Appropriating Golda Meir for whom?

When writing about Ukraine and Russia, he twisted a famous Israeli saying. Did anyone notice? Naw! Doubt it!

Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna responded on X to the recorded spat between Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy and American President Trump. My article, however, has nothing to do with Estonia or Ukraine or Russia or the USA.

This article is about Israel. It is about plagiarism or, more aptly, appropriation (useful definition here). It is about how the Jews can be used and thrown away. Maybe that’s a bit harsh, but when I first saw it, I felt Golda had been exploited, expropriated, appropriated, plagiarized. I felt a cynical world using one of her pithy sayings as if it meant something — but it meant something only when it was applied to anyone other than Golda’s nation, the Jewish state. And that angered me.

The appropriated saying

Along with a number of other responses to the spat that were noted in The Guardian, I was particularly struck by that attributed to Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna:

The only obstacle to peace is [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s decision to continue his war of aggression. If Russia stops fighting, there will be no war. If Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no Ukraine. Estonia’s support to Ukraine remains unwavering. Time for Europe to step up.

And here is how it appears on Tsahkna’s X account:

He could at least have credited Golda Meir as the author of the original saying, which was:

If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.

Do you know that one?

Now why would Tsahkna not give credit where credit is due?

If not to Golda, then at least to the Jewish state about whom this saying and others derived from it have been its focus.

Not everyone acknowledges the originality of Golda. For example, Goodreads mistakenly attributed the saying to Bibi. But at least the country is correct.

And on 7 Nov 23, Sam Harris wrote: “If the Palestinians put down their weapons, there would be peace; if the Israelis put down their weapons, there would be genocide.” He should have said “no more genocide” because on Oct 7th, there was the beginning of the hoped-for genocide.

This is what the Estonian foreign minister stole. OUR EXPERIENCE. OUR REALITY.

Does Tsahkna acknowledge that Russia stands in for “the Arabs/the Palestinian Arabs/Hamas” and Ukraine for “Israel?” Does he acknowledge that what he says about Russia-Ukraine is true in the case of Israel versus the Arabs who want us dead and gone?

No. Had he or the government in which he serves accepted the truth of the statement, Estonia would not consistently vote against Israel and in favour of the Palestinian Authority in all UN votes related to human rights violations and more.

And quite gallingly, in a recent visit to Israel, Estonian President Alar Karis is documented in a Times of Israel report as openly drawing a parallel between Ukraine and Israel. He is quoted as saying about the Hamas-Israel war:

Though “we know who initiated this attack,” Karis’s call was for renewed efforts for peace and a two-state solution.

What became of knowing what would happen if one side put down its weapons? What DID happen when a ceasefire was in effect until 6:30 am on Oct 7th? A ceasefire supposedly means that both sides put down their weapons, no? I’m tired of these goodie-two-shoes who do not concede what is really going on here.

Even after he visited Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the heavily hit sites, he goes on to say:

“Now when I talk not only to politicians but to people, some people believe in a two-state solution, some people don’t,” he lamented. “From my perspective, we should start from citizens, that they accept each other. What they do need is just accepting human rights, that young people can go to school and get educated, and then you are more educated to properly find a solution to this conflict.” [emphasis added]

Sorry, Karis — starting from the citizens was already tried. Ask the residents of Nir Oz how that worked out for them.

There is no “each other.” There is Israelis accepting the humanity of the Gazans who reject the humanity of the Jews. So who needs to accept human rights, Mr. President of Estonia? Certainly not those you voted against in the UN.

The Estonian foreign minister appropriates Golda’s saying, applying it to Ukraine-and-Russia (a bit ironic in that Golda was born in Kyiv) and the Estonian president does not acknowledge that there is no two-state-solution possible when the Palestinian Authority pays terrorists a salary proportionate to the number of Jews they kill.

I suppose they also think that Israel should continue to compromise with Hamas even after they witnessed the atrocities of Oct 7th and the atrocities committed against the hostages abducted into the tunnels of Gaza.

Is someone going to appropriate this cartoon one day to represent any war except the one the Arabs have been waging against the Jews?

---

Because Israel is not supported on the Substack payment platform, I have set up an alternative for those who want to support my work.

You can make one-time or repeated donations in your own currency using Paypal (Buy me a Coffee, above) or the Ko-fi payment platform here. Israelis can send me a private message for another option.

Articles will always be free for all subscribers but a one-time or repeated donation is a way to help me sustain myself while doing all the work involved in putting these articles together and would be greatly appreciated.

Thank-you to all those who have supported my work by subscribing and/or by donating coffees.