"I am not a militarist, never have been in my life, and I am not one till the present day."
"Each Jewish mother should know that she has entrusted the lives of her sons to the hand of commanders worthy of that trust."
On June 16, 1963, at the end of the government meeting, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion announced his resignation for personal reasons. The establishment of a new government was entrusted with Levi Eshkol, the Treasury Minister in the outgoing government.
On June 24, 1963, Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Levi Eshkol, presented his new government in the Knesset, and June 26, 1963 it passed a vote of confidence in the Knesset.
On June 25, 1963, Ben Gurion said goodbye to the IDF with a letter:
"With my retirement today from the Government of Israel and the Ministry of Defense – I send, from the bottom of my heart, a blessing of an Israeli citizen to the IDF, which I love so much, that he shall grow and succeed, and will loyally and heroically persevere in defending Israel, and will continue to be a melting pot of the diasporas gathering in Israel, a school of civil education and a cradle of a renewed nation, nurturing the legacy of its great past and the vision of its messianic future."
A few days later Ben Gurion spoke to the IDF's senior officers.
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