destine, underground army, equipped with odds and ends of weaponry accumulated in the settlements. This organization, the Haganah, split several times along ideological lines, and one of its splinters eventually became, under Jabotinsky's political leadership, the Irgun Tsevai Leumi, the National Military Organization that started the fight against the Arabs and the British alike. Here was "practical" Zionism with a vengeance.
Practical Zionism created the power structure of the Yishuv, centered on the Histadruth. This was the organization, becoming yearly more important, that directed the settlement of new kibbutzim and moshavim; commanded the Haganah-, set up economic Histadruth enterprises and cooperatives; controlled the labor market; created the Sick Fund, which nearly monopolized medicine, and operated one part of the Jewish autonomous educational system. As the Histadruth general secretary, Ben-Gurion was at the very seat of power, though far from being its sole leader. Many of his colleagues in the collective leadership of the labor movement thought him much too impulsive and extreme, yet he had his hands on the practical instrument of power. Official politics, such as dealings with the British Government, he left to others, believing, quite rightly, that they were much less important than creating the cells of actual Jewish power, the-state-within-the-state which was called by the Zionists themselves, "the state-on-the-way." This state-on-the-way was, of course, 100 per cent Jewish, and inevitably linked with the fight for Hebrew Labor and Hebrew Land. In this fight, Ben-Gurion distinguished himself, organizing strikes against the orange growers who dared employ Arab workers; indeed, his growing fame as a resolute fighter for Hebrew Labor was the basis for his increasing popularity. It is easy to find quotations from his speeches mentioning the need for some understanding with the Arabs, even the need for some contact with the Arab workers; Ben-Gurion has always been a prolific speaker and writer, though not a very good one, and any¬