David Ben-Gurion on Israel’s Mirage Dispute with France and George Washington’s 1790 Letter

Background

By 1971, David Ben-Gurion had retired and moved to his beloved Negev after fifty-five years at the center of Zionist leadership and Israeli statecraft. Yet the intermingling of personal exchanges and affairs of state is evident in this letter to Justin Turner, a lawyer, philanthropist, and manuscript collector in the United States.

In his response to Turner, Ben Gurion addresses Israel’s dispute with France over the Mirage “airplanes” -Dassault Mirage fighter jets purchased by Israel from France before the 1967 Six-Day War, but never delivered due to the French arms embargo imposed that year. Israel had paid in full for the planes and then found itself fighting an existential war on three fronts without them. France's geopolitical interests had shifted after withdrawing from Algeria in 1962, and their interest in oil aligned them with the Arab countries hostile to Israel. By the time of Turner and Ben-Gurion’s correspondence, negotiations with France had dragged on for four years.

Ben-Gurion confirms to Turner that Israel was still refusing a refund from France: “It is true that Israel refused to get back the paid money for the Mirages—because we want back the Airplanes.” 

The following year, in 1972, Israel and France came to terms: Israel accepted a refund for the planes plus the interest for the five years the planes were ready but had been impounded by the French government. The same year, Israel started buying its fighter aircraft from the United States. 

Alongside this mention of high-stakes international negotiations, Ben-Gurion notes that he has not received the two copies Turner sent him of George Washington’s famous 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. The speech is considered a foundational American document stating Washington’s steadfast support of religious freedom and inclusion for Jewish Americans. 

Even in his private correspondence, the voice of David Ben-Gurion the statesman is unmistakable. In the final years of his life, long after retiring from public office, he continued to advocate for Israel’s national interests to anyone who would listen.

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