nationalist Aliyah Palestine David Ben-Gurion President of Israel Ezriel Carlebach Abba Eban Washington
Einstein was not a nationalist and opposed the creation of an independent Jewish state. He felt that the waves of arriving Jews of the Aliyah could live alongside existing Arabs in Palestine. Upon the death of Israeli president Weizmann in November 1952, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion offered Einstein the largely ceremonial position of President of Israel at the urging of Ezriel Carlebach. The offer was presented by Israel's ambassador in Washington, Abba Eban, who explained that the offer "embodies the deepest respect which the Jewish people can repose in any of its sons". Einstein wrote that he was "deeply moved", but "at once saddened and ashamed" that he could not accept it.
