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Moshe Sharett

 
 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Moshe Sharett
Sharett, Moshe ('shə shərĕt'), 1894-1965, Israeli statesman, b. Russia, originally named Shertok. In 1906 he emigrated to Palestine where he was active in the labor movement. In 1933 he became head of the political department of the Jewish Agency for Palestine. Sharett was David Ben-Gurion's closest associate in the struggle for an independent Jewish state. In 1948 he was appointed foreign minister of Israel and from 1953 to 1955 served as prime minister. He resigned from the government in 1956. Sharet sought to strengthen Israel's position by statesmanship rather than confrontation, emphasizing "caution" rather than "courage." His replacement as premier by Ben-Gurion in 1955 and retirement in 1956 reflected the movement in Israel toward confrontation that resulted in the 1956 Arab-Israeli War.

Bibliography

See biography by M. Z. Rosensaft (1966).

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1894 - 1965

Israel's first foreign minister and second prime minister.

Moshe Sharett was born Moshe Shertok. His family migrated from Russia to Palestine in 1906. He attended school in Herzliyya and Tel Aviv, and after graduating in 1913, he entered the University of Istanbul to study law. When World War I broke out, he was drafted into the Turkish army.

At the end of the war, Sharett attended the London School of Economics, graduating in 1924. He returned to Palestine and became a journalist; from 1929 to 1931 he was editor of Davar, a daily newspaper in Tel Aviv.

In 1931 Sharett became political secretary of the Jewish Agency Executive. In 1935 he was named director of its political department, and began laying the foundations for what was later to become Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Sharett had a long-time working partnership with David Ben-Gurion in the Jewish Agency Executive, and after 1948, in Israel's first cabinets.

In 1946 he participated unofficially in talks in London to negotiate Zionist goals. Sharett was a representative of the Jewish Agency in the 1947 negotiations with the United Nations (UN) Special Committee on Palestine. He sought UN support for the creation of an independent state for the Jews in Palestine. In December 1947 he was among Jewish leaders lobbying for American support in the UN.

In May 1948, Sharett (who had hebraized the name Shertok at the time of the creation of the state of Israel) was named foreign minister in the Jewish provisional administration. In that capacity he negotiated support for Israel's statehood with U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall.

Once the state of Israel was in existence, Sharett became its first foreign minister, a position he held until 1956. In that post he emphasized that proceeds from the sale of lands belonging to absentee Arabs would be applied to a fund to resettle the refugees elsewhere, not to repatriate them in Israel. He argued that the problems of the Palestinian refugees were just like the problems of refugees around the world. In that sense, there was no legal precedent requiring their repatriation to the lands they had occupied before the war.

In March 1949, Sharett introduced the "principle of nonidentification" to indicate that Israel would not be aligned with either the East or the West. Israel's intention was to work with all nations to develop peaceful links and support for its existence. By 1951, however, it had become clear that the Soviet Union would support the Arab bloc against Israel, and Israel's foreign policy became clearly aligned with the West.

Prime Minister Ben-Gurion resigned in December 1953, and Sharett became prime minister. In June 1955 his cabinet was overturned by the withdrawal of the General Zionist Party from the coalition. He remained as acting prime minister until the scheduled elections for the third Knesset took place. After the elections, Ben-Gurion returned to the prime ministership with a new cabinet in November 1955.

In 1956 tensions increased between Ben-Gurion and Sharett over the appropriate response to Egypt's actions in and around the Suez Canal. Sharett argued that Israel should act with great restraint, while Ben-Gurion was in favor of a more provocative strategy. When Ben-Gurion felt that the tensions were growing too great, he asked for Sharett's resignation as foreign minister in June 1956, replacing him with Golda Meir.

Bibliography

Ben-Gurion, David. Israel: A Personal History, translated by Nechemia Meyers and Uzy Nystar. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1971.

Sachar, Howard M. A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism toOur Time, 2d edition. New York: Knopf, 1996.

Sheffer, Gabriel. Moshe Sharett: Biography of a Political Moderate. Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press, 1996.

