Fourth Government of Israel

The Fourth Government followed the collapse of its predecessor. In September 1952, during the Third Government, Agudat Israel and Po'alei Agudat Israel left the coalition amid dissatisfaction with education policy and a proposal for national service for religious girls who had been exempted from military service.[2] Their withdrawal left the coalition with 60 Knesset members, and the Third Government continued for approximately three more months before Ben-Gurion resigned.[4]

The political setting was also shaped by severe economic pressure. Large waves of immigration and insufficient state revenues had contributed to a serious crisis. Ben-Gurion's January 1951 diary described the food situation as "very bad" and warned that "if we do not take care—there will be a disaster."[5]

Against this backdrop, Ben-Gurion announced on January 6, 1952, that the government had decided to open reparations negotiations with West Germany.[5] A demonstration of roughly 10,000 people in Jerusalem on January 7 was followed by clashes near the Knesset, in which approximately 140 police officers and 200 demonstrators were injured.[5] On January 9, the Knesset approved negotiations by 61 votes to 50, with six abstentions. Israel and West Germany signed the agreement on September 10, 1952.[5][6] These events occurred under the Third Government but formed part of the immediate political background to the Fourth.

After the Third Government's collapse, Ben-Gurion initially failed to bring the General Zionists into a replacement coalition and resigned. In December 1952, he formed a new government with the General Zionists and the Progressive Party, without the two Haredi parties.[2] The coalition agreement provided for ending the separate ideological streams in the national school system, dividing education into national and religious sections, reforming income tax, and liberalizing export regulations.[2] Mapam was not invited to join, partly because of its position on the Slansky Affair in Prague, in which Mapam member Mordekhai Oren had been implicated.[2]

The Fourth Government commanded broad parliamentary support, with a coalition of 87 Knesset members.[7] Its cabinet included David Ben-Gurion as prime minister and defense minister, Moshe Sharett as foreign minister, Levi Eshkol as finance minister, and Golda Meir as labor minister. Representatives of the General Zionists, the Progressive Party, and Ha-Po'el ha-Mizrachi also held portfolios.[2]

Portfolio changes occurred during the government's tenure. Yosef Sapir served as health minister and Yosef Serlin as transportation minister until December 29, 1953, when Serlin succeeded Sapir at the Health Ministry and Sapir succeeded Serlin at the Transportation Ministry.[2] The Jewish Virtual Library lists the government as comprising fifteen ministers.[8]

The Fourth Government's defining domestic measure was its 1953 education reform. The coalition abolished the former arrangement of general, labor, national-religious, and Haredi school streams and divided state education into general and religious sections.[2][2] Under the resulting structure, Agudat Israel alone was permitted to maintain an independent school system receiving state assistance.[2]

The reparations agreement with West Germany, signed shortly before the Fourth Government took office, remained an important part of its political background. The negotiations had emerged from Israel's economic crisis and had provoked intense public and parliamentary opposition, including the violent January 1952 demonstration near the Knesset.[5][6]

Ben-Gurion announced in November 1953 that he wished to retire from the premiership for personal reasons, saying he needed rest after twenty-three years of continuous political activity.[2] In his own later account, he said that he had used a long leave in 1953 to examine Israel's security needs, submitted a detailed report to the government on October 18, and proposed a three-year security plan. After the government ratified the plan, he submitted his resignation and that of the government on December 7 and departed for Sde Boker on December 13.[9]

Ben-Gurion initially proposed Levi Eshkol as his successor, but Eshkol declined. Mapai then nominated Moshe Sharett, who formed the Fifth Government in January 1954 and continued to hold the foreign-affairs portfolio.[2] Before retiring, Ben-Gurion appointed Moshe Dayan as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces.[2]

Chief of Staff Mordechai Makleff's departure coincided with Ben-Gurion's exit. The official explanation was that Makleff's agreed one-year term had concluded, while an alternative account held that he did not wish to serve under a different prime minister.[10] Ben-Gurion established his home at Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev.[11] Contemporary retrospective accounts characterize the government's ending as the result of his personal decision rather than a coalition crisis.[3]

The Fourth Government implemented a major institutional change in Israel's education system. By abolishing the former ideological streams and establishing general state and state-religious frameworks, it put into effect one of the central provisions of the coalition agreement that had enabled the government to be formed.[2][2]

Ben-Gurion returned to the cabinet as defense minister in February 1955 under Sharett. After the July 1955 election, in which Mapai won 40 seats, he announced a new five-party cabinet on November 2. The Knesset approved it on November 3 by 73 votes to 32, with three abstentions.[12][13]

An INSS historical analysis contrasts Sharett's emphasis on diplomacy with the realist, power-centered approach associated with Ben-Gurion and his allies. It argues that security events during Sharett's premiership damaged Sharett's authority and reinforced the political dominance of security policy.[14] A separate INSS analysis characterizes Sharett's removal as foreign minister in June 1956 as a historic turning point, arguing that it removed a counterbalance to the military-oriented approach and was followed by rapid border escalation culminating in the Sinai Campaign initiated by Israel in the fall of 1956.[15]

The religious-policy conflict surrounding the government's formation concerned both education and proposed national service for religious girls. The sources describe Agudat Israel and Po'alei Agudat Israel as leaving the preceding coalition before Ben-Gurion formed the Fourth Government without them, rather than being expelled from the new cabinet.[2]

A separate controversy sometimes linked to Ben-Gurion's later return arose only after the Fourth Government had ended. Operation Susannah, a failed false-flag mission in Egypt in the summer of 1954, led to the Lavon Affair under Sharett's Fifth Government. The cited account says an internal inquiry was inconclusive, that Pinhas Lavon denied knowledge of the operation and blamed Shimon Peres, and that Sharett blamed Lavon and forced his resignation.[16]

Accounts of Ben-Gurion's retirement differ primarily in emphasis. The cabinet history records his stated need for rest after twenty-three years of political activity, while his later account stresses that he retired after completing a security review and securing approval for a three-year plan.[2][9] Estimates of attendance at the January 1952 reparations demonstration also vary: Ynet reports approximately 10,000 participants, while the figure of 15,000 comes from Begin's own Knesset speech as reproduced by the Jewish Virtual Library.[5][6]