Quotations about Palestine and Israel

From "A Line in the Sand" by James Barr

“Neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat. We are very far from having any moral qualms as far as our national war goes. We have before us the command of the Torah, whose morality surpasses that of any other body of laws in the world: ‘Ye shall blot them out to the last man.’

"But first and foremost, terrorism is for us a part of the political battle being conducted under the present circumstances, and it has a great part to play: speaking in a clear voice to the whole world, as well as to our wretched brethren outside this land, it proclaims our war against the occupier."

Future Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir in 1943, when he was one of the leaders of the Stern Gang. 'The occupier' means the British.

“In Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country. . . Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.” 

Lord Balfour in memorandum to the British cabinet, 1919

“Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has appeared in the world.”

Winston Churchill

"I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to those people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, or, at any rate, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place." 

Winston Churchill, in his 1937 testimony to the Royal Commission on Palestine

"We must fight terrorism as if there's no peace process and work to achieve peace as if there's no terror."

Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister murdered by a supporter of the Likud and Benjamin Netanyahu

"If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?"

David Ben-Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister, talking to Nahum Goldmann, quoted in The Jewish Paradox : A personal memoir (1978) published after Ben-Gurion's death. It accords with the journalist's own view and some therefore question its accuracy.

“Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves … politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves… The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country. … Behind the terrorism is a movement, which though primitive is not devoid of idealism and self sacrifice.”

David Ben-Gurion

"It is impossible to have a Jewish, democratic state and at the same time to control all of Eretz Israel [the God-given land of Israel]. If we insist on fulfilling the dream in its entirety, we are liable to lose it all. Everything. That is where the extremist path takes us."

Ariel Sharon, Israeli Prime Minister 

"I think sometimes we underestimate just how vulnerable Israel is on the public-relations front. That's why they spend so much money on propaganda. And that's why they panic every time they feel like they're losing the propaganda war."

Norman Finkelstein

"Israel is not a strategic asset but a strategic liability for the United States." 

John Mearsheimer in this discussion last month

"I remember how it was in 1948 when Israel was being established and all my Jewish friends were ecstatic, I was not. I said: what are we doing? We are establishing ourselves in a ghetto, in a small corner of a vast Muslim sea. The Muslims will never forget nor forgive, and Israel, as long as it exists, will be embattled. I was laughed at, but I was right.”

Isaac Asimov

“We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs. We have no place to go.”

Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister

"We ought to have gone to Madagascar." 

A retired senior IDS officer in the Golan Heights talking to retired Col Douglas Macgregor.

"Sadly, Israel is on its way to becoming the west’s version of North Korea." Tim Sassoon