David Ben-Gurion quotes - page 2

We shall be a free and self-sufficing nation, honouring Arab rights in an accord of equality, and living in peace with neighbour countries. (David Ben-Gurion)
Even amidst the violent attacks launched against us for months past, we call upon the sons of the Arab people dwelling in Israel to keep the peace and to play their part in building the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its institutions, provisional and permanent. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
Well done, now give it back to them. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
Thought is a strenuous art - few practice it, and then only at rare times. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
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. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
Ours is a country built more on people than on territory. The Jews will come from everywhere: from France, from Russia, from America, from Yemen... Their faith is their passport. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
The great Jewish scientists and philosophers of the last few generations - Spinoza, Einstein, Freud, Robert Oppenheimer and others - were natives of Europe and America. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
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. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
Transliteration of Hebrew statement meaning "The UN-Blah!", quoted in Israel : From War to Peace?: The First Hundred Years (2000) by Efraim Karsh, p. 40. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
Israel had better rid itself of the territories and their Arab populations as soon as possible. If it did not Israel would soon become an Apartheid State. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
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. (David Ben-Gurion)
In our political argument abroad, we minimize Arab opposition to us. But let us not ignore the truth among ourselves. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
We need to anticipate the character of the times, discern embryonic forms emergent or renewed, and clear the path for circumstantial change. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
Under no circumstances must we touch land belonging to fellahs or worked by them. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
We accepted the UN resolution, but the Arabs did not. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
To maintain the status quo will not do. We have set up a dynamic State, bent upon creation and reform, building and expansion. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
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. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
The State of Israel is prepared to make its contribution in a concerted effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
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. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
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." View quote
David Ben-Gurion
I fight, therefore I exist. (David Ben-Gurion)
The agricultural community that the Arabs found in Eretz Israel in the 7th century was none other than the Hebrew farmers that remained on their land despite all the persecution and oppression of the Roman and Byzantine emperors. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
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. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
We should prepare to go over to the offensive with the aim of smashing Lebanon, Transjordan, and Syria....The weak point in the Arab coalition is Lebanon [for] the Moslem regime is artificial and easy to undermine. A Christian state should be established, with its southern border on the Litani River [within Lebanon]. 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. View quote
David Ben-Gurion