Original subtitles

Terjemahan subtitle oleh: @Nell.aja

Narator: Di tepi sungai-sungai Babel kami duduk dan menangis seperti

kami mengenang Sion. Karena mereka yang membawa kami sebagai tawanan

meminta kepada kami sebuah nyanyian yang berbunyi: "Nyanyikanlah bagi kami salah satu nyanyian

Sion!" bagaimanakah kami akan menyanyikan nyanyian Tuhan di negeri asing?

Tetapi sekarang, beginilah firman TUHAN; "Janganlah takut, sebab Aku telah menebus

engkau, Aku telah memanggil engkau dengan namamu, engkau adalah milik-Ku. Sebab, Akulah...

TUHAN, Allahmu, yang kudus bagi Israel. Aku telah mengasihi engkau;

karena itu Aku akan memberikan manusia kepadamu, dan manusia untuk hidupmu.

Aku akan membawa keturunanmu dari timur dan mengumpulkan kamu

dari barat; Aku akan berkata kepada utara, 'serahkanlah mereka! Dan kepada

selatan, 'janganlah menahan mereka kembali!" Bawalah anak-anakku dari jauh,

dan anak-anak perempuan-Ku dari ujung-ujung dari ujung-ujung bumi."

Gordon: Pada tahun 1893, seorang seorang jurnalis Wina menulis, "ketika aku berpikir

tentang masa depan anakku, aku bertanya pada diriku sendiri apakah aku punya hak untuk membuat

hidup begitu sulit baginya seperti yang aku alami. Itulah sebabnya...

kita harus membaptis anak-anak Yahudi selagi mereka masih bisa merasakan

apa-apa, baik untuk atau menentangnya. Kita orang Yahudi harus ...

tenggelam di tengah-tengah masyarakat." imam: Atas nama ayah, dan

putra, dan roh kudus.

Gordon: Itu bukan sesuatu yang kau harapkan untuk didengar dari orang itu

yang dikenal sebagai "bapak zionisme", tapi kata-kata itu

ditulis oleh Theodor Herzl yang menghabiskan hidupnya untuk mencoba memecahkannya,

apa yang disebutnya sebagai "pertanyaan Yahudi". Herzl lahir di ...

Budapest pada tahun 1860. Pada saat itu, kota ini dikenal sebagai "judapest"

karena populasi Yahudi yang besar. Sebagai seorang anak laki-laki, dia...

bersekolah di sebuah sekolah menengah Kristen yang terbuka untuk orang Yahudi. Dan pada..

ulang tahunnya yang ke-13, orang tuanya mengadakan upacara pembabtisan,

sebagai ganti upacara bar mitzvah.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: Theodor Herzl adalah seorang Yahudi yang berasimilasi

berasal dari keluarga yang berasimilasi. Dia tidak mengenyam pendidikan di ...

lingkungan Yahudi sama sekali. Dia sangat, sangat jauh dari agama Yahudi.

Keluarganya kemudian pindah ke Wina, di mana Herzl mendapatkan gelar..

gelar sarjana hukum. Namun hasratnya yang sesungguhnya adalah menulis, jadi ia membagi

waktunya antara menulis drama, bekerja sebagai reporter, dan

mencari cara untuk mengakhiri anti-semitisme.

Prof Gil Troy: Kau tahu, Herzl adalah orang yang menariknya

bersama-sama, tetapi ada banyak pendeta Kristen,

ada rabi, ada semua macam-macam ada presiden.

Ada berbagai macam orang yang berkata, "tunggu sebentar,

kita memiliki masalah ini." Gordon: Pada satu titik, herzl bahkan

katedral terbesar. Dia percaya bahwa jika orang Yahudi memeluk agama Kristen

budaya Kristen, mereka akhirnya akan diterima oleh masyarakat Eropa.

Tapi Theodor herzl akan mendapatkan tugas yang akan

mengubah pikirannya.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: Sebagai seorang jurnalis untuk surat kabar terkemuka

di Wina, dia dikirim ke Paris untuk menulis tentang

pengalaman Prancis yang luar biasa. Herzl, yang merupakan seorang yang hidup, kau..

tahu, dan tinggal di Paris dan menikmati dirinya sendiri dan pergi

ke teater tiga kali seminggu seminggu, dan tiba-tiba dia melihat

wajah buruk dari anti-semitisme. Gordon: Herzl ditugaskan untuk

meliput "perselingkuhan Dreyfus" yang terkenal di mana seorang Yahudi Prancis

kapten yang secara keliru dituduh menjadi mata-mata Jerman. Herzl..

menyaksikan Alfred Dreyfus dilucuti dari medalinya, dan

direndahkan di depan umum di sekolah militer di Paris.

Kerumunan orang memenuhi jalanan, meneriakkan "kematian bagi orang-orang Yahudi."

Prof Gil Troy: Orang-orang meradang dan mereka berteriak,

bukan "turun dengan Dreyfus," bukan "turun dengan individu"; Mereka

meneriakkan "turun dengan orang-orang Yahudi" dan Theodor Herzl memiliki "aha" nya

sesaat. Gordon: Herzl menyadari bahwa

satu-satunya solusi untuk anti-semitisme adalah agar orang-orang Yahudi memiliki

negara sendiri. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: Luar biasa.

ide. Bagaimana kau melakukan itu? Di sinilah penulis

drama datang, kau tahu? Dia akan mengatur panggung.

Gordon: Herzl mengurung diri di apartemennya dan menulis

ide-idenya selama lima hari berturut-turut. Ketika seorang temannya

berkunjung, dia terkejut dengan penampilan Herzl yang acak-acakan

dan ide-ide liar. Dia menyarankan agar mereka mencari udara segar. Dan..

mereka berjalan, dia menyuruh Herzl untuk mencari pertolongan medis sebelum

seseorang membawanya ke rumah sakit jiwa. Herzl tidak membayar

perhatian dan pada tahun berikutnya ia menerbitkan karyanya yang paling terkenal

yang paling terkenal, negara Yahudi. Prof Gil Troy: Theodor Herzl di

bukunya negara Yahudi impian. Dan dia berbicara tentang hal ini

negara bangsa baru menjadi mercusuar untuk kemanusiaan. Dia berbicara tentang hal itu

menjadi model demokrasi. Gordon: Tidak semua orang

senang dengan ide-ide Herzl. Kaum Yahudi yang religius berpikir bahwa

penghujatan untuk membangun kembali bangsa Israel tanpa

Mesias. Namun demikian, Herzl bekerja tanpa kenal lelah untuk mewujudkan

visinya. Dia bahkan mencoba untuk membeli tanah Palestina.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: Dia mencoba menciptakan situasi di mana dia akan

diperkenalkan kepada sultan Turki, dan dia akan membeli tanah itu

dari Israel darinya. Wah, itu akan menghabiskan banyak uang.

Bagaimana dia akan membayarnya? Nah, dia bermimpi; Dia punya sebuah

ide. Dia berkata, "Aku akan mengambil setengah dari kekayaan semua

orang Yahudi yang kaya". Yah, tentu saja sama sekali tidak ada kesempatan

bahwa salah satu dari orang-orang ini akan melakukan itu. Mereka tidak ingin melakukannya.

melihat zionisme berhasil, pada faktanya. Tetapi dia yakin bahwa itu adalah

cara untuk melakukannya. Gordon: Pada tahun 1897, Herzl mengumpulkan

Delegasi Yahudi dari seluruh dunia untuk dunia pertama

kongres zionis. Untuk pertemuan bersejarah ini dia memilih

kota Basel di Swiss. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: Ngomong-ngomong,

apakah kau tahu mengapa itu berada di Basel? Seharusnya di Munich.

Dan di Munich ada orang Yahudi yang menyebut diri mereka orang Jerman

iman Musa. Dan mereka berkata kepadanya, "kami tidak menginginkan hal ini

Orang-orang jembel Yahudi yang datang dari seluruh dunia datang ke

Munich."

Gordon: Pada bulan Agustus, lebih dari 200 delegasi dari 17 negara

tiba di Basel. Itu adalah perwakilan Yahudi pertama

perakitan dalam hampir 2000 tahun dan suasananya sangat menegangkan.

Di belakang podium berkibar bendera putih dengan dua garis biru dan

bintang Daud, versi desain yang akan diadopsi oleh

negara Israel 50 tahun kemudian. Di antara para delegasi terdapat seorang

Man Herzl yang diperkenalkan sebagai "zionis Kristen pertama". Dia...

Pendeta William Hechler adalah pendeta kedutaan Inggris di

Wina. Dia sangat tertarik dengan kembalinya orang-orang Yahudi ke

Israel, sehingga dia membantu Herzl membuat beberapa keputusan politik yang penting.

politik yang penting, dan keduanya menjadi teman seumur hidup. Seperti yang dikatakan Herzl.

berjalan menuju podium, orang-orang bersorak dan menghentakkan kaki mereka.

