Moshe Sharett Quotes

Israel's second Prime Minister

4 Quotes by Moshe Sharett

1. The purchase was accompanied, interestingly, by transfer of population... by this [act] we will reduce the number of Arabs [in Palestine].

2. We have forgotten that we have not come to an empty land to inherit it, but we have come to conquer a country from people inhabiting it

3. The [Palestinian] Arab reaction would be negative because they would lose everything and gain almost nothing ...They would lose the richest part of Palestine; they would lose major Arab assets, the orange plantations, the commercial and industrial centers and the most important sources of revenue for their government which would become impoverished; they would lose most of the coastal area, which would also be a loss to the hinterland Arab states...It would mean that they would be driven back to the desert.

4. With regard to the refugees, we are determined to be adamant while the war lasts. Once the return tide starts, it will be impossible to stem it, and it will prove our undoing. As for the future, we are equally determined to explore all possibilities of getting rid, once and for all, of the huge [Palestinian] Arab minority [referring to the Palestinian Israeli citizens of Israel] which originally threatened us. What can be achieved in this period of storm and stress [referring to the 1948 war] will be quite unattainable once conditions get stabilized.