Ben-Gurion: A biography

Throughout his long and distinguished career as Israel's principal founding father and prime minister, David Ben- Gurion kept diaries in which he recorded in detail everything from world events to the most trifling family matter. Michael Bar-Zohar has drawn extensively on these diaries and on other hitherto unavailable firsthand sources, including Ben-Gurion's secret, personal files and the hundreds of exclusive informal interviews he had with his subject over an eight-year period. This close personal relationship and access to unique source material gave him an unequaled opportunity to write the definitive biography of Ben-Gurion -- an opportunity he has superbly realized. Revealed for the first time in this biography is new information on Ben-Gurion's longtime feud with Chaim Weizmann; on the Suez War, the secret pact he concluded with Turkey, Iran and Ethiopia, the Lavon Affair, and the Sinai Campaign; and on the establishment of a nuclear reactor and other matters of a political nature. Also discussed for the first time are many details of Ben- Gurion's personal life, including his relationship with his wife and children and the story of the other woman in his life, an Englishwoman. This is the only biography to present the human side of the Israeli leader. Michael Bar-Zohar wrote an earlier book on Ben-Gurion, which was published some time ago. Forced to leave out much important material for security reasons and because Ben-Gurion himself requested it, he felt the work was incomplete. With Ben-Gurion's permission he continued his research for a second, far more ambitious study to be published after the deaths of both Ben-Gurion and his wife. The present book came out first in Israel in three volumes, where it has received wide acclaim. Unquestionably, BEN-GURION: A BIOGRAPHY is a definitive work -- a candid, objective, thorough portrait of one of the most important world figures of our time.