QuoteProject
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.
Moshe Dayan
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the limitations of control in conflict while highlighting the power of establishing value and deterrence in warfare.

In this quote, Moshe Dayan reflects on the challenges of preventing violence and destruction in a conflict-ridden environment. He acknowledges the inevitability of suffering and loss but underscores the strategic importance of asserting strength through resilience and deterrence. By making the price of aggression too high, he suggests, the opposing forces might be compelled to reconsider their approach and abandon aggressive policies, thus turning the tide in favor of peace and safety.

Themes

ConflictDeterrenceStrengthPowerStrategy

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a speech about military strategy and peace negotiations.

More from Moshe Dayan

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.
Moshe DayanRead
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.
Moshe DayanRead
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.
Moshe DayanRead
Our American friends offer us money, arms, and advice. We take the money, we take the arms, and we decline the advice.
Moshe DayanRead
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.
Moshe DayanRead
We should demand his blood not from the Arabs of Gaza but from ourselves... Let us make our reckoning today.
Moshe DayanRead

Similar quotes

Irony and pity are two good counselors: one, in smiling, makes life pleasurable; the other, who cries, makes it sacred.
Anatole FranceRead
You'll live forever in our hearts, big man. That particularly galled me, because it implied the immortality of those left behind: You will live forever in my memory, because I will live forever! I AM YOUR GOD NOW, DEAD BOY! I OWN YOU!
John GreenRead
Certainly my inner world will never be a peaceful place of bloom; it will have some peace, and occasional riots of bloom, but always a little fight going on too. There is no way I can be peacefully happy in this society and in this skin. I am committed to Uneasy Street. I like it; it is my idea that this street leads to the future, and that I am being true to a way of life which is not here yet, but is more real than what is here.
James Tiptree Jr.Read
A minority is only thought of as a minority when it constitutes some kind of threat to the majority, real or imaginary. And no threat is ever quite imaginary.
Christopher IsherwoodRead
The atom cannot disobey the law. Whether it is the mental or the physical atom, it must obey the law. "What is the use of [external restraint]?"
Swami VivekanandaRead
There is the "you" that people see and then there is the "rest of you". Take some time and craft a picture of the "rest of you." This could be a drawing, in words, even a song. Just remember that the chances are good it will be full of paradox and contradictions.
Brennan ManningRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Moshe Dayan | QuoteProject