Israel at 60: 10 historic quotes and 1 joke

Over the years, Israel’s political, business, and military leaders have coined memorable phrases.

8 May 08 9:34, Itay Rom

Over the years, Israel’s political, business, and military leaders have coined memorable quotes, which often poignantly sum up a specific time period.

“The economic and organizational test which we will face now is no less difficult or critical than the test of the war.”(March 1949) David Ben-Gurion, following the end of the fighting in the War of Independence, presented the first government to the Knesset.

“So that the murderers of our nation will not also be its inheritors”

(January 1952) David Ben-Gurion explained his controversial decision to sign the “reparations agreement” with Germany.

“The State of Israel can’t tolerate a desert in its midst. If we don’t eliminate the desert, the desert may eliminate the state.”

(1955) David Ben-Gurion often spoke about the economic significance of making the Negev bloom. 50 years later, during Prime Minister Sharon’s government, a strategic plan to develop the Negev - with a NIS 17 billion budget - was outlined, but the plan has suffered delays and sharp cuts.

“A car for every worker”

(1965) Shimon Peres made the promise in an election campaign for new party Rafi, a Ben-Gurion-led break-off from the dominant Knesset faction. At the time, a car was seen as the ultimate (unnecessary) luxury. “I wanted to emphasize that Israel was on the verge of a technological revolution”, explained Peres later.

“Last one out of Lod airport turn off the light”

(1966) A well-known joke, told during the depressing times before the Six-Day War, when a deep recession resulted in the number of emigrants out of Israel outnumbering immigrants into the country.

“They’re not nice”

(April 1971) Prime Minister Golda Meir summarized in a radio interview her meeting with Israel’s “Black Panthers”, the Israeli social protest group, which may have signaled the significance she attached to their claims. A month earlier, when the organization protested in Jerusalem, Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek referred to them in a similar vein, saying “Protest, protest, but get off the grass!”

“It's impossible to wave the flag of social reform and the flag of war together.”

(November 1971) Defense Minister Moshe Dayan explained that despite economic hardship, Israel had to first invest in security.

“We’ll eat bread and margarine.”

(August 1979) With peace talks with Egyptian president Answar Sadat and pressure from US president Jimmy Carter, there was a fear that obstinacy in negotiations would lead to cuts in US economic aid. Prime Minister Menachem Begin explained what to do in that case.

“A small and smart army”

(1987) Chief of Staff Dan Shomron coined the phrase, which was repeated in a similar vein by Chief of Staff Ehud Barak’s “Anything that doesn’t shoot or that doesn’t directly help to shoot will be cut’.

“We won’t raise taxes. I’ll tell it to you this way, so read my lips: we won’t raise taxes.”

(July 1996) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, slightly more than a month in office, gave his version of the famous pledge (or famously-broken pledge) made by George (Herbert Walker) Bush, father of the current US president.

“I have no bread, but I have a dream”

(1950s) David Ben-Gurion, facing poor protesters who shouted “Leader, give us bread”, answered with a somewhat more spiritual version of Marie Antoinette’s response to a similar request.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 8, 2008

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