"You cannot negotiate peace with someone who has come to kill you."
- Golda Meir
Can you negotiate Peace with someone who has come armed and ready to kill to expel / evict you from your lands?
Greg Krasovsky
November 6, 2023
Wise words for ALL sides of any military or civilian violent conflict!
Unfortunately, we as humanity always run into problems with
- proportionate use of force in self-defense (minimum required to neutralize the threat) to prevent allegations of excessive use of force our of revenge or spite.
- proper, legitimate & good-faith first use of force to prevent imminent attacks or those in the near future (99% certainty -- beyond a reasonable doubt -- based on competent and objective intelligence).
So what happens usually in real life?
People, groups (ethnic, racial, political and religious) and nations
1. Negotiate (as a rule)
- from a position of strength to show your opponent that the
- only when negotiations are beneficial - likely to produce a better result than from use of force.
2. Don't hesitate to use lethal force
a. in self-defense to actual attacks,
b. perceived imminent threats, or
c. planned attacks based on intelligence.
d. to achieve political, military, economic, religious or cultural (ethnic) objectives
- objectives (the desired end that they view as absolutely necessary and righteous) considered as completely (morally and spiritually) justifying all necessary violent means, including killing your opponents and even their women, children and the elderly,
-- because the achievement of these "holy"objectives justifies violence and killings (premeditated murder & manslaughter by recklessness and negligence) as well as gross human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity,
-- even if such violence is considered immoral and against current laws (which may be viewed as unjust or in opposition to the perpetrator's religious laws),
So what's the expected result?
1. Rationalization and approval of violence by societal and government policy (domestic & foreign),
- terrorism (incl. state-sponsored terrorism),
- crimes against humanity
- war crimes,
- major / systematic human rights violations.
2. Application of violence to achieve state or hidden objectives, resulting in death, pain and suffering.
3. The unavoidable & mandatory application of the holy rule calling for divine justice over wrongly spilled blood:
- If you've taken what doesn't belong to you (incl. human lives & health), then you will have to return it in full ("eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth")
- if you have taken G-d's laws in to your own hand (dared to play G-d like Satan or the fallen angels), by killing fellow human beings for your human-made objectives, the expect G-d's "blessing" (the righteous are rewarded with good things and the wicked with suffering that befit their sins).
And the long term results are always the same for the perpetrator, no matter how seemingly holy or pure his motives or successful his actions in the short term (G-d's terms can take thousands of years).
BTW, no country, people or religious is immune to this moral & spiritual trap.
- Israel, the United States of America, UK, China, Russia, Iran and etc.
- Jews, Arabs, Europeans, Asians, Africans and etc.
- Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and etc.
So the only solution is
- good-faith negotiations based on respect of fundamental human rights-- but only with those who share the same values.
- negotiations with terrorists, war criminals and serial human rights abusers, can only be conducted from a position of strength and without compromising fundamental principles for short-term victories or long term-security.
- refraining (at all costs!) from using violence for political, military, religious or economic purposes, no matter how seemingly noble your end goal.
- as innocent spilled blood demands justice (even if it takes thousands of years), making sure that ALL those who
-- have committed unjustified killings (especially for religious or material purposes) are identified, condemned/vilified, brought to justice and given adequate punishment (all the way up to the death penalty) and never glorified (rehabilitated in the future when it becomes politically expedient)
-- became victims of violence are recognized and memorialized and their families properly compensated.
- using violence and military means only as a last resort when all other options have failed, are inapplicable or inadequate.
If only Golda Meir, Menachem Begin and their Arab counterparts followed the above precepts, then Israel may be living today in peace next to a properly functioning internationally-recognized Palestinian State.
***
Golda Meir Quotes:
We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.
Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.
Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!
We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon - no alternative.
Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do.
Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.
Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.
It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don't want victories anymore.
You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.
A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.
Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.
Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.
Women's liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one is likely to do anything about that.
As President Nixon says, presidents can do almost anything, and President Nixon has done many things that nobody would have thought of doing.
There can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises. His instinct is to blame. If he is satisfied he says nothing; if he is not, he most illogically kicks up a row.
The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world - no ideals.
It's no accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my head. Well, what if I do? Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either.
To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man.
Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.
Even paranoids have real enemies.
Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.
The dog that trots about finds a bone.
One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.
We don't thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.
The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.
We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel.
Don't be humble... you're not that great.
Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either.
To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be.
Whether women are better than men I cannot say - but I can say they are certainly no worse.
There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It's exactly the same thing, or even worse.
I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.
I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.
Being seventy is not a sin.
I don't know why you use a fancy French word like detente when there's a good English phrase for it - cold war.
I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively.
The public history of modern art is the story of conventional people not knowing what they are dealing with.
Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short.
Glorious bouquets and storms of applause are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys.
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/golda-meir-quotes
***
Golda Meir[nb 1] (née Mabovitch; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was an Israeli politician who served as the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of government, the first female head of government in the Middle East, and the fourth elected female head of government or state in the world.[5]
Born in Kiev in the Russian Empire to Jewish parents, Meir immigrated as a child with her family to the United States in 1906. She graduated from the Milwaukee State Normal School and found work as a teacher. While in Milwaukee, she embraced the Labor Zionist movement. In 1921, Meir and her husband emigrated to Mandatory Palestine, settling in Merhavia, later becoming the kibbutz's representative to the Histadrut. In 1934, she was elevated to the executive committee of the trade union. Meir held several key roles in the Jewish Agency during and after World War II. She was a signatory of the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948. Meir was elected to the Knesset in 1949 and served as Labor Minister until 1956, when she was appointed Foreign Minister by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. She retired from the ministry in 1966 due to ill health.
In 1969, Meir assumed the role of prime minister following the death of Levi Eshkol. Early in her tenure, she made multiple diplomatic visits to western leaders to promote her vision of peace in the region. The outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 caught Israel off guard and inflicted severe early losses on the army. The resulting public anger damaged Meir's reputation and led to an inquiry into the failings. Her Alignment coalition was denied a majority in the subsequent legislative election; she resigned the following year and was succeeded as prime minister by Yitzhak Rabin. Meir died in 1978 of lymphoma and was buried on Mount Herzl.
A controversial figure in Israel, Meir has been lionized as a founder of the state and described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics, but also widely blamed for the country being caught by surprise during the war of 1973. In addition, her dismissive statements towards the Palestinians were widely scorned.[6] Most historians believe Meir was more successful as Secretary of Labor and Housing than as Premier.[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golda_Meir
***
Menachem Begin Quotes:
Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth.
We don't need legitimacy. We exist. Therefore we are legitimate.
He who threatens us will find us deaf to his threats. We are willing to listen only to rational arguments.
We attacked selected military targets of the P.L.O. Around, civilians were hurt, I don't want to deny it. Very regrettable, very regrettable. We regret it deeply.
In peace, the Middle East, the ancient cradle of civilization, will become invigorated and transformed. Throughout its lands there will be freedom of movement of people, of ideas, of goods.
No one will frighten the large and free Jewish community of the United States.
The ancient Jewish people gave the world the vision of eternal peace, of universal disarmament, of abolishing the teaching and learning of war.
We of course will say we claim sovereignty of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district. Others will come, and they will say we claim sovereignty. What can be the outcome?
Lebanon, of course, is a country with great problems. Traditionally, they have religious-national groups or ethnic-national groups. They have the Druses. Even the two Moslem sects, the Sunnis and the Shiites, are apart. Then they have the armed groups. Everybody's got a private army.
The German debt to the Jewish people can never end, not in this generation and not in any other.
You annex foreign land, not your own country.
We do not covet one inch of Lebanese territory, and the basis for the peace treaty between our two countries will be the international border, which exists now, between Rosh Haniqra and Ras en Naqura.
You want me to become a leaker? I'm not. I do not leak any news from the Cabinet sessions.
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/menachem-begin-quotes
The people of Israel have lived 3,700 years without a memorandum of understanding with America and will continue to live without it another 3,700 years.
The Palestinian Arabs will have their autonomy, we will have our security. We shall live together.
My colleagues and I have gone in the footsteps of our predecessors since the very first day we were called by our people to care for their future. We went any place, we looked for any avenue, we made any effort to bring about negotiations between Israel and its neighbors, negotiations without which peace remains an abstract desire.
The framework for peace signed by Egypt and Israel is almost a peace treaty. We solved the problem for the peace treaty 98%.
I come to Jerusalem. There, the sky is blue and memory becomes clear.
There are those who say we must rescind the Golan Heights law that was passed in the Knesset. To rescind is a concept from the days of the Inquisition. Our forefathers were burned at the stake and would not rescind their faith.
