Erika Dreifus

“On Monday, [Mahmoud] Abbas met with the family of Ahed Tamimi, the 17 year old Palestinian girl arrested in December for slapping an Israeli soldier outside her home. Tamimi is currently in prison awaiting her trial later this month, and the video of her assaulting a soldier went viral and made her a worldwide celebrity. While Israelis celebrated the soldier’s restraint in trying his best to ignore Tamimi slapping and pushing him and not responding, Palestinians celebrated Tamimi as a hero courageous enough to stand up to an armed soldier with no hint of fear or concern about the consequences. There is a debate to be had about whether either of these perspectives is correct, but one thing that Tamimi’s actions are indisputably not is non-violent. Tamimi’s newfound fame is in fact a direct result of the fact that she did employ violence, and wasn’t scared off by a soldier much larger than her and carrying a rifle. One might want to call what she did brave or heroic, but nothing about it was peaceful.”

Source: Michael Koplow, “Violence and Non-Violence” (Ottomans and Zionists)

“How do you think Golda Meir would view the current state of Israel?

What would she see as its strengths and weaknesses? What would surprise her most? She would not approve of the current Israeli government or of the great power that the religious right has and continues to accumulate. She was a secular Zionist. She wanted to build a state for the Jewish people that was like all the other states of the world. It was not her intention for it to be a religious state. She did not believe in the greater Israel or that Israel had to conquer, own or keep control of all of Palestine. She felt after the 1967 War that the conquered and captured lands should be used as bargaining points for Israel to trade land for peace. She was not willing to give everything back because she wanted more secure borders, but she was not in favor of Israel keeping control of the entire West Bank. She would have negotiated most of the West Bank away in exchange for peace. She certainly was not a lover of the Arabs or Palestinians, but she was also very pragmatic. I believe that over time she, like Yitzhak Rabin, would have made a deal with the Palestinians and given them their state.”

Source: Marilyn Cooper’s interview with Francine Klagsburn, author of a new biography of Golda Meir (Moment Magazine)