John Major Quotes
Peacemaking and peacekeeping should run in parallel.
John Major, British Prime Minister (Conservative), Speech, United Nations, January 21, 1992
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In 1799 the same article appeared again under the name of Dr. Benjamin Rush who may have plagiarized the original or, as some argue, may have actually authored the 1792 article.
The documentation of this quotation comes from a memorandum summarizing the meeting written by Presidential aide Harry Hopkins.
She was instrumental in forming the United Nations, but one of its weaknesses was and has been since that it was very difficult and cumbersome for the UN to mount a military force to defend a country or region against aggression. The situation has not improved much on that score since 1948. Israel had just been created by the United Nations, but over a dozen Arab State armies attacked the fledgling Jewish nation. The Israelis, against all odds, not only defended their territory but were able to seize key Arab military and strategic areas. Mrs. Roosevelt, and most of the world, assumed that under the circumstances, the Arabs would negotiate a peace treaty with Israel to regain their land. However, the Arab nations would not recognize the State of Israel and would not even negotiate with the Israelis. ER and most of the world was wrong. Instead, the Arab nations’ strategy was to have a cease fire and build their military strength to attack later in greater force. When that also failed and Israel won the subsequent wars, the Arabs then turned to Terrorism. 60 years later, the Israelis and the Arabs were further apart in many ways than in 1948.
At that time the Israelis had been rebuffed after offing several major peace proposals and most were convinced that the Palestinians were so fractionated that no one would dare sign a peace even giving Palestinians their own state and sharing Jerusalem as the capital. So they just organized around security needs and walling Israel off from terrorist attacks while maintaining the occupation until something radially changes amongst the Palestinians. At that time there was little point to most Israelis to debating terms of a peace treaty as the odds of ever getting one in the next couple of years were about the same as their going to Mars.
Sir John Major KG CH is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Major served in the Thatcher government from 1987 to 1990 as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Foreign Secretary, and was Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon, formerly Huntingdonshire, from 1979 to 2001.
