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.
If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticise.
There's such divinity doth hedge a king _x000D_ That treason can but peep to what it would.
Coercion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him.
For me, disability is a physical experience, but it's also a cultural experience and a social experience, and for me, the word 'crip' is the one that best encapsulated all of that.
The heart lies and the head plays tricks with us, but the eyes see true.
It struck me, sharp and hard, that I had been given so many chances to save my soul that my entire life had been constructed around these chances! That was my nature - going from temptation to temptation, not to sin, but to be redeemed.
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