Eliezer Livneh

MKs


Date of birth = birth date|1902|12|02
Place of birth = Lodz, Russian Empire
Year of Aliyah = 1920
Date of death = Death date and age|1975|12|02|1902|03|01
Place of death = Jerusalem, Israel
Knesset(s) = 1st, 2nd
Party = Mapai
Former parties =
Gov't roles =

Eliezer Livneh ( _he. אליעזר ליבנה, born Eliezer Liebenstein on 2 December 1902, died 1 March 1975) was a Zionist activist, journalist, publicist and Israeli politician. He is known for his activism for nuclear proliferation of the Middle EastCite news
last = Melzer
first = Yehuda
title = The passion according to Vanunu
work = Haaretz
accessdate = 2008-03-01
date = 2004-03-26
url = http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=408896] and for his endorsement of the Greater Israel cause.Cite news
last = Rapaport
first = Meron
title = One day, two declarations
work = Haaretz
accessdate = 2008-03-01
date = 2007-07-14
url = http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/868440.html]

Biography

Early life and career

Liebenstein was born in Lodz in the Russian Empire (now Poland) in 1902,Cite web
last = Charny
first = Vitaly
coauthors = Josif Charny (trans.)
title = Russian Jewish Encyclopedia
accessdate = 2008-02-29
url = http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/rje_l.htm] but his family moved to Rostov-on-Don at the break of World War I. In 1920 he immigrated to Palestine and worked as road builder. He then joined Ahdut HaAvoda and in 1923 he was elected Secretary of the Haifa Workers Council. That year he also joined Kibbutz Ein Harod, of which he would be a member for many years. He was the Haavara emissary to Germany from 1928 to 1930 and again from 1933 to 1935, seeking to encourage immigration and transfer of assets.Cite web
title = Eliezer Livneh
work = The Israeli Labor movement
accessdate = 2008-02-29
url = http://tnuathaavoda.info/zope/home/100/people/1108049321/ he icon] His experiences of the Nazi rise to power made him an opponent of totalitarian regimes of any kind, including that of Joseph Stalin, which was popular among many in the workers movement. Between 1937 and 1939 he studied in England.

Haganah service

In March 1939, on the eve of World War II, he wrote with Elazar Galili a memo saying that in light of the foreseeable international developments, the Yishuv's future depends on the Haganah turning into a military organization which would validate the political policy of the Yishuv's civil institutions. They predicted several contingencies of a military confrontation with the Arabs, and that this force might tip the scale in the upcoming battles between Britain and Italy in the Middle East. The memo was sent by Chaim Weizman to several personalities, including Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, as well as to the Mapai center, but failed to turn the British policy and prevent the White Paper of 1939. However, the memo seems to have reflected the state of mind among the Haganah commanders and Yishuv leaders at that time.

At the break of World War II he became a pivotal propagandist for the Haganah and Mapai and was the founder (with Galili and Gershon Rivlin) and editor of the "Maarachot" (meaning both "systems" and "military campaigns") newspaper on military matters in 1939.

In 1940 he also published another paper named "Ashnav" ("porthole") with Berl Katznelson. Edited by Livneh, it became the voice of the "activist" faction of Mapai for seven years until it went too far by publishing an obituary listing the names of Dov Gruner, Yehiel Drezner and Eliezer Kashani - Irgun members who became Olei Hagardom in April 1947 - alongside Haganah casualties who were killed during the illegal immigration activities. Published a few months after the King David Hotel Bombing and shortly after the disbandment of the Jewish Resistance Movement, The analogy between Irgun and Haganah casualties was unacceptable to the Haganah and resulted in the closing of "Ashnav".Cite web
title = Ashnav
work = The Israeli Labor movement
accessdate = 2008-03-01
url = http://tnuathaavoda.info/zope/home/100/press/1125096767/ he icon]

He also founded and edited the more successful journal "Beterem" ("before") from 1942 to 1960.Cite web
title = Beterem
work = The Israeli Labor movement
accessdate = 2008-03-01
url = http://tnuathaavoda.info/zope/home/100/press/1113420946/ he icon] He was also known for his oratory and was active in both Kol Jerusalem, the Mandate authorities operated radio station, and Kol Israel, the Haganah's illegal radio station, in which he was also an editor.Cite web
title = תחנת "קול ישראל" 13 במרס - 11 ביוני 1940:
accessdate = 2008-02-29
url = http://www.archives.mod.gov.il/pages/Exhibitions/KolIsraelExhibition/kolIsrael.asp]

A few days before the Provisional State Council's Declaration of Independence of May 12, 1948, he was sent by David Ben-Gurion to Menachem Begin to tell him he and his men would be subject to Ben-Gurion's government, to which Begin consented.Cite web
title = Pangs of the Messiah: The Troubled Birth of the Jewish State
accessdate = 2008-02-29
url = http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&docId=29178329]

Knesset term

After the establishment of the State of Israel, he was elected for Mapai to the first and second Knessets, and was a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He supported the dispersion of the population, giving preference to the periphery rather than the center area. He was among the activist members of the party, taking an ardent pro-American stand in the struggle against Mapam, regarding Israel's relation with the United States and the Soviet Union. When MK Yaakov Hazan said that the USSR is his second homeland, Livneh said command positions are not to be put in the hands of people with more than one homeland.Cite news
last = Brilliant
first = Moshe
title = Supporters attack governments investment programme
work = Palestine Post
date = 1949-11-16]

