BARNET LITVINOFF. Ben-Gurion of Israel. Pp. xii, 273. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1954. $4.00
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625530000176 |
| Date | 01 July 1955 |
| Published date | 01 July 1955 |
| Author | Henrik F. Infield |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
177
role
in
the
Islamic
world.
That
part
must
be
large
because
of
Egypt’s
special
status
among
the
Arabs,
since
she
occupies
the
most
strategic
location
in
a
very
vulnerable
area.
The
area’s
importance
is
enhanced
because
it
produces
a
fabulous
oil
wealth
at
a
fraction
of
the
cost
of
production
in
the
Americas.
For
all
these
reasons,
Pre-
mier Nasser
sees
Egypt’s
task
as
the
re-
moval
of
the
obtacles
in
the
way
of
Arab
unity.
This
is
a
strange
and
in
some
ways
dis-
turbing
little
book.
In
the
Introduction,
Miss
Dorothy
Thompson
presents
Nasser
as a
man
of
stature
in
the
Arab
world.
Such
a
man
is,
no
doubt,
badly
needed.
However,
this
book
provides
no
indication
of
Nasser’s
greatness.
On
the
contrary,
in
some
ways
he
appears
to
be
very
petty.
He
writes
no
word
about
the
role
of
former
President
Mohammed
Naguib
who,
not
long
ago,
was
Egypt’s
most
representa-
tive
man.
Then,
the
role
Nasser
foresees
for
his
country
looks
very
much
like
a
new
type
of
imperialism
in
the
Arab,.
African,
and
Islamic
worlds,
the
Egyptian
version
of
the
white
man’s
burden.
While
he
packs
the
book
full
of
patriotism,
he
breathes
barely
a
word
about
his
nation’s
tremendous
economic
and
social
problems.
What,
for
instance,
should
be
done
about
land
reform?
And
what
a
contradiction
there
is
between
his
vision
of
Egypt’s
cos-
mic
role
and
the
morbid
worship
of
the
sacred
&dquo;I&dquo;
he
pans.
Also,
the
&dquo;statistics&dquo;
of
the
Premier
are
evidently
inspirational.
He
credits
Pakistan,
for
instance,
with
a
population
of
nearly
100
million
Muslims
while,
in
reality,
the
total
population
of
the
country
amounts
to
only
75
million
and
of
these
more
than
.10
million
are
Hindus.
The
impression
Premier
Nasser
makes
is
not
improved
by
his
jejune
nationalistic
nostalgia
of
another
age,
reveling
in
words,
removed
from
reality.
EMIL
LENGYEL
New
York
University
BARNET
LITVINOFF.
Ben-Gurion
of
Israel.
Pp.
xii,
273.
New
York:
Frederick
A.
Praeger,
1954.
$4.00.
Ben-Gurion
o
f Israel
is
one
of
those
rare
books
that
hold
more
for
the
reader
than
their
title
would
lead
him
to
expect.
This
biography
of
the
first
Prime
Minister
of
Israel,
primarily
the
story
of
his
life,
is
at
the
same
time
a
most
incisive,
critical,
and
dispassionate
analysis
of
the
forces,
personalities,
and
events
that
helped
shape
the
present,
in
many
respects
unique,
phase
of
Jewish
history.
Evidently,
it
is
the
very
character
and
stature
of
the
man
who
is
the
subject
of
this
life-sized
portrait
that
invites
such
treatment.
Ben-Gurion’s
part
in
the
se-
quence
of
historic
events
that
led
to
the
establishment
of
the
State
of
Israel
is
not
so
lofty
as
that
of
Theodor
Herzl,
who
turned
Zionism
into
a
movement
of
politi-
cal
consequence,
nor
as
that
of
Chaim
Weizman,
who
won
public
recognition
for
its
chief
goal,
the
National
Home
in
Pales-
tine ;
but
it
is
possibly
more
decisive.
These
statesmen
of
Zionism
used
their
talents
to
gain
diplomatic
victories
for
their
people.
Ben-Gurion
devoted
his
to
translate
these
victories
into
political
re-
ality.
He
was,
when
necessary,
an
agitator,
but
he
was
always
an
organizer
of
the
Zionist
youth
in
the
little
Eastern
Eu-
ropean
townlet
where
he
was
born,
as
David
Green,
in
1886;
of
the
workers
in
Palestine,
where
he
immigrated
in
1906;
of
the
military
struggle
against
the
Arab
forces
in
1948;
and
of
the
government
and
administration
of
the
new
state
in
his
&dquo;hour
of
triumph.&dquo;
In
tracing
his
long
and,
more
often
than
not,
stormy
career
of
a
party
politician,
his
biographer
can
hardly
avoid
touching
upon
all
the
intri-
cacies
of
Zionist
politics,
sometimes
bor-
dering
on
the
miraculous,
and
too
often
on
the
profane.
That
he
does
so
candidly,
with
a
perfect
mastery
of
the
relevant
and
the
revealing
material,
makes
Mr.
Litvin-
off’s
book
a
source
of
invaluable
informa-
tion
for
the
student
of
recent
Jewish
his-
tory.
With
all
his
virtues
and
shortcomings
Ben-Gurion,
as
this
biographer
convinc-
ingly
demonstrates,
has
done
more
than
any
other
single
individual
to
bring
about
the
establishment
of
the
State
of
Israel.
Concluding
his
study
of
both
the
man
and
the
state,
Mr.
Litvinoff
retains
his
sympa-
thetic,
but
detached
objectivity.
He
shows
Ben-Gurion,
the
party
leader,
at
his
worst
-at
the
time
when
he
was
&dquo;ready
to
bar-
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