I think that this is the first war in history that on the morrow the victors sued for peace and the vanquished called for unconditional surrender.
ABBA EBANSalvation, the prophets tell us, is preconditioned by repentance. The redeeming act of God waits upon man’s initiative.
More Abba Eban Quotes
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One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all.
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Nobody does Israel any service by proclaiming its ‘right to exist.’ Israel’s right to exist, like that of the United States, Saudi Arabia and 152 other states, is axiomatic and unreserved.
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Israel is not an aviary.
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A statesman who keeps his ear permanently glued to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of movement.
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Human beings act intelligently only after they have exhausted the alternatives
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It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.
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A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.
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Zionism is nothing more, but also nothing less, than the Jewish People’s sense of origin and destination in the Land linked eternally with its name.
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Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
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If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.
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Better to be disliked than pitied.
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Lest Arab governments be tempted out of sheer routine to rush into impulsive rejection, let me suggest that tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.
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A nation writes its history in the image of its ideal.
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Playing the game I have learned the meaning of humility. It has given me an understanding of futility of the human effort.
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His ignorance is encyclopedic.
ABBA EBAN