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Biography with Mike Wallace - David Ben-Gurion (1963)
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00:02His name is David Ben-Gurion, and this is his biography.
00:49I'm Mike Wallace. This is Biography.
00:52Our story, David Ben-Gurion.
00:55Ten more like him, a rabbi once said, and Israel will be redeemed.
01:01He was describing David Green, a young man driven by one consuming ambition,
01:07to help create the independent state of Israel, to make it a homeland for his people.
01:13When David Green began this lifelong struggle, he assumed the name by which the world would later know him,
01:20David Ben-Gurion, David, son of the lion.
01:27At the age of 70, David Ben-Gurion, quite main, but tough and vigorous, issued this challenge to the people
01:35of Israel.
01:36We will build here an example to the world, he said.
01:41A nation without classes, without discrimination, fulfilling the dreams of our prophets of old.
01:50Many men have had their role in history thrust upon them.
01:53But David Ben-Gurion sought his role.
01:57Even as a child, he clearly saw his destiny.
02:07One of eleven children, David Green is born in Plonsk, Poland in 1886.
02:15Even as a schoolboy, young David is a rebel.
02:19He sees himself as a crusader.
02:20To his classmates, he says,
02:23One day, I will be the leader of a new Israel.
02:28By the time he is 15 years old, he is a tireless organizer for the new Zionist movement,
02:35a dedicated group hoping to make a homeland for the Jews in Palestine.
02:42In 1906, at the age of 20, David Green migrates to Palestine, now controlled by Turkey.
02:51The spirit of my childhood had triumphed, he later recalls.
02:55I was in Israel, in a Jewish village, and its name was Petah Tikva, the gateway of hope.
03:04For almost five years, he thrives on working the land in remote farming villages.
03:10But in 1910, he joins the staff of the new Zionist labor magazine, Unity.
03:16He writes inflammatory editorials against Turkish rule and signs them with a Hebrew name,
03:22David Ben-Gurion, David, son of the lion.
03:27At the outbreak of World War I, the Turkish government exiles Ben-Gurion as a dangerous agitator.
03:34He flees to New York.
03:37In 1916, he meets and marries Paula Munweis, a student nurse.
03:43And for two years, they search for some way to return to Israel.
03:49November 1918.
03:51At Versailles Palace, the armistice is signed, ending World War I.
03:57Turkey, an ally of Germany, loses control of Palestine.
04:00The League of Nations then issues a mandate turning the Holy Land over to the British government.
04:08The Jews of Palestine are overjoyed.
04:11They are confident that this is the first step toward the long-awaited establishment of the State of Israel.
04:21As a Zionist leader, a militant advocate for the statehood of Israel, David Ben-Gurion travels around the world.
04:28He urges Jews to become pioneers, to settle in what he calls the Land of David, Land of Sacred Heritage.
04:38The Arab population far outnumbers the Jews in Palestine, and Arab influence is strong.
04:46Any proposals of partition by the British are immediately rejected by Arab leaders, who have sworn to drive the Jews
04:54out of Palestine.
04:57Out of the sun-baked waste, the raiders of al-Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem, thunder across the borders, bringing death
05:04to the unprotected Jewish villages.
05:15David Ben-Gurion leads the drive to recruit an underground force, the Haganah.
05:22This secret Jewish army will strike back at the Arabs.
05:28The cities of Israel become armed camps.
05:31For more than a decade, this terror will continue.
05:41March 1939.
05:44Britain's Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, seeking to appease the Arabs, issues a white paper, a change in policy which violates
05:53the mandate of the League of Nations.
05:55The white paper limits all future Jewish immigration to 75,000 persons.
06:01After that, not a single Jew is to be admitted to Palestine without Arab approval.
06:09The Jewish people now face a greater threat than ever before, the fear spawned by Adolf Hitler.
06:26As millions of German Jews are herded into concentration camps, David Ben-Gurion desperately pleads with the British government to
06:34open the doors of Palestine.
