Address at the Mapai Political Committee (7 June 1938) as quoted in .
Context: In our political argument abroad, we minimize Arab opposition to us. But let us not ignore the truth among ourselves. I insist on the truth, not out of respect for scientific but political realities. The acknowledgement of this truth leads to inevitable and serious conclusions regarding our work in Palestine… let us not build on the hope the terrorist gangs will get tired. If some get tired, others will replace them.
A people which fights against the usurpation of its land will not tire so easily... it is easier for them to continue the war and not get tired than it is for us... The Palestinian Arabs are not alone. The Syrians are coming to help. From our point of view, they are strangers; in the point of law they are foreigners; but to the Arabs, they are not foreigners at all … The centre of the war is in Palestine, but its dimensions are much wider. When we say that the Arabs are the aggressors and we defend ourselves — this is only half the truth. As regards our security and life we defend ourselves and our moral and physical position is not bad. We can face the gangs... and were we allowed to mobilize all our forces we would have no doubts about the outcome... But the fighting is only one aspect of the conflict which is in its essence a political one. And politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves. Militarily, it is we who are on the defensive who have the upper hand but in the political sphere they are superior. The land, the villages, the mountains, the roads are in their hands. 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, while we are still outside. They defend bases which are theirs, which is easier than conquering new bases... let us not think that the terror is a result of Hitler's or Mussolini's propaganda — this helps but the source of opposition is there among the Arabs.
Famous David Ben-Gurion Quotes
“From Jewish terrorism against Arabs it is a short step to Jewish terrorism against Jews.”
"On three fronts" (3 August 1938) as quoted in * Rebirth and Destiny of Israel
1954
91
Philosophical Library
New York.
Written statement (June 1919), as quoted in Time magazine (24 July 2006)
Context: Everybody sees a difficulty in the question of relations between Arabs and Jews. But not everybody sees that there is no solution to this question. No solution! There is a gulf, and nothing can bridge it… We, as a nation, want this country to be ours; the Arabs, as a nation, want this country to be theirs.
Statement (12 September 1939), quoted in * Ben-Gurion: The Burning Ground, 1886–1948
1987
Shabtai
Teveth, p. 717.
Variants:
Fight the war as if there was no White Paper, and the White Paper as if there was no war.
As quoted in A History of Palestine from 135 A.D. to Modern Times (1949) by James William Parkes, p. 342
"We shall fight the War as if there was no White Paper, and the White Paper, as if there was no War."
As quoted in Pioneer (1968) by Deborah Dayan, p. 83
No clear citations of this to Ben-Gurion have been located. A very early variant of this idea (which plays upon the statement of René Descartes "Cogito ergo sum" — "I think, therefore I exist") is found in Die Weimarer Reichsverfassung http://books.google.gr/books?id=VRBAAAAAYAAJ&q= (1922) by Leo Wittmayer, p. 255, a work about the Weimar Constitution, where Wittmayer speaks against the attitude, while stating it in Latin: "bello ergo sum".
Misattributed
As quoted in Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs : From Peace to War (1985) by Shabtai Teveth, p. 66
David Ben-Gurion Quotes about people
Israel's Proclamation of Independence, read on (14 May 1948)
Speech in 1937, accepting a British proposal for partition of Palestine which created a potential Jewish majority state, as quoted in New Outlook (April 1977)
Attributed to Ben-Gurion (pre-War 1939) by Martin Gilbert in "Israel was everything" in The New York Times (21 June 1987) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE2DB1539F932A15755C0A961948260&pagewanted=2
Letter to an unnamed American friend, as quoted in David Ben-Gurion, in His Own Words (1969) edited by Amram M. Ducovny, p. 57 - 60; similar remarks appeared in an address at Hebrew University (28 November 1945)
Letter to Winston Churchill on his leadership during World War II (1961), as quoted in "Churchill and the Jewish state" by Colin Shindle in The Jerusalem Post (27 December 2007) http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517221673&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
David Ben-Gurion Quotes about peace
Memoirs : David Ben-Gurion (1970), p. 36
page 36 of Israel: Opposing Viewpoints (1994) by Charles P. Cozic
David Ben-Gurion Quotes
Rebirth and Destiny of Israel (1954), p. 419; a portion of this paragraph has sometimes been misquoted as: "To maintain the status quo will not do. We have to set up a dynamic state bent upon expansion."