GREGORY S. MAHLER

Wikipedia: Moshe Sharett
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Moshe Sharett
משה שרת


In office
7 December 1953 – 2 November 1955
Preceded by David Ben-Gurion
Succeeded by David Ben-Gurion

Born 15 October 1894(1894-10-15)
Kherson, Russian Empire
Died 7 July 1965 (aged 70)
Israel
Political party Mapai

Moshe Sharett (Hebrew: משה שרת‎, born Moshe Shertok (Hebrew: משה שרתוק) on 10 October 1894, died 7 July 1965) was the second Prime Minister of Israel (1953-1955), serving for a little under two years between David Ben-Gurion's two terms.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Born in Kherson in the Russian Empire (today in Ukraine), Sharett emigrated to Ottoman-controlled Palestine in 1906. In 1910 his family moved to Jaffa, and they became one of the founding families of Tel Aviv. He graduated from the first class of the Herzliya Hebrew High School. He then went off to Istanbul to study law, but his time there was cut short because of his service in the Turkish army as an interpreter.[1]

Post-World War I

After the war he worked as an Arab affairs and land purchase agent for the Palestine Jewish Community's Representative Council. He also became a member of Ahdut Ha'Avoda and later of Mapai. In 1922 he went to the London School of Economics, and while there he actively edited the "Workers of Zion". He then edited the Davar newspaper from 1925 until 1931. In 1931, after returning to Palestine, he became the secretary of the Jewish Agency's political department. In 1933 he became the head of the Jewish Agency, and he held that position until the formation on Israel.[2]

Israeli independence

Sharett was one of the signatories of Israel's Declaration of Independence. He was first elected to the Knesset in 1949, and served as Israel's first Minister of Foreign Affairs. In this role he established diplomatic relations with dozens of nations, and got Israel into the UN. He held this role until 1956.

In the debate on how to deal with the increasing infiltration of fedayeen across the borders in the years leading to the 1956 Suez Crisis, Sharett was skeptical of retaliatory operations.

Sharrett met with Pius XII in 1952 in an attempt to improve relations with the Holy See, although this was to no avail. [3]

In December 1953 David Ben-Gurion retired from politics (temporarily as it turned out), and Sharett was elected to take his place. During his time as prime minister the Palestinian-Israeli conflict intensified and the Lavon Affair occurred. As a result David Ben-Gurion returned to the government as Defense Minister. At the next elections Ben Gurion replaced Sharett as head of the list and became prime minister.[4][5][6][7]

Retirement

After stepping down as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sharett retired. During his retirement he became chairman of Am Oved publishing house, Chairman of Beit Berl College, and Chairman of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency. He died in 1965 and was buried in Tel Aviv's Trumpeldor Cemetery.[8]

Legacy

Moshe Sharett on 20 NIS banknote

Sharett wrote personal diaries, which were published posthumusly. His son Yaakov founded an Institute for his heritage[9]. Many cities have streets and neighborhoods named after him. Since 1987, Sharett has appeared on the 20 NIS bills. The bill first featured Sharett, with the names of his books in small print, and with a small image of him presenting the Israeli flag to the United Nations in 1949. On the back of the bill, there was an image of the Herzliya Hebrew High School, from which he graduated. In 1998 the bill went through a graphic revision, the list of Sharett's books on the front side was replaced by part of Sharett's 1949 speech in the UN. The back side now features an image of Jewish Brigade volunteers, part of a speech by Sharett on the radio after visiting the Brigade in Italy, and the list of his books in small print.

Bibliography

  • Livia Rokach: Israel's Sacred Terrorism: A Study Based on Moshe Sharett's Personal Diary and Other Documents (Belmont, Massachusetts: Association of Arab American University Graduates, 1980; Third Edition 1986), ISBN 0-937694-70-3. See External Links, below.
  • Gabriel Sheffer: Moshe Sharett: Biography of a Political Moderate. (New York: Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press, 1996), ISBN 0-19-827994-9.

Louise Fischer (ed.), Moshe Sharett: The Second Prime Minister, Selected Documents (1894-1965, (Israel State Archives, Jerusalem, 2009) ISBN 978-965-279-035-4

References

  1. ^ Moshe Sharett Jewish Virtual Library
  2. ^ Sharett, Moshe (Shertok; 1894-1965) Jewish Agency for Israel
  3. ^ Israel-Vatican Diplomatic Relations
  4. ^ Moshe Sharett MSN Encarta. Archived 2009-11-01.
  5. ^ Moshe Sharett Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  6. ^ Knesset Member, Moshe Sharett Knesset website
  7. ^ Erskine B. Childers, 'The Road to Suez- A study in Western-Arab relations'. Macgibbon & Kee, Bristol. 1962. page 184: Suggests Sharett's resignation as Foreign Minister on 18 June 1956 was due to his opposition to plans for military action against Egypt.
  8. ^ Moshe Sharett The Second Prime Minister Prime Minister's Office
  9. ^ Moshe Sharett Heritage Society

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
David Ben Gurion
Prime Minister of Israel
1953 – 1955
Succeeded by
David Ben Gurion
Party political offices
Preceded by
David Ben-Gurion
Leader of Mapai
1954–1955
Succeeded by
David Ben-Gurion

 
 

 

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