06:36He knows that if he fails, millions of Jews will be exterminated.
06:40But his pleas are rejected.
06:43The white paper will be enforced.
06:49September 1939.
06:51As World War II begins, Ben-Gurion issues a statement that for years will serve as a guide for his
06:57people.
06:59We shall fight the white paper as if there were no war, and the war as if there were no
07:05white paper.
07:06Ben-Gurion forms a Jewish battalion that goes into action in Italy alongside British units.
07:19Spring 1945.
07:21After five years of fighting, the Axis powers are defeated.
07:26Allied forces begin a task unparalleled for heartbreak in the history of man's inhumanity to man.
07:41Throughout Europe, living in makeshift camps, the pitiful remnants of the Jewish people wait.
07:48They must now seek a way to rebuild their lives.
07:57David Ben-Gurion, with renewed vigor, presses his demands on the British government to admit these refugees to Israel.
08:04Israel must become an independent state, he declares, to which all Jews can come.
08:10Britain adamantly refuses to consider any changes in the white paper.
08:15Her policy in the Middle East for many years has been to placate the Arabs, even at the cost of
08:21her own prestige.
08:24British forces continue to seal off Palestine to the Jews.
08:30If we cannot bring our people in legally by day, an underground leader declares, we will bring them in illegally,
08:36by night.
08:42The first crude attempts by the underground to smuggle in Jewish refugees from Europe ends in tragedy.
08:48Exodus, caught by a British patrol, is brought into port.
08:51A super-structure ripped by shells.
08:59The Haganah, however, uses other ships to bring in refugees.
09:03They are disguised as merchant freighters, but their cargoes are human beings.
09:11The refugees cannot be seen on deck when the ship is in sight of land.
09:15They willingly endure the cramped, stifling porters below.
09:20These are small discomforts to the survivors of Dachau and Buchenwald.
09:42The journey seems endless. There is sickness and suffering.
09:46But there is also courage and faith.
09:51The journey seems endless. There is sickness and suffering.
09:58The refugees are warned they will probably be detected by the British.
10:02And if that happens, they will be interned at camps on Cyprus.
10:09Only a day away from Israel, they are spotted by a British plane.
10:13The refugees are hurried below decks. The hatch is closed and covered.
10:33Now it is certain the British have discovered the true identity of the ship.
10:38And there is no point in hiding in the suffocating hole.
10:54With a courageous show of defiance, they break out the colors of their beloved homeland.
11:00And sing the ancient songs of their people.
11:02The 시작ing of their light are built.
11:10And the ancient stones from their heart comes with strong,
11:22in the revenge of their world.
11:28The
12:37In Haifa harbor for a few hours, they are within sight of Israel.
12:43Today, they will be turned away.
12:45Today, they will have only this brief glimpse of the promised land.
12:49But there will be another time, a tomorrow when they will come home to stay.
12:58These people carry with them the words of a traditional prayer.
13:03Next year, may we be in Jerusalem.
13:151948.
13:17After three years of uncertainty and unrest, the future of Israel is determined by the United Nations.
13:25The British mandate over Palestine will end.
13:30In Tel Aviv, on the most triumphant day of his life, David Ben-Gurion reads the proclamation
13:36which an ancient people have waited to hear for more than 2,000 years.
13:41The State of Israel has come into being.
13:48The State of Israel has come into being.
13:57The State of Israel.
15:41This will be a war of extermination and a momentous victory boasts Azam Pasha, Secretary General
15:48of the Arab League.
15:49It will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.
15:56The outnumbered Haganah fights desperately.
16:00But within weeks, Jerusalem is encircled and cut off from the rest of Israel by the Arab
16:05forces.
16:12Ben-Gurion recruits a new fighting force.
16:15When he is asked how this ragged army will free Jerusalem, he answers,
16:20I will find a way, I believe in miracles.
16:31Israel fights back with determination and daring.
