Thoughts Before the Feast

TIME Correspondents William Marmon and Martin Levin last week asked several Israeli leaders to reflect on their nation's past and future. A sampling of their thoughts:

ABBA EBAN, Foreign Minister

On the situation in 1948:

"We had no time to deal with expectations. We were occupied not with wondering what the state would look like 25 years from now, but whether we would be alive 24 hours from now. The obsession with survival put aside any attempt to chart a future."

On the nation's accomplishments:

"It is not normal for a people of less than 3,000,000, living in the small area we possess, to do what we have done. Our military posture, our scientific and technological achievements, our economic volume do not correspond with these dimensions.

"The first objective of Israel was to take Jewish history out of the control of external caprice and give it autonomy of its own. The biggest external impact of Israel has been on the Jewish people itself and the new belief it has inculcated in this people in their undiminished vigor and vitality.

"We have also proved something about the adaptability of democratic institutions through a whole range of challenges. Our experience refutes the common theme in developing countries that in danger and crisis you have to sacrifice democracy and establish more totalitarian forms of government. We have shown that there is almost no danger, condition or peril to which a democratic structure cannot be responsive."

On the Arab view of Israel:

"The Arabs' minds and hearts have been filled with images of Israel disappearing into the sea or being covered by the shifting sands. The Arabs have a sense of command of the desert, and they believe the sands will eventually bury everything that is not organic. To them Israel is not organic, not authentic. These images have done desperate harm to the Arabs because they don't correspond to reality. The essential reality about Israel is not its fragility, but the depth of its history in the Middle East."

PINHAS SAPIR, Finance Minister

On Israel at 50:

"I see 6,000,000 Jews here, and 1,500,000 Arabs. The standard of living will rise by 200%. The balance of payments will show a surplus. The gap between the rich and the poor will be closed. Seventy percent of our power will come from nuclear power stations, and we are going to work hard on desalination. Water is one of our greatest needs. I hope there will be peace so that we can cooperate with Lebanon in the use of the waters of the Litani River [in southern Lebanon] for power. Today the waters go to waste into the Mediterranean. If France and Switzerland can cooperate on water power, why couldn't Lebanon and we do the same?"

EPHRAIM KATZIR, Israel, the newly elected President of Israel, a Russian-born physicist

On the years of struggle:

"There arose in Palestine and abroad men of action. They were men who knew how to wage war, how to grow tomatoes and when to fertilize fields--pragmatists all. But in the process we have largely ignored Jewish intellectuals [and spiritual leaders] and have concentrated on Jews who can give us immediate help. I am convinced that if external conditions will give us some breathing space, our pragmatic life will be tempered so that we can again concentrate our efforts on becoming a spiritually chosen people."

On the national destiny:

"We have an exceptional opportunity to show the world how to control the monster of technology and to create a model society. If we can do this in the next 25 years, the whole Zionist effort will have been worthwhile."

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