Politics & Power Quote by Moshe Sharett

Sharett’s line is political realism dressed as diagnosis: “Fear” isn’t just an emotion in Arab politics, it’s the engine that converts uncertainty into collective action. Coming from a Zionist statesman, the move is strategic. He reframes Arab opposition not as irrational hatred but as a rational response to perceived threat. That grants the speaker a veneer of sobriety and even empathy, while quietly narrowing the menu of acceptable Arab motivations. If fear is the “main factor,” then grievances, nationalism, and anti-colonial claims become secondary - symptoms rather than causes.

The second sentence sharpens into something colder: “There is no Arab who is not harmed…” It’s an absolutist formulation that performs two tasks at once. First, it acknowledges - unusually bluntly for official rhetoric - that Jewish immigration and state-building in Palestine would impose material and psychological costs on Arabs, not merely inconvenience them. Second, by making harm universal, it implies that any Arab political response is structurally inevitable, not contingent on leaders or propaganda. That can read as moral candor, but it also functions as pre-emptive exculpation: if conflict is baked in, then responsibility diffuses.

Context matters. Sharett was a pragmatist inside a movement often split between maximalist aspiration and diplomatic manageability. In the years surrounding 1948 and after, Israeli leaders were selling legitimacy abroad while facing hostility in the region. This quote works as a brief for international ears: don’t be surprised by Arab resistance; it’s fear of loss - and that fear will outlast any single negotiation. The subtext is stark: peace won’t come from persuasion alone, because the underlying perception of harm is the politics.