A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion

MONTHS AFTER THE KAHAN Commission report, Menachem Begin—in poor health, depressed by the war, and profoundly alone in the wake of his wife’s death—resigned and retreated to his home. For the next decade, until his death in 1992, he did not exit his apartment except for memorial ceremonies for his wife and medical appointments. Yitzhak Shamir, who

Twenty-seven thousand Palestinian Jews enlisted in the British Army. At the same time, the Yishuv resisted the White Paper’s immigration policy. To help those fleeing Europe enter Palestine, in late 1938, the Haganah established an organization, Mossad le-Aliyah Bet (Organization for Immigration B) to aid in this illegal immigration.

Israel’s Jewish political and religious Far Right grew particularly vicious. At its rallies, there appeared signs with photos of Rabin made to look like Hitler—archenemy of the Jewish people. A few extremist rabbis referred to Rabin as a rodef (a person seeking the death of another), and a boged (traitor), categories that in Jewish law merit death.

almost overnight, the appearance of The Jewish State transformed Herzl from a lone voice into the leader of an international movement.”22 The movement’s central idea—though it now sounds commonplace—was then a stunning proposal. And now, much of the Jewish world had been convinced: the Jewish people needed a state, and they could create one.