Elias Davidsson writes...     ED> The following are quotations from Zionist leaders. They appear in ED> numerous scholarly works dealing with the Palestine question. I urge those ED> who have access to original sources, to verify the authenticity of the ED> source and post here their finding, adhering to the truth whatever it be.     It is your responsibility for posting quotes in context.  Your    phony 'research center' is the source of the most unscholarly,    out-of-context, agenda-ridden, and sophmoric propaganda that I    have ever seen.  Don't believe me, folks?  Let's take a little    stroll through a few of Elias Davidsson's contributions to our     understanding of the middle east.   ED> Quotations from Zionist leaders  ED> 1. "There was no such thing as Palestinians" ED> (Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel, London Sunday  ED> Times, 15 June 1969)      And what do suggest that she meant by this?  Do you think she     meant that the Palestinians don't exist?  Or does it actually     mean that the people who self-identify as 'Palestinians,' did     not appear to be a distinct ethnic group in the eyes of Golda     Meir?     ED> 2. "There is, however, a difficulty from which the Zionist  ED> dares not avert his eyes, though he rarely likes to face it.  ED> Palestine proper has already its inhabitants." ED> (Israel Zangwill, The Voice of Jerusalem, London 1920,  ED> p.88)      When this was written, seventy three years ago, the people of     the region were not all Jews.  They are not all Jews now.  No     Jew but the most rabid bigot has ever called for an Israel to     be ONLY for Jews.  That was true then.  It is true now.     ED> "[The Palestinians are] beasts walking on two legs." ED> (Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel in a speech to  ED> the Knesset, ED> quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, 'Begin and the "Beasts", New  ED> Statesman, 25 June 1982)      Since you inserted the words 'The Palestinians are' we cannot     know what Begin was talking about.            For someone who wants to embellish his own importance with an      absurd pseudo-organizational name like the 'Center for Policy     Research,' you are not a very honest person.    ED> "Both the process of expropriation [of the Palestinians]  ED> and the removal of the poor must be carried out  ED> discreetly and circumspectly". ED> (Dr. Theodor Herzl, The Complete Diaries, Herzl Press,  ED> 1960, I., p.88)      Herzl died eighty nine years ago.  Are you suggesting that he     has stated what is Israel's policy today?  Have you ever seen     Israel even entertain a policy to exclude non-Jews, let alone       actually try to remove non-Jews from Israel?  If you actually      believe that this quote has anything to do with Israel's non-     Jewish citizenry today, you are an idiot.  But if you realize     that Israel has no intention of removing non-Jewish Israelis,     then you are nothing but a common liar.  This one time I will      give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume you are stupid.     ED> "We shall try to spirit the penniless population [the  ED> Palestinians] across the border by procuring employment  ED> for it in the transit countries, while denying it any  ED> employment in our own country" ED> (Theodor Herzl, The Complete Diaries, Herzl Press, 1960,  ED> I, p.88)      Once again you quote a man gone for almost a century.  You do     so within the context of modern day Israel.            Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.  How does this fact define the     United States today?   ED> "[Jews] must expel Arabs and take their place"  ED> (David Ben Gurion, 1937, quoted in Shabtai Teveth, Ben  ED> Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press,  ED> 1985, p. 89)      Did he say 'Jews,' or did you add this?       This was also a statement from ten years before Israel became     a state.  It has no bearing on Israel.         ED> "We must do everything to ensure they [the  ED> Palestinian refugees] never do return" ED> (David Ben Gurion, in his diary, 19 July 1948, quoted in  ED> Michael Bar Zohar, Ben Gurion: The Armed Prophet,  ED> Prentice-Hall, 1967, p.157)      YOU added the words 'the Palestinian refugees.'  And by doing     so, you are misleading people into believing that Ben Gurion,     who was expressing his hope that people who fled their lands,     at the encouragement of people such as KING ABDULLAH, and the       MUFTI OF JERUSALEM, was gloating over people abandoning their     homes.  What he was refering to were the Arabs with whom Jews     were at war.    ED> "The country was mostly an empty desert, with only  ED> a few islands of Arab settlement" ED> (Shimon Peres, Minister of Defense, quoted in David's  ED> Sling: The Arming of Israel, Weidenfeld and Nicholson,  ED> 1970, p.249)      At the time of the rebirth of Israel this was certainly true,     especially when compared to what Israel has accomplished in a     few short decades.   ED> "All this story about the danger of extermination [of  ED> Jews] has been blown up....to justify the annexation of  ED> new Arab territories" ED> (Mordechai Bentov, Israeli Cabinet Minister, Al  ED> Hamishmar, 14 April 1972)      Since Israel has not annexed even one millimeter of territory      in more twenty six years, this quote is irrelevant.    