We want a full peace, normalization in all fields.
There must be some security arrangement in the south of Lebanon so northern Israel is not threatened anymore.
Operation Peace for Galilee is not a military operation resulting from the lack of an alternative.
UNIFIL was a complete disappointment. But a kind of multinational force. Share this Quote
After 1957, Israel had to wait 10 full years for its flag to fly again over that liberated portion of the homeland.
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/menachem-begin-quotes
***
_-_Begin_in_the_Knesset.jpg)
Before the creation of the state of Israel, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was opposed by the Jewish Agency. As head of the Irgun, he targeted the British in Palestine.[3] Later, the Irgun fought the Arabs during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine and, as its chief, Begin was described by the British government as the "leader of the notorious terrorist organisation". It declined him an entry visa to the United Kingdom between 1953 and 1955. However, Begin's overtures of friendship eventually paid off and he was granted a visa in 1972, five years prior to becoming prime minister.[4]
Begin was elected to the first Knesset, as head of Herut, the party he founded, and was at first on the political fringe, embodying the opposition to the Mapai-led government and Israeli establishment. He remained in opposition in the eight consecutive elections (except for a national unity government around the Six-Day War), but became more acceptable to the political center. His 1977 electoral victory and premiership ended three decades of Labor Party political dominance.
Begin's most significant achievement as Prime Minister was the signing of a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, for which he and Anwar Sadat shared the Nobel Prize for Peace. In the wake of the Camp David Accords, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, which had been captured from Egypt in the Six-Day War. Later, Begin's government promoted the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Begin authorized the bombing of the Osirak nuclear plant in Iraq and the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 to fight PLO strongholds there, igniting the 1982 Lebanon War. As Israeli military involvement in Lebanon deepened, and the Sabra and Shatila massacre, carried out by Christian Phalangist militia allies of the Israelis, shocked world public opinion,[5] Begin grew increasingly isolated.[6] As IDF forces remained mired in Lebanon and the economy suffered from hyperinflation, the public pressure on Begin mounted. Depressed by the death of his wife Aliza in November 1982, he gradually withdrew from public life, until his resignation in October 1983.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin
***
The Irgun (Hebrew: ארגון; full title: Hebrew: הארגון הצבאי הלאומי בארץ ישראל Hā-ʾIrgun Ha-Tzvaʾī Ha-Leūmī b-Ērētz Yiśrāʾel, lit. "The National Military Organization in the Land of Israel"), or Etzel (Hebrew: אצ"ל), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandate Palestine and then Israel between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah (Hebrew: Hebrew: הגנה, Defence).[1] The Irgun has been viewed as a terrorist organization or organization which carried out terrorist acts.[2][3][4][5]
The Irgun policy was based on what was then called Revisionist Zionism founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. According to Howard Sachar, "The policy of the new organization was based squarely on Jabotinsky's teachings: every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arabs; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state".[6]
Two of the operations for which the Irgun is best known are the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the Deir Yassin massacre that killed at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and children, carried out together with Lehi on 9 April 1948.
