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Israel Quotes

We’ve collected the best Israel Quotes from the greatest minds of the world: Ismail Haniyeh, Anthony Weiner, Moshe Sharett, Elie Wiesel, Elizabeth Wurtzel. Use them as an inspiration.

1
In addition to removing our democratically elected government, Israel wants to sow dissent among Palestinians by claiming that there is a serious leadership rivalry among us. I am compelled to dispel this notion definitively.
2
Every dollar that we send in State Department aid or humanitarian aid that saves us from having to get involved with very expensive military actions is a good investment. And frankly, helping Israel fight terrorism in the Middle East is much cheaper than us fighting it here on our shores.
3
I have learned that the state of Israel cannot be ruled in our generation without deceit and adventurism. These are historical facts that cannot be altered.
4
If I were in the government, I would persuade the prime minister to see the beauty in the fact that people see Israel as a haven – from their sadness to their hope.
5
Judaism will be enmeshed in pride and shame for as long as it endures. But to endure as a country, Israel must shun both these tendencies.
6
It is crystal clear to me that if Arabs put down a draft resolution blaming Israel for the recent earthquake in Iran it would probably have a majority, the U.S. would veto it and Britain and France would abstain.
7
I am not, and have never been, in favor of boycotting Israel.
8
Aside from the states, Israel’s my favorite country. I love it there. I still go there to visit.
9
No one is speaking about the Arab citizens of Israel.
10
I will say that I think Israel enjoys strong bipartisan support in the United States. It’s really above and beyond American politics.
11
We must work together to strengthen Jerusalem as a modern, open capital and to foster welcoming, inclusive communities across the Jewish world. It is vital to the health and vibrancy of the global Jewish future and to ensuring a strong Israel.
12
While criticism of Israel is legitimate and justifiable, it cannot be an excuse – in any way, shape or form – for anti-Semitism.
13
There is a clear interest within ISIS to drag Israel into a war with them. If they do so, they will be able to paint Israel as having an alliance with the states fighting against them.
14
When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, the U.N. vetoed several resolutions right away, calling for an end to the fighting and so on, and that was a hideous invasion.
15
What matters to the evangelical community is Supreme Court justices, economy, religious liberty, Israel, lower courts, human trafficking and abortion.
16
When my grandchildren are older and my great-grandchildren start growing up, first of all, I want them to be in Israel. I don’t want them to leave the country because they have no choice.
17
The win-win situation is the basis for America’s entire business world. Instead of wasting our time attempting to defeat each other, let’s find a way that will make both of us gain and go home satisfied. In Israel, it doesn’t work because the only meaning of victory is seeing your rival‘s body lying trampled on the floor.
18
There’s no preventative measure between the Palestinians, between those terrorists to the state of Israel.
Silvan Shalom
19
You don’t have people chanting ‘Death to America’ in Israel.
20
We have a close, unshakable bond between the United States and Israel, and between the American and Israeli people. We share common values and a commitment to a democratic future for the world, and we are both committed to a two-state solution. But that doesn’t mean that we’re going to agree.
21
I was 13 when my parents moved to Israel, and I was put in a Scottish mission school. Ninety-nine percent of the children were Israeli… Suddenly, I found myself speaking the wrong language, dressed in the wrong clothes, picked up by the wrong mode of transportation – an embassy car instead of a bus.
22
Israel’s capital will never again be a divided city, a city with a wall at its center, a city in which two flags fly. This city, will, in its entirety, absorb immigrants, welcome pilgrims and be the eternal capital of Israel forever.
23
Israel is a country that respects freedom – freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of worship.
24
As prime minister, I changed Israel’s position on peace negotiations. I made it clear that we are ready to go along with Resolution 242 of the U.N. Security Council, which specifies withdrawal to secure and recognized boundaries in the context of peace.
25
Given the events of even the 19th century, Zionism was inevitable. Given the events of the 20th century, Israel was inevitable.
26
The western mantra is that Israel seeks negotiations without preconditions, while the Palestinians refuse. The opposite is more accurate.
27
So I think we should stay focused on the real problem in the Middle East. It’s not Israel. It’s these dictatorships that are developing nuclear weapons with the specific goal of wiping Israel away.
28
Many occasions I’ve sat down with Israelis to say, where do you see your country in 10 years time, and work me back, so we can figure out the synergies and the connections between Israel and the rest of the Arab world. No Israeli has ever been able to answer that question.
