David Ben-Gurion (help·info) (Hebrew: דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן, Arabic: دافيد بن غوريون Dafeed Bin Ghuriyyun, born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the main founder and the first Prime Minister of Israel.
Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946. As head of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he became the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and largely led its struggle for an independent Jewish state in Palestine. On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped to write. Ben-Gurion led the provisional government of Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Subsequently, he became known as "Israel's founding father".
David (Hebrew: דָּוִד, דָּוִיד, Modern David Tiberian Dāwîḏ; ISO 259-3 Dawid; Strong's Daveed; beloved; Arabic: داوود or داود Dāwūd) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and, according to the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, an ancestor of Jesus. David is seen as a major Prophet in Islamic traditions. His life is conventionally dated to c. 1040–970 BC, his reign over Judah c. 1010–1003 BC,[citation needed] and his reign over the United Kingdom of Israel c. 1003–970 BC.[citation needed] The Books of Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles are the only sources of information on David, although the Tel Dan stele records "House of David", which some take as confirmation of the existence in the mid-9th century BC of a Judean royal dynasty called the "House of David".
David is very important to Jewish, Christian and Islamic doctrine and culture. In Judaism, David, or David HaMelekh, is the King of Israel, and the Jewish people. Jewish tradition maintains that a direct descendant of David will be the Messiah. In Islam, he is known as Dawud, considered to be a prophet and the king of a nation. He is depicted as a righteous king, though not without faults, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician, and poet, traditionally credited for composing many of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms.
Theodor "Teddy" Kollek (Hebrew: טדי קולק; May 27, 1911 – January 2, 2007) was mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993, and founder of the Jerusalem Foundation. Kollek was re-elected five times, in 1969, 1973, 1978, 1983 and 1989. After reluctantly running for a seventh term in 1993 at the age of 82, he lost to Likud candidate and future Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert.
During his tenure, Jerusalem developed into a modern city, especially after its reunification in 1967. He was once called "the greatest builder of Jerusalem since Herod."
Teddy Kollek was born in Nagyvázsony, 120 km from Budapest, Hungary as Kollek Tivadar. His parents named him after Theodor Herzl. Growing up in Vienna, Kollek came to share his father Alfréd’s Zionist convictions.
In 1935, three years before the Nazis seized power in Austria, the Kollek family immigrated to Palestine, then under British mandate. In 1937, he was one of the founders of Kibbutz Ein Gev, on the shore of Lake Kinneret. That same year he married Tamar Schwarz. They had two children, a son, the film director Amos Kollek (born in 1947), and a daughter, Osnat.
Rashid Ismail Khalidi (Arabic: رشيد خالدي), born 1948, is a Palestinian American historian of the Middle East, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, and director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.
Khalidi was born in New York. Khalidi is the son of Ismail Khalidi and the nephew of Husayin al-Khalidi. He is the father of the playwright, Ismail Khalidi. He grew up in New York City where his father, a Saudi citizen of Palestinian origins who was born in Jerusalem, worked for the United Nations. Khalidi's mother, a Lebanese-American born in the United States, was an interior decorator. Khalidi attended the United Nations International School.
In 1970, Khalidi received a B.A. from Yale University, where he was a member of the Wolf's Head Society. He then received a D. Phil. from Oxford University in 1974. Between 1976 and 1983, Khalidi “was teaching full time as an Assistant Professor in the Political Studies and Public Administration Dept. at the American University of Beirut, published two books and several articles, and also was a research fellow at the independent Institute for Palestine Studies." He has also taught at the Lebanese University.
Menachem Begin (help·info) (Hebrew: מְנַחֵם בֵּגִין, Polish: Mieczysław Biegun, Arabic: مناحيم بيغن Munahayyim Beeghin, Russian: Менахем Вольфович Бегин Menakhem Vol'fovich Begin, 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was opposed by the Jewish Agency. As head of the Irgun, he targeted the British in Palestine.
Begin was elected to the first Knesset, as head of Herut, the party he founded, and was at first on the political fringe, embodying the opposition to the Mapai-led government and Israeli establishment. He remained in opposition in the eight consecutive elections (except for a national unity government around the Six-Day War), but became more acceptable to the political center. His 1977 electoral victory and premiership ended three decades of Labour Party political dominance. He probably served as Opposition Leader longer than anyone in the history of modern democratic politics.
Plot
After WWII, Jewish Holocaust survivors are moved into Displaced Persons' camps. After delays, more physical hardship, and years of uncertainty, they are permitted to begin new lives in Israel and the U.S.
Keywords: 1940s, 1990s, anti-semitism, bigotry, british, british-empire, colonialism, emaciation, europe, german
Plot
After World War II, many important figures in Hitler's command escaped Germany and were rumored to be living in South America. Adolf Eichmann, wanted in connection with millions of deaths, is suspected to be living incognito in Argentina. Mossad, Israel's secret intelligence organization is determined to bring Eichmann (if it is him indeed) to justice.
Keywords: based-on-book, based-on-true-story, kidnapping, spy
Resurrect Ben Gurion
Sign his release
Give him the peace prize
Then give him to me
Make the desert bloom again
Like it did once before
Give me the blessings of New York City
And a blank check from the CEO
There's plenty of space out there
You could be anywhere
Let my people go!
It's all been settled now
It woulda happened anyhow
Let my people go!
Build the IDF a high-rise
On Cortlandt Street
And when they die
They'll leave it to me
We'll all have new lots
And planned community
And when we die