David Ben-Gurion Quotes

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• I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?

  David Ben-Gurion

  Country, Taken, Israel

  "The Jewish Paradox". Book by Nahum Goldmann, p. 121, 1978.

  138 Copy quote

• Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Country, Views, Want

  116 Copy quote

• The present map of Palestine was drawn by the British mandate. The Jewish people have another map which our youth and adults should strive to fulfill: from the Nile to the Euphrates.

  David Ben-Gurion

  People, Scary, Adults

  "Arab Leaders Urge Peace, Israel Refuses". imemc.org. March 30, 2007.

  128 Copy quote

• The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war.

  David Ben-Gurion

  War, Israel, Needs

  42 Copy quote

• We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinians] never do return. The old will die and the young will forget,

  David Ben-Gurion

  Scary, Return, Forget

  "The Great Catastrophe" by Karma Nabulsi, www.theguardian.com. May 12, 2006.

  89 Copy quote

• The State of Israel will prove itself not by material wealth, not by military might or technical achievement, but by its moral character and human values.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Military, Character, Israel

  130 Copy quote

• In order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Inspirational, Funny, Believe

  Television broadcast, CBS, 5 Oct. 1956

  128 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Israel, Land, World

  Quoted by Ariel Sharon in "The 50 Years War: Israel and the Arabs" documentary, 1999.

  120 Copy quote

• It's not enough to be up to date, you have to be up to tomorrow.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Tomorrow, Enough, Up To Date

  "Israel's Statesman of Peace". The Academy of Achievement interview, www.achievement.org. May 2, 2003.

  109 Copy quote

• If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Experts, Done, Ifs

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  94 Copy quote

• Since I invoke Torah so often, let me state that I don't personally believe in the God it postulates ... I am not religious, nor were the majority of the early builders of Israel believers. Yet their passion for this land stemmed from the Book of Books ... [The Bible is] the single most important book in my life.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Religious, Believe, Book

  103 Copy quote

• Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Country, Taken, Israel

  "The Jewish Paradox". Book by Nahum Goldmann, translated by Steve Cox, p. 99, 1978.

  88 Copy quote

• It is in the Negev that the creativity and pioneer vigor of Israel shall be tested.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Creativity, Israel, Pioneers

  102 Copy quote

• What matters is not what the goyim say, but what the Jews do.

  David Ben-Gurion

  What Matters, Goyim, Matter

  An "oft-repeated credo" according to the "Windsor Star", December 3, 1973.

  14 Copy quote

• Referring to Palestinian refugees: "We must do everything in our power to ensure that they never return.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Return, Palestinian Refugees, Referring

  30 Copy quote

• No city in the world, not even Athens or Rome, ever played as great a role in the life of a nation for so long a time, as Jerusalem has done in the life of the Jewish people.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Israel, Rome, Cities

  92 Copy quote

• If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Israel, then I opt for the second alternative.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Children, Israel, Germany

  "Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People of Palestine" by Noel Ignatiev, www.counterpunch.org. June 17, 2004.

  15 Copy quote

• A Jew is anyone who says he is.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Jew

  73 Copy quote

• A Christian state should be established [in Lebanon], with its southern border on the Litani river. 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.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Christian, Fashion, War

  "The 1982 invasion of Lebanon". International Socialist Review, Issue 50, www.isreview.org. November–December 2006.

  85 Copy quote

• The Arabs of the land of Israel [ Palestinians] have only one functionleft to them -- to run away.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Running, Israel, Land

  28 Copy quote

• We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Christian, Moving, Fall

  14 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Country, Bridges, Want

  TIME Magazine, July 24, 2006.

  80 Copy quote

• The test of democracy is freedom of criticism.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Freedom, Democracy, Criticism

  10 Copy quote

• Israel's economic and cultural progress is due to three things: the pioneering spirit that inspires the best of our immigrant and Israeli youth, who respond to the challenge of our desolute areas and the ingathering of the exiles; the feeling of Diaspora Jewry that they are partners in the enterprise of Israel's resurgence in the ancient homeland of the Jewish people; and the power of science, and technology which Israel unceasingly, and not without success, tries to enhance.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Technology, Israel, People

  74 Copy quote

• If the antisemites want to hate, let them hate, and let them go to hell.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Hate, Want, Hell

  71 Copy quote

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