29
Israel always has to be in a position to defend itself against any adversary and against any threat of any kind.
30
I am deeply concerned that, without peace and a two-state solution, the Jewish and democratic nature of Israel is in danger. That’s why I have opposed Israel’s settlement policy since 1973, and that’s why I have favored a two-state solution since 1967.
31
The question is no longer whether the United States should contribute to assuring Israel’s survival and prosperity; that goes without saying.
George Ball
32
I don’t think I’ve ever had a minute off in Israel. I’ve been completely and utterly devoted to what Hanadiv does. I’m not saying I’m a good guy for that. It’s just the way the dice have fallen.
Jacob Rothschild
33
Israel desperately needs peace if it is to come anywhere close to being the ‘light unto nations‘ of Jewish dreams.
34
You have to show Israel that it’s not going to be forced to do things it doesn’t want to do and can’t do.
35
We in Congress stand by Israel. In Congress, we speak with one voice on the subject of Israel.
36
The U.S. and Israel probably lead the way in terms of venture investment in technologies companies focused on the security paradigm. That is quite encouraging.
37
Israel has always been and must always be America’s strongest ally.
38
We need to save the education system. We need to remove education from the framework of the political parties that rule in the State of Israel. We need to increase the allocation of long-term national resources to education and never touch them – no matter what.
39
I’m not a single-issue person, but I spend so much time on Israel because it is so unfairly condemned around the world.
40
Israel has a fantastic film industry, and many times we are known for our political films or films that have to do with the army. I love the fact that we can show that there are films coming out of Israel that are just for fun.
Yael Grobglas
41
It’s overwhelmingly in the self-interest of the United States of America to have a secure, democratic friend, a strategic partner like Israel.
42
Israel can’t make peace without the clear support of the United States.
43
Israel was founded as a refuge for the Jewish people, but today it isn’t a safe place. It is safer to be Jew in New York.
44
The Iranian regime gives financial support to terrorist organizations all over the world, denies the Holocaust, and calls for the wiping the state of Israel from the map, while developing long-range missiles and trying to obtain nuclear weapon.
Moshe Katsav
45
If America would really stand behind the two-state solution, they could make real pressure on Israel.
46
Foreigners who speak Arabic in the Middle East are often assumed to be working for the C.I.A. or Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad.
47
On the other hand, the vast majority of all westernized countries, including every single European country along with Israel and Japan, do not offer birthright citizenship.
48
One of the greatest fears of the Arab world is a direct conflict between Israel and the Islamic State.
49
I urge the senior members of the political system to form as broad a government as possible that would unite the moderate forces from the Left and Right so that we will be able to bring about real change in the State of Israel.
50
Israel has a security concern involving geography. But geography does not have the same value it did in 1967.
51
I hope that France – and all of Europe – we would take an initiative for the year 2012 to be the year of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Nicolas Sarkozy
52
We need to expose the lies and educate the Palestinian public that Israel is not the enemy. Israel actually helps the people of Gaza more than anybody else. We need the average Palestinian to see this clearly.
Mosab Hassan Yousef
53
The idea that all Israelis are villains is a childish idea. Israel is the most deeply divided, argumentative society. You’ll never find two Israelis that agree with one another – it’s hard to find even one who agrees with himself or herself.
54
It should be known that Israel is based on treachery.
55
Which Israel should we recognize? The Israel of 1917; the Israel of 1936; the Israel of 1948; the Israel of 1956; or the Israel of 1967? Which borders and which Israel? Israel has to recognize first the Palestinian state and its borders and then we will know what we are talking about.
56
The Tower of David is important for Israel’s heritage and existence because it is more than a tower, it is a symbol. It is more important than the Azrieli Towers.
57
We of the modern age are a bridge between the old human and the new one. We still have the mentality of the old human – a slave mentality, like the Children of Israel in Egypt: too controlled, full of fear.
Bernard Werber
58
You know, I get much more Jewish in Israel because I like the way that religion is done there.
59
Given the genocidal belligerence of Iranian threats against Israel, it is hard to take issue with Israel’s right to preemptive self-defense.
60
Most governments are pragmatic, most people are logical. There are pockets of extremism in Israel, in the U.S. and in the Muslim world. But we have to fight them with reason, with logic and with compassion.
