“Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!”

—  Golda Meir

At a dinner honoring West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, as reported in The New York Times (10 June 1973)
Unsourced variants: Moses dragged us for 40 years through the desert to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no oil.
Moses dragged us through the desert for 40 years to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no oil.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update July 7, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring…" by Golda Meir?
Golda Meir photo
Golda Meir38
former prime minister of Israel 1898–1978

Related quotes

Karl Rove photo

“We face a brutal enemy who will kill the innocent for one purpose and that is to gain control of the Middle East and to use the leverage of oil to bring down the West, and to attack us again.”

Karl Rove (1950) American political consultant and policy advisor

‘Meet the Press’ transcript for Aug. 19, 2007, MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20302351/page/2/,

Bill Clinton photo

“You know, I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the U. N. inspections were over. I don't believe he went in there for oil. We didn't go in there for imperialist or financial reasons. We went in there because he bought the Wolfowitz-Cheney analysis that the Iraqis would be better off, we could shake up the authoritarian Arab regimes in the Middle East, and our leverage to make peace between the Palestinians and Israelis would be increased.”

Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States

Interview with Time Magazine, June 2004
2000s

James Howard Kunstler photo

“We used [oil] […] as if there was no tomorrow. Now there may not be one. That's how special oil has been.”

James Howard Kunstler book The Long Emergency

Source: The Long Emergency (2005), Chapter 2, p. 31.

Francis Escudero photo

“Sports' landscape has changed through the years. We have seen the rise of countries we used to beat in the Southeast Asian Games and we are fighting hard just to be able to make it in the middle of the pack.”

Francis Escudero (1969) Filipino politician

"More PSC support for athletes sought", The Standard, 11 September 2015, p. A13.
2015

Jane Goodall photo

“Animals tell us something. If the animals have suffered this way [from GMOs], potentially for us, let’s listen to what they’re telling us. Let’s take heed.”

Jane Goodall (1934) British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist

Van Jones photo

“The end of the occupation. The right of return of the Palestinian people. These are critical dividing lines in human rights. We have to be here. No American would put up with an Israeli-style occupation of their hometown for 53 days let alone 54 years. US tax dollars are funding violence against people of color inside the US borders and outside the US borders.”

Van Jones (1968) American environmental advocate and civil rights activist

Wartimes : Reports From The Opposition (2003) a CD financed, produced and featuring the voice of Jones, as quoted at "Cool... But, Yes, Communist" by Marty Peretz, in The New Republic (10 September 2009) http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-spine/cool-yes-communist

Mitt Romney photo

“Senator Kerry now tells us he has a clear position on the [war on terror]. He voted no on Desert Storm in 1991 and yes on Desert Shield today. Then he voted no on [troop funding], just after he'd voted yes. He's campaigned against the [war] all year, but says he'd vote yes today. This nation can't afford [presidential leadership] that comes in 57 varieties.”

Mitt Romney (1947) American businessman and politician

Republican Convention Speech, 2004.
2003–2007 Governor of Massachusetts

James Burke (science historian) photo

“Karnak was the first great statement of what technology could do with unlimited manpower and the approval of the gods. Ironically, the modern equivalent lies, again, in the desert. This time, the nomads also settled by a river… a river of oil. But what had took the pharaohs 4,000 years to build took the Kuwaitis 4,000 days. What's happened in Kuwait, the change from a nomadic existence to being able to buy and use everything modern technology has to offer has come in much less than one generation. Kuwait represents the immense power of technology used in a way most of us have never experienced, because we've lived with the kind of change it can bring for more than a hundred years. Here it's been focused. Change has been instant and total. Kuwait has suddenly become like New York, or any other of the great urban islands on technology, totally dependent on that technology. Like them, without it, Kuwait would return to the desert.”

James Burke (science historian) (1936) British broadcaster, science historian, author, and television producer

Connections (1979), 1 - The Trigger Effect

Theodor Herzl photo

“… Let me tell you that my friend and I do not discriminate between humans. We do not ask what race or what religion he is from. He has to be a human being. That is all that's important for us.”

Theodor Herzl book The Old New Land

Altneuland (1902)

Donald J. Trump photo

“is eating up large portions of the Middle East. They’ve become rich. I’m in competition with them. They just built a hotel in Syria. Can you believe this? They built a hotel. When I have to build a hotel, I pay interest. They don’t have to pay interest, because they took the oil that, when we left Iraq, I said we should’ve taken.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2015, Presidential Bid Announcement (June 16, 2015)

Related topics