Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stressed the importance of unity and statehood Wednesday at a memorial service held in honor of founding father and Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.
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"The Declaration of Independence, which David Ben-Gurion read on the 5th of Iyar [May 14, 1948], ends with a call on the entire Jewish people to unite for a common challenge: 'the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream – the redemption of Israel,' Bennett said.
"This is the deepest meaning of 'Ben-Gurion' Zionism – to stop longing and start acting. The journey has not come to an end, the dreams have not been fully achieved, the journey that began in [19]48 has not reached its destination. But we are on the road, we are on the move, we no longer dream – we act.
"Ben-Gurion founded the idea of statehood, and we have a duty to fortify it. Ben-Gurion began the journey to fulfill the aspiration of generations, we have a duty and we have the right to continue it," the prime minister said.
Bennett also pointed out that contrary to young Israel, controveries around the current government have no substance.
"We hear a lot of noise, a lot of shouting, screaming. And we try to understand the essence of controversy today, what the controversy is about – is it about the content, about the essence, about the principles?" he said.
"If in the past, there was controversy about essence – about withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, about the disengagement [from the Gaza Strip], about launching the 1982 Lebanon War – then nowadays the controversy is for the sake of controversy. After all, there is no withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, there is no war, there is no disengagement – then what is all the drama about? What is all the noise about?
"There's a government that was formed in the name of that same unifying principle, and attacks against it are [attacks] on the very idea of sitting together [in a coalition], on the very idea that the country is bigger than a tribe, and this is a worrisome development. We are determined to maintain the same statehood, a united country. Statehood is a strategic asset, the famous Israeli togetherness, thanks to which we came together, thanks to which we won, thanks to which we are here."
Ben-Gurion was born on Oct. 16, 1886, as David Grün in Plonsk in Congress Poland – then part of the Russian Empire. In 1906, at the age of 20, he immigrated to the land of Israel as part of the Second Aliyah. After the establishment of the State of Israel, he was appointed the country's first prime minister and defense minister.
He passed away on Dec. 1, 1973, at the age of 87. He and his wife Paula are buried in southern Israel in what is today the Ben-Gurion's Tomb National Park.
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