61
Without Hitler, the State of Israel probably would not exist today. To that extent he was probably the Jews‘ greatest friend.
David Irving
62
My greatest hope is that we will see a day when Israel will stand tall as a symbol of belonging across the Jewish world, and when global citizens will look to Jerusalem as the vibrant, modern, inclusive capital of Israel.
63
I am not a lover of Israel, of course. I have no reason to be. But I don’t hate Jews.
Mahmoud Darwish
64
I think in Israel there is so much talent in the TV world because there’s less movies done.
Ayelet Zurer
65
People are feeling and sensing a return of anti-Semitism – even in Europe, which, seventy years after the Holocaust, is a very scary thing. I think they are feeling that Israel is very isolated and doesn’t always get what they see as fair treatment in the European media.
66
In 1975 I was among a group of blacks who formed the Black Americans in Support of Israel Committee.
67
There are only two ways to remove the president – if he violates the constitution or commits high treason. How could anyone accuse me of treason after I had terminated Israel’s occupation of South Lebanon in 2000.
Emile Lahoud
68
Israel will not tolerate a situation in which Iran has effective control of non-conventional weapons that can be used directly against the state of Israel.
69
Only weeks after Oslo began, when nearly all the world and most of Israel was drunk with the idea of peace, I argued that a Palestinian society not constrained by democratic norms would be a fear society that would pose a grave threat to Israel.
70
I never thought I’d live to see the day that an American administration would denounce the state of Israel for rebuilding Jerusalem.
71
Bringing an end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians may help the young Arab generation to realise their aspirations. Israel is more than willing to offer our experience in building a modern economy in spite of limited resources to the whole region.
72
I was born in Israel. My parents came in 1925.
73
Leaned on by Turkey and understandably wary of false equivalences – for not every death is a massacre, and not every war is genocidal – Israel connives in Armenian genocide denial.
74
The main points were: one, the amount of Israel’s nuclear weapons, how many Israel had, that no one could predict or know, including the CIA. They were thinking about a number like 10 or 15. But I came out with a number between 150 to 200.
75
The Knesset members – Jews and Arabs – don’t represent the state of Israel. The government is the one that represents the state of Israel officially.
76
I’m of Russian-Jewish background. Like many Soviet Jews, my parents were engineers. My family migrated from Ukraine to Israel when I was six. They arrived in Israel with very little… Within a year of arriving in Israel, the Yom Kippur War happened.
Sasha Roiz
77
I don’t think Israel can accept an Iranian terror base next to its major cities any more than the United States could accept an al Qaeda base next to New York City.
78
Abu Mazen has no more hope for Netanyahu‘s approach. He’s searching for a way to establish the Palestinian state. He doesn’t want a militarized struggle with Israel.
79
American foreign policy has been – and must continue to be – based on unequivocal support for Israel’s right to exist and to be free from terror.
Howard Berman
80
I think some of this fascination with the ‘Arab Spring‘ is just a grand experiment with Israel’s survival.
81
The Holocaust is a central event in many people’s lives, but it also has become a metaphor for our century. There cannot be an end to speaking and writing about it. Besides, in Israel, everyone carries a biography deep inside him.
Aharon Appelfeld
82
As one who participated in all the wars of the state of Israel, I saw the horror of wars. I saw the fear of wars. I saw my best friends being killed in battles. I was seriously injured twice.
83
As far as YU faculty and students are concerned, the love for Israel is very strong. Probably about three thousand of our graduates have settled in Israel. On average, every year 650 male and female students study in Israel for a minimum of one year.
Norman Lamm
84
Israel reoccupied the cities of the West Bank by a unilateral action, and reestablished the civil and military occupation by a unilateral action, and it is the one that determines whether or not a Palestinian citizen has the right to reside in any part of the Palestinian Territory.
85
I want people to have a good impression of Israel. I don’t feel like I’m an ambassador for my country, but I do talk about Israel a lot – I enjoy telling people about where I come from and my religion.
86
The first time someone tried to share the Gospel with me, I naively explained that I was Jewish and born in Israel, thank you… This was a big mistake. In certain parts of Christian America, admitting I was an Israeli-born Jew turned me into walking catnip.
87
Let me be clear: I unequivocally support a two-state solution as the path to resolution of the Israel and Palestinian conflict, with Israel as the national homeland for the Jewish people. Moreover, I reject the demonization and de-legitimization of Israel represented by the BDS narrative and campaign.
