We don't need legitimacy. We exist. Therefore we are legitimate.
Menachem BeginRead
No more wars, no more bloodshed. Peace unto you. Shalom, salaam, forever.
Interpretation
The quote advocates for an end to conflict and promotes a message of peace and unity.
Menachem Begin's quote calls for a cessation of wars and violence, emphasizing the importance of peace. By using the terms 'Shalom' and 'salaam', which mean peace in Hebrew and Arabic respectively, he highlights a universal desire for harmony among all people, transcending cultural and religious differences.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a peace rally to inspire participants.
We don't need legitimacy. We exist. Therefore we are legitimate.
I come to Jerusalem. There, the sky is blue and memory becomes clear.
My colleagues and I have gone in the footsteps of our predecessors since the very first day we were called by our people to care for their future. We went any place, we looked for any avenue, we made any effort to bring about negotiations between Israel and its neighbors, negotiations without which peace remains an abstract desire.
Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And forever.
In peace, the Middle East, the ancient cradle of civilization, will become invigorated and transformed. Throughout its lands there will be freedom of movement of people, of ideas, of goods.
Peace is the most powerful weapon of mankind.
I most sincerely wish that the world in which we live be free from the threat of a nuclear holocaust and from the ruinous arms race. It is my cherished desire that peace be not separated from freedom which is the right of every nation. This I desire and for this I pray.
If nations could overcome the mutual fear and distrust whose sombre shadow is now thrown over the world, and could meet with confidence and good will to settle their possible differences, they would easily be able to establish a lasting peace.
We have learned that peace and well-being are indivisible and that our peace and well-being cannot be purchased at the price of peace or the well-being of any other country.
Of course, let us have peace, we cry, "but at the same time let us have normalcy, let us lose nothing, let our lives stand intact, let us know neither prison nor ill repute nor disruption of ties ... " There is no peace because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison, and death in its wake.
International exchanges are not a great tide to sweep away all differences, but they will slowly wear away at the obstacles to peace as surely as water wears away a hard stone.
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