The more things change, the more they stay the same

Owning a US PR firm, to be successful in my career I need to constantly read and be knowledgeable about many different topics. The more I read, the more I find that history often repeats itself.

Reviewing the words of previous Israeli prime ministers, all that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to do is re-read previous speeches given by his predecessors to realize that as the Jewish state has grown and thrived, the enemy remained the same.

From Jerusalem to the UN, territorial compromise to Jewish refugees, as the Jewish nation continues to grow and thrive, the core message and answers remain the same – as we can see in these words:

Prime Minister Menachem Begin on Jerusalem:

By what right does anyone dare tell us where the capital of Israel should be? Who arrogated to them the right to tell us where the office of the prime minister of Israel should be? Did the founders of the proud American nation ever ask anybody’s permission before they designated Washington as their capital? Did they? If Jerusalem is not our capital, where is our capital? Petach Tikva perhaps? Just as the builders of Washington endowed their capital city with the letters dc so did the builders of Jerusalem endow our capital with the letters DC – David’s City.

Prime Minister Golda Meir on the United Nations:

I look around me at the United Nations and I think to myself we have no family here. Israel is entirely alone here, less than popular and certainly misunderstood. Why should that be? Why? Why?

PM Golda Meir on the “settlements”:

One need not have a fertile imagination to realize what the situation of the State of Israel would have been if we had been deployed on the June 4^th 1967 lines. Anyone who finds it difficult to visualize this nightmarish picture should direct his mind and attention to what happened on the Golan Heights during the first days of the war. Syria’s aspirations are not limited to a piece of land but to deploying their artillery batteries…so as to provide cover for the breakthrough of their armies into the heart of Israel… .The Arab rulers pretend that their objective is limited to reaching the lines of June 1967 but we know their true objective: the total subjugation of the State of Israel.  It is our duty to realize this truth; it is our duty to make it clear to all men of goodwill who tend to ignore this truth.

Begin in 1977 on the refugee situation:

In 1948 on the eve of our independence, five Arab armies invaded us. We defeated them at great human cost. As a result of that aggression, not one but two refugee problems arose – Jewish as well as Arab.  An almost equal number of Jews fled to Israel from Arab and Muslim lands, as did Arabs from here to Arab lands. Hence, a de facto exchange of populations has already taken place.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Each of these examples remains very relevant today.