88
Israel has a sizeable nuclear arsenal and could retaliate if it were attacked.
Stephen M. Walt
89
If there’s one country that can be trusted to understand the complexity of history, it’s Israel.
Donald Tusk
90
The most vexing problem Israel faces is its relations with its neighbors. From the inception of the state until today, Israelis have felt besieged, surrounded by enemies who want to make them disappear.
91
For an artist to go and play in a country that occupies other people’s land and oppresses them, the way Israel does, is plain wrong. They should say no.
92
The settlement of the Land of Israel is the essence of Zionism. Without settlement, we will not fulfill Zionism. It’s that simple.
93
I think that life in Israel is sometimes bigger than the movies.
94
We have peace with Israel. We’re actually the last man standing. So there is going to be immense pressure and people asking, ‘Why are we having this relationship when it’s not benefiting anybody?’ Obviously, my answer is you always benefit from peace.
95
I think the attraction to Israeli women stems from the fact that we’re exotic and the fact that there are many talented and beautiful women in Israel. I think that there is also greater awareness of Israel than before in the movie industry.
Bar Paly
96
And if we are honest we have to make a distinction between a democratic Israel that wants to live in peace and the terrorists who want Israel wiped out. The Israelis were told to give up land for peace; they gave up the land, but got no peace.
97
From the U.S. point of view, negotiations are, in effect, a way for Israel to continue its policies of systematically taking over whatever it wants in the West Bank, maintaining the brutal siege on Gaza, separating Gaza from the West Bank and, of course, occupying the Syrian Golan heights, all with full U.S. support.
98
It is a relatively small number of people who want to impose their will by the use of terror on the rest of civilization, who have got a program. It’s not blind violence. It’s with a purpose. They want to destroy the state of Israel. They want every westerner out of the Arab countries, Middle East and elsewhere.
John Reid
99
I never thought that Syria and Israel should engage in a violent confrontation because I don’t think that there is any particular interest for any of us to do it.
100
The Obama administration has consistently refused to recognize Jerusalem as Israeli territory, let alone as the capital of Israel.
101
I’ve always thought that if Israel really wanted to solve the problem, they’d just start tomorrow and push right to the Jordan River, and anything in their way goes. They don’t need America or someone else to help.
Bruce Dern
102
My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin – Binyamin – the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and there’s been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since.
103
You want a political culture that works to create conditions under which an economy can thrive? Since signing the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, Israel has spent two decades working to unshackle its economy from its socialist roots, with remarkable results.
104
I am a Zionist, an ardent supporter of Israel, its defender when I deem Israel to be right and its critic when I deem it to be wrong.
105
We’ve always had a dual role in the region – friend of Israel, and honest broker. We’ve given up the honest broker role completely.
106
I challenge the homes of Israel to display on their walls great quotations and scenes from the Book of Mormon.
107
In my own view, Hamas‘s frustration derives from a lack of legitimization by Israel and by much of the world. It is this frustration that leads them to such destructive desperation. That’s why we need to grant them status as a legitimate enemy – before we talk about an agreement or, alternatively, about a frontal war.
108
I’m Jewish. That’s all. So I am in exile all the time. Wherever we go, we are in exile. Even in Israel, we are in exile.
Chantal Akerman
109
Since its very inception, Israel has been a threat.
110
Peace is important for Israel.
111
A diplomatic solution that puts significant and verifiable constraints on Iran’s nuclear program represents the best and most sustainable chance to ensure that America, Israel, the entire Middle East will never be menaced by a nuclear-armed Iran.
112
Israel has created a new image of the Jew in the world – the image of a working and an intellectual people, of a people that can fight with heroism.
David Ben-Gurion
113
My children receive education that greatly emphasizes the fact they are part of a human group that has tradition, collective memory, and a state. I am a great believer in the need for Israel to be a Jewish state. I certainly believe my children will pass that on to their children.
114
Eventually, I moved from a place of anger toward the Jews of Israel toward a place of embrace.
115
The State of Israel can be proud of what we’re doing.
116
We repeat today that we are with the establishment of a Palestinian state on any liberated part of Palestinian land that is agreed upon by the Palestinian people, without recognizing Israel or conceding any inch of historical Palestine.
