táborokba zárták utazóit. Ben Gurion ellenezte az Irgun Cvai Leumi (Écel) és a Lohamei Herut Jiszrael (Lehi) zsidó szervezetek britek ellen irányuló merényleteit, de végül mégis beleegyezett abba, hogy a Hagana jisuv katonai erő a Lehivel és az Écellel együtt brit katonai célpontokat támadjon. Válaszul a britek letartóztatták az Executiva és a Hagana vezetőit, akiket azonban nem sokkal később szabadon engedtek. Ben Gurion több nemzetközi fórumon is bírálta a britek politikáját: például 1946-ban az Angol-Amerikai Vizsgálóbizottság, illetve 1947-ben az UNSCOP előtt (ENSZ Speciális Bizottság Palesztináról - United Nations Special Committee on Palestine).
Többek között Gurion az 1946-os cionista kongresszuson való aktív szereplése miatt szavazták le Chaim Weizmann, a Cionista Világszervezet vezetőjének további kerekasztal-tárgyalások kezdeményezésére vonatkozó javaslatát.

Palesztinába való visszatérése után új feladatának a Hagana felkészítését tartotta, főként a fegyveres arab konfliktusokra. A két nép közötti, és a britekkel szembeni feszültség csúcspontja az 1946. július 22-én a palesztinai brit főhadiszállás, a King David Hotel ellen elkövetett, 91 halálos áldozatot követelő robbantás volt. Ez nagyban hozzájárult az ENSZ 1947-es közgyűlésére kidolgozott és beterjesztett, Palesztinát érintő rendezési tervhez. A fentiek alapján egy arab és egy izraeli állam jött volna létre, míg Jeruzsálem a konfliktusok elkerülése végett ENSZ-igazgatás alá került volna. Bár a közgyűlés 33 igen, 13 nem és 10 tartózkodás mellett elfogadta (köztük a későbbi miniszterelnök David Ben Gurion is Izrael nevében), a rendezés azóta sem valósult meg, mivel a nemmel szavazó Arab liga államai nem voltak hajlandók elfogadni a döntést. A szinte azonnal kitört lázongások és összecsapások egy kvázi-polgárháborúba sodorták Palesztinát, melyet a britek (rájuk nézve példátlan) szó nélküli kivonulása, s ezzel az egykori brit gyarmat mintegy magára hagyása teljes anarchiába sodort. Még azon a napon, amikor az utolsó brit katona is hajóra szállt (1948. május 14.), David Ben Gurion kikiáltotta a szabad és független Ciont, azaz Izrael államát, amelyet azonnal megtámadtak az őt körülvevő arab államok, kirobbantva az első arab-izraeli háborút. [2]

Ben Gurion lett az ideiglenes kormány miniszterelnöke és védelmi minisztere, valamint ugyanezeket a pozíciókat töltötte be az 1949-ben létrejött kormányban is, egészen az 1953-as decemberi (első) visszavonulásáig, amikor is Sde Bokerban, egy Beer Sevától délre fekvő kibucban telepedett le.

1955. februárjában felkérték, hogy csatlakozzon Mashe Sarett kormányához védelmi miniszterként. 1963. júniusáig a kormány feje és védelmi minisztere lett, ami után végleg visszavonult. Bár a zsidó állam külpolitikáját a védelemnek óhajtotta szentelni, az 1956-os sínai háborúban Izrael agresszorként lépett fel Egyiptommal szemben. Az offenzívát támogatandó, az ötvenes években jó viszonyt épített ki a francia vezetőkkel, illetve a Német Szövetségi Köztársaság (NSZK) kancellárjával, Konrad Adenauerrel is.

1961-ben a Knesszetet (izraeli parlament) feloszlatták. 1963. június 17-én jelentette be lemondását, majd végleg visszavonult Sde Bokerba, mégis aktívan részt vett az izraeli politikai életben. Ben Gurion és szimpatizánsai úgy döntöttek, hogy új pártot alapítanak. Az új párt neve Resimat Poale Jiszrael (Rafi), vagyis Izraeli Dolgozók Listája lett. Pár év múlva a Rafi feloszlott, majd újra egyesült a Mapai-jal. Ben Gurion azonban egyedül, pártonkívüli képviselőként dolgozott tovább a Knesszetben 1973. december 1-jén bekövetkezett haláláig.