Bidspirit auction | An important letter in which

An important letter in which David Zvi Pinkas opposes the appointment of Chaim Weizmann as President of the Provisional State Council. May 17, 1948 - An important letter signed by David Zvi Pinkas (one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence), in which he expresses his opposition to the appointment of Chaim Weizmann as President of the Provisional State Council. May 17, 1948 - three days after the Declaration of Independence ceremony (a few months before Weizmann’s appointment as President of the State of Israel was approved). In a letter he sent to his colleagues in the World Center of the Mizrachi in Jerusalem, he writes that with the opening of the meeting of the Provisional State Council, it was proposed, on behalf of the majority in the government, to elect Dr. Weizmann as President of the Council. “The proposal came to me as a surprise, and I had not heard of it beforehand from our representative in the government.” He notes that Ben-Gurion and others supported the proposal, but he opposes it. In his letter, he explains the reasons for his opposition - Pinkas held the view that most members of the Congress opposed Weizmann’s political line, and therefore he should have resigned from the presidency of the Jewish Agency. He adds: “The election of Weizmann as President of the State Council must be interpreted as our drawing closer to Weizmann’s line, with all that it symbolizes - and in this I see an external and internal political danger.” Pinkas further adds that there is concern that if Weizmann is elected President, this may cause harm, since he, “as is his wont, ” will make irresponsible political statements. He further expresses his dissatisfaction with the fact that his colleagues in the faction, the Mizrachi representatives in the government, make decisions on important matters without consulting the members of the State Council, and states that in light of the fact that the appointment was made without consultation with him, he reserves the right to act in the matter as he sees fit. The central tension surrounding the election of Chaim Weizmann stemmed from the dispute over his political approach toward the British in the years preceding the establishment of the state, as well as from the fact that Pinkas saw him as representing a “particular camp.” Weizmann, who had led the Zionist movement for decades, advocated a line of close diplomatic cooperation with Britain, even when it began to restrict the Jewish Yishuv (the “White Paper” policy). This approach aroused strong opposition from David Ben-Gurion and the activist currents within the Zionist movement, who, for their part, advanced a path of struggle and military strengthening. Pinkas refers in his letter to the 22nd Zionist Congress (Basel, 1946), where the dispute reached its peak: most delegates opposed Weizmann’s proposal to participate in the London talks without preconditions, leading to his resignation from the presidency of the World Zionist Organization.  On the internal political level in Israel in May 1948, the election of a president for the Provisional State Council was the foremost institutional question. Ben-Gurion supported Weizmann’s election, despite the tensions between them, partly מתוך an understanding that Weizmann’s stature was an irreplaceable diplomatic and public-relations asset vis-à-vis the international community, and especially the United States, where he maintained extensive connections at the highest levels. The appointment was intended to grant the new state an image of stability and statesmanship at a time when it was engaged in an existential war.  For David Zvi Pinkas and the Mizrachi movement, the opposition was both principled and procedural. Ideologically, they feared that Weizmann would act independently and continue to promote his political “minimalist” approach, which they perceived as a danger to the young state. On the party level, the letter reflects the struggle over the place of Religious Zionism within the coalition of the provisional government; Pinkas was angered that the senior representatives of his movement in the government (such as Rabbi Fishman) made fateful decisions in coordination with Ben-Gurion, without consulting the movement’s members in the Council, thereby weakening the party’s bargaining power מול the ruling Mapai party. David Zvi Pinkas (1895–1952), Israeli politician, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, and the third Minister of Transport of the State of Israel from October 8, 1951 until his death. He was a member of the Assembly of Representatives, the National Committee, and the Provisional State Council (the legislative body of the state at its establishment), and served as chairman of its Security Committee during the War of Independence. At the time of the establishment of the state’s judicial institutions,