“A romantic relationship requires honesty between a couple.”
“I believe Israel needs branding. I want that the word ‘Israel’ will relate not just to an Israeli soldier or a camel, but Israel as an advanced liberal society with a strong economy and great people.”
“In a democracy, you need to have a strong judicial system. You need freedom of speech, you need art, and you need a free press.”
“In general, I don’t like formality at all.”
“Something happened to the State of Israel. What was morally obvious in 1948 is not so obvious anymore. When the State of Israel was established, it was, for the parents and grandparents of these young Jews, a miracle. It was David and Goliath. We were the just cause. It was about values. We were small, but we were the good guys in the world!”
“The real danger is a politics that buries its head in the sand.”
“Democracy is not only the right to vote, it is also about not resorting to violence in order to reach political goals and respecting agreements signed by former governments.”
“There is an intimacy and trust that is needed between leaders, between their assistants and advisers. Usually, you have the real substance behind closed doors; and the press conferences, you have niceties, nice photo ops.”
“I prefer jeans to a suit, sneakers to high heels, markets to malls.”
“I believe that democracy is about values before it is about voting. These values must be nurtured within society and integrated into the electoral process itself.”
“There is a mutual interest between Israel and the United States of America. It is more than friendship – it is friendship plus mutual interest, and it is bipartisan.”
“After I retire, I have my own vision, which is not connected to the state of Israel. It’s about me, living near the sea, and maybe writing something about the past.”
“You know how my mother and father met? In a train robbery!”
“For me, it is clear that when it comes to the need of Israel to defend itself, the role of the United States of America is crucial.”
“I have come to fight for peace, and I will not give my hand to those who try to turn the word ‘peace’ into a dirty one.”
“The Palestinian national movement is not an Islamic religious movement.”
“The reason for the blockade on Gaza was not to punish the Palestinians but to continue to delegitimize Hamas.”
“The fact that a terrorist was killed, and it doesn’t matter if it was in Dubai or Gaza, is good news to those fighting terrorism.”
“We are fighting to keep Israel a democracy – not just in terms of its electoral system but also in terms of its values.”
“My responsibility is to ask, ‘How can I serve my ideology and my voters?’”
“I didn’t go into politics out of concern for the Palestinians but out of concern for Israel.”
“I may have been born in Tel Aviv, but my umbilical cord emerges from the Temple Mount.”
“Everybody wants to live in peace.”
“What I am trying to say to Israel is, ‘Listen, borders is something that we need, and hopefully, peace is something that we need.’”
“On the right of Israel to exist and to defend itself, there is no opposition in Israel.”
“My husband is in branding. He brands places – cities, institutions.”
“The Iranians are abusing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to gain more support from radical elements in the region.”
“I’m not asking myself, ‘How I can be different from Netanyahu?’ because I am different, and Kadima is different from Likud, by its own nature.”
“The last thing that Israel needs is to be part of the internal agenda in the United States between Republicans and Democrats.”
“I worked in the Mossad for a few years.”
“I think we need to change the system of elections in order to give less power to some sectors in Israeli society.”
“Sept. 11 was a shock to the whole world.”
“I don’t think that everything is a zero-sum game in which, when the president of the United States says something, that means that he is pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli, or vice versa.”
“An Israeli soldier is raised on values of respecting human life, and they don’t change their values when they turn 18 and enter the army.”
“The role of a leader is to create a reality and not to be influenced by polls.”
“Most of the Israelis reside in settlement blocs which will be part of the state of Israel in the future, and they will remain in their homes.”
“Israel needs to change direction, and this is not just political. We’re becoming more closed-in, more isolated, more scared. Those who talk tough are making the State of Israel very weak, very isolated – very Jewish, in the Diaspora-sense, in that ‘everyone is against us.’ We need to get out of this.”
“Relations between countries are built on values and interests and many other things, but at the end of the day, leaders are also only human beings.”
“Hamas’s strategy is resistance and survival. As long as they survive, this is a victory.”
“Hamas does not represent the national aspirations of the Palestinians. It represents extreme Islamic ideas, which they share with Iran, Hezbollah, and Syria.”
“Israel was established as a homeland for the Jewish people and embraced all the Jews who had to leave Arab states. This should be also the true meaning of the future Palestinian state. It should be the answer for the Palestinians wherever they are – those who live in the territories, and those who are being kept as political cards in refugee camps.”
“I arranged the first meeting between Ariel Sharon and the settlers.”
“I am a pretty good lawyer, and I decided to close the office and to enter politics.”
“Supporting the war on terror is not an anti-Palestinian act. It is anti-terror.”
“There is an essential difference between someone who harms a child on purpose and someone who harms a child by accident during combat in civilian territory.”
“Turkey knows the importance of its ties with Israel; it knows it’s in the same moderate camp with Israel, the moderate Palestinians and other Muslim countries, and the threat to Turkey is not from us.”
“A leader in any place must ask himself who he identifies with, with which values, and towards what goals.”
