Golda Meir Quotes

Let me at this juncture deal also with the ridiculous accusation that I have heard for so many years to the effect that we ignored the Arabs of Palestine and set about developing the country as though it had no Arab population at all. When the instigators of the Arab disturbances of the late 1930s claimed, as they did, that the Arabs were attacking us because they had been ‘dispossessed’, I did not have to look up British census figures to know that the Arab population of Palestine had doubled since the start of the Jewish settlement there. I had seen for myself the rate of growth of the Arab population ever since I had first come to Palestine. Not only did the living standard of the Arabs of Palestine far exceed that of Arabs anywhere else in the Middle East, but, attracted by the new opportunities, hordes of Arabs were immigrating to Palestine from Syria and other neighboring countries all through those years. Whenever some kindly representative of the British government sought to shut off Jewish immigration by declaring that there was not enough room in Palestine, I remember making speeches about Palestine’s larger absorptive capacity, complete with statistical references which I dutifully took from British sources, but which were based on what I had actually witnessed with my own eyes.
And let me add, there was no time during the thirties that I did not hope that eventually the Arabs of Palestine would live with us in peace and equally as citizens of a Jewish homeland – just as I kept on hoping that Jews who live in Arab countries would be allowed to live there in peace and equality.

Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.

The one Asian nation with which we have, alas, made no headway whatsoever is China. … The Chinese government, in fact, is totally committed to the Arab war against Israel, and Mr. Arafat and his comrades are constantly given arms, money, and moral support by Peking, though I, for one, have never understood why, and for years, lived under the illusion that if we could only talk to the Chinese, we might get through to them.
Two pictures come to my mind when I mention China. The first is the horror with which I picked up a mine manufactured in China – so far away and remote from us – which had put an end to the life of a six-year-old girl in a border settlement in Israel. I stood there near that small coffin, surrounded by weeping, enraged relatives. ‘What on earth can the Chinese have against us?’ I kept thinking. ‘They don’t even know us.’ Then I remember, at the celebration of Kenya’s independence, sitting at a table near that of the Chinese delegation. It was a very relaxed, festive occasion, and I thought to myself, ‘Perhaps if I go over and sit down with them, we can talk a bit.’ So I asked Ehud to introduce himself to the Chinese. He walked over, held out his hand to the head of the delegation and said, ‘My foreign minister is here and would like to meet you.’ The Chinese just averted their gaze. They didn’t even bother to say, ‘No, thank you, we don’t want to meet her.

„Moderne Geschichte sollte man nur mit dem Bleistift schreiben.

ولنكن صرحاء... فمصير الدول الصغيرة يعتمد في النهاية على القوى العظمي التي دائما ما تكون لها مصالح تريد حمايتها، وكنا نريد مواصلة الحرب لإيقاع الهزائم بالمصريين والسوريين وربما لو حصلنا على مزيد من الوقت لتمكننا من تحقيق ذلك، لكن موقف السادات كان أقوى منا وكذلك كانت لديه الوسائل لإقناع روسيا وكانت المراهنات عليه في موسكو مرتفعة جدا حقا، ولذا فإنني لم أفاجأ عنما قعد مجلس الأمن جلسة طارئة فجر 22 أكتوبر وأصدر قرارا يدعو إلى وقف إطلاق النار خلال اثنتي عشرة ساعة.

When peace comes, we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons.

ودخلت إلى قاعة الاجتماعات فوجدت ستين قائدا إفريقيا حول مائدة الاجتماع، وقدمني إلهم بادمور، وما هي إلا لحظة حتى وقف مندوب الجزائر ووجه السؤال إلي مباشرة لماذا يأتيني السلاح من فرنسا وهي الدولة الوحيدة التي تحارب بشراسة في بلده وضد إخوانه الإفريقيين. وبهدوء أشعلت سيجارتي وقلت للجميع أني مضطرة إلى حماية بلدي من جيراني الذين يأتيهم السلاح من الاتحاد السوفييتي وأن البلد الوحيد المستعد لبيع السلاح لي مقابل المال هو فرنسا. وقلت لهم أنه لو كان ديجول هو الشيطان نفسه لمددت إليه يدي لشراء السلاح، فهل كنتم تفعلون مثلي لو كنتم في مكاني؟ وسمعت آهات الارتياح... فقد عرف الإفريقيون أنني لا أكذب عليهم، وانهالت أسئلتهم عليّ عن إسرائيل.

I'm sure that someday children in schools will study the history of the men [sic] who made war as you study an absurdity. They'll be shocked, just as today we're shocked with cannibalism.

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.

Don't be so humble - you are not that great.

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be.

How can I explain the difference to me between America and Russia?... the America I’ve known is a place where men on horseback escort union marchers, the Russia I’ve known is a place where men on horseback slaughter young Socialists and Jews.

Arab sovereignty in Jerusalem just cannot be. This city will not be divided — not half and half, not 60-40, not 75-25, nothing.

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard there's nothing you can do.

Don't be humble. Your not that great.