"Simona from Dimona" and "Samson's Dimona" in Ben-Gurion Political Thought (Hebrew)

• In Event: New Perspectives on the Mandate and Israel

Abstract

The development town of Dimona and the nuclear research center in Dimona each marked in its own way the two main issues that preoccupied Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister David Ben-Gurion at the beginning of the second decade of the existence of the State of Israel. My lecture will deal with the encounter and tension between these crossroads – absorbing the great Aliyah and the security field – in Israeli life, through the analysis of Ben-Gurion's last programmatic speech in the Knesset in October 1960, against the background of the historic crossroads where this speech was delivered.
The year 1960 was a watershed in Israeli politics. In its last third, the Lavon Affair flared up, gradually toppling Ben-Gurion's leadership dominance. At the same time, it eroded the dominance of the concept of statehood as an anchor that guides the development of the sovereignty patterns of the State of Israel. The "founding father", who since the mid-thirties of the 20th century was considered the leading public figure in the Jewish Yishuv and later in the State of Israel from its inception, lost his almost magical hold on the Israeli public during the course of that year.
Two dramatic events took place in Israel in 1960: the capture and prosecution of the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann and the outbreak of the Levon affair. In the historical writing about the period in question, they gain great prominence. However, during that year it is possible to locate a series of historical junctions where, looking back, it is possible to turn the wheel of history in other directions, both from Ben-Gurion's personal perspective and from the perspective of the long-term trends of the Israeli reality, with the political upheaval that took place in 1977 and the rise of the right to power. My lecture will deal with these aspects based on the analysis of the security goal set by Ben-Gurion through nuclear development and the social goal he presented through glorifying the importance of the development town of Dimona and its significance.

Author

• Meir Chazan, Tel Aviv University