Dia membuka kongres dengan mengumumkan, "kita di sini untuk meletakkan

batu fondasi rumah yang akan menaungi

bangsa Yahudi". tepuk tangan itu memekakkan telinga. Seorang delegasi dari Inggris

menggambarkan kegembiraan para hadirin. "Di tepi sungai-sungai

Babel, kami duduk dan menangis sambil mengingat Sion. Oleh

sungai-sungai di Basel, kami duduk dan bertekad untuk tidak menangis lagi."

Prof Gil Troy: Hal yang indah tentang Theodor herzl dan

hal yang indah tentang zionisme, adalah bahwa ia tidak hanya

berhenti pada hal-hal yang negatif. Ada anti-semitisme dan ada

negatif, dan ada penolakan tertentu dari pihak

Eropa. Tapi apa yang mereka juga lakukan adalah, aku menyebutnya "Yahudi jitsu"

bergerak di mana kau mengambil hal negatif dan mengubahnya menjadi sesuatu

positif. Gordon: Beberapa hari kemudian herzl

membuat pernyataan yang berani dalam buku hariannya.

Theodor Herzl: "Di Basel, Aku mendirikan negara Yahudi. Jika aku

mengatakan hal ini dengan lantang hari ini, Aku akan dijawab oleh universal

tawa. Mungkin dalam lima tahun dan tentu saja dalam 50 tahun, semua orang

akan mengetahuinya." Gordon: Pernyataan Herzl berubah

menjadi nubuatan. Lima puluh tahun kemudian, bangsa-bangsa yang bersatu

menyetujui rencana untuk membagi Palestina menjadi dua wilayah Yahudi dan Arab.

negara, dan sembilan bulan kemudian negara Israel lahir.

Setelah kongres, Herzl yang tidak pernah beragama,

mulai menjalankan beberapa tradisi Yahudi. Pada musim dingin itu, sebaliknya

memiliki pohon Natal, keluarga Herzl merayakannya dengan

hanukah pertama.

Meskipun kesehatannya semakin memburuk kesehatan, herzl melakukan perjalanan

dunia, mencoba untuk mendapatkan pendukung untuk negara baru. Dia pergi lebih dulu.

ke Konstantinopel, lalu ke Yerusalem dengan harapan meminta

Sultan Utsmaniyah untuk mendapatkan tanah. Kemudian, pada musim semi tahun 1903, kebutuhan

untuk sebuah negara Yahudi menjadi lebih mendesak dari sebelumnya karena dunia

mengalihkan fokusnya pada sebuah kota kecil di Rusia.

Gordon: Pada hari Minggu Paskah, sekelompok pria ortodoks Rusia

memasuki kawasan Yahudi di desa Kishinev. Dipimpin oleh

para imam mereka, mereka meneriakkan "kematian bagi orang-orang Yahudi!". Hal yang sama

teriakan yang didengar Herzl di Paris selama peristiwa Dreyfus hampir

sepuluh tahun sebelumnya. Saksi mata menggambarkan pembantaian berdarah

yang terjadi setelahnya. "Para istri, bersama bersama dengan suami mereka ditembak

jatuh,

Seorang pekerja sinagoge dibunuh karena melindungi Taurat dengan

tubuhnya, anak-anak memiliki otak mereka yang berlari keluar melawan

dinding, dan bahkan bayi-bayi direnggut dari pelukan

memohon ibu dan dilemparkan melalui jendela.

Saat matahari terbenam, jalanan jalanan dipenuhi dengan

mayat." setelah tiga hari, lebih dari 40 orang Yahudi terbunuh, 92

terluka, dan lebih dari 700 rumah dijarah dan dihancurkan.

Gordon: Empat bulan kemudian, kongres Yahudi bersidang di bawah

bayang-bayang pembantaian, tapi itu baru permulaan.

Herzl memiliki kabar baik dan kabar buruk untuk orang banyak. Kabar baiknya adalah

bahwa Britania Raya ingin membantu orang-orang Yahudi, kabar buruknya,

adalah bagaimana mereka ingin membantu. Setelah pogrom Kishinev,

Herzl mengadakan pertemuan darurat dengan politisi Inggris. Dia

Yang berada di bawah Inggris kontrol. Rencananya adalah untuk menyelamatkan

orang-orang Yahudi dari Rusia, dan masih tetap dekat dengan Palestina. Para

Inggris menolak, dan menawarkan mereka tanah di timur Inggris

Afrika, sekarang Uganda. Tanpa pilihan lain, Herzl menerima tawaran tersebut.

tawaran itu dan Inggris menyusun rencana untuk koloni yang mereka sebut

"Palestina baru" pada tahun 1903, Herzl mempresentasikan ide tersebut kepada

kongres zionis, dengan hasil yang sangat buruk.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: Zionisme mengacu pada Sion. Dan rencananya adalah

pada akhirnya untuk menjadikan Sion sebagai tanah air... tidak ada yang memberikan

ini. Tapi untuk saat ini, kita akan mendapatkan diri kita sendiri tempat

untuk bersembunyi. Gordon: Itu adalah para delegasi

dari Rusia, yang Herzl mencoba untuk melindungi, yang mengambil

berita yang paling sulit. Mereka menyerbu keluar dari ruang konser di

protes. Di antara mereka ada seorang pemuda muda yang akan menjadi yang pertama

Presiden negara baru Israel - Chaim Weizmann.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: Kaum zionis dari Rusia membenci gagasan itu. Jadi

mereka pada dasarnya melancarkan revolusi melawannya dan mematahkan

hatinya, dan dia telah ditangani goncangan yang luar biasa sehingga

semua orang tidak mengambil kata-katanya untuk kebenaran Injil.

Gordon: Herzl menutup kongres zionis ke-6 dengan mengangkat

tangan kanannya dan membacakan sebuah ayat dari mazmur.

Gordon: Ini adalah yang terakhir terakhir yang pernah diucapkannya di

podium in basel. Only his close friends and family knew that he

was suffering from heart failure, and over the next year

his health declined rapidly. On July 3rd he told his old

friend reverend hechler, "greet Palestine for me. I gave my

heart's blood for my people.”

He died the next day. And at his

funeral in Vienna, more than 6,000 people gathered to honor

the man they had called "king of the Jews."

Gordon: In 1949, the new government of Israel honored

herzl's dying request. They brought his remains from Vienna

and reburied them here, on a hill overlooking Jerusalem.

During his lifetime, herzl was called everything from a hero to

a dreamer to a heretic. But his influence on the Jewish people

is undeniable. In the last decade of his life he gave them

something they hadn't had in nearly 2,000 years: The hope of

going home. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: He was an

amazing man. He deserves a lot of credit. He had a dream and it

was a good dream. But you know, there's a distance between

dreaming and between bringing something to fruition. It took

pioneers; It took men of action, men of work. Herzl was, in the

words of that wonderful song, the wind beneath their wings.

Gordon: Even before herzl's death, his dream was becoming a

reality. Thousands of Jews were returning to Israel to carry out

At the fifth zionist congress in 1901,

Theodor herzl directed the creation of a Jewish national

fund, or jnf, dedicated to buying land in Palestine. The

Jewish people, he said, will be not only the donors, but also

the owners. Yossi katz: The purpose of the

Jewish national fund was to purchase land in eretz Israel,

and to transfer the lands into the hands of the Jewish people.

This means that the jnf will be the sole owner of the lands,

forever. Gordon: The first step was

raising money. The jnf launched a worldwide fundraising

campaign. Donation cans known as "blue boxes" were placed in

Jewish schools, synagogues, businesses, and homes.

Yossi katz: Jews all over the world were very enthusiastic.

They were excited about the idea that the Jewish people would

have a property which belongs to them in the land of Israel.

Gordon: The Jews often paid as much as ten times the normal

rate for land the arabs considered unusable.

Dr. arie Ben: As much as they ask, we pay because we need it.

It gave us in the future, the map of the future state of

Israel. And every piece of land that we buy, we develop.

Yossi katz: They dried the swamps and exploded the rocks

and stones; Later on they built drainage basins in order to

drain the water, making possible for agricultural settlements to

begin. Gordon: By 1914, there were

nearly 100,000 Jews living in Palestine. They had started 50

agricultural villages, and farmed roughly 100,000 acres of

land. As the population grew, the jnf began to draw a map for

the future state of Israel. Yossi katz: In the beginning,

the purchases of lands were done according to what was available

for sale. But later on, in the 1930s, it became clear that

sooner or later there would be a partition of the area into a

Jewish state and an arab state, and the jnf concentrated the

purchases of lands on the edges of Palestine, in order to

broaden the borders of the future Jewish state.

