Founding Father, Forgotten

Abstract

GABRIEL SHEffER IS CORRECT TO marvel at the lack of scholarly attention devoted to the long and important career ofMoshe Sharett, Israel's first (1948-1956) and second Prime (1953-1955). His massive biography of Sharett, twenty years in the making, is thus a much needed and welcome addition to Israel's political, historical, and biographical bookshelf. This volume will serve as the definitive work on Sharett for quite some time and also provide fodder for other historians seeking to further revise our understanding of Yishuv and early Israeli history. The person and record of Moshe Sharett have been largely forgotten; to the extent that the name rings a bell, his image is often that of a pacifist intellectual overshadowed by the more aggressive and activist' David BenGurion. But as Prof. Sheffer demonstrates, Sharett's moderate political creed was a sophisticated combination of measured force and relentless diplomacy, tempered by ethics and morality. Moshe Sharett was born in Russia in 1894 to Bilu pioneer Yaakov Shertok, who brought his young family to Palestine in 1906. He graduated from the Gymnasia Herzliya, and after service in the Turkish army during WWI and a stint at the London School of Economics, devoted himself to political activity in Ahdut HaAvodah and then Mapai, rising quickly through party ranks. After the 1933 assassination of Chaim Arlosoroff, he became head of the Jewish Agency's (JA) Political Department. Second only to David Ben-Gurion, Sharett acted as Foreign Minister of the Yishuv and the Zionist movement, a post he formally acquired with the establishment of the State of Israel. The apex of his career lasted from December 1953 until November 1955, when he served as both Prime and Minister. When Ben-Gurion reclaimed the premiership in 1955, Sharett remained as Minister. He resigned in June 1956 under relentless