ED> "Neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can  ED> disqualify terrorism as a means of combat" ED> (Yitzhak Shamir, Hehazit, Summer 1943 [Journal of the  ED> LEHI, the Stern Gang], translated from the Israeli daily  ED> Al-Hamishmar, 24 December 1987      Again, you are quoting a man who was fighting for what he had     been promised from a time as ancient as biblical, to the time     of the Balfour Declaration, just a few short years back.  And     what was thought of and described as terrorism by Jews didn't     include slaughtering Olympic athletes, brutally murdering the      innocent, attacking school buses, and murdering another human      being for the sole reason that he or she is an Arab.     ED> "The domination of Jewish agriculture by Arab  ED> workers is a cancer in our body" ED> (A. Uzan, Israeli Minister of Agriculture, Ha'aretz, 13  ED> December 1974)      There were serious concerns about a work force that consisted      of people from OUTSIDE Israel.  It is a wise to be concerned.     A work force consisting of foreigners is not a good situation     for a country.   ED> "There can be only one national home in Palestine,  ED> and that a Jewish one, and no equality in the partnership  ED> between Jews and Arabs" ED> (Montague David Eder, President of the Zionist  ED> Federation of Great Britain, 1931, ED> in Doreen Ingrams, comp., Palestine Papers 1917-1922,  ED> Seeds of Conflict, George Braziller, 1973, p. 135)      This also has no meaning for a country formed seventeen years     after this statement was made.  Obviously times change.  This     is NOT what Israel is about today.  I believe the peace talks     make this quote irrelevant.   ED> "There is not a single Jewish village in this country  ED> that has not been built on the site of an Arab village" ED> (Moshe Dayan, Ha'aretz, 4 April 1969...)      This is completely false.   ED> "Some people talk of expelling 700,000 to 800,000  ED> Arabs in the event of a new war, and instruments have  ED> been prepared" ED> (Aharon Yariv, former chief of Israeli military  ED> intelligence, 1980, Inquiry, 8 December 1980)      Expelled from where?  Israel?  The occupied territories?  New     Jersey?  Is there any way we can read this and get an idea as     to what on earth he was talking about.  Obviously not.    ED> "We should there [in Palestine] form a portion of the  ED> rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization  ED> as opposed to barbarism." ED> (Dr. Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State, London, 1896, p.  ED> 29)      Interesting notion.  Considering that this was written nearly     a century ago, it is quite visionary.   ED> "I deeply believe in launching preventive war  ED> against the Arab States without further hesitation. By  ED> doing so we will achieve two targets: firstly, the  ED> annihilation of Arab power; and secondly, the expansion  ED> of our territory" ED> (Menachem Begin, in a speech to the Knesset, 12 October  ED> 1955)      This was said nearly forty years ago.  Begin is dead.  And it     should be obvious to anybody that if Israel was expansionist,     it would have ANNEXED the occupied territories right after it     captured them.  Israel would not be negotiating to get rid of     them.   ED> "During the last 100 years our people have been in a  ED> process of building up the country and the nation, of  ED> expansion, of getting additional Jews and additional  ED> settlements in order to expand the borders here. Let no  ED> Jew say that the process has ended. Let no Jew say that  ED> we are near the end of the road." ED> (Moshe Dayan, Ma'ariv, 7 July 1968)      He's dead, too.  And since Israel has not annexed ANY land at      all since 1967, you are once again wasting bandwidth with all     of these misleading quotes.  They are so out of sync with the     reality of Israel, that you do nothing but make yourself look     like a fanatic desperate to sway people, by misleading them.   ED> "Let us not today fling accusations at the [Palestinian  ED> Arab] murderers. Who are we that we should argue  ED> against their hatred ? For eight years now they sit in  ED> their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their very eyes,  ED> we turn into our homestead the land and the villages in  ED> which they and their forefathers have lived. We are a  ED> generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and  ED> the cannon we cannot plant a tree and build a home. Let  ED> us not shrink back when we see the hatred fermenting  ED> and filling the lives of hundreds of thousands of Arabs,  ED> who sit all around us. Let us not avert our gaze, so that  ED> our hand shall not slip. This is the fate of our generation,  ED> the choice of our life - to be prepared and armed, strong  ED> and tough - or otherwise, the sword will slip from our  ED> first, and our life will be snuffed out." ED> (Moshe Dayan, eulogy of Roy Rutenberg at Kibbutz Nahal  ED> Oz, 1956, quoted in Uri Avneri, Israel without Zionists,  Collier Books, Macmillan, New York, 1971, p.154)      Interesting quote.  It's true that we should never lose sight     of the plight of these people.  We should also recognize that     this quote preceded the disgusting wave of Arab terrorism and     violence directed at innocent people, that began in 1972 with      the massacre of the Israeli athletes in Munich, and continues      to this day.