29 quotes
The most dangerous enemy to Israel's security is the intellectual inertia of those who are responsible for security.
To maintain the status quo will not do. We have set up a dynamic State, bent upon creation and reform, building and expansion.
Rebirth and Destiny of Israel (1954)
We need to anticipate the character of the times, discern embryonic forms emergent or renewed, and clear the path for circumstantial change.
Rebirth and Destiny of Israel (1954)
If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert.
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.
With us, anyone who doesn't believe in miracles isn't a realist.
to Ben-Gurion in Israel : Years of Crisis Years of Hope (1973)
We shall be a free and self-sufficing nation, honouring Arab rights in an accord of equality, and living in peace with neighbour countries.
page 36 of Israel: Opposing Viewpoints (1994)
What matters is not what the goyim say, but what the Jews do.
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.
Written statement (1920)
There is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs.
We consider that the United Nations' ideal is a Jewish ideal.
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)
We must support the army as though there were no White Paper, and fight the White Paper as though there were no war.
We accepted the UN resolution, but the Arabs did not.
The assets of the Jewish National Home must be created exclusively through our own work, for only the product of the Hebrew labor can serve as the national estate.
Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs : From Peace to War (1985)
Our right to Palestine, all of it, is unassailable and eternal… I will not concede a single inch of our soil.
From Jewish terrorism against Arabs it is a short step to Jewish terrorism against Jews.
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.
Let me first tell you one thing: It doesn't matter what the world says about Israel; it doesn't matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won't survive.
Terrorism benefits the Arabs, it may lay waste the Yishuv and shake Zionism. But to follow in the Arabs' footsteps and ape their deeds is to be blind to the gulf between us. Our aims and theirs run counter: methods calculated to further theirs, are ruinous to us.