Peres: Negev becoming Silicon Valley
Photo: Roee Idan
Ben Gurion. 'Dreamt of modern Yavne'
Photo: Knesset Website
Peres: Some land must be ceded
At memorial ceremony for Ben Gurion, president says PM was first to support two-state solution
President Shimon Peres spoke at 38th annual memorial ceremony for Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, on Sunday and dubbed him "the greatest of leaders in Israel's modern history".
"Ben Gurion was the first to support the two-state solution, but he believed that our immediate duty is to save the people and release them from dependency on foreigners, something which is impossible to do without ceding some parts of Israel. He knew that a state cannot be built on a UN resolution – but rather with tears and bricks," said Peres, who worked extensively with Ben Gurion.
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In a hint at criticism towards the government's recent spars with the US Peres added, "He worked to achieve warm relations with the United States, which became a strategic asset. He did not ask the US army to fight for us, but asked the US to prevent an anti-Israeli majority to threaten our existence."
The ceremony was held at Sde Boker, where Ben Gurion resided and was later buried. "Forty-seven years ago Ben Gurion laid the cornerstone for Midreshet Sde Boker here," Peres said.
"He said back then, 'I dream of a Jewish Oxford in the Negev, something of a modern Yavne – a locus of creative spirituality, from playgrounds to scientific research.' If we consider the research center, Ben Gurion University, and the IDF training center established here, it reveals a picture of a kind of Silicon Valley near Mount Nebo, and we know we are nearing his goal."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke at the ceremony, calling his predecessor "one of the rare people who definitely forged the history of the people".
Three principles guided Ben Gurion to declare statehood, Netanyahu added. "The first was security, because peace without security does not last. The second is that Jerusalem is the heart of the nation. On the subject of Jerusalem, Ben Gurion stood his ground with impressive courage before the world and determined that Jerusalem is an organic and indispensible part of Israel as part of Jewish heritage," he said.
The third principle, Netanyahu continued, is the development of the Negev, "which is destined to create an indestructible link to peace".
However, "this peace does not include the deluge of illegal migrant workers who come from Africa through Sinai, a plague which our neighbor, Egypt, also suffers from," Netanyahu stressed, vowing that a new border fence will be constructed on the Egyptian border within weeks.
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