Dr. arie Ben: I can say that without the jnf, we have not a

state of Israel. Gordon: Almost 50 years before

the jnf started buying land, wealthy Jewish businessmen from

Europe were privately funding settlements in Palestine. One of

the first was here in Jerusalem

Gordon: In the mid-19th century, Jerusalem was a city marked by

disease, poverty, and despair. The entire city was confined

within these walls, with more than 25,000 people crowded into

one square kilometer. In 1857, American author Herman melville

toured the city, which he described as a "pile of arid

rocks” where "the emigrant Jews are like flies who have taken up

their abode in a skull.” eliezer Ben-Yehuda: It was a

desolate land. And the Jews, as well as the arabs, whether they

were christians or moslems, were living in absolute poverty.

Gordon: The old city was filled with religious Jews who lived on

charity. Sir Moses montefiore, a wealthy British banker, was

appalled by their living conditions and decided to help.

In 1855, he had made the first Jewish land purchase in

Palestine... 25 acres of orange groves in Jaffa, where

Jewish settlers could be trained as farmers. Now five years

later, he turned his attention to Jerusalem. From the city's

governor, he bought a piece of land outside the walls. Herman

melville described the transaction saying: "They

fleeced him sadly, charging enormous prices for everything

he bought.” eliezer Ben Yehuda: It's not

that it was all built up; There was a lot of empty land, but

they weren't selling to Jews. Even then they weren't selling

to Jews. So montefiore came in and he bought land outside the

wall, and he started building outside the wall. And he

convinced the Jews to go and live there.

Gordon: There he built a community called mishkenot

sha'ananim, which means "peaceful dwellings" in Hebrew.

He took the name from the words of the prophet Isaiah: "My

people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings,

and in quiet resting places.” it was the first Jewish settlement

in Palestine. Jews from the old city reluctantly moved in, but

sneaked back inside the city walls to sleep every night,

because they were afraid of arab marauders. Montefiore donated

large sums of money to promote education among the religious

Jews, and to create jobs so they could support themselves. He

also built a windmill to increase their food supply.

Eliezer Ben Yehuda: There wasn't one bakery in all of Jerusalem.

If you wanted bread, you had to make it at home. Where are you

going to get the flour from? There were no stores that sold

flour. And there was no mill to make flour, so he built a mill.

Gordon: Today, montefiore's windmill still stands. And the

village he built is now one of Jerusalem's most desirable

neighborhoods: Yemin Moshe, which means "the right hand of

Moses.” about 20 years after montefiore's work in Jerusalem,

another European banker helped build a community of Jewish

farmers, this time on the shores of the mediterranean.

Gordon: In 1882, 17 families from eastern Europe founded a

village on the western coast of Palestine. They called it rishon

Verse in the book of Isaiah: "I was the first to tell Zion,

'look! Help is on the way!™ and indeed, rishon was a city of

firsts. In 1883, a young writer there wrote a poem called

"hatikva” or "the hope." Sixty- five years later it would become

the national anthem of the new state of Israel. The design for

the first Israeli flag was created there in 1885, and in

1889, the first all-Hebrew school in Palestine was built.

But while culture thrived, agriculture was a challenge. The

settlers looked to Europe for help, and they found it in the

French baron, Edmond de rothschild.

Eliezer Ben Yehuda: They discovered that they can't grow

anything there, because it was sand dunes. Now, you can't grow

apple trees, and you can't grow wheat in sand. And if you

planted something, even if you took a little root, you know,

the first sandstorm would kill the new plants. So eventually,

rothschild said, "they're not going to succeed like that."

Gordon: Baron rothschild helped the settlers start a thriving

citrus grove where Jews and arabs worked side by side. Then

he gave them grapevines from his vineyard in France, the renowned

chateau lafite. He also sent his own experts to supervise the

growth of the new carmel winery. Eliezer Ben Yehuda: Grapevines

do very, very well in sand. And so they started growing

grapevines, and they started making wine. And the amazing

thing was that the wine was rothschild wine from rothschild

vines and it became very, very good wine. You see, so all of a

sudden they had their first success.

Gordon: Just 18 years after the first vine took root, carmel

wine won a gold medal at the Paris world's fair. Today,

rishon lezion is the 4th largest city in Israel, and carmel wine

is sold in more than 40 countries around the world.

Baron rothschild once said of the project, "without me, the

zionists could have done nothing. But without the

zionists, my work would have been dead." Just north of rishon

lezion, another city was rising on the dunes of the

mediterranean. It would later become the center for Israeli

innovation, and the first modern city of the new Jewish state.

Gordon: In 1906, Jewish settlers purchased 60 plots of land on

the mediterranean coast, just north of the arab city of Jaffa.

Three years later, in 1909, 66 Jewish families gathered on a

sand dune to divide the land, using a lottery of seashells.

Family names and plot numbers were written on the shells, and

drawn randomly from a box. This gathering was the official birth

of the city of Tel Aviv. The city took its name from the

Hebrew title of Theodor herzl's book, old new land. The spot

where the settlers stood would later be the site of the tel

aviv museum, where almost 50 years later the Jewish people

would declare their independence.

Yossi katz: The jnf gave the largest loan to the founders of

Tel Aviv. After that, the tel aviv founders were able to

purchase land and build houses. The jnf was one of the most

important institutions in building and preparing the

nation for the founding of the state. A state does not just

rise in one day, it needs much preparation beforehand.

Gordon: Whether the land of Israel was purchased by wealthy

patrons, or bought with small donations from around the world,

many Jewish people believe their ownership of the land is secured

by a deed written thousands of years ago.

Yossi katz: Our Bible is our deed for our ownership of this

land. And the idea of the jnf, it came from the Bible, the land

of Israel belongs to the god. Zionism was the Jewish national

movement. The Jewish national movement, without strong roots

to the Bible, can't exist. Gordon: By the time world war I

broke out, that Jewish national movement was thriving and world

events were shifting quickly. The entire middle east was about

to change hands and the Jewish people were about to get

something for which they had waited nearly 2,000 years... the

promise of a home in the land of Israel, secured by one of the

most powerful nations on earth.

Gordon: At the height of world war I, Great Britain faced a

critical shortage of acetone, the chemical needed to create

the explosive in artillery cartridges. American shipments

were cut off by German u-boats, and without acetone, British

troops couldn't fire their guns, a big problem in the middle of a

war. A young man named Winston Churchill was in charge of the

British Navy, and he had heard about a chemist in Manchester

meeting. Weizmann: "Mr. Churchill, then a

much younger man, was brisk, fascinating, charming and

energetic. Among his first words were, "well doctor, we need

30,000 tons of acetone. Can you make it?' I was so terrified by

this lordly request that I almost turned tail.”

Gordon: Instead, the chemist went to work. He had already

invented a way to create acetone by fermenting grains, potatoes,

and even chestnuts. So he worked day and night to reproduce it in

mass quantities. And soon, the British were producing 90,000

gallons a year in breweries and distilleries commandeered by the

government. Gordon: The chemist who saved

the British army was a Jewish man named Chaim weizmann, a

zionist leader who would one day become the first president of

the state of Israel. Weizmann was born in 1874 in the Russian

village of motol. He was one of 15 children from an orthodox

Jewish family, and one of nine who made it all the way through

university. Dr. golan! I: In Russia, the Jews

couldnt go to universities, so high education for Jews, it was

something that's impossible. So if you want to remain Jew, but

in a better condition, you have one direction: West. Like Chaim

weizmann, he went to Germany to learn science.

Gordon: In addition to studying chemistry, weizmann developed a

deep interest in zionism. Every year he came to basel to attend

the zionist congress. He was here in 1903 when his hero,

Theodor herzl, dropped a bombshell on the crowd.

Chaim weizmann: “Il remember one deeply significant detail of the

stage setting. It had always been the custom to hang on the

wall a map of Palestine. This had been replaced by a rough map

of the Uganda protectorate, and the symbolic action filled us

with foreboding.” Gordon: Then Theodor herzl took

the stage and presented the British government's offer to

resettle the Jewish people in Uganda, instead of Palestine.

Weizmann was appalled and joined the Russian delegation in a

walkout. The so-called Uganda plan was a disaster, but in it,

weizmann saw a small ray of hope.

Dr. golani: On the other side, he said: Well, something very

interesting happened here. Who's behind this proposal? For the

first time, a power, one of the most important powers of the

time - or the most important one britain thinks we are serious,

speaking with us as a national collective. This is something

that never happened before. Gordon: After that, weizmann

believed the British might be the Jews' best chance for a

state, so in 1904, he took a position at the university of

Manchester, his home for the next 30 years.