“Something that truly frustrates me is the impression in Israel that when you are talking about security, you are bold; you are tough: this is what we need against all the enemies that we have. And when someone is talking about peace, you know, it’s the naive left wing, soft.”
“I don’t envy my teachers. I used to preach to them.”
“I’m not a person of mentors.”
“When I make decisions, I’m not thinking about my parents. I’m thinking about my children.”
“It’s important to be the gatekeeper against dangerous ideas.”
“My ideology is not connected to the Palestinians.”
“You can’t put your name, recognition, your money in a company without having share in the control.”
“When it comes to matters of religion and state, Bayit Yehudi is more extreme than the ultra-Orthodox.”
“I’ve been involved in ties with elements in the Arab world for years now. They wish to establish relations with Israel, but they cannot do so while there is no peace process.”
“The wise Jewish Israeli must work with the moderate Muslim and the Christian leader of the free world against the crazy Muslims.”
“The attitude of ‘every nation unto itself’ is a destructive one for the future of Israel.”
“I was born in Israel. My parents came in 1925.”
“I want Israel to be a normal state, part of the international community, part of the free world, but unique in terms of the Jewish people. I want both.”
“If Syria wants to be part of the international community, there are some conditions that they have to meet. And the first one is to stop embracing the terrorism.”
“The world cannot afford a nuclear Iran.”
“Politically, the ultraorthodox represent a small portion of the Israeli society.”
“Israel is part of the free world led by the United States, no matter what.”
“The Palestinian conflict is the glass ceiling of Israel’s economy.”
“The Israeli public has been brainwashed into believing that its global isolation stems from delegitimization and anti-Semitism.”
“When we distinguish between Israel’s right to defend itself and settlements, then we legitimize its security needs; when we distinguish between isolated settlements and the blocs, then we legitimize the settlement blocs.”
“It’s not enough to speak loudly and confidently. You have to know how to get the world on your side, to accept Israel’s ideas of security and defending its interests. Netanyahu does not know how to do this.”
“Radical Islamist terror is a crime against the entire free world, including against Israel.”
“The state of Israel, and a government under me, will make it a strategic objective to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza. The means for doing this should be military, economic, and diplomatic.”
“Israel is a country that reacts vigorously when its citizens are fired upon, which is a good thing.”
“Netanyahu’s government and its faulty and politicized priorities are leading Israel into bankruptcy.”
“When I was young, I went to the Sinai and worked as a waitress.”
“Being an Israeli is to know that you have risen from the ashes of those who were killed and knowing you have a responsibility for the coming generations.”
“I am good at persuading people. In convincing the other, I try to start from their point of view so it’s easier for me to find a common denominator.”
“If someone is willing to sell out his principles for the job, he is not worthy of it.”
“The capacity to influence radical groups can diminish significantly once they are viewed as indispensable coalition partners and are able to intimidate the electorate with the authority of the state behind them.”
“Mr. Obama’s call to support genuine democracy has implications for the kinds of elections the international community promotes and endorses.”
“Radical groups can become legitimate political players in the democratic process if they accept core democratic principles and abandon the use of force as a political tool. Or they can maintain armed terrorist militias in order to threaten their neighbors and intimidate their people. The international community should not allow them to do both.”
“The right to love is granted to anyone.”
“I was by Ariel Sharon’s side on the day it was decided to form Kadima. It was founded in aim to create a government of hope and responsibility.”
“The Israeli people deserve better than a life in between rounds of violence.”
“I believe most of the public should be involved in the election of the leadership.”
“There is the worldview of Greater Israel, the worldview of settlements: to send citizens to live in those places. That’s not about security; that’s not about the army. That’s about an ideology that believes we need to stay in all of the Land of Israel. I don’t share that ideology.”
“When you look at the Lebanon-Syria border, you see a porous border despite the fact that you have a U.N. Security Council decision that speaks of an embargo on weapons transfers to Hezbollah.”
“Israel’s security doctrine is not that Israel must invade every place from which a threat to Israel emanates.”
“I want Israel to have borders. For that, I need a map. I need a map on which our borders are specified.”
“Israel has a problem not because of the perception that the entire world is against us, but because of the government’s problematic policies.”
“I resent the idea that Israel is part of the political agenda in United States’ campaigns, really.”
“I don’t question any American president in terms of his commitment to the security of the state of Israel.”
“I hate the idea that talking security is Likud and right wing, and talking about peace is left wing and Labor and Kadima. The whole idea is to find a way to bridge: to find a way to have security and peace together.”
“Sinai is demilitarized in accordance with the Israel-Egypt peace agreement.”
“As leaders, we in Israel must take into account the concerns of diaspora Jewry. Israel is strong enough to take criticism from within the family of Jews who say, ‘OK, we disapprove of Israeli policy, but we stand firm for Israel.’”
“We must draw a distinction between understanding and supporting Israel’s values and existence, and criticising any Israeli government’s policy.”
“Without strong Arab backing, it will be hard, if not impossible, for a Palestinian leader to reach peace with Israel.”
“Wars are not a choice we make for no reason.”
“I know that Israeli soldiers will do everything they can in order to avoid loss of innocent life.”
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