Relevant Quotes

Quotes from Americans:

"I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation." - John Adams, second President of The United States (in a letter to Thomas Jefferson).

"If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations." - John Adams, second President of The United States.

"Farther I could find it in my heart to wish that you had been at the head of a hundred thousand Israelites... & marching with them into Judea & making a conquest of that country & restoring your nation to the dominion of it.  For I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation." - John Adams, second President of The United States (in a letter to Mordecai Manuel Noah in 1819).

"[I believe in the] rebuilding of Judea as an independent nation." - John Quincy Adams, sixth President of The United States (in a letter to Mordecai Manuel Noah).

"...the latest leg in my long journey to the heart of Israel, which began when I first came here as a religious pilgrim over twenty years ago.  For a very short period of time I was the only American President to visit Israel twice, then I became the only American President to visit Israel three times, and then four times." - President Bill Clinton, on January 20, 2002.

"Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes.  Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies... Palestine is desolate and unlovely... It is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land... [a] desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds - a silent mournful expanse... A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action...  We never saw a human being on the whole route...  There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere.  Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country..." - Mark Twain (describing Palestine on a visit in 1867).

"The Greeks and the Romans... are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time but it burned out... the Jews saw them all, survived them all... all things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces passed, but he remains.  What is the secret of his immortality?" - Mark Twain, in 1898.

"It should be remembered that in 1918, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France were handed 5,000,000 square miles to divvy up and 99% was given to the Arabs to create countries that did not exist previously. 1% was given as a Mandate for the re-establishment of a state for the Jews on both banks of the Jordan River. In 1921, to once again appease the Arabs, another three quarters of that 1% was given to a fictitious state called Trans-Jordan." - Jack Berger, vice president of the Zionist Organization of Chicago, May 31, 2004.

"When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews. You are talking anti-Semitism." - Martin Luther King, responding to an anti-zionist remark by a student at Harvard University in Boston, 1968.

“Israel's right to exist as a state in security is uncontestable.” - Martin Luther King, from his writings.

“Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.” - Martin Luther King, on March 25, 1968, less than 2 weeks before his death.

Quotes from Israelis:

"In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles." - David Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister.

"Israel is still the only country in the world against which there is a written document to the effect that it must disappear." - Menachem Begin, former Prime Minister of Israel.

"If Algeria introduced a (UN) resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions." - Abba Eban, former Vice President of the UN General Assembly, and former minister of the Israeli government in many capacities including Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.

Quotes from other world leaders:

"That the Jews are connected with God in a special way and that God does not allow that bond to fail is entirely obvious." - Pope Benedict XVI.

"My heart is full of sympathy for Zionism". - Winston Churchill, at the uncompleted Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

"It is manifestly right that the scattered Jews should have a national center and a national home and be reunited, and where else but in Palestine, with which for 3000 years they have been intimately and profoundly associated?" - Winston Churchill, in 1920.

"I believe today that I am acting according to the will of the almighty Creator: when I defend myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” - Adolph Hitler, in his book, "Mein Kampf".

Quotes from Arab Leaders:

"There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not".  - Philip K. Hitti, an Arab, a professor at Princeton University, and author of the authoritative "The Arabs", testifying at the 1946 Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry.

"It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria". - said to the UN Security Council in 1956 by Ahmed Shukeiry, who later founded the PLO - the Palestine Liberation Organization.

"There is no such country (as Palestine)!  Palestine is a term the Zionists invented!  There is no Palestine in the Bible.  Our country was for centuries part of Syria." - told to the peel Commission in 1937 by Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, a local Arab leader.

"Peace for us means the destruction of Israel.  We are preparing for all-out war, a war which will last for generations." - Yasser Arafat, former leader of the PLO.

"We plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state.  We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion.  We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem." - Yasser Arafat, former leader of the PLO.

"If the Jews all gather is Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide" - Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah. 

" There is no Palestinian nation!  There is an Arab nation, but no Palestinian nation.  This was invented by the colonial powers.  When are the Palestinians mentioned in history?  Never." - Azmi Bishara, former Arab Knesset member, on Israel television.

"Who can challenge the rights of the Jews to Palestine?  Good Lord, historically, it is really your country." - Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, Mayor of Jerusalem, in 1899.

"We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement....  We will wish the Jews a hearty welcome home...  our two movements compliment one another." - Emir Faisal, a leader of the Arab world, in 1919.

Other Quotes:

"The UN Human Rights Council has devoted 100% of its censure powers to one-sided condemnations of Israel, in four country-specific resolutions and three special sessions. It has yet to pass a resolution or convene a special session against any other state." - UN Watch report on the UN Human Rights Council, 24/11/06

"Jews prefer being prisoners in Jerusalem to enjoying the freedom they could acquire elsewhere...  The love of the Jews for the Holy Land which they lost... is unbelievable." - Jesuit Father Michael Naud, on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1674.

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