Dr. golani: For someone like Chaim weizmann to go to england

during the Uganda crisis, it's something very uh - what can I

say - stupid. If you want to be a leading zionist, you know,

leader, so please, stay in Paris, or in Vienna, or Berlin,

or Geneva. But to go to Manchester? You know, it's - who

heard about Manchester? It's like you exile yourself.

Especially someone like weizmann, who wanted to be a

zionist leader. This is what he wanted to be. He didn't want to

be a, you know, a big scientist. He wanted to be herzl's

successor, that's what he wanted to do.

Gordon: As it turned out, Manchester was the place where

weizmann would make one of his most important friendships: The

former British prime minister, lord Arthur balfour. In 1906,

lord balfour was campaigning in Manchester, and a friend

introduced him to Chaim weizmann. The two talked for

more than an hour, and almost immediately the conversation

turned to Uganda. Lord balfour: But the Russian

Jews need a safe haven immediately. Why not British

east Africa? Weizmann: The survival of

zionism is based on a spiritual conviction. And that conviction

is based on Palestine, and on Palestine alone. If Moses had

been here when they had proposed Uganda, he would surely have

- broken the tablets once again. - Lord balfour:

Weizmann: Mr. balfour, supposing I were to offer you Paris

instead of London. Would you take it?

Lord balfour: But Dr. weizmann, we have London.

Weizmann: That is true. And we had Jerusalem when London was

nothing more than a marsh. Lord balfour: Are there many

Jews who think like you? Weizmann: I believe I speak the

mind of millions of Jews who cannot speak for themselves.

Lord balfour: If that is so, Dr. Weizmann, then you will one day

be a force. Gordon: Lord balfour had gone

into the meeting hoping to change weizmann's mind, but

instead, he became the convert, and the Jewish people gained an

ally in one of the most powerful men in england. In 1910,

weizmann became a British citizen, and would remain one

until he became the president of Israel in 1948. When world war I

broke out, zionist leaders in Europe were divided over which

side to take, since many of them were German. But weizmann

convinced them that there was only one clear choice.

Dr. golani: You could find prominent zionist leaders in the

German army and in the French army and in the British army,

shooting each other. We don't take any side. Weizmann said,

“no, no, no. It's a huge historical mistake. We have to

take side and it's the British one." And to say it in 1915 and

in "16, it was crazy because who knew that the British are going

to take all of the middle east. I mean, it was a war. I mean,

nobody knew how it will finish. Gordon: Weizmann's

groundbreaking production of acetone had been invaluable to

the British war effort, and David Lloyd George, the minister

of munitions, offered him a reward. Weizmann answered,

"nothing for me, but I would like you to do something for my

people.” Lloyd George later wrote in his memoirs, "that was

the origin of the famous balfour declaration” the letter written

by weizmann's old friend, lord balfour, now an ardent zionist.

Lord balfour: "His majesty's government view with favour the

establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish

people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the

achievement of this object.” Dr. golani: Weizmann's "miracle"

is the fact that he convinced Arthur James balfour that to

promise a national home for the Jews in Palestine, it's not a

Jewish interest, it's not a zionist interest, it's a British

one. All the rest is history.

Gordon: With a Jewish homeland now on the horizon, weizmann met

with emir faisal, the leader of the arab national movement. The

two signed an agreement that the arabs would encourage the Jewish

national home in Palestine, while the Jews would help the

arabs develop their natural resources. After signing the

agreement, faisal made the following statement:

But that sentiment only lasted a few months. Since the

British refused to Grant the arabs immediate independence,

faisal reneged on the deal. Danny ayalon: This is very

unfortunate because the recognition that the land

belongs to the Jews would have not only created a peaceful

relationship, but it would have made the entire region

successful, prosperous, stable, and certainly would have saved a

lot, a lot of blood.

Gordon: In April of 1920, weizmann traveled to the Italian

town of San remo where allied leaders met to divide the land

they had conquered in world war I. The final San remo resolution

also included the balfour declaration of 1917. The San

remo conference was a turning point for the zionists. What was

once a dream was now international law. They would

finally have a state, and the British would be responsible for

helping them create it. Britain's foreign minister later

referred to the resolution as "the magna carta of the Jewish

people.” Palestine was now in the hands of the British, and

the 1920s and "30s saw unprecedented growth in the

Jewish community. Much of it was spearheaded by weizmann. He

helped develop a plant to mine phosphates at the dead sea, and

a hydroelectric power plant on the Jordan river. And in 1921,

he and follow scientist Albert Einstein raised money for what

would later become the technion institute in haifa. By the end

of the 1930s the shadow of war loomed over Europe and the

British were more worried about fighting Hitler than creating a

Jewish state... but that didn't stop weizmann from asking.

Throughout the war, he pushed for the creation of a Jewish

brigade, which didn't happen until the end of the war. He

also lobbied britain to let thousands of European Jews into

Palestine, which didn't happen at all. After the war, he

renewed his calls for a state. By now, there was a new American

president in the white house, and it was weizmann's job to win

him over. Gil Troy: Harry Truman comes

into the white house overwhelmed. He says, "I felt

like the sun and the moon and the stars had fallen on me."

Truman has to get his own bearings in office. It's just a

very, very complicated job. And all of a sudden, on top of this,

comes this Palestine file. And the Palestine file is triply

complicated. On the one hand, you have Jewish leaders and

Jewish advisers, and millions of non-Jews saying, "the right

thing to do is to give the Jewish people a homeland in

Palestine.” you have the arab dimension, where arabs with oil

money and with tens of millions hundreds of millions of people

are saying, "no way. We don't want a Jewish state in here.

Gordon: In 1947, the British announced that they were

withdrawing from Palestine, and in November, the united nations

voted to partition the land into two states, one arab, and one

Jewish. President Truman supported the move at first, but

four months later, he wavered under pressure from his state

department. Weizmann and other Jewish leaders were in a state

of near-panic. They needed American support, but Truman's

door had been slammed shut. Gil Troy: He also doesn't like

to be pushed around. And as the lobbying gets more intense, he

shuts down. “I've had enough!” but what do you do? History is

knocking on the door. Things are changing. There's a date now,

may 15th, 1948, when Israel's going to become a state when the

British are going to leave. What's going to happen? What do

you do?

Gordon: Weizmann confided his fears to American zionist Dewey

stone, who then told his friend frank Goldman. The two were

attending a dinner for a Jewish organization in Boston.

Dewey stone: I just spent the day with Chaim weizmann. He

thinks that he can convince Truman to turn around on

partition, but he can't get into the white house. Truman is

shutting everyone out. Frank Goldman: I think I can

help. Gordon: Goldman had just met

Harry Truman's old friend and business partner Eddie Jacobson,

one of the few people with an open door to the oval office.

They decided to telephone Jacobson in Missouri right away.

But neither of them had any coins, so they had to go from

guest to guest until they had scraped up enough change to make

the long-distance call.

Frank Goldman: "Eddie, it's frank Goldman. I have a favor to

ask you." Gordon: Jacobson came east on

the next train and called Truman immediately. Truman agreed to

see him on one condition: There would be no talk of Palestine.

Harry Truman: Eddie, you son of a gun, you promised you wouldn't

say a word... Jacobson: Mr. president, I

didn't say a word. But I think of all those homeless Jews,

homeless for thousands of years, and then I think of Dr.

Weizmann. I can't help it. He's spent his entire life working

for a homeland for the Jews, and now he's old and he's sick. He

just wants to see you. Harry Truman: Eddie, that's

enough. Now, that's the last word.

Harry Truman: That's all we want to talk about him. We talked

about this and that, but every once in a while a big tear would

To have you thrown right out of here. You knew perfectly well

that I couldn't stand to see you cry.

Jacobson: Mr. president, thank you.

Harry Truman: After he was gone I picked up the phone and called

the state department. I told them I was going to see

weizmann. And well, you should have heard the carrying on.

Gil Troy: And what we also have to remember is that there are

very powerful forces saying "don't do it." And especially in

the state department, but also at this time in the department

of defense, the leaders and also the main bureaucrats are saying,

"don't do it.” and Harry Truman, to his credit, despite

tremendous pressure from both sides, makes the decision based

on what Harry Truman believes. Gordon: The clock was ticking,

and Chaim weizmann had just once chance to change Truman's mind.

Dr. golani: He was great in a face-to-face talk. He could say

the right thing at the right time. He could tell you really

what you want to hear. The basic things is that weizmann looked

him in the eyes and said, "well, historically, nobody will

remember you if you reject the zionists - or the state for the

Jews. If you support it, you will be remembered.” this is

Chaim weizmann.

Gordon: Chaim weizmann spent more than four decades working

to gain international support for the Jewish state. While at

the same time, another man was in Palestine building that state

from the ground up. To his friends and colleagues, he was

known simply as “the old man.” to the rest of the world, he's

remembered as the founder and father of the state of Israel.

