THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL WORLD LEADERS OF ALL TIME

7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

Arabs, resulting in violent clashes between the two com-
munities. In 1939 Britain changed its Middle East policy,
abandoning its sympathetic stand toward the Jews and
adopting a sympathetic attitude toward the Arabs, leading
to severe restrictions on Jewish immigration and settle-
ment in Palestine. At the end of World War II, Ben-Gurion
again led the Jewish community in its successful struggle
against the British mandate. In May 1948, in accordance
with a decision of the United Nations General Assembly,
with the support of the United States and the Soviet
Union, the State of Israel was established.
Ben-Gurion became prime minister and minister of
defense of the new country. He succeeded in breaking up
the underground armies that had fought the British and in
fusing them into a national army, which became an effec-
tive force against the invading Arab armies from Syria,
Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. Although the fighting ended with
an Israeli victory, the Arab leaders refused to enter into
formal peace negotiations with the Jewish state.
Ben-Gurion’s stronghanded policy inspired little sym-
pathy for him from the governments of the United States
and Britain, but he found an ally in France—then embroiled
in its own war in the Arab world. France helped arm Israel
in the period leading up to the Suez Crisis in 1956, and it
was French initiative that brought Israel to join the Franco-
British military campaign against Egypt. On October 29,
1956, Ben-Gurion ordered the army to take over the Sinai
Peninsula, while France and Britain were making an abor-
tive attempt to seize the canal from Egyptian forces. Israel
subsequently withdrew from Sinai after having been
assured freedom of navigation in the Strait of Tiran and de
facto peace along the Egyptian-Israeli border. Following
the Sinai campaign, Israel entered a period of diplomatic
and economic prosperity. During Ben-Gurion’s last years