[Marxism] Israel's History in Quotes

[David Thorstad]

 > Israel's History in Quotes

>
> Hebrew essayist Achad Ha-Am, after paying a visit to Palestine in 1891:
>
> "Abroad we are accustomed to believe that Israel is almost empty; 
> nothing is grown here and that whoever wishes to buy land could come 
> here and buy what his heart desires. In reality, the situation is not 
> like this. Throughout the country it is difficult to find cultivable 
> land which is not already cultivated."
>
> Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of 
> the Arabs of Palestine,Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895 entry:
>
> "Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it 
> employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the 
> poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."
>
> The Balfour Declaration to Baron Rothchild, on the 2nd of November, 1917:
>
> "His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in 
> Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their 
> best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being 
> clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the 
> civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in 
> Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any 
> other country."
>
> Lord Sydenham, Hansard, House of Lords, 21 June 1922:
>
> "If we are going to admit claims on conquest thousands of years ago, 
> the whole world will have to be turned upside down."
>
> Vladimir Jabotinsky, The Iron Wall, 1923:
>
> "Zionist colonization must either be terminated or carried out against 
> the wishes of the native population. This colonization can, therefore, 
> be continued and make progress only under the protection of a power 
> independent of the native population - an iron wall, which will be in 
> a position to resist the pressure to the native population. This is 
> our policy towards the Arabs..."
>
> Vladimir Jabotinsky, founder of Revisionist Zionism (precursor of 
> Likud), The Iron Wall, 1923:
>
> "A voluntary reconciliation with the Arabs is out of the question 
> either now or in the future. If you wish to colonize a land in which 
> people are already living, you must provide a garrison for the land, 
> or find some rich man or benefactor who will provide a garrison on 
> your behalf. Or else-or else, give up your colonization, for without 
> an armed force which will render physically impossible any attempt to 
> destroy or prevent this colonization, colonization is impossible, not 
> difficult, not dangerous, but IMPOSSIBLE!... Zionism is a colonization 
> adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed 
> force. It is important... to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is 
> even more important to be able to shoot - or else I am through with 
> playing at colonizing."
>
> David Ben Gurion, future Prime Minister of Israel, 1937, Ben Gurion 
> and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985:
>
> "We must expel Arabs and take their places."
>
> Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency's Colonization Department in 
> 1940. From "A Solution to the Refugee Problem":
>
> "Between ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both 
> peoples together in this country. We shall not achieve our goal if the 
> Arabs are in this small country. There is no other way than to 
> transfer the Arabs from here to neighboring countries - all of them. 
> Not one village, not one tribe should be left."
>
> Israeli official Arthur Lourie in a letter to Walter Eytan, director 
> general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry (ISA FM 2564/22). From Benny 
> Morris, "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 1947-49", p. 297:
>
> "...if people become accustomed to the large figure and we are 
> actually obliged to accept the return of the refugees, we may find it 
> difficult, when faced with hordes of claimants, to convince the world 
> that not all of these formerly lived in Israeli territory. It would, 
> in any event, seem desirable to minimize the numbers...than otherwise."
>
> David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben- Gurion, A 
> Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978:
>
> "We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash 
> Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the 
> Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall 
> establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab 
> Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb 
> and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai."
>
> David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, 18 July 1948, quoted in Michael Bar 
> Zohar's Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet, Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157:
> "We must do everything to insure they (the Palestinians) never do 
> return." Assuring his fellow Zionists that Palestinians will never 
> come back to their homes. "The old will die and the young will forget."
>
> David Ben-Gurion, one of the father founders of Israel, described 
> Zionist aims in 1948:
>
> "A Christian state should be established [in Lebanon], with its 
> southern border on the Litani river. We will make an alliance with it. 
> When we smash the Arab Legion's strength and bomb Amman, we will 
> eliminate Transjordan too, and then Syria will fall. If Egypt still 
> dares to fight on, we shall bomb Port Said, Alexandria and Cairo... 
