Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you, because these geography books no longer exist; not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahalal arose in the place of Mahalul, Gevat - in the place of Jibta, Sarid - in the place of Haneifs and Kefar Yehoshua - in the place of Tell Shaman. There is no one place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.
It is not in our hands to prevent the murder of workers… and families… but it is in our hands to fix a high price for our blood, so high that the Arab community and the Arab military forces will not be willing to pay it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that while we cannot stop violence against workers and families, we can ensure that the cost of such violence is prohibitively high.
Moshe Dayan's quote emphasizes the importance of resilience and strength in the face of violence and injustice. It acknowledges the limits of our control over external events such as murder and violence against communities but stresses that there is still power in raising the stakes so high that aggressors are deterred from committing such acts. This highlights a call for solidarity and fortification of community strength in response to threats.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in speeches addressing community resilience against violence.
More from Moshe Dayan
All quotes →We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and gun barrel, we shall not be able to plant a tree or build a house.
Our American friends offer us money, arms, and advice. We take the money, we take the arms, and we decline the advice.
We came here to a country that was populated by Arabs and we are building here a Hebrew, a Jewish state; instead of the Arab villages, Jewish villages were established. You even do not know the names of those villages, and I do not blame you because these villages no longer exist. There is not a single Jewish settlement that was not established in the place of a former Arab Village.
We could not guard every water pipeline from being blown up and every tree from being uprooted. We could not prevent every murder of a worker in an orchard or a family in their beds. But it was in our power to set high price for our blood, a price too high for the Arab community, the Arab army, or the Arab governments to think it worth paying... It was in our power to cause the Arab governments to renounce 'the policy of strength' toward Israel by turning it into a demonstration of weakness.
We should demand his blood not from the Arabs of Gaza but from ourselves... Let us make our reckoning today.
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