Tenth Government of Israel

The Fifth Knesset elections were held on August 15, 1961, after the Knesset voted to dissolve itself on March 13 of that year.[7] The Knesset first convened in its new composition on September 9, 1961.[3] Mapai won 42 seats, while the newly merged Liberal Party and Herut each won 17; Mapam took nine seats and Ahdut HaAvoda eight.[3][7] A contemporaneous U.S. National Intelligence Estimate assessed that the elections "did not produce any significant change in the political situation," characterizing Mapai as remaining the dominant political force and expecting it to continue forming coalitions with smaller parties.[8]

Levi Eshkol conducted the coalition negotiations on Ben-Gurion's behalf.[3] Those negotiations proved prolonged and difficult: potential coalition partners, taking note of Mapai's reduced seat count, insisted that the party should no longer hold a majority of cabinet positions.[3] The coalition that emerged included Ahdut HaAvoda, the National Religious Party, Po'alei Agudat Israel, and Arab parties. Po'alei Agudat Israel appointed a deputy minister, while the Arab parties declined to take any ministerial post.[3] The government formally took office on November 2, 1961.[1]

David Ben-Gurion held the portfolios of prime minister and defense minister simultaneously.[3] The ministerial roster included Moshe Dayan in agriculture; Pinhas Sapir in commerce and industry; Abba Eban in education and culture; Levi Eshkol in finance; Golda Meir in foreign affairs; Haim-Moshe Shapira in health and interior; Giora Josephthal in housing and development; Dov Yosef in justice; Yigal Allon in labor; Bechor-Shalom Shitrit in police; Eliyahu Sasson in postal services; Zerach Warhaftig in religious affairs; Yitzhak Ben-Aharon in transportation; and Yosef Burg in welfare.[3] Yosef Almogi also served as a minister without portfolio at the outset.[3] Shimon Peres served as deputy defense minister.[9]

Two ministerial changes occurred during the government's term. Housing and Development Minister Giora Josephthal died and was replaced by Yosef Almogi on October 30, 1962.[3] Transportation Minister Yitzhak Ben-Aharon resigned over disagreements within Ahdut HaAvoda regarding his advocacy for unification of the three labor parties; Israel Bar-Yehuda replaced him on May 28, 1962.[3] Dov Yosef and Eliyahu Sasson were not members of the Fifth Knesset.[3]

Before assuming the premiership, Eshkol had served as director-general of the Ministry of Defense, minister of agriculture and development, and minister of finance.[10] He held the treasury portfolio from June 25, 1952, through June 26, 1963, spanning the Third through Tenth Governments.[11]

The Fifth Knesset era was marked by a range of contested legislative and policy debates. A new economic policy aimed at market stabilization through price stability and a single exchange rate was harshly criticized.[4] Questions of ethnic discrimination also drew debate, including challenges from religious authorities regarding the Jewish status of the Bnei Yisrael community from India and concerns about the low representation of students of North African origin in higher education.[4] Other contentious matters before the Knesset included the Eichmann trial, the presence of German scientists assisting Egypt, the question of diplomatic relations with West Germany, and the ongoing fallout from the Lavon Affair.[4]

Later in the Fifth Knesset, under Eshkol, the government permitted the remains of Revisionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky to be reinterred in Israel, a gesture interpreted as signaling a softened stance toward Herut.[3][4] On the question of Israel's Arab and Druze citizens, the Military Administration imposed soon after the state's establishment remained a source of significant controversy. Efforts to abolish it were narrowly defeated in the Knesset in 1962 — though an exemption for Druze was granted on that occasion — and again in 1963; the administration was not finally abolished until 1966.[3][4]

On November 6, 1961, the Knesset adopted a Mapai-introduced resolution setting out Israel's position on Palestinian refugees for its United Nations delegation. Ben-Gurion had presented the position on October 11 and Foreign Minister Golda Meir reiterated it on November 6; the resolution rejected the return of Palestinian refugees to Israeli territory and described resettlement in Arab countries as the appropriate solution.[12] American officials viewed the resolution as potentially complicating ongoing negotiations and as evidence of a hardening Israeli position.[12]

