Was Ben Gurion Really An Alien?

I’ve often wondered if anyone actually reads these blog posts (aside from my mother and my loyal assistant). But since I received such great feedback on my last Cake of the Week post I will go on writing with impunity, taking it as validation that I’m reaching thousands!

That last post described an Israel Independence Day cake featuring Srulik, and briefly mentioned similarly themed cakes of years past. Dina R., a reader from New Jersey, asked me to share the particulars of the Ben Gurion cake. Thanks Dina, and here you go:

Here’s the iconic Palestine Post newspaper headline of May 16, 1948, two days after David Ben Gurion declared independence in Tel Aviv (the day after was Shabbat and the paper was not printed. Eagle-eyed observers will note that I actually dated the cake May 14 to avoid confusion). I was asked to commemorate that moment with an edible newspaper heralding the birth of the new State of Israel.

Frankly speaking, newspaper cakes are not my favourite. It’s mainly black lines of small print, and there’s nothing particularly creative about drawing small dots and dashes. But since the customer gave me carte blanche to whimsically re-imagine the headlines of the day, I decided that Ben Gurion – and his inimitable hairstyle – deserved their moment in the sun.

Incidentally, did you know that the ancient race of aliens that make up the immortal founders of the Green Lantern Corps (yes – Green Lantern, as in the comics books, cartoons, and now feature film) – are all modeled on Ben Gurion? No joke – see for yourself:

The illustrators opted to make their fictional alien race (The ‘Guardians of the Universe’ or ‘Oans’, first appearing in Green Lantern Vol. 2 #1, July 1960) more human and approachable. So the elderly, short, blue-skinned aliens with large heads and a shock of white hair were patterned on Israel’s first Prime Minster. Fascinating, no?

Happy post Yom Haatzmaut!