Gordon: Born David gruen in 1886, David Ben-gurion was one

of 11 children. When he was just three years old, his grandfather

taught him how to speak Hebrew. He also read him the stories of

the Bible, the book that would shape Ben-gurion's views

throughout his life. Alon: For him, the Bible is the

essence of our life. It's the story of the Jewish people. He

loved the prophets. He loved the prophets of the Bible. He loved

the language of the Bible. For him, the Bible was the essence

of the Jewish people. And it's not only that he knew the Bible

from front to back, he knew it, he lived it. In many times when

I saw him talking to people and talking to rabbis, he knew the

Bible better than they knew it. And it was fascinating.

Gordon: During his life, Ben- gurion would learn several

languages. But for him, there was only one language and one

land for the Jewish people. Alon: The Hebrew is the language

of the Bible. He wanted to go back to the language. He wanted

that we would go back, that the nation would go back to Hebrew.

Gordon: As a teenager, he started his own zionist group

called "the Ezra society” named after the israelite scribe who

led the Jews back to Jerusalem after the babylonian exile.

Their goal was to promote the study of Hebrew.

Alon: That was his dream, as many people as possible to teach

them, especially the young ones, let's teach Hebrew, that's our

language. Gordon: The group also promoted

the idea of Aliyah, moving to Palestine to build a Jewish

homeland. That idea didn't go over well with the local

orthodox Jews. Alon: For them it's, "god took,

god will give.” the almighty is the one who's responsible for

the destruction of Israel 2000 years ago. So it's the almighty

that will give the state of Israel. Nobody else.

Gordon: In 1903, zionist leader Theodor herzl proposed the

creation of a Jewish homeland in Uganda, a response to the

violent pogroms in Russia. Herzl's followers around the

world were outraged by the idea, including Ben-gurion and his

friends in the Ezra society. They wrote a letter of protest

to the world zionist organization.

Young Ben-gurion: "We have reached the conclusion that the

only way to fight ugandaism is to make Aliyah."

Gordon: For young Ben-gurion, Aliyah was more than just an

idea, it was a mission. And at the age of 19, he boarded a ship

bound for the holy land.

Alon: 1906, the day that he lands in Jaffa, happiest day of

his life. Gordon: That happiness was soon

tempered by reality. In 1906, the villages of Palestine were

dominated by arabs, and the founding of the first kibbutz

was still three years away. The only places for Jewish

immigrants to go were a few settlements started by baron

rothschild. Alon: He's had a problem with

these 13 settlements. The work was not done by the Jews, the

work was done by the arabs. In order to own the land, you've

got to work the land. If you work the land, you own it. If

someone else works it, he owns it. That's his belief; He has a

conviction about it. Gordon: And he put that

conviction to the test. Work was scarce, so Ben-gurion took jobs

wherever he could find them: Carrying manure in the orange

groves, stomping grapes in the vineyards, or hauling boulders

and plowing fields in the galilee.

Alon: It was very hard for him. Physical labor was very, very,

healthiest person, and the most athletic person as a kid, etc.,

but he survived. He had the belief, he had the will, and he

worked through it. When I grew up and I started to learn about

it, and to hear about it, I always looked at him and I said,

"my god, if he could do it, what about us?” you know?

Young Ben-gurion: "I wandered from settlement to settlement,

my clothes in tatters, my body on the edge of breakdown from

famine. I quickly succumbed to malaria. A doctor said I would

never shake the disease, and that for me, staying in

Palestine meant death. But I wrote to my father: There is no

going back to the old life.” Gordon: After four years of

physical labor, Ben-gurion moved to Jerusalem to help publish a

Hebrew newspaper. It was at this time that he and his friends

decided to change their names, and gruen became "Ben-gurion"

which means "son of the lion" in Hebrew.

Alon: It's a systematic way of thinking. Language: Hebrew.

Work: Hebrew. The next thing is Hebrew names. You'll ask me, who

was Joseph Ben-gurion? Joseph Ben-gurion was the minister of

defense of Jerusalem, when Jerusalem fell to the hands of

the romans. And he insisted afterwards, when the state of

Israel was built, if your name was manischewitz or was

something like this, he would come to you and say, "why have

you got this manischewitz? Don't you have a Hebrew name for

that?” in the Israeli army, when it was developed, anybody who

went from a major to a higher rank, had to change his name to

a Hebrew name. That's him. This is the old, and this is the new.

And he was creating the new. Gordon: In Jerusalem, Ben-gurion

soon realized that the Jews had no hope of a state without a

leader. Alon: Once I asked him, I said,

"what is it? You woke one day and..." I said to him, "you woke

one day and decided you want to build a country?” I said, "if

anybody would tell me that on the street, I would say that

he's a lunatic.” he says, "alon, when I had questions, and nobody

could give me the answers, that's when I decided I've got

to give the answers." Gordon: At the time, Palestine

was part of the ottoman empire. So Ben-gurion spent three months

learning turkish. Then he went to law school in Istanbul, with

plans to represent Jewish Palestine in the ottoman

government. But his plans were interrupted by the outbreak of

world war I. The turks entered the war on the German side, and

in Palestine, they singled out the Jews, whom they accused of

siding with the British. Ben- gurion was one of several Jewish

leaders who were rounded up and expelled. He sailed for new

York, where he met his wife, a young nurse named Paula. They

would be married until her death, 50 years later.

Alon: She was the boss. Paula had a very, very, very tough

life. A very, very tough life. She dedicated her life to him,

to take care of him. The economic situation was not very,

very strong in the house, so Paula, for example, as a mother,

she used to save money, buying food only for the kids, and she

did not eat. So there was some time that she as malnutrition as

a mother. And you hear it, that this is the wife that later

became the wife of the prime minister, how can that be? Well,

that's how it was. You know, he knew where his government is, he

knew where his army is, but he didn't know where his slippers

are. She knew where it is. He knew that there was going to be

pajamas on the bed, but he didn't know where they were

coming from. So, he was building a country, she built a family.

Gordon: After the war, Ben- gurion moved back to Palestine,

now under the British mandate. For the next three decades, he

devoted his life to preparing for statehood, and soon, he

became the undisputed leader of the Jewish national movement. He

helped organize a new labor union called the "histadrut”

which functioned as pre-state Jewish government. The union

supervised massive waves of immigration, plus the creation

of hospitals, schools, sanitation, and public works.

But more Jewish immigrants meant more trouble with the arabs. In

1920, widespread arab riots rocked Palestine, and the

British did little or nothing to stop them. So the Jewish leaders

created their own underground army to protect their people. It

was called the "haganah” which means "defense" in Hebrew. This

paramilitary group would later form the core of the Israeli

defense forces. Over time, the violence between arabs and Jews

escalated. And in 1936, the British sent a committee to

investigate the so-called "Palestine problem." Several

arab and Jewish leaders were called to testify before the

peel commission, and Ben-gurion was among them.

Lord peel: Mr. Ben-gurion, may I ask you a question? Where were

you born? Ben-gurion: "In plonsk.

Lord peel: "Where is plonsk? Ben-gurion: "Poland.

Lord peel: "Hmm, very strange indeed. All the arab leaders who

have appeared before us were born in Palestine. Most of the

Jewish leaders who have appeared before us were born in eastern

Europe. The arab people have an ottoman

land deed entitling them to this land. Do you have a document

saying Palestine belongs to you? Ben-gurion: This is my document.

It is a most highly respected book, and I believe that you

British respect it also. Our right in Palestine is not

derived from the mandate or the balfour declaration. It is prior

to that. The Bible - the Bible which was written by us, in our

own language, in this very country, is our mandate. Our

right in Palestine is as old as the Jewish people. We must have

this land. Alon: For us, we don't have to

get a piece of paper from the British mandate, or the ottoman

mandate, or from the romans or from the greeks. The land is

ours. In the Bible it says, this he gave to the Jews. God gave

this to the Jews. We are celebrating today - what is it?

5775. This is our new year. Now let's talk about all the rest of

history. When was england born? When was Iraq born? When was

Egypt born? The Bible tells us exactly: This is our country. We

own it. Gordon: In 1937, the peel

commission published their recommendations. They called for

a partition of Palestine. The arabs would get the larger

portion, to be added to transjordan to form one large

arab state, while the Jews got just one-third of Palestine.

Jerusalem would remain under British control, with a corridor

to the coast. The arabs rejected the proposal outright. Most of

the Jewish leaders opposed it as well, feeling that they had

already given up enough of the land that had been promised to

them. But ultimately Ben-gurion accepted the terms, a decision

that sent shockwaves throughout Jewish Palestine.

Alon: Everybody was against it. Why are you agreeing on that?

This is not the state of Israel this is not Israel. The issue

is "today, I've got nothing. So that is more than what I have

now. And that is not the end story; That is the beginning

story.” he already sees the clouds of the second world war.