In 1952 he was reprimanded by Foreign Minister Abba Eban for meeting with the Pakistani ambassador at the United Nations.Cite news
last = בחור-ניר
first = דיאנה
title = מה זה שלום, בעצם?
work = Ynet
accessdate = 2008-02-29
date = 2004-05-04
url = http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-2913136,00.html he icon] Before the elections to the third Knesset, he was reported to have purchased a relatively luxurious apartment in Kiryat Hayovel, Jerusalem, and was scolded by his party for deviating from the modest behavior policy.Cite news
last = פרסלר
first = רון
title = דמוקרטיה במחלוקת
work = Nana10
accessdate = 2008-03-01
date = 2006-11-02
url = http://news.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=405860&sid=126 he icon] He was not elected, but remained active in the party secretariat until November 13, 1957.

Later career

In 1959 he founded the “New Government” Movement with Shmuel Tamir and Yeshayahu Leibowitz, which sought to undermine Mapai's dominance in Israeli politics, but resigned from the Movement in 1960. Those days also saw the formation of Israel's nuclear policy. Supporters of Israel's nuclear plan, headed by Ben-Gurion along with Shimon Peres and Ernst David Bergmann, acted behind the scenes to promote the program. Against them, Livneh and Leibowitz formed the The Committee for Denuclearization of the Middle East. When Israel's nuclear activities were exposed in the New York Times in December, 1960, he was joined by several members of the Nuclear Energy Committee, who resigned when Israel's cooperation with France made the Atomic project practical.Cite journal
pages = 126–159
last = Solingen
first = Etel
title = The Political Economy of Nuclear Restraint
journal = International Security
accessdate = 2008-03-01
date = 1995-02-13
url = http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/950213-nuke-usia.htm]

The committee argued that Israel's security relies not on the attainment of a nuclear bomb but rather on the nuclear proliferation of the entire region. It was also argued that attaining a nuclear bomb would cause an intensified Arab effort to attain one as well, thus resulting in a balance of terror that might jeopardize the Zionist enterprise. The committee acted behind the scenes and led to a quiet discussion on the issue among several of the members of the big parties, including Levi Eshkol, who replaced Ben-Gurion in 1963, and other party leaders such as Haim-Moshe Shapira of the National Religious Party, Pinchas Rosen of the Liberal party, Yaakov Hazan and Mordechai Bentov of Mapam and Ahdut HaAvoda men Yisrael Galili and Yigal Allon. Allon was particularly attentive to the committee and was considered its loyal supporter in the government.Cite news
last = Cohen
first = Avner
title = Going for the nuclear option
work = Haaretz
accessdate = 2008-03-01
date = 2007-05-22
url = http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/862350.html] The committee ceased its activities after the Six Day War. According to Avner Cohen, its bout was the closest thing in Israeli history to public democratic debate on nuclear policy.Cite news
last = קימרלינג
first = ברוך
title = והרי מספיקה רק תאונה קטנה אחת. או רעידת אדמה
work = Haaretz
accessdate = 2008-02-29
url = http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArt.jhtml?contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&itemNo=629404 he icon]

Prior to the Six Day War, he wrote in the Haaretz newspaper: "It is more than the Strait of Tiran that is at issue now. What is at issue is the existence or nonexistence of the Jewish people. We must crush the machinations of the new Hitler at the outset, when it is still possible to crush them and survive... Neither the world nor the Jews believed in the sincerity of Hitler's declarations... Nasser's fundamental strategy is the same as Hitler."Cite journal
pages = 47–49, 100
last = Brownfeld
first = Allan C.
title = The Politicization of the Holocaust: Examining the Uses and Abuse of Its Legacy
journal = The Washington Report on Middle east Affairs
accessdate = 2008-03-01
date = 1998-11
url = http://www.vho.org/aaargh/engl/commentaries/brownfeld.html] After the war, he was one of the founders of the Greater Israel Movement, for which he was active for the rest of his life. His last book, "Israel and the Crisis of Western Civilization" promoted a return to original Jewish culture instead of the Western one.Cite journal
issue = 6
last = Lord
first = Amnon
title = The Jewish State: The Next Fifty Years
journal = Azure
accessdate = 2008-03-01
date = 1999
url = http://www.azure.org.il/magazine/magazine.asp?id=62] Cite journal
last = Elam
first = Yigal
title = Gush Emunim: A False Messianism
journal = The Jerusalem Quarterly
accessdate = 2008-02-29
date = 1976
url = http://www.geocities.com/alabasters_archive/gush_false_messianism.html] His book "On the Road to Elon Moreh - Zionism on the path of Emunim" was released posthumously by Gush Emunim publishing.

In addition to writing several books, he was also an editor of the Encyclopedia Hebraica as an expert on Jerusalem, Zionism, Socialism and Russian history. He died in 1975.

elected bibliography

* "The Question of Socialism in our Times"(1932) he icon
* "The New Territorialism" (1944) he icon
* "At the Gateway of an Era" (1952) he icon
* "State and Exile" (1953) he icon
* "Nili – the History of Political Daring" (1961) he icon
* "Aharon Aharonson: the Man and his Times" 1969) he icon
* "Israel and the Crisis of Western Civilization" (1971) he icon
* "On the Road to Elon Moreh - Zionism on the path of Emunim" (1976) he icon

References

External links