Yossi Sarid Quotes
I hate all the terrorists in the world, whatever the purpose of their struggle. However, I support every active civil revolt against any occupation, and Israel, too, is among the despicable occupiers. Such revolt is both more just and more effective, and it does not extinguish one's spark of humanity.
Sarid, Yossi. Qtd. in "Yossi Sarid: In His Own Words." Haaretz, Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd, 5 Dec. 2015.
The glorious spectacle of eighteen millions of people, struggling to burst their chains and be free.
The entire speech was translated into Spanish and read to great applause to Latin American revolutionary regiments.
This is a very important quotation as it shows the logic of many Islamic terrorists. To them Jihad is not terror regardless of what means are used. If the cause is just, like driving unbelievers from what they call Islamic land, then the violence is Jihad and is not only moral but is obligatory for a good Muslim. However if the cause is not moral—like invading someone else’s land, then the same actions are terrorism. The rest of the world defines terrorism by the means of the struggle—not the righteousness of the cause. Suicide Bombing which kills civilians shopping or at a wedding reception is terrorism whether the political or other end is good or bad. At the same time, members of the Muslim brotherhood often when they are speaking to Westerners or the media say that they are opposed to terrorism. The terrorism they are opposed to does not include to them does not include the terrorism of 9-11, the kidnapping and beheading of journalists, or bombing innocent civilians. That is why they can fund and support Hamas—the Palestinian component of the Muslim Brotherhood and still say they oppose terrorism. The occupation is the major offence they must rectify. The reality is that every group of people currently in the Middle East, is descended from peoples who occupied land by conquest and then were conquered by others. In Christ’s time, for example, Jerusalem and the area population was virtually all Jewish but the Romans had conquered and controlled the land. Some of the Jews became Christians, and they both shared the land because Christians then considered themselves to be a sect of Judaism. Then there were many conquests and re-conquests. The city has changed hands by force 44 different times. The Israelis were the last to capture it, The Jewish people were also amongst the earlier conquests, and the Palestinians argue that they inhabited the land even before Islam. Compared to Jerusalem, the problem of who has the right to the old Cherokee land in Georgia today is simple.
The IRA had just murdered Lord Mountbatten with a bomb on his small boat. Mountbattten, then a 79 year old, elderly man in retirement was a member of the Royal Family. His grandson was also murdered. Mountbatten had not had anything to do with Ireland but to the IRA he was a symbol of British imperialism since he had been the British Viceroy of India. Actually, it was he who had organized and presided over Indian Independence.
Yossi Sarid was an Israeli politician and news commentator. He served as a member of the Knesset for the Alignment, Ratz and Meretz between 1974 and 2006. A former Minister of Education and Minister of the Environment, he led Meretz between 1996 and 2003 and served as Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. Known for his determined moral stance and his willingness to pay the political price for that determination, Sarid was often referred to as Israel's moral compass.