He read the book of mein kampf that Hitler wrote; He already

knew it. And that's one of the reasons that he's talking about.

Gordon: Ben-gurion's decision also sparked controversy in his

own family. Alon: One of the people who did

not agree to it, was his son, my father. And he writes him a

letter. And in his letter, he says, "father, how did you agree

to the peel recommendation?” and then Ben-gurion writes to him a

letter. When you read what Ben- gurion writes, every word

counts. And I think that the letter, it draws a great picture

of Israel and his dream of the state of Israel.

Older Ben-gurion: Of course, the partition of the country gives

me no pleasure. The question is: Would we obtain more without

partition? My assumption is that a Jewish state on only part of

the land is not the end, but the beginning. We shall admit into

the state all the Jews we can. We shall build a multi-faceted

Jewish economy - agricultural, industrial, and maritime. We

shall organize an advanced defense force, a superior army,

which I have no doubt will be one of the best armies in the

world. A Jewish state must be established immediately, even if

it is only in part of the country. The rest will follow in

the course of time. A Jewish state will come.

Gordon: Despite Ben-gurion's support, the peel plan was

scrapped after the arabs rejected it. But just two years

later, the British came up with another plan that nearly

shattered the Jewish dream of statehood.

Gordon: In 1939, the British government issued a document

known as the "white paper.” among its main points: Jewish

immigration to Palestine would be drastically reduced, then end

all together after five years. In addition, the purchase of

land by Jews in Palestine would be severely restricted.

Ayalon: The arabs put such pressure on the British

government here that they sealed the borders, which actually

condemned millions of Jews to the death camps in Europe

because they were knocking on the doors, wanting to come back

to their own homeland, but they couldn't because of the British

decision, which was a result of the arab pressure and terrorism.

Gordon: The British had another big reason to appease the arabs.

On the Eve of world war il, they needed to keep control of a

crucial oil pipeline that ran from Iraq to haifa. As war drew

closer, the Jews of Palestine faced a dilemma. They obviously

couldn't side with the Nazis, but they also felt the British

had become their enemies as well. They looked to Ben-gurion

for direction and his response became their motto throughout

the war. Ben gurion: This blow will not

subdue the Jewish people. The historic bond between the Jewish

people and the land of Israel cannot be broken. We shall fight

the war against Hitler as if there were no white paper, and

we shall fight the white paper as if there were no war.

Gordon: As world war il raged in Europe, Ben-gurion faced a war

of his own in Palestine... Between different factions of

the Jewish resistance. Fifteen years earlier, several haganah

members had formed a splinter group called the irgun. Their

goal was to avenge arab attacks on Jews, and terrorize the

British out of Palestine. Their most infamous act was the

bombing of the British headquarters at the king David

hotel, which killed 91 people.

Ben-gurion and other Jewish leaders branded the irgun as a

terrorist group and condemned their actions. In 1944, he

launched what became known as the "hunting season"... the

roundup and arrest of irgun members. But by 1947, both the

arab riots and Jewish terrorism proved too much for the British,

who were still recovering from world war il.

Ernest bevin: "His majesty's government have determined to

base their policy on the assumption that they must lay

down the mandate."

Gordon: In November, the united nations voted to divide

Palestine into two states: One arab, and one Jewish.

Un member 1: "United Kingdom? Abstain. United States: Yes."

Un member 2: "The resolution of the ad hoc committee for

Palestine was adopted by 33 votes; 13 against, 10

abstentions.” Gordon: Once again, Jewish

leaders accepted the offer of partition. And once again, the

arabs refused. The British mandate would officially end on

may 15, 1948. For Ben-gurion, it was the right moment to declare

a Jewish state. Others around him weren't so sure.

Alon: Once he declares the state of Israel, it will not be only

the local arabs that will fight against us, but all the arab

countries around us. They're all going to come after us. George

Marshall, who was the secretary of state, and forrestal, who was

the minister of defense, for reasons known to them - we know

what it is, mainly oil - warned the Israelis "tell Ben-gurion

not to declare the state of Israel because the Americans

will not support you.” so, what have you got? You've got -

inside the country you've got division of opinions. You've got

a war before you've got a state, and you've got America, the

biggest allies, size-wise, saying to you, "don't declare

the state of Israel.” so everything's against you.

Gordon: Facing opposition on all sides, Ben-gurion took one last

shot at diplomacy. Israel's only chance for peace with the arabs

now rested on a former schoolteacher from Wisconsin, a

woman Ben-gurion would later call “the best man in his

cabinet.”

Meron medzini: Certainly she was one of the founders of Israel,

one of the makers of Israel. In many respects she one of Ben-

gurion's chief lieutenants. An amazing woman in many respects.

A woman of enormous contradictions. She could be

wonderful. She could be charming. She could be

charismatic. She could be very friendly and very solicitous.

She could be, on the other hand, rigid, inflexible, difficult,

opinionated, combative, argumentative. I supposed this

is what makes a great leader.

Gordon: Golda mabowitz was born in Kiev in 1898. When she was

eight years old, her family moved to America to escape the

massacres that ripped through the Russian empire. They settled

in Milwaukee, a city with a thriving Jewish community. But

even in America life wasn't easy.

Meron medzini: She did not have a good childhood. She grew up in

a house with women. There was no man. Her father went to America

a few years before they joined him. And there was enormous

amount of bickering and arguments and shouting and

yelling. And this taught golda, first of all, a lot of Patience.

It also taught her something else. If you can arrange things

quietly, do so. Gordon: Even at 11, golda had a

gift for politics. When she found out there were children in

her school who were too poor to buy textbooks, she decided to

Letting her use the hall for free. And one night, she and her

friends held a fundraiser, where golda pleaded with the audience

to help. That night, they raised enough money to buy textbooks

for every student at the school. Meron medzini: She was very

effective because she spoke from the heart, because she knew how

to relate to the people. And it turned out she was a fabulous

fundraiser. Incidentally all her life.

Gordon: Young golda was both ambitions and adventurous,

traits that didn't sit well with her parents.

Meron medzini: There was a big argument in the family. She

wanted to go to high school and the family said, "no, what for?

Why do you need high school? Find yourself a job. Until the

time comes, you'll find the right man to marry and raise a

family.” Gordon: At just 15 years old,

golda took matters into her own hands. She ran away from home

and went to live with her sister in Denver. There she learned

about zionism for the first time. And soon the idea of

living in the land of Israel consumed her. It was also in

Denver that she met her future husband.

Meron medzini: In Denver she met Morris meyerson, who I remember

was a very decent man. And they fell in love. He opened to her

the world of literature and music and theater, things that

she'd never had at home. Gordon: After two years, golda

returned home to Milwaukee where she finished school. Then she

went to work as a teacher. She also agreed to marry Morris

meyerson, whose name she would later change to the more Hebrew-

sounding "meir." Meron medzini: Tragedy was that

she conditioned the marriage on two things: We're going to

immigrate to Israel; We're going to live in a kibbutz. He hated

both ideas. He was not a zionist. And she dragged him,

basically, to Israel. Gordon: In 1921, the couple

settled here at kibbutz merhavia in the jezreel valley. Life was

hard, but golda thrived on the physical labor. She picked

almonds, planted trees, and became an expert in raising

chickens. She also revolutionized the community's

kitchen, where the other women refused to work. They felt

kitchen work was beneath them, and demanded the same jobs the

men were doing. Golda: I couldn't understand for

the life of me what all the fuss was about. Why is it so much

better to work in the barn and feed the cows, rather than in

the kitchen feeding your comrades? No one ever answered

this question convincingly, so I remained more concerned with the

quality of our diet than with the feminine emancipation.

Gordon: Her husband, Morris, however, didn't share her love

for life on the kibbutz. He contracted malaria, so golda

agreed to move with him to Jerusalem. To help pay the

bills, she took a job in the Jewish labor union and Rose

quickly through the ranks. But while her career flourished, her

marriage fell apart. Meron medzini: They never

divorced. They separated, they lived apart. They tried to

revive the marriage by having children. That did not exactly

work. But they remained very good friends and he was involved

in raising the children. And she became involved in politics

since around 1922-1923, and she was in politics in Israel for 50

years, in the trade union movement and the Jewish agency,

the government of Israel, the labor party, one of the founders

of the labor party. Gordon: By the mid-1930s, golda

was part of the inner circle of David Ben-gurion, who would

become Israel's first prime minister.

Meron medzini: He saw her as one of his trusted lieutenants. They

disagreed once over the issue of partition in 1937. The British

offered some sort of partition; He said "take it. Take what

you're offered. There's a chance to save Jews in Germany." She

and others said "no, we were promised the whole of the

country, let's stick to it." Years later, she had the decency

to say, "we were wrong, and he was right.”

