of the State of Israel.
Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel
on March 17, 1969, after serving as Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister. Israel's first and the world's third woman to hold such an office, she was described as the "Iron Lady
" of Israeli politics
years before the epithet became associated with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher
.
My delegation cannot refrain from speaking on this question — we who have such an intimate knowledge of boxcars and of deportations to unknown destinations that we cannot be silent.
Any one who speaks in favor of bringing the Arab refugees back must also say how he expects to take the responsibility for it, if he is interested in the state of Israel. It is better that things are stated clearly and plainly: We shall not let this happen.
How can we return the held territories? There is nobody to return them to.
I have faced difficult problems in the past but nothing like the one I'm faced with now in leading the country.
We don’t thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.
We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon — no alternative.
The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.
It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don’t want victories anymore.
[The Soviet government] is the most realistic regime in the world — no ideals.