User:Striver/People quoting Israeli and Zionists

Amid the Arab-Israeli conflicts, there has emerged a practice of quoting several Israeli-Zionist by their detractors in order to defame them. This practice has evolved into a phenomenon of its own, where many sources such as David Ickes website ^[1], Radio Islam ^[2], whatreallyhappened.com ^[3], CounterPunch^[4], Rense.com^[5] islamonline.net^[6] and many more use this kinds of quotes, some of them creating entire list of such quotes. This article aims at representing this phenomenon.

[edit] Criticism

This phenomena usually includes the practice of quoting Israeli Prime Ministers. The statements are widely quoted, although it is often unclear whether the statements have been correctly reported. Therefore, such statements should not be assumed to be authentic when they are from unreliable sources, since there are scenarios were they are arguably fabricated propaganda.

by people hostile to Israel in order to defame Israeli motives
by people friendly to Israel, in order to disscredit people who choose to use the fabricated quotes

In places where the quotes are authentic and properly sourced, they could be taken out of context and thus lose their original intended meaning. Sometimes, these quotes can constitute Cherry picking or Quote mining. Thus, these quotes should not be taken as a representation of all of the Israeli and Zionist views.

[edit] Lists

Examples of people creating lists include:

MonaBaker.com, 24 quotes from 8 presidents ^[7],
MideastJournal.com, with 10 quotes ^[8], 17 quotes ^[9] and 38 quotes ^[10].
A Palestine in exile, collecting 12 quotes ^[11]
WhatReallyHappened.com, collecting 23 quotes ^[3]
Khilafah.com, collectin 24 quotes from 8 presidents^[12]
A article in Aljazeera.com, 29 quotes from with the picture of 5 presidents ^[13]
Radio Islam with a large list of quotes ^[2]
David Ickes website with 9 quotes and pictures of several presidents ^[1]

[edit] Examples

[edit] David Ben-Gurion (1886 – 1973), Prime Minister of Israel (1948 - 1953 and 1955 - 1963)

"Why should the Arabs make peace? If I were 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? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we came here and stole their country. Why should they accept that?

Source: quoted in "The Jewish Paradox" by Nahum Goldmann, former president of the World Jewish Congress.

Circumstances: This quote has been prominently used by sources like islamonline.net^[6]

"If I knew that it was possible to save all the children of Germany by transporting them to England, and only half by transferring them to the Land of Israel, I would choose the latter, for before us lies not only the numbers of these children but the historical reckoning of the people of Israel."

Source: Quoted on pp 855-56 in Shabtai Teveth's Ben-Gurion in a slightly different translation

Circumstances: This quote have been used in David Ickes website ^[1]

[edit] Menachem Begin (1886 – 1973), Prime Minister of Israel (1948 - 1953)

"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."

Source:

one source: May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.

another source: Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum".

Circumstances: The quote with the "Koenig" source has been used by whatreallyhappened.com^[3] and CounterPunch ^[4]

[edit] Menachem Begin (1913 – 1992), Prime Minister of Israel (1977 - 1983)

"Our race (the Jews) is the Master Race. We are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves."

Source: No source for when this statment is supposed to have been said is found.

Circumstances: Jews to not refer to themselves as a "Master Race", hence some have argued that quote is fabricated. The quote has been used in sites like Rense.com ^[5].

We wish both side great success!

Source: Yaron Dekel, IBA: Israel Broadcasting Authority

Circumstances: Response to a question by an Israeli reporter about the official stand of the Israeli government regarding the war in the Persian gulf between Iran and Iraq

[edit] Ariel Sharon (1928 – present), Prime Minister of Israel (2001 - 2006)

"Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial."

Source: 25 March, 2001 quoted in BBC News Online

Circumstances:

[edit] Unclear

"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."

Source:

One source stats: David Ben-Gurion (1886 – 1973), Prime Minister of Israel (1948 - 1953 and 1955 - 1963), quoted in The Jewish Paradox, by Nahum Goldmann, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978, p. 99. ^[7]

Another source stats: Moshe Dayan, in Haifa, quoted by Ha'aretz, April, 4 1969. Reproduced in the book "All That Remains^[14]". ^[15]

Circumstances: This comment is relevant to the arguments were people claim that there were no Arab population prior to the building of present day Israel. The quote has been used by whatreallyhappened.com^[3], CounterPunch ^[16] and islamonline.net ^[17], using the Moshe Dayan source.