Confidence that the Arab countries will sooner or later come to peace with Israel was expressed here last night by David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first Premier until he resigned yesterday, in a farewell radio broadcast to the people of Israel. Mr. Ben Gurion also bade farewell to the Israel Army which he beaded as Minister of Defense.
The former Premier, who retired before a new Cabinet could take shape, expressed confidence that the Israel Government would pass into hands capable of advancing beyond the point where he left it. He called for the broadest national coalition “dedicated to the security of the state, the effective integration of the newcomers and the preparation of the ground for new immigration.” He said that the various parties in the country had more binding them together than was separating them.
Until an Arab-Jewish alliance is forged in the Middle East and is able to make the lands of the region flourish for the benefit of all its people and for the consolidation of world peace, the Jewish State will be compelled to take special security measures in the border areas which “occasionally give rise to inconveniences for some of the inhabitants of these areas,” Mr. Ben Gurion stated. At the same time, he said he had derived satisfaction from the support given the government by the minorities in Israel–the Moslems, Christians and Druzes.
He pledged that Israel would never forget the sympathy and support it received at various times and from various areas by its well-wishers and friends among the nations of the world. But, he underlined, Israel’s liberation did not come from without, “Its achievement was due to the realization of our first pioneers that we must not rely on others, nor must we look to the nations for favors. We must achieve our salvation through our own efforts,” he declared.
The retiring Premier asserted that his “faith in the people of Israel was antedated by his faith in the Jewish people of the world.” He expressed appreciation of the help of the Jewries of the United States and other free countries in the War of Liberation and in the “reconstruction of our long-neglected wastes.”
He said that he was a personal witness to the “moving demonstration of affection and pride in Israel on the part of millions of American Jews” when he visited the U. S. in May, 1951 and at the two economic conferences in Jerusalem in September, 1950 and October, 1953 when world Jewish leaders, headed by a large American delegation, pledged economic support of Israel’s developmental programs.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
