Golda Meir Quotes
Some day we may be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our children, but we will never forgive them for making us kill some of theirs.
Golda Meir, 1898-1978, Prime Minister, Israel (Labor), After the Six-Day War, June 1967
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
At the time she was herself in exile in Jordan where she worked with the over 1 million Arab refugees (from both Syria and Iraq) in Jordanian refugee camps. The contrast between the two groups of refugees she found dramatic.
The Abenaki Indians from Canada had come South and raided many of the settlements of upstate New York. In the process, they committed many atrocities killing civilian men, women and children. Amhurst ordered Robert Rogers and his rangers to attack the Abenaki home villiage in Canada on a famous punitive raid. The Rangers, did indeed, raid the Abenaki and wiped out all the males of the tribe that were in the camp at the time. Amhurst hated Indians, but still had his standards regarding the killing of women and children, but was perfectly willing to kill all the mature males. There were no Geneva Conventions at the time. The same general introduced biological warfare by giving Indians smallpox infected blankets. See {619646}
Simon Bolivar and other freedom fighters in South America used this quotation to justify numerous acts of retaliation against the Spanish troops controlling their countries.
The President had earlier threatened to execute Confederate prisoners, if the South implemented its threat to execute any Union Negro soldiers they captured. The threat seems to have worked. See Lincoln.
This proverb only makes sense in the light of understanding the Arab concept of revenge—“blood.” In a rural desert environment where little can be expected of government, the Arabs have developed a law enforcement and peace keeping mechanism which while primitive from modern standards, nevertheless worked to some degree. It is that revenge—“blood” is a moral necessity and obligation of all people, and revenge is not limited by time or to the individuals involved in the first incidence. The immediate family are the first to exact revenge, but the extended family follows and often the entire clan. Sometimes revenge is tribal or even national. Anyone who fails to revenge a member in his group is not only a disgrace, but is a clear and present danger to the group because then they can be attacked with impunity. So revenge is a strong obligation of the group members and blood must be paid with blood no matter how many generations it may take. The only thing that keeps me and my family safe, is the surety what whosoever kills one of us will themselves be killed or if they die a natural death we will take revenge on one of the evildoers relatives. Crime must never pay!
This is a direct repudiation of the Christian doctrine. Ironically, it is the believe and behavior of must people who call themselves Christian. This was written under the name of Ragnar Redbeard. There are a few scholars who believe that it was written by Jack London, but most credit Desmond.
Golda Meir was an Israeli stateswoman, politician, teacher, and kibbutznik who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel.