16:34First in Jerusalem, then throughout Israel, the Jewish army pushes back the Arab legion.
16:45Within seven months, Ben-Gurion's miracle has been accomplished.
16:50Egypt asks for peace and the fighting ends.
16:57Now, says Ben-Gurion, let our people come home.
17:04The gates of the camps on Cyprus open.
17:06By the thousands, by the tens of thousands, the refugees can now complete their journey
17:12to Israel.
18:02A state, declares Ben-Gurion, is not created by a declaration.
18:06It is the work of months, of years, even generations.
18:14The first free election is held.
18:19David Ben-Gurion is unanimously elected prime minister.
18:23Dr. Chaim Weizmann is elected president.
18:27Weizmann is a distinguished scientist and diplomat who has worked patiently and quietly
18:32to form the new nation.
18:35And Gorion is a man of the soil, impetuous.
18:38A man, says a friend, who always thinks with his heart.
18:43He will be the builder of the state of Israel.
18:48On May 11, 1949, Israel is formally admitted to the United Nations.
18:55As he enters the Great Hall of the General Assembly, Ambassador Moshe Sharet receives an enthusiastic and heartwarming greeting.
19:08Only the Arab countries refuse to recognize the new nation.
19:14In 1951, David Ben-Gurion makes an official trip to the United States and is received in Washington by President
19:21Truman.
19:22He had come here first as an exile.
19:25He had returned from time to time for brief visits, asking help to make his dream a reality.
19:32And now he comes as Prime Minister of Israel.
19:39In New York, he is given a hero's welcome.
19:58Then, in 1953, Ben-Gurion stuns Israel by announcing his resignation as Prime Minister.
20:06I am tired, he says.
20:08I want time to be alone, to think, and to write.
20:12No one is indispensable to the state, he declares.
20:16Israel will survive without me.
20:20Deep in the wasteland that is the Negev Desert, the former Prime Minister begins his retirement in the tiny Kibbutz
20:28community farm of Shtey Boker.
20:30David Ben-Gurion has returned to the soil.
20:521955.
20:54Egypt's new strongman, General Gamal Abdel Nasser, prepares for war against Israel.
21:00His Arab legions have been strengthened with massive reinforcements, tanks and guns from Soviet Russia.
21:07The general now vows he will drive the Israelis into the sea.
21:17In this new crisis, David Ben-Gurion is summoned from his place of retirement and urged to resume his duties
21:23as Prime Minister.
21:25At the age of 70, he accepts the challenge.
21:37On October 29, 1956, Israeli troops invade Egypt.
21:42They overrun the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, and their drive carries them to the Suez Canal.
21:55Their sweeping victory shatters the Egyptian army and destroys Nasser's dream of conquest.
22:08World opinion, however, is against Israel.
22:11The UN censures Ben-Gurion's impulsive actions and orders the immediate withdrawal of all Israeli troops.
22:22And again, there is an uneasy and impermanent peace in the Middle East.
22:401958.
22:42David Ben-Gurion and the people of Israel celebrate the 10th anniversary of their independence.
22:56The pioneers, the immigrants, the young Sabrim, the new generation born in Israel, can take pride in the accomplishments of
23:05a decade.
23:08The aging lion, the old man, as he is called with deep affection, has given shape and form to all
23:16their hopes, all their dreams.
23:23David Ben-Gurion's leadership was sometimes challenged during his years as Israel's Prime Minister.
23:29His reaction to such opposition was simple and direct.
23:32I will resign, he would say.
23:35And this was usually enough to quiet his critics.
23:38Once, he was even forced to carry out his threat.
23:41But as one official pointed out, he will be back.
23:45After all, the lion never leaves its young in danger.
23:50Mike Wallace for Biography.
24:03What?
24:11Him!
24:14What?
24:18He's dead.
24:24I will be back.
24:25I will leave theologian.
24:25He will leave the jaguar.
24:26He will be back.
24:34¶¶
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