> And in this fashion, we will end the war and settle our forefathers' 
> account with Egypt, Assyria, and Aram"
>
> [Begin, and Yitzhak Shamir who were members of the party became Prime 
> Ministers.] Albert Einstein, Hanna Arendt and other prominent Jewish 
> Americans, writing in The New York Times, protest the visit to America 
> of Menachem Begin, December 1948:
>
> "Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our time is the 
> emergence in the newly created State of Israel of the Freedom Party 
> (Herut), a political party closely akin in its organization, method, 
> political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties."
>
> Martin Buber, Jewish Philosopher, addressed Prime Minister Ben Gurion 
> on the moral character of the state of Israel with reference to the 
> Arab refugees in March 1949:
>
> "We will have to face the reality that Israel is neither innocent, nor 
> redemptive. And that in its creation, and expansion; we as Jews, have 
> caused what we historically have suffered; a refugee population in 
> Diaspora."
>
> Moshe Dayan (Israel Defense and Foreign Minister), on February 12 
> 1952. Radio "Israel.":
>
> "It lies upon the people's shoulders to prepare for the war, but it 
> lies upon the Israeli army to carry out the fight with the ultimate 
> object of erecting the Israeli Empire."
>
> Martin Buber, to a New York audience, Jewish Newsletter, June 2, 1958:
> "When we [followers of the prophetic Judaism] returned to 
> Palestine...the majority of Jewish people preferred to learn from 
> Hitler rather than from us."
>
> Uri Lubrani, PM Ben-Gurion's special adviser on Arab Affairs, 1960. 
> >From "The Arabs in Israel" by Sabri Jiryas:
>
> Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of 
> Plan Dalet. "We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of 
> woodcutters and waiters"
>
> Aba Eban (the Israeli Foreign Minister) stated arrogantly. New York 
> Times June 19, 1967:
>
> "If the General Assembly were to vote by 121 votes to 1 in favor of 
> "Israel" returning to the armistice lines-- (pre June 1967 borders) 
> Israel would refuse to comply with the decision."
>
> Dr. Israel Shahak, Chairperson of the Israeli League for Human and 
> Civil Rights, and a survivor of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, 
> Commenting on the Israeli military's Emergency Regulations following 
> the 1967 War. Palestine, vol. 12, December 1983:
>
> "Hitler's legal power was based upon the 'Enabling Act', which was 
> passed quite legally by the Reichstag and which allowed the Fuehrer 
> and his representatives, in plain language, to be what they wanted, or 
> in legal language, to issue regulations having the force of law. 
> Exactly the same type of act was passed by the Knesset [Israeli's 
> Parliament] immediately after the 1067 conquest granting the Israeli 
> governor and his representatives the power of Hitler, which they use 
> in Hitlerian manner."
>
> Golda Meir, March 8, 1969:
>
> "How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return 
> them to."
>
> Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, 
> April 4, 1969:
>
> "Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not 
> even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you 
> because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not 
> exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the 
> place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in 
> the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al- 
> Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not 
> have a former Arab population."
>
> Golda Maier Israeli Prime Minister June 15, 1969:
>
> "There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed"
>
> Israeli General Matityahu Peled, Ha'aretz, 19 March 1972:
>
> "The thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 
> 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only 
> bluff, which was born and developed after the war."
>
> Yoram Bar Porath, Yediot Aahronot, of 14 July 1972:
>
> "It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, 
> clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten 
> with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, 
> colonialization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and 
> the expropriation of their lands."
>
> Joseph Weitz, Director of the Jewish National Fund, the Zionist agency 
> charged with acquiring Palestinian land, Circa 194. Machover Israca, 
> January 5, 1973 /p.2:
>
> "The only solution is Eretz Israel [Greater Israel], or at least 
> Western Eretz Israel [all the land west of Jordan River], without 
> Arabs. There is no room for compromise on this point ... We must not 
> leave a single village, not a single tribe."
>
> Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in 
> the New York Times, 23 October 1979:
>
> "We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his 
> question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population?' 
> Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out'"
>
> Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, 
> "Begin and the Beasts". New Statesman, 25 June 1982:
>
> "[The Palestinians are] beasts walking on two legs."
