Volume 4, Number 7 · May 6, 1965
Big Ben
By David Pryce-Jones
David: The Story of Ben Gurion
by Maurice Edelman
Putnam, 216 pp., $4.95
A spectator at the annual Bible quiz in Jerusalem, an amateur of yoga, a pocket messiah, a shock-headed Peter in a white open-necked shirt at even the most ceremonial occasions, or in Richard Crossman's eyes 'a Pickwickian cherub'—Ben Gurion has acquired the public images, the character, of statesmen who have been in the lime-light for many years. Photographs of his face cast in a slightly truculent mood appear all over Israel, and it is simple to conclude with Mr. Edelman that he has 'entered the mythology of his people.' Indeed it is hard to separate him from the spectacular achievement of the Jewish national home, and as with Churchill during his 1951 government, controversy about his policies was considered ungrateful. Before Ben Gurion retired, however, one was likely to hear Israelis, depending on their convictions, say that he was bent on becoming a dictator, on shattering his party for the sake of office, or had sold out on socialism.
Review, 1844 words
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