Quote #8

When the Council discusses what is to happen after the cease-fire, we hear many formulas: back to 1956, back to 1948--I understand our neighbors would wish to turn the clock back to 1947. The fact is, however, that most clocks move forward and not backward, and this, I think, should be the case with the clock of Middle Eastern peace--not backward to belligerency, but forward to peace.

More from Abba Eban

  1. People in our country and in many countries ask: what is the use of a United Nations presence if it is in effect an umbrella which is taken…
  2. 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 sur…
  3. His ignorance is encyclopedic
  4. They use the U.N. not as an instrument for solving conflicts, but an arena for waging them.
  5. It's not that Governments are constitutionally incapable of making the right decision, it's that they only do so as a matter of last resort.
  6. Israel is not an aviary.
  7. A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.
  8. Israel was and is breathing only with a single lung.

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