Ben Gurion quote

Submitted by Yaakov A Sternberg (United States), Jul 20, 2014 at 17:32

The sole source for that quote is from an adversary & critic of David Ben-Gurion, who claims that David Ben-Gurion said it to him in a personal private conversation. He waited 20 years - 5 years after Ben Gurion died - to publicize (in his book) this unverifiable statement.

CAMERA writes:

Goldmann, a jealous rival and critic of Ben Gurion's, had often blamed him for Arab hostility toward Israel. The ostensibly verbatim statement taken from a conversation in the 1950's was, interestingly, not published by Goldmann during Ben Gurion's lifetime — when the Israeli leader could have disputed it — but only after he died. Nor does any record or recording substantiate its veracity.

- CAMERA

Jason Maoz" href="http://www.jewishpress.com/author/jason-maoz/" _fcksavedurl="http://www.jewishpress.com/author/jason-maoz/" id="qlink_niltmqk8hv" itemprop="url" npdkey="hxuv0b0g0.duex5mmsalg3z0k9">Jason Maoz writes:

"Did Ben-Gurion really say that? Maybe. It's just that (a) there is no independent verification of the quote; (b) it jibes perfectly (suspiciously so) with Goldmann's own views; (c) Goldmann's animosity toward Ben-Gurion was both longstanding and well known; (d) Goldmann waited some twenty-three years after the statement was allegedly made to publicize it; and (e) Ben-Gurion, conveniently dead for five years at the time of the book's publication, was in no position to acknowledge or deny Goldmann's veracity."

- The Goldmann Paradox

So, the source had personal bias, waited two decades - 5 years after Ben-Gurion's death to make this unverifiable statement public, by publishing it in his book.

Even if he did say it, it would seem to me that he was expressing the Arab point of view, not his own.

(See also What Isreal first leader David Ben-Gurion said (Congress, interviews, Palestinians))

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