of Hebrew society, the rate of natural increase (now 22 per 1000 yearly) will not improve significantly. Immigration has ground to a near standstill, and no real change can be expected. Even the tidal wave of enthusiasm which swept the Jewish Diaspora during and after the Six-Day War has not brought any new aliyah to the country.
But both hopes, unfounded as they may be, are essential to old-time Zionists, now more than ever. Only thus can they reconcile, in theory, their two natural inclinations: holding on to the conquered territories in order to colonize them, in spite of the fact that a million Arabs live there, and keeping Israel a Jewish state.
With the decision of his Rafi party to rejoin Mapai without him, Ben-Gurion has become a lonely figure on the political scene, a man without a party, without an organized following. But even today, he personifies the Zionist idea and inspires a certain kind of awe.
* * *
Ben-Gurion has traveled a long way since the day young David Green arrived in Jaffa 62 years ago. During all these years, there has not been one single day in which he was not politically active. His slogans have changed often, and so have his professed aims. He always likes to talk about the "three primary tasks of our generation." However, while the number of the tasks never changes, the tasks themselves change. What one month may be Compulsory High School Education, Conquering the Wilderness of the Negev, and Security, a month later may be Security, the Ingathering of the Exiles, and Integration of the Jewish Communities. But viewing his lifetime as a whole, one is struck by the tenacity with which Ben-Gurion followed a single straight line, from the day he was disgusted by the oriental smells and guttural sounds of Jaffa until the day he resigned from his post as Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of the Jewish state; he and Israel are deeply