Context: Our code must be framed to speed the absorption of immigrants into our economy, culture and society; to fuse the returning tribes into a homogeneous national and cultural unit; to forward our physical and moral healing and the cleansing of our lives from the trivia and dross which gathered upon us in dependence and exile. To maintain the status quo will not do. We have set up a dynamic State, bent upon creation and reform, building and expansion. Laws which lag behind development, merely a digest of experience and the lessons of the past, are useless to us. We need to anticipate the character of the times, discern embryonic forms emergent or renewed, and clear the path for circumstantial change.
“Under no circumstances must we touch land belonging to fellahs or worked by them.”
Written statement (1920), as quoted in .
Context: Under no circumstances must we touch land belonging to fellahs or worked by them. Only if a fellah leaves his place of settlement, should we offer to buy his land, at an appropriate price.
“We accepted the UN resolution, but the Arabs did not.”
Address to the Israeli cabinet (12 May 1948), as quoted in "One day that shook the world" by Ellli Wohlgelernter http://info.jpost.com/C002/Supplements/IndependenceDay/one_day.html, in The Jerusalem Post (30 April 2002)
Context: We accepted the UN resolution, but the Arabs did not. They are preparing to make war on us. If we defeat them and capture western Galilee or territory on both sides of the road to Jerusalem, these areas will become part of the state. Why should we obligate ourselves to accept boundaries that in any case the Arabs don't accept?
Rebirth and Destiny of Israel (1954), p. 419; a portion of this paragraph has sometimes been misquoted as: "To maintain the status quo will not do. We have to set up a dynamic state bent upon expansion."
Context: Our code must be framed to speed the absorption of immigrants into our economy, culture and society; to fuse the returning tribes into a homogeneous national and cultural unit; to forward our physical and moral healing and the cleansing of our lives from the trivia and dross which gathered upon us in dependence and exile. To maintain the status quo will not do. We have set up a dynamic State, bent upon creation and reform, building and expansion. Laws which lag behind development, merely a digest of experience and the lessons of the past, are useless to us. We need to anticipate the character of the times, discern embryonic forms emergent or renewed, and clear the path for circumstantial change.
Address at the Mapai Political Committee (7 June 1938) as quoted in .
Context: In our political argument abroad, we minimize Arab opposition to us. But let us not ignore the truth among ourselves. I insist on the truth, not out of respect for scientific but political realities. The acknowledgement of this truth leads to inevitable and serious conclusions regarding our work in Palestine… let us not build on the hope the terrorist gangs will get tired. If some get tired, others will replace them.
A people which fights against the usurpation of its land will not tire so easily... it is easier for them to continue the war and not get tired than it is for us... The Palestinian Arabs are not alone. The Syrians are coming to help. From our point of view, they are strangers; in the point of law they are foreigners; but to the Arabs, they are not foreigners at all … The centre of the war is in Palestine, but its dimensions are much wider. When we say that the Arabs are the aggressors and we defend ourselves — this is only half the truth. As regards our security and life we defend ourselves and our moral and physical position is not bad. We can face the gangs... and were we allowed to mobilize all our forces we would have no doubts about the outcome... But the fighting is only one aspect of the conflict which is in its essence a political one. And politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves. Militarily, it is we who are on the defensive who have the upper hand but in the political sphere they are superior. The land, the villages, the mountains, the roads are in their hands. 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, while we are still outside. They defend bases which are theirs, which is easier than conquering new bases... let us not think that the terror is a result of Hitler's or Mussolini's propaganda — this helps but the source of opposition is there among the Arabs.
Israel's Proclamation of Independence, read on (14 May 1948)
Context: We extend the hand of peace and good-neighborliness to all the States around us and to their people, and we call upon them to cooperate in mutual helpfulness with the independent Jewish nation in its Land. The State of Israel is prepared to make its contribution in a concerted effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
“We do not wish, we do not need to expel the Arabs and take their place.”
Letter to his son Amos (5 October 1937), as quoted in .
Context: We do not wish, we do not need to expel the Arabs and take their place. All our aspirations are built upon the assumption — proven throughout all our activity in the Land — that there is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs.
Rebirth and Destiny of Israel (1954), p. 419.
Context: We have rebelled against all controls and religions, all laws and judgments which the mighty sought to foist upon us. We kept to our dedication and our missions. By these will the State be judged, by the moral character it imparts to its citizens, by the human values determining its inner and outward relations, and by its fidelity, in thought and act, to the supreme behest: "and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Here is crystallized the eternal law of Judaism, and all the written ethics in the world can say no more. The State will be worthy of its name only if its systems, social and economic, political and legal, are based upon these imperishable words. They are more than a formal precept which can be construed as passive or negative: not to deprive, not to rob, not to oppress, not to hurt.
Rebirth and Destiny of Israel (1954), p. 419.