Correspondence between Ben-Gurion and President John F. Kennedy over the Dimona nuclear facility also ran through the government's final months. Ben-Gurion reaffirmed that the facility was devoted exclusively to peaceful purposes and that Israel would permit periodic visits.[6] Kennedy's proposed letter sought a visit early in the summer of 1963, another in June 1964, and further visits at six-month intervals, with access to all areas of the site. That letter was never delivered: Ben-Gurion announced his resignation on June 16, 1963, before it could be conveyed.[6]

At the close of a government meeting on June 16, 1963, Ben-Gurion announced he was stepping down.[2] The official announcement attributed his decision to "personal needs that are not related to any government problem or specific event."[13] He asked that the existing coalition continue and said he did not intend to bring about its resignation. Ministers present expressed surprise at the announcement.[14]

In a letter written to Golda Meir in 1969, Ben-Gurion recalled that he had resigned to write the history of the Zionist movement and the State of Israel, and that coalition members and the president had accepted his recommendation that Eshkol form the next government.[13] Ben-Gurion was seventy-seven years old at the time of his resignation; historian Zaki Shalom argues that these explanations did not fully account for the departure, noting his continuing political ambition.[13]

Shalom interprets the resignation as connected to two political pressures: internal disputes — including those around the Lavon Affair, which had weakened Ben-Gurion's authority — and pressure from President Kennedy over the Dimona project. Shalom argues that Ben-Gurion feared most ministers would accept American demands that would effectively end Israel's nuclear program, which he strongly opposed.[13] Other accounts describe political fatigue, weakness within Mapai, the Lavon Affair, disputes concerning West Germany, and tensions with the United States over Dimona as contributing background.[14]

On Ben-Gurion's recommendation, Mapai nominated Levi Eshkol as his successor.[3] Eshkol completed negotiations for the Eleventh Government within a week, retaining the same party coalition as the outgoing government.[3] He replaced himself as finance minister with Pinhas Sapir, and Abba Eban moved from education and culture to the position of deputy prime minister.[3]

Eshkol presented his cabinet to the Knesset on June 24, 1963, and it received the Knesset's vote of confidence on June 26.[2] June 26 marked both the end of the Tenth Government and the beginning of the Eleventh.[1] Ben-Gurion's farewell letter to the Israel Defense Forces was dated June 25, during the handover period.[2] In his statement to the Knesset, Eshkol said the new government would continue the course of previous governments and pursue goals including state-building, security, immigrant absorption, economic stabilization, cultural development, and a democratic and just social order.[15]

Before becoming prime minister, Eshkol had rarely made public statements on foreign and defense policy and had consistently supported Ben-Gurion throughout his years in cabinet.[13] Shalom contrasts Eshkol's more moderate and consultative style with Ben-Gurion's image as a decisive, activist leader, a comparison Eshkol faced from the moment he took office.[13]

The Lavon Affair cast a long shadow over the Tenth Government and its conclusion. The affair originated in a 1954 security mishap involving an Israeli intelligence network that conducted sabotage operations in Egypt; the central disputed question was who had ordered the network's activation.[5] In 1960–61, former Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon pressed Ben-Gurion to declare him not responsible for the order. A ministerial committee concluded that Lavon had not issued the activation order but did not identify who had.[5] Ben-Gurion argued the committee had exceeded its authority and failed to observe due process, contending that the matter should have been decided by the judiciary rather than the executive. He rejected its conclusions and resigned in January 1961, setting the stage for that year's elections.[3][7]

The affair contributed to the fall of the Ninth Government in 1961, while Mapai lost five seats in the election that followed.[3][7] During the campaign, Mapai attempted to avoid discussion of the affair, while opposition parties and some academics criticized Ben-Gurion's conduct as a danger to democratic norms.[3]

The dispute did not end with the Tenth Government. After Ben-Gurion's 1963 departure, he sought judicial review of the ministerial committee's findings, while Prime Minister Eshkol opposed a new investigation because of its political repercussions.[5] The renewed crisis of 1964–65 was ultimately resolved through party councils and the 1965 Knesset elections, with certain questions left for subsequent historical research.[5] In 1965, Ben-Gurion split from Mapai to form Rafi, which won ten seats in that year's election.[3] When Rafi colleagues later merged into the Labor Party, Ben-Gurion remained outside as the sole member of the State List.[16]