117
In Israel, if a person doesn’t agree with you, she just says no. In Alabama, someone would say, ‘I’ll think about it.’ We would take that literally. So, if you ask for a favor and someone says they’ll think about it, they’re really not thinking about it.
Odeya Rush
118
Israel fights back, which is very much at odds with the Jewish instinct to discuss and deconstruct everything until action itself seems senseless.
119
Rather than undermining the Palestinian Authority, it is in Israel’s interests to strengthen it by… continuing to transfer Palestinian tax revenues and pursuing other avenues of cooperation.
120
There is a danger in monotheism, and it’s called idolatry. And we know the prophets of Israel were very, very concerned about idolatry, the worship of a human expression of the divine.
121
I’ve spoken several times with Prime Minister Erdogan about relations between Turkey and Israel. I’m pleased that, following President Obama‘s visit to Israel, talks between Israel and Turkey are again taking place and hope that relations between them will further improve in the interest of both countries.
122
After 1957, Israel had to wait 10 full years for its flag to fly again over that liberated portion of the homeland.
123
No border that touches Israel is always secure.
124
But Hezbollah now has reared its ugly head in a way that threatens the entire free world. And they want, by their own charter and definition, the destruction of Israel and Christians. That is the truth. That is in their charter.
125
We want to see Israel withdraw from our territory. But we don’t want to be accountable vis-a-vis Israel on the security basis, because we don’t see, in the absence of a peace agreement, that Lebanon can really be accountable to Israel if anything happens.
Rafik Hariri
126
The actions of the terrorist organizations, Hezbollah, in Lebanon, and Hamas, in Gaza, against Israel are unconscionable. Instead of working towards peace, these terrorist organizations have chosen to perpetuate the violence.
127
Everybody on this floor wants to send the same loud and clear message: that Congress is united in its opposition to terror and we are all deeply concerned about the future and security of our close friend and ally, Israel.
Earl Blumenauer
128
I have on my wall right now a front page of the ‘Journal‘ from January 1991, when I co-wrote a front-page story about Iraq firing missiles at Israel. By October, I was writing about tech products.
129
Israel has an important principle: It is only Israel that is responsible for our security.
130
If I have to advise our brothers in France, I’ll tell them one thing – move to Israel, as early as possible. I say that to Jews all around the world, but there I think it’s a must and they have to move immediately.
131
Most students have thoughts about emigrating to Israel. A significant number go on aliyah. We are proud of our Israel programs, which come at a considerable cost to the university.
Norman Lamm
132
Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories.
133
I met my husband Itzik when I got back home to Israel from Oxford in 2002. He is my Internet-of-all-Things.
134
Cabinet resolutions approving mass releases of terrorists deal a mortal blow to the status of Israel’s judges and courts.
135
If one accepts Hezbollah’s self-description as a resistance movement, in which case one must, in light of the fact that Hezbollah never ceases to provoke, view Israel’s mere existence as a continuing act of aggression, then Hezbollah has indeed shown that it can initiate conflict, resist, and survive.
136
And then there’s Israel – a lot of people support Israel, and it’s important to Israel to take out Iraq. So it’s all mixed together. It’s a combination of motives.
137
Hamas, also elected to governmental leadership in Palestine, includes the jihadists, people who have declared war on the United States of America and its ally, Israel.
138
The one thing that I’m absolutely sure about is that the people of Gaza aren’t going anywhere. And neither are the people of Israel.
139
If we pulled out of Iraq tomorrow, Islamic jihadism is on the rise. And they continue, as we see in Lebanon, to seek to destroy the State of Israel and seek to drive America back and bring us to our knees. We must stand tall and straight.
140
Those who liberated the South from Israel must show allegiance to Lebanon.
Walid Jumblatt
141
Our forces saved the remnants of the Jewish people of Europe for a new life and a new hope in the reborn land of Israel. Along with all men of good will, I salute the young state and wish it well.
142
For the Arabs in Israel there is always a tension between nationality and identity.
Mahmoud Darwish
143
God permits war in order that men may bear the consequences of their sins as punishment. How clearly this is shown time and time again in the story of the children of Israel!
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
144
I feel like the history between Israel and Palestine has a lot in common with the history between India and Pakistan.
145
Israel’s doors are open to collaboration with Bulgaria.
146
However, there is no legal and legitimate state called Israel.
147
Soldiers of Israel, we have no aims of conquest