Context: We have rebelled against all controls and religions, all laws and judgments which the mighty sought to foist upon us. We kept to our dedication and our missions. By these will the State be judged, by the moral character it imparts to its citizens, by the human values determining its inner and outward relations, and by its fidelity, in thought and act, to the supreme behest: "and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Here is crystallized the eternal law of Judaism, and all the written ethics in the world can say no more. The State will be worthy of its name only if its systems, social and economic, political and legal, are based upon these imperishable words. They are more than a formal precept which can be construed as passive or negative: not to deprive, not to rob, not to oppress, not to hurt.
Quoted in Supreme Command : Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime (2002) by Eliot A. Cohen, p. 172
"On three fronts" (3 August 1938) as quoted in * Rebirth and Destiny of Israel
1954
91
Philosophical Library
New York.
“Well done, now give it back to them.”
Spoken to Louis Nir in June 1967, after his unit captured Hebron in the Six-Day War), as quoted in "Is the end in sight?" by Henry Porter in The Observer (28 October 2001) http://observer.guardian.co.uk/nireland/story/0,11008,582158,00.html
“We consider that the United Nations' ideal is a Jewish ideal.”
As quoted in "The Watchman" in TIME magazine (16 August 1948) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798932-2,00.html
Quoted from memory by Hirsh Goodman in Let Me Create a Paradise, God Said to Himself: A Journey of Conscience from Johannesberg to Jerusalem https://books.google.com/books?id=lUvqer1w-QcC&lpg=PP1&ots=NaV9ASJZPf&dq=Let%20Me%20Create%20Paradise%2C%20God%20Said%20to%20Himself&pg=PT90#v=onepage&q&f=false By Hirsh Goodman, page 90. The quote was checked by UK Media Watch against Ben Gurion's relevant diary, Ben Gurion archives and with historians Benny Moris, Martin Kramer, Zaki Shalom and Anita Shapira. Hirsh Goodman "stands by his recollection, but declined, when asked, to provide any further details on the interview, such as the name of the radio station or the name of the interviewer" Did the Independent just publish a fake Ben-Gurion quote? (Update) https://ukmediawatch.org/2017/03/29/did-the-independent-just-publish-a-false-ben-gurion-quote/
Misattributed
“What matters is not what the goyim say, but what the Jews do.”
An "oft-repeated credo" according to the "Windsor Star - Dec 3, 1973 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vlc_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=41IMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1709,731564&dq=what+matters+is+not+what+goyim+say+but+what+the+jews+do&hl=en and repeated in various newspapers (with minor variations) including the Jerusalem post (May 22,2009) "It doesn't matter what the goyim say, but what the Jews do"
As quoted in * Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians (Updated Edition) (South End Press Classics Series)
Noam
Chomsky
162.
“Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs.”
Attributed to Ben-Gurion in A Call to Action : The Handbook to Unite and Ignite America's Betrayed and Imperiled Public (2004) by A. T. Theodore, p. 6, but earlier published as a saying of unknown authorship in Uncommon Sense : The World's Fullest Compendium of Wisdom (1987) by Joseph Telushkin, p. 204
Disputed
An address at Hebrew University (28 November 1945), as quoted in Rebirth and Destiny of Israel (1954), p. 151
As quoted by Ariel Sharon, in the documentary The 50 Years War : Israel & The Arabs (1999), this advice was given to him by Ben-Gurion after the controversial raid on Qibya.
“In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.”
Interview on CBS, (5 October 1956)
As quoted in Israel : Years of Crisis Years of Hope (1973) by Roman Frister, p. 45
Variant: Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles isn't a realist.
As quoted in * Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians (Updated Edition) (South End Press Classics Series)
Noam
Chomsky
162.
As quoted in "Hebron Is Jerusalem's Sister" http://www.hebron.com/english/article.php?id=223, Sdeh Boker, 18 Shvat 5730 (25 January 1970)
“If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert.”
As quoted in Words from the Wise : Over 6,000 of the Smartest Things Ever Said (2007) by Rosemarie Jarski, p. 170
From a protocol of the Government of Israel, translated from Hebrew by Israel Shahak, in "Truth or Myth about Israel? Read between Quotation Marks" by Charley Reese in The Orlando Sentinel (13 June 1999); later published as "What Israeli Historians Say About 1948 Ethnic Cleansing" in Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (September 1999) http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0999/9909042.html
As quoted on Look magazine, and reproduced by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency http://www.jta.org/1962/01/04/archive/ben-gurion-foresees-gradual-democratization-of-the-soviet-union, 4 January 1962.
