List of Political Catch Phrases - Israel

Israel

• "הגידו כן לזקן" ("Say Yes to the old man") used during an election campaign in the fifties. The old man is David Ben-Gurion. In Hebrew the phrase (phonetically "hagidu ken lazaken") rhymes.
• "יש גרמניה אחרת" ("There is a new Germany") – said by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion after his historical meeting with Konrad Adenauer, the German Chancellor.
• "הם לא נחמדים" ("They are not so nice") – said by Prime Minister Golda Meir regarding the Israeli Black Panthers protest movement.
• "אברשה שוב הביתה" ("Abrasha, come home") – Said by Prime Minister Itzhak Shamir to MK Avraham (Abrasha) Sharir, as the last had planned to leave the Likud party and join the opposing Labour party as part of "the dirty trick" in 1990.
• "מייד'לע, ראית פעם גבר סורג גרביים? אז אישה לא יכולה להיות טייסת קרב" ("Meidele (Yiddish for "honey"), have you ever seen a man darning socks? So therefore a woman cannot be a combat pilot") – said by former President and former Air Force commandant Ezer Weizman in a phone conversation with Alice Miller, a soldier who successfully petitioned the High Court to force the Israeli Air Force to open its pilots' course to women in 1994.
• "שלום, חבר" ("Goodbye, friend") – said by United States President Bill Clinton at the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin.
• "יתנו, יקבלו. לא יתנו, לא יקבלו" ("If they will give, they will get. If they won't give, they won't get") – used during the 1996 election campaign by Benjamin Netanyahu, at the peak of the Peace Process started after the Oslo Accords.
• "הם מ-פ-ח-ד-י-ם" ("They are s-c-a-r-e-d") – Used several times by Benjamin Netanyahu to ridicule his Labour opponents.
• "?אני לוזר" ("Am I a loser?") – question asked by Shimon Peres in a speech in a Labour Party meeting in 1997, after he lost his 6th election in a row. The crowd shouted "Yes!".
• "אני ראש ממשלה לא פופולרי" ("I'm not a very popular Prime Minister") – said by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert following reports that his approval rate is plummeting.