The organization committed acts of terrorism against the British, whom it regarded as illegal occupiers, and against Arabs.[7] In particular the Irgun was described as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, British, and United States governments; in media such as The New York Times newspaper;[8][9] as well as by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry,[10][11] the 1946 Zionist Congress[12] and the Jewish Agency.[13] However, academics such as Bruce Hoffman and Max Abrahms have written that the Irgun went to considerable lengths to avoid harming civilians, such as issuing pre-attack warnings; according to Hoffman, Irgun leadership urged "targeting the physical manifestations of British rule while avoiding the deliberate infliction of bloodshed."[14] Albert Einstein, in a letter to The New York Times in 1948, compared Irgun and its successor Herut party to "Nazi and Fascist parties" and described it as a "terrorist, right wing, chauvinist organization".[15] Irgun's tactics appealed to many Jews who believed that any action taken in the cause of the creation of a Jewish state was justified, including terrorism.[16]
Irgun members were absorbed into the Israel Defense Forces at the start of the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. The Irgun was a political predecessor to Israel's right-wing Herut (or "Freedom") party, which led to today's Likud party.[17] Likud has led or been part of most Israeli governments since 1977.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun
***
Lehi (Hebrew pronunciation: [ˈleχi]; Hebrew: לח"י – לוחמי חרות ישראל Lohamei Herut Israel – Lehi, "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel – Lehi"), often known pejoratively as the Stern Gang,[10][11][12][13] was a Zionist paramilitary militant organization founded by Avraham ("Yair") Stern in Mandatory Palestine.[14][15][16] Its avowed aim was to evict the British authorities from Palestine by use of violence, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state. It was initially called the National Military Organization in Israel,[17] upon being founded in August 1940, but was renamed Lehi one month later.[18] The group referred to its members as terrorists[19] and admitted to having carried out terrorist attacks.[14][20][21]
Lehi split from the Irgun militant group in 1940 in order to continue fighting the British during World War II. It initially sought an alliance with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.[22] Believing that Nazi Germany was a lesser enemy of the Jews than Britain, Lehi twice attempted to form an alliance with the Nazis, proposing a Jewish state based on "nationalist and totalitarian principles, and linked to the German Reich by an alliance".[22][23] After Stern's death in 1942, the new leadership of Lehi began to move towards support for Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union[17] and the ideology of National Bolshevism, which was considered an amalgam of both right and left.[24][22] Regarding themselves as "revolutionary Socialists", the new Lehi developed a highly original ideology combining an "almost mystical" belief in Greater Israel with support for the Arab liberation struggle.[17] This sophisticated ideology failed to gain public support and Lehi fared poorly in the first Israeli elections.[25]
In April of 1948, Lehi and the Irgun were jointly responsible for the massacre in Deir Yassin of at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and children. Lehi assassinated Lord Moyne, British Minister Resident in the Middle East, and made many other attacks on the British in Palestine.[26] On 29 May 1948, the government of Israel, having inducted its activist members into the Israel Defense Forces, formally disbanded Lehi, though some of its members carried out one more terrorist act, the assassination of Folke Bernadotte some months later,[27] an act condemned by Bernadotte's replacement as mediator, Ralph Bunche.[28] After the assassination, the new Israeli government declared Lehi a terrorist organization, arresting some 200 members and convicting some of the leaders.[29] Just before the first Israeli elections in January 1949, a general amnesty to Lehi members was granted by the government.[29] In 1980, Israel instituted a military decoration, an "award for activity in the struggle for the establishment of Israel", the Lehi ribbon.[30] Former Lehi leader Yitzhak Shamir became Prime Minister of Israel in 1983.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehi_(militant_group)
***
The Palmach contributed significantly to Israeli culture and ethos, well beyond its military contribution. Its members formed the backbone of the Israel Defense Forces high command for many years, and were prominent in Israeli politics, literature and culture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmach
***
Haganah (Hebrew: הַהֲגָנָה ha-Haganah, lit. 'The Defense') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the British Mandate for Palestine.[2] It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the region, and was formally disbanded in 1948, when it became the core force integrated into the Israel Defense Forces shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Formed out of previous existing militias, Haganah's original purpose was to defend Jewish settlements against Arab attacks; this was the case during the 1920 Nebi Musa riots, the 1921 Jaffa riots, the 1929 Palestine riots, the 1936 Jaffa riots, and the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, among others. The paramilitary was under the control of the Jewish Agency, the official governmental body in charge of Palestine's Jewish community during the British era. Until the end of World War II, Haganah's activities were moderate, in accordance with the strategic policy of havlagah (lit. 'self-restraint'), which caused the breakaway of the more radical paramilitaries: Irgun and Lehi. Haganah militants received clandestine military support from Poland and sought cooperation with the United Kingdom in the event of an Axis-led invasion of Palestine through North Africa, prompting the creation of the Palmach, their elite fighting force, in 1941.
Following the end of World War II, the British refused to lift the restrictions on Jewish immigration that they had imposed with the 1939 White Paper. This resulted in Haganah leading a Jewish insurgency against the British authorities in Palestine; the campaign included the paramilitaries' bombing of bridges, railways, and ships used to deport illegal Jewish immigrants, as well as assisting in bringing more diaspora Jews to Palestine in defiance of British policies. After the adoption of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947, Haganah came into the open as the biggest fighting force among the Palestinian Jews, successfully overcoming Arab militias during the Palestinian Civil War. Shortly after the beginning of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Haganah was merged with other paramilitary groups and reorganized into the official military force of the State of Israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haganah
***
