Golda Meir (1898 – 1978)
Israeli politician and one of the founders of the State of Israel.
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.
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!
I don’t know why you use a fancy French word like détente when there’s a good English phrase for it — cold war.
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.
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.
I'm a slave to this leaf in a diary that lists what I must do, what I must say, every half hour.
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]'.
Those nuts that burn their bras and walk around all disheveled and hate men? They’re crazy. Crazy.
Arab sovereignty in Jerusalem just cannot be. This city will not be divided — not half and half, not 60-40, not 75-25, nothing.
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 ...
Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.
Fashion is an imposition, a rein on freedom.
What person with any sense likes himself? I know myself too well to like myself.
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.
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.
I want to see a film, they send the Israeli army reserves to escort me! What kind of life is this?
We don’t thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.
It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don’t want victories anymore.
Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.
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?