Israel is much more effective when the Israelis are convinced that we are on the moral high ground: that we are acting not just out of might, but also out of right.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of moral integrity alongside power in leadership and decision-making.
Ehud Barak's quote underscores the belief that true effectiveness for Israel, or any nation, lies in the perception of moral righteousness as well as physical might. When a nation acts with conviction that its actions are morally justifiable, it gains not only internal unity but also international support, making its efforts more credible and legitimate in the eyes of others.
In practice
During a speech on national security, to emphasize the need for ethical grounding in military actions.
In Israel, there is a peace camp that can convene 200,000 people in central square of this city, on very short notice, and there is a major movement among academics, politicians, thinkers, and public leaders for peace, even at a painful price. On the Palestinian side, you can find them individually here and there, but there is no public movement.
If Israel does not find the way to disengage from the Palestinians, its future might resemble the experience of Belfast or Bosnia - two communities bleeding each other to death for generations.
There is a thin line between peace of the brave and peace of the hostage... between compromise - even calculated risk - and irresponsibility and capitulation.
As long as in this territory west of the Jordan river there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.
I cannot penetrate the soul of Arafat. I cannot know in advance whether, behind all the masks, he's the kind of leader who can reach an agreement or whether he wants to be the Moses of the Palestinians, staying in front of the river and not crossing into the promised land.
To think that you can - as a Zionist, Jewish independent state at the end of the 20th century - rule over another people for generations without having any consequences - it's ridiculous.
Life is. I am. Anything might happen. And I believe I may invest my life with meaning. The uncertainty is a blessing in disguise. If I were absolutely certain about all things, I would spend my life in anxious misery, fearful of losing my way. But since everything and anything are always possible, the miraculous is always nearby and wonders shall never, ever cease.
It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.
There is no sin nor wrong that gives man such a foretaste of Hell in this life as anger and impatience.
One could not pluck a flower without troubling a star.
There is something about the state putting the power to bully into the hands of subnormal, sadistic apes that makes my blood boil.
Beautiful things grow to a certain height and then they fail and fade off, breathing out memories as they decay.
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