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Ben-Gurion: The Jews ..."Everything we are as Jews, including our drive occasion ally to grope beyond traditional bounds, comes directly from the Bible. In size we are nothing as a people and never have been. Had we not been children of the Book, who would have heard of us? We should be lucky to occupy a mere footnote in history. As things stand, a large part of history is our doing. We have never been far removed from the mainstream, often unhappily so and at peril. ” Eretz Israel ..."This country has passed through many hands. It has been conquered incessantly and incessantly abandoned. It has known the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Seljukes, the Crusaders, Mamelukes, Ottoman Turks and the British, apart from ourselves and the Canaanites before us. The Canaanites exist no more. Other than they and the Jews, the land has never been a home to anyone. It has been a battlefield, conquered territory, a place to plunder, a crossroads or a grazing ground. Only the Jews have loved the land for itself have worked it, improved it, made it theirs through their care for it. ..."This was true two thousand years ago, it is equally true today. Israel is ours in the twentieth century not because we fought wars over it...but because we settled it.” Pioneer ..."I became a ploughman, working with two oxen: Though the work was hard, with food and living conditions very spar tan, / enjoyed every minute of it. ” Israel and the Diaspora ..."If there is a communication gap between the Jewish world and Israel, it is up to the former to close it. We are mak ing history, living history. The Jew in Argentina, France, the United States, India, Russia, New Zealand, South Africa and elsewhere is a watcher on the sidelines... The Jews of the world are coming to realize this, and they are making a choice. Many will cease to be Jews, will assimilate into other cultural tradi tions. We wish them well. But many more will see dheir link with us and reach over to grasp our hand of friendship. They will learn Hebrew, will come and will cherish their re-insertion into history.” Desert ..."In Hebrew, ‘Negev’ is a word for south. The Jewish attraction to the southland wastes, which extend down to the tip of that Red Sea inlet, known in our times as the Gulf of Eilath, is an old story beginning with the original Hebrew, Abraham itself. This land of the Negev is the true cradle of Judaism. In its present desolation, it constitutes a national weak point and danger zone. But here also lies Israel’s greatest hope for the future. ...“The desert is a reproach to mankind. It is criminal waste in a world that cannot feed its population. Even for Israel, the barrenness is a reproach. The majority of Jews who come to this country go to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. / am against big cities. They bring out the worst in man. ” His True Love ...“Paula was a remarkable woman. She started life with lit tle Zionist or even Jewish feeling. Her background was Ameri can. When we decided to marry, I told her she would have to live in Israel. 7 want only two things: Eretz Israel and you. And believe I shall have both.' I wrote to her in those early years. Because she loved me, she came. ” Quality and Quantity ...“Israel, I know, will survive on the basis of quality. It is a small stale and already it exists because of the quality and forti tude its inhabitants have shown under hardship. Now ur require quality in every sphere of activity to carry out the mis sion of enlightenment worthy of our ancient people. But to get quality, we must have quantity. The more Jews who come, the more scope we shall have to improve our aptitudes and profi ciency in diverse domains. ” What he had to say Reading the Declaration of Independence: “We...hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.” Having tea with Eleanor Roosevelt at his home in 1952, discussing the Israel Bond C ampaign. Peace ...“Nevertheless, on a more practical plane, it is my belief that the hostility we face today will continue for some time to come and that we had better reconcile ourselves to riding out the status quo as best we can. Our plans for the future are very simple and very pragmatic. We must live on and build the country, receive immigrants and put them to work, extend our education to ever higher levels for an increasing mass of citi zens, settle the desert so as to make Israel economically self-suf ficient, and utilize every effort, short of undermining our national integrity, to bring about peace." East and West ...“Most important, Israel is not just an Eastern nation or just a Western one. It is both! In itself, it invites the two great streams of the Jewish people: the Ashkenazim whose traditions are Western, and the Sephardim whose cultural links are with the East. Here is another task for Israel: to marry the East with the West and thus again to serve as an example of unity and brotherhood to all mankind.” Holocaust ..."/ think that Hitler did much to retard, not advance, our nationhood... Nazism proved that Jews could live for five hundred years in peace with their neighbors, that they would all but assimilate in national society save for a few traditions and separate religious practices. They could believe themselves inte gral citizens of states professing freedom of belief and granting full rights to all inhabitants. Such was the situation prevailing in Germany, France, Italy, Holland, Denmark, and Norway. Yet one raving maniac could blame the world’s troubles on a At Avdat, a ruined Nabatean group constituting less than six percent of Europe’s population city in the Negev. an( j ( ^ e holocaust was at hand. ” PAGE 15 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE October 17, 1986