Gordon: After world war il, one of the Jewish agency's biggest

priorities was helping holocaust survivors get into Palestine - a

goal that was blocked by the British at every turn.

Gordon: By the end of 1947, more than 40,000 Jewish refugees were

being detained in British camps in Cyprus. Hundreds of infants

were not expected to survive the coming winter, or the outbreaks

of typhus. So meir went to Cyprus to negotiate their

release. Golda: The camps were more

depressing than I had expected. At one camp, a few tiny little

Been given a great many bouquets of flowers since then, but I

have never been as moved as I was by those flowers presented

to me in Cyprus, by children who had probably forgotten - if they

ever knew - what real flowers look like.

Gordon: Golda also requested that in addition to the babies,

the camp's older orphans be released as well. At first, the

British officer in charge hesitated, then suddenly changed

his mind and agreed. Golda: I couldn't understand why

he had surrendered so quickly, but later I learned that he had

received a telegram from his superior in Jerusalem. "Beware

of Mrs. meyerson. She is a formidable person.”

Gordon: Shortly after meir's visit, the united nations voted

to divide Palestine into two states: An arab one, and a

Jewish one. From that moment, the countdown was on. Within six

months the British would leave, the Jews would declare a state,

and the arabs would declare war. Ben-gurion called a meeting with

his top military leaders. Alon Ben-gurion: He said to

them, "we are going to declare the state of Israel; I need from

you the list of what weapons you will need, because we're going

to have a war.” and he gave them a couple of hours to come back,

and they came with the list. And they give him a piece of paper,

and on the piece of paper there was rifles, machine guns,

pistols, grenades. Searched the piece of paper, threw it back to

them and says, "gentlemen, we're going to war. I need a list of

how many tanks you need, how many battleships you need, how

many planes you need, how many cannons you need.” they all

looked at each other, they got up, you know, like the head -

the teacher just smacked the students there, and they went

out and they said, when they got in the corridor, they all say,

“Ben-gurion histhtager” - "Ben- gurion went crazy!" Crazy. We

are talking about pistols, he's talking about battleships. We're

talking about bullets, he's talking about cannons. But he

knew what he's talking about.

Golda: We were, of course, totally unprepared for war. We

needed weapons urgently, if we could find anyone willing to

sell them to us. But before we could buy anything, we needed

money, millions of dollars. And there was only one group of

people in the whole world that we had any chance of getting

these dollars from: The Jews of America.

Gordon: Most of the council members thought Ben-gurion

should go to the U.S. to raise funds. But golda had a different

idea. Golda: "Il will go. I'm fluent in

english, and I know how to speak to Americans. And we can't spare

Ben-gurion right now; He's needed here. I can do it. Fine.”

Meron medzini: She knew exactly what would, I hate to use the

term, "turn them on.” but somebody said she appeared to us

like Deborah the prophetess, "fighting Israel." And she was

very good in the two languages they understood, yiddish and

english. Gordon: The Jewish agency's

treasurer was convinced that they wouldn't be able to raise

more than seven or eight million. But after just six

weeks, golda returned from the states with $50 million.

Meron medfzini: That's 1948 dollars. Today it would be, I

don't know, billions of dollars. And that paid for weapons that

Israel bought from czechoslovakia, which helped win

the 1948 war. Her fundraising accounted, I imagine, for about

one-third of the cost of the '48 war. Now few Israelis remember

that. Now, the one who did remember was Ben-gurion and he

cited this on a number of occasions.

Gordon: Ben-gurion soon had another job for golda: A

diplomatic visit to king Abdullah of Jordan. She had

already had one secret meeting with Abdullah seven months

earlier. At the time, he had promised her that he would not

go to war against the Jews. Golda meir: There were reports

that despite his promise to me, Abdullah was about to join the

arab league. Was this indeed so? I asked him in a message. The

reply from Amman was swift and negative. He asked me to

remember three things: That he was a bedouin, and therefore a

man of honor. That he was a king, and therefore doubly an

honorable man. And finally, that he would never break a promise

made to a woman. But we all knew differently.

Meron medzini: The British informed us that it would be a

good idea if somebody goes and talks to Abdullah because he's

had a change of heart. Gordon: Golda requested another

meeting. This time, Abdullah insisted that she go to Amman,

adding that he would take no responsibility for her safety.

Meron medzini: She was dressed up as an arab woman; Among those

who dressed her up was my mother. Went to haifa and drove

with one man to Jordan. Changed cars near the border in the car

driven one of the retainers of the king, and they went to

Amman. This is four days before independence. She was a very

brave woman in this respect. Abdullah was very upset. He

didn't like the idea of the Jews sending a woman. And later on he

argued she didn't understand. She understood very well.

Golda meir: Your majesty. King Abdullah: Mrs. meyerson.

Please sit down. Golda meir: Thank you. Your

majesty, have you broken your promise to me after all?

King Abdullah: When I made that promise, I thought I was in

control of my own destiny. Now I am only one of five nations. Why

are you in such a hurry to proclaim your state? What is the

rush? Golda: Well, your majesty, we

have waited 2,000 years for a state. I hardly think that can

be described as a hurry. Don't you understand that we are your

only allies in the region? King Abdullah: What can I do?

It's not up to me. Golda: Well, you must know that

if war is forced upon us, we will fight. And we will win.

King Abdullah: Why don't you wait a few years? Drop your

demands for statehood. I will take over the whole region, and

you will be represented in my parliament. I will treat you

very well, and there will be no war.

Golda: You know how hard we've worked. Do you think we

did all that just for a seat in a foreign parliament? Your

majesty, if you can offer us nothing more than that, then

there will be war, and we will win it.

King Abdullah: Then perhaps we can meet again ...After the war.

Golda: Shalom.

King Abdullah: Salaam alekoum.

Golda: I never saw Abdullah again. There was no doubt left

in my mind that he would wage war on us. My heart sank at the

thought of the news I would have to bring back to Tel Aviv.

Golda: The next morning there was a meeting, and I knew that

Ben-gurion would be there. When I entered the room, he lifted

his head and looked at me. I sat down and scribbled a note.

"It didn't work,” I wrote. "There will be war."

Within two days, the final decision had to be

made. Ben-gurion called in two haganah leaders for a final

military assessment. Their answers were virtually

identical... and terrifying.

Ben-gurion: What is the current strength of the haganah?

Yisrael galili: We have 35,000 trained fighters, but less than

20,000 of them are fully armed. And, as of right now, the tanks

and planes we purchased have still not arrived.

Ben-gurion: And the arabs? Yigal yadin: If Abdullah added

his army, there could be 100,000.

Ben-gurion: And all of them armed and trained by the

British. Your assessment? Yisrael galili: We can only be

sure of two things: On may 15, the British will pull out, and

the arabs will invade. Ben-gurion: And then?

Yigal yadin: The best thing I can tell you is we have a 50/50

chance. We are as likely to win, as to lose.

Golda meir: On that bright note, it was decided by a vote of 6 to

4 - on Friday, may 14, 1948, the Jewish state would be declared.

Israel would be born with five arab armies surrounding it,

poised for attack.

Gordon: The decision to declare statehood was not an easy one,

and it came after an 11-hour debate among Israel's leaders.

They knew that independence also meant instant war. But for a

brief moment in may of 1948, they put aside their battle

plans, and focused on announcing to the world that the nation of

Israel had been reborn.

Gordon: With five different armies surrounding Palestine,

the Jewish national council had just 24 hours to prepare for a

day that had been 2,000 years in the making. Council members

placed a telephone call to zionist leader Chaim weizmann,

who was in New York, rounding up united nations support for the

new state. When he heard they had voted for statehood, he

exclaimed in yiddish, "what are they waiting for, the idiots?"

That same day, golda meir was ordered to fly to Jerusalem to

meet with outgoing British leaders. She wanted to stay in

Tel Aviv and attend the proclamation, but Ben-gurion was

adamant. So golda boarded a small Piper cub. But as her

plane flew over the judean hills, the engine malfunctioned,

and the pilot was forced to turn back to Tel Aviv. So golda got

her wish, a front-row seat at the proclamation ceremony. 350

invitations were sent out to Jewish leaders, rabbis and

members of the haganah. Dark, festive attire was requested.

And the invitations stipulated that the time and place of the

ceremony was to be kept secret. The council decided to hold the

ceremony in the Tel Aviv art museum. It was a modest

building, small enough to be easily guarded, and partly below

ground level, in case of an air raid.

