Moshe Sharett

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 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