Golda Meir Quotes

[The Soviet government] is the most realistic regime in the world — no ideals. https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=WWMHAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA132&dq=%5BThe+Soviet+government%5D+is+the+most+realistic+regime+in+the+world+%E2%80%94+no+ideals.&hl=es-419&sa=X&ei=YpSgVOShKoyogwT9loTIAg&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%5BThe%20Soviet%20government%5D%20is%20the%20most%20realistic%20regime%20in%20the%20world%20%E2%80%94%20no%20ideals.&f=false

Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.

Women’s Liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It’s the men who are discriminated against. They can’t bear children. And no one’s likely to do anything about that.

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!

This country exists as the fulfillment of a promise made by God Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy.

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.

Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.

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

It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don't want victories anymore.

It’s no accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my head. Well, what if I do? . . . Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.

We don’t thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.

My delegation cannot refrain from speaking on this question — we who have such an intimate knowledge of boxcars and of deportations to unknown destinations that we cannot be silent.

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.

Any one who speaks in favor of bringing the Arab refugees back must also say how he expects to take the responsibility for it, if he is interested in the state of Israel. It is better that things are stated clearly and plainly: We shall not let this happen.

It is a dreadful thing to see the dead city. Next to the port I found children, women, the old, waiting for a way to leave. I entered the houses, there were houses where the coffee and pita bread were left on the table, and I could not avoid [thinking] that this, indeed, had been the picture in many Jewish towns [i.e., in Europe, during World War II]'.

Fashion is an imposition, a rein on freedom.

I prefer to stay alive and be criticized than be sympathized.

There were no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either southern Syria before the First World War, and then it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.

A story once went the rounds of Israel to the effect that Ben-Gurion described me as 'the only man' in his cabinet. What amused me about is that he (or whoever invented the story) thought that this was the greatest compliment that could be paid to a woman. I very much doubt that any man would have been flattered if I had said about him that he was the only woman in the government!

In Israel, we read from right to left.

What person with any sense likes himself? I know myself too well to like myself.

Those nuts that burn their bras and walk around all disheveled and hate men? They’re crazy. Crazy.

I want to see a film, they send the Israeli army reserves to escort me! What kind of life is this?

I'm a slave to this leaf in a diary that lists what I must do, what I must say, every half hour.

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

I don’t know why you use a fancy French word like détente when there’s a good English phrase for it — cold war.

What do you gain, Soviet Union, from this miserable policy? Where is your decency? Would it be a disgrace for you to give up this battle?

From Russia I didn’t bring out a single happy memory, only sad, tragic ones. The nightmare of pogroms, the brutality of Cossacks charging young Socialists, fear, shrieks of terror ...

I thought that a Jewish state would be free of the evils afflicting other societies: theft, murder, prostitution... But now we have them all. And that’s a thing that cuts to the heart ...

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.

We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon — no alternative. The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.

It is not only a matter, I believe, of religious observance and practice. To me, being Jewish means and has always meant being proud to be part of a people that has maintained its distinct identity for more than 2,000 years, with all the pain and torment that has been inflicted upon it.

America is a great country. It has many shortcomings, many social inequalities, and it’s tragic that the problem of the blacks wasn’t solved fifty or even a hundred years ago, but it’s still a great country, a country full of opportunities, of freedom! Does it seem nothing to you to be able to say what you like, even against the government, the Establishment?

We owe a responsibility not only to those who are in Israel but also to those generations that are no more, to those millions who have died within our lifetime, to Jews all over the world, and to generations of Jews to come. We hate war. We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown, and when strawberries bloom in Israel.

I have given instructions that I be informed every time one of our soldiers is killed, even if it is in the middle of the night. When President Nasser leaves instructions that he is to be awakened in the middle of the night if an Egyptian soldier is killed, there will be peace. https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=iFsKDzuRfNkC&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=I+have+given+instructions+that+I+be+informed+every+time+one+of+our+soldiers+is+killed,+even+if+it+is+in+the+middle+of+the+night.+When+President+Nasser+leaves+instructions+that+he+is+to+be+awakened+in+the+middle+of+the+night+if+an+Egyptian+soldier+is+killed,+there+will+be+peace.&source=bl&ots=uyEzv-aQ4v&sig=ee9r_1Rchk34xECFV2PoqgnTLYk&hl=es-419&sa=X&ei=_ZOgVNjyBZKDNsT6gbAL&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=I%20have%20given%20instructions%20that%20I%20be%20informed%20every%20time%20one%20of%20our%20soldiers%20is%20killed%2C%20even%20if%20it%20is%20in%20the%20middle%20of%20the%20night.%20When%20President%20Nasser%20leaves%20instructions%20that%20he%20is%20to%20be%20awakened%20in%20the%20middle%20of%20the%20night%20if%20an%20Egyptian%20soldier%20is%20killed%2C%20there%20will%20be%20peace.&f=false

I am also grateful that I live in a country whose people have learned how to go on living in a sea of hatred without hating those who want to destroy them and without abandoning their own vision of peace. To have learned this is a great art, the prescription for which is not written down anywhere. It is part of our way of life in Israel. Finally, I wish to say that from the time I came to Palestine as a young woman, we have been forced to choose between what is more dangerous and what is less dangerous for us. At times we have all been tempted to give in to various pressures and to accept proposals that might guarantee us a little quiet for a few months, or maybe even for a few years, but that could only lead us eventually into even greater peril.