Gordon: The council met for the last time to go over the wording

of the declaration, which had been written by a group of

lawyers. Religious members refused to sign the document

unless it contained a mention of god, while others refused to

sign anything that did mention god. David Ben-gurion came up

with a compromise. To the final line of the declaration he

added, "with trust in the rock of Israel,” a phrase that

satisfied both sides. The night before the ceremony, Ben-gurion

still wasn't happy with the language of the proclamation. So

that evening in his home, he rewrote the entire speech, while

less than two miles away, the Tel Aviv art museum was being

prepared for the ceremony. Two carpenters worked

through the night to build a small stage. The entire budget

for the event was just $200, so organizers borrowed hundreds of

chairs from nearby cafes and local stores lent them

microphones and carpets, a borrowed portrait of Theodor

herzl was placed at the front of the room, and two blue-and-white

flags were hung on either side of his portrait. The flags bore

the same design that had been introduced at herzl's first

zionist congress 50 years earlier. At Ben-gurion's

request, the paintings in the main hall were replaced with the

work of Jewish artists like Marc chagall and Samuel hirschenberg.

The stage was set.

On the afternoon of may 14th, the national council met

to approve the final draft of the declaration. The

text was approved unanimously, but just hours before it would

be read, the new state still didn't have a name. Historical

names like Zion and judea were proposed and rejected. It was

Ben-gurion who decided that the name would be simply "medinat

yisrael” - the state of Israel.

One hour before the ceremony, council members rushed

home to change their clothes, while a secretary quickly typed

out the declaration. With just minutes to

spare, zev sharef, the man carrying the final copy,

couldnt get a taxi, so he hitched a ride to the museum.

His car got pulled over for speeding, and a policeman

started to write him a ticket. Sharef argued that the ticket

wouldn't be legal because the British had left and there was

no longer any government to enforce it. "Plus," he added,

“if you keep us any longer, there won't be a new government,

because I'm the one holding the declaration of independence.”

The policeman waved them on, and just one minute before the

ceremony, sharef handed Ben-gurion his speech.

Despite the instructions for secrecy, the news had leaked

out and a large crowd gathered outside the museum. Jewish

leaders were now racing the sunset to finish the ceremony

before the sabbath began at 5 o'clock.

Gordon: At 4 pm, David Ben- gurion called the meeting to

order. The crowd Rose and sang hatikva.

Then Ben-gurion read the declaration aloud.

Ben gurion: The land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish

people. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural

values of national and universal significance, and gave to the

world the eternal book of books. Thus, we hereby declare the

establishment of a Jewish state in eretz-yisrael, to be known as

the state of Israel. We appeal to the arab inhabitants of the

state of Israel, to preserve peace and participate in the up-

building of the state on the basis of full and equal

citizenship. We appeal to the Jewish people throughout the

diaspora to rally around the Jews of eretz-yisrael, and to

stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of

the age-old dream, the redemption of Israel. Placing

our trust in the rock of Israel, we affix our signatures to the

proclamation, on the soil of the homeland, in the city of tel

aviv, on this shabbat Eve, the 14th of may, 1948.

Gordon: After each member of the new government had signed the

proclamation, the orchestra played hatikva once again. As

the music died down, Ben-gurion declared: "The state of Israel

is established. This meeting is adjourned.” it had taken just 32

minutes to bring independence to a people who had been without a

country for 2,000 years. Outside the museum, hundreds of people

danced, while others wept. That night, Ben-gurion wrote a simple

entry in his diary: Ben-gurion: Throughout the

country, profound joy and jubilation. And once again, as

on 29 November, I feel like the bereaved among the rejoicers.

Alon: Everybody was cheering in the streets; It was a big thing,

dancing in the streets and all this. And he was standing in the

back there. And he was asked, "this is

a great day. This is your dream come true. 2,000 years we were

in diaspora. You didn't like the diaspora. You want Hebrew, you

want a state, you want this - you've got it. "He says," while

the people are dancing here, what they don't know is tomorrow

we go to war.” and he said, "there's going to be a big

price.” Gordon: It wasn't long before

Ben-gurion was proven right. In the declaration of independence,

he had offered the arabs an equal place in the new state,

but that night his olive branch was answered by the roar of

Egyptian warplanes. At one minute past midnight, they

bombed the city of Tel Aviv, and at dawn, tanks from five arab

armies rolled into the new state of Israel. Jewish diplomat abba

eban later recalled that “Israel knew the taste of birth and the

fear of death in the same moment."

Gordon: A year later, in 1949, all sides had grown weary of

fighting. Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria signed armistice

agreements with Israel. The Jewish state had survived the

first of many challenges to her existence.

Golda: "The story of modern Israel is essentially the story

of the return to the ancestral homeland of exiles from

persecution, insecurity and fear in quest of freedom, human

dignity, independence and peace."

Dr. medzini: She used to tell us very often, I never realized

what John hancock meant until I signed golda meir on that

declaration of independence. Me, little golda meir,

signing the declaration of independence.

Gordon: Two days after Israel declared independence, golda

meir was sent back to America to raise more funds for the new

Israeli army. For this trip, she received the first Israeli

passport ever issued. One month later, she became Israel's first

ambassador to the Soviet union. She later served as the minister

of labor and as foreign minister. In the early 1960s,

meir was diagnosed with lymphoma and briefly retired. But after

the sudden death of prime minister Levi eshkol in 1969,

she was chosen to replace him. Meir held the office until 1974

when she resigned amid controversy over Israel's

handling of the yom kippur war. She died of lymphoma four years

later, at the age of 80.

Gordon: Two days after independence, Chaim weizmann was

chosen to be the first president of the new state of Israel, a

position he held until his death. In his first official

act, he met with president Truman to ask for funds to build

the new country. From that meeting, he secured an export-

import loan of $100 million.

Chaim weizmann: “I take the first opportunity to express my

heartfelt thanks to the President of the United States,

and to the government of this country, for all they have done

in making out of Israel a reality."

Gordon: The weizmann institute, founded in 1934, became a world

leader in scientific and medical research. In 1952, weizmann died

at the age of 77, leaving behind a legacy as Israel's first great

diplomat. President Truman: Dr. weizmann's

first name was c-h-a-i-m, and I didn't know how to pronounced

it, so I called him, "cham." I called him that to his face, and

he liked it. He was a wonderful man, one of the wisest people I

think I've ever met. We had a long, long conversation, and he

explained the situation from his viewpoint, and I listened to him

very carefully, and at the same time, I sent for Eddie Jacobson,

and they both sat down and talked to me for a long, long

time. When we were through, I said, all right - you two Jews

have put it over on me, and I'm glad you have."

Gordon: After talking with weizmann, president Truman

instructed the state department to support the un's plan for

partition in Palestine, which they did reluctantly. Then on

may 14th, 1948, president Truman recognized the new state of

Israel, just eleven minutes after the British mandate

officially ended. Warren Austin: "The united

states recognizes the provisional government as the de

facto authority of the new state of Israel.”

Gordon: Ten days later, Chaim weizmann visited the white house

and gave the president a torah scroll as a symbol of Israel's

gratitude. Truman's response? "Well, thanks, cham. I've always

wanted one of these.” regarding his support for Israel, Truman

would later say, “I am Cyrus." Gil Troy: When Harry Truman, in

retirement, is honored for having recognized the state of

Israel, the words that come out of his mouth are "I am Cyrus."

He was the one who helped the Jews return to the homeland

thousands of years later. And he was the one who helped the Jews

rebuild the 3rd Jewish commonwealth. And he was the one

who history was fortunate enough to have in the right place at

the right time. History was fortunate, the American people

were fortunate, the Jewish people were fortunate. He was a

true hero.

Ben-gurion: “I bring to the American people the warm

greetings of the people of Israel, and our gratitude for

the unfailing sympathy of America with our efforts for

independence and regeneration.”

Gordon: David Ben-gurion became the first prime minister of

Israel, and the first minister of defense, offices he held for

14 years. He was later named one of time magazine's "100 most

important people of the 20th century."

Ben-gurion: “In our revival, we have been inspired by the

message of our Bible, and by the traditions of our ancient

history, which elevate the dignity of man and the principle

of justice and which command us to love our neighbor."

Gordon: When Ben-gurion retired from political life, he moved to

a kibbutz in the negev desert where he spent his final years

writing a history of Israel. In November of 1973, Ben-gurion

suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that would take his life two

weeks later. At the same time, his grandson alon was a patient

in a different hospital. He had fought as a paratrooper in the

yom kippur war, and was still recovering from serious

injuries. Alon: I knew about him that he's

in the hospital, he didn't know about me. When he asked,

"where's alon?" They said, "ah, he's in the field, he's fine."

Someone brought me a small TV, I'll never forget it, and we saw

the funeral through the television, black and white.

Some of the doctors came, and they sat with me. The doctors

said, "it's the end of an era.”

Gordon: Since its rebirth, Israel has survived wars, terror

attacks, and political opposition to its very

existence. At the time of independence in 1948, there were

just 650,000 Jews living in Israel. Today, that number has

grown to more than six million. And every year, thousands more

from around the world are coming home.