War & Peace Quote by Moshe Sharett

Sharett’s line lands like a moral audit disguised as a question. “What is our vision on this earth” sounds airy, almost spiritual, and then he drags it down into the blunt inventory of consequences: “war to the end of all generations” and “life by the sword.” The pairing is deliberate. “Vision” is future-facing and civilizational; “sword” is archaic, visceral, and cyclical. He’s forcing a choice between nation-building as a long project and nation-building as permanent mobilization.

As a statesman in the early decades of Israel’s existence, Sharett was speaking inside an argument that never stops replaying: security as necessity versus militarism as identity. His subtext isn’t naive pacifism; it’s a warning about strategic addiction. If you define the collective story as endless war, you don’t just accept violence as a tool, you elevate it into a worldview. “To the end of all generations” is the key phrase: he’s not counting casualties, he’s counting inheritance. What kind of state are you training your children to inhabit?

The rhetorical move is also political jujitsu. By framing militarized life as a “vision,” he exposes how easily fear can masquerade as destiny. The question isn’t only aimed at enemies; it’s aimed inward, at leadership tempted to treat force as the one coherent language of survival. Sharett’s power here is his refusal to argue tactics. He argues the story a society tells itself - and the cost of letting the sword write it.