Moshe Sharett was the second Prime Minister of [[Israel]], serving from 1954 to 1955. He differed significantly from [[David Ben-Gurion]] in his approach to the Arab question, believing that peace with the Arab world was possible through military restraint and potential [[United Nations]] intervention. As prime minister, he initiated secret peace negotiations with [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Nasser]].[^1] Sharett's voluminous personal diaries indicate his ambition for [[Israel]]'s nuclear program, referred to as the "Enterprise," though he lacked confidence in [[Ernst David Bergmann]]'s administrative skills. He believed Bergmann's shortcomings would "limit and disrupt the horizons of the ‘Enterprise’ and sabotage its development."[^1] His tenure was marked by tension with [[Moshe Dayan]] and [[Shimon Peres]], who, in constant contact with [[David Ben-Gurion]], sought to stifle Sharett's dovish policies. The [[Lavon Affair]] in mid-1954, where an Israeli spy ring bombed American, British, and Egyptian targets, led to Sharett accepting [[Pinhas Lavon]]'s resignation. Sharett, unaware of the operation, viewed the subsequent increase in Gaza Strip border clashes as an "inevitable consequence" of the retaliatory raid authorized by Ben-Gurion.[^1] Sharett quietly resigned as foreign minister in the summer of 1956, after attempting to hold an open debate on [[Israel]]'s foreign policy. His personal diaries, published in 1980, revealed the deep divisions within the Israeli government at the time.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 3.