ABSTRACT
Ben-Gurion immigrated to Palestine in 1906, thereby realizing the essential principle of Zionism. He and his comrades in the “Poalei Tzion” movement regarded themselves as a motivating force in the country. The main arena of Ben-Gurion’s activity until the early 1930s was the “Ahdut Avoda” party and the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor). In his opinion, although the Zionist Organization was an organizational, political, and financial instrument, it was certainly not the be all and end all in the process of realizing the Zionist ideal. In the early 1920s, circumstances led him and his comrades to consider founding an alternative organization on the grounds that the Zionist leadership was not doing enough, in their opinion, to develop the country as the home of the Jewish People. In the next decade, however, they abandoned this idea in favor of implementing their principles in the framework of the Zionist Organization. Ben-Gurion accordingly launched an extensive drive to enlist the blue collar sector of the community in order to enhance the power of his party, “Mapai,” and make it the major element in the Zionist Organization. These efforts were fruitful, as demonstrated by his election to the position of Chairman of the Zionist Executive, among other things.1