>
> Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, New York 
> Times, 14 April 1983:
>
> "When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about 
> it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle."
>
> Rafael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces - Gad 
> Becker, Yediot Ahronot 13 April 1983, New York Times 14 April 1983:
>
> "We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one 
> centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will 
> understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians 
> come crawling to us on all fours."
>
> Chairman Heilbrun of the Committee for the Re-election of General 
> Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, October 1983:
>
> "We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live 
> here as slaves."
>
> Isreali Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, in a speech to Jewish settlers 
> New York Times April 1, 1988:
>
> "The Palestinians" would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads 
> smashed against the boulders and walls."
>
> Israeli Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg, Inferring that killing isn't murder if 
> the victim is Gentile. Jerusalem Post, June 19,1989:
>
> "Jewish blood and a goy's [gentile's] blood are not the same."
>
> Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, former Prime 
> Minister of Israel, tells students at Bar Ilan University, From the 
> Israeli journal Hotam, November 24, 1989:
>
> "Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in 
> China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass 
> expulsions among the Arabs of the territories."
>
> Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir declares at a Tel Aviv memorial 
> service for former Likud leaders, November 1990. Jerusalem Domestic 
> Radio Service:
>
> "The past leaders of our movement left us a clear message to keep 
> Eretz Israel from the Sea to the Jordan River for future generations, 
> for the mass aliya [immigration], and for the Jewish people, all of 
> whom will be gathered into this country."
>
> Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of 
> militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France 
> Presse, November 15,1998:
>
> "Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to 
> enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay 
> ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them."
>
> Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time - August 28, 2000. 
> Reported in the Jerusalem Post August 30, 2000:
>
> "The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, 
> they want more"...
>
> Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, quoted in Associated Press, 
> November 16, 2000:
>
> "If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead 
> would put an end to the fighting at a stroke, we would use much more 
> force...."
>
> Israeli president Moshe Katsav. The Jerusalem Post, May 10, 2001:
>
> "There is a huge gap between us (Jews) and our enemies? Not just in 
> ability but in morality, culture, sanctity of life, and conscience. 
> They are our neighbors here, but it seems as if at a distance of a few 
> hundred meters away, there are people who do not belong to our 
> continent, to our world, but actually belong to a different galaxy."
>
> Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon 
> Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio:
>
> "Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will 
> do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry 
> about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control 
> America, and the Americans know it."
>
> "Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum":
>
> "We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, 
> and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab 
> population."
>
> Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency's Colonization Department. 
> From Israel: an Apartheid State by Uri Davis, p.5:
>
> "There are some who believe that the non-Jewish population, even in a 
> high percentage, within our borders will be more effectively under our 
> surveillance; and there are some who believe the contrary, i.e., that 
> it is easier to carry out surveillance over the activities of a 
> neighbor than over those of a tenant. I tend to support the latter 
> view and have an additional argument:...the need to sustain the 
> character of the state which will henceforth be Jewish...with a 
> non-Jewish minority limited to 15 percent. I had already reached this 
> fundamental position as early as 1940 [and] it is entered in my diary."
>
> Ben Gurion:
>
> In 1899, Davis Triestsch wrote to Herzl: " I would suggest to you to 
> come round in time to the "Greater Palestine" program before it is too 
> late... the Basle program must contain the words "Great Palestine" or 
> "Palestine and its neighboring lands" otherwise it's nonsense. You do 
> not get ten million Jews into a land of 25,000 Km2". " The present map 
> of Palestine was drawn by the British mandate. The Jewish people have 
> another map which our youth and adults should strive to fulfill -- 
> From the Nile to the Euphrates."
>
> Vladimir Jabotinsky (the founder and advocate of the Zionist terrorist 
> organizations), Quoted by Maxime Rodinson in Peuple Juif ou Problem 
> Juif. (Jewish People or Jewish Problem):
>
> "Has any People ever been seen to give up their territory of their own 
> free will? In the same way, the Arabs of Palestine will not renounce 
> their sovereignty without violence."
>
> David Ben Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister) quoted by Nahum 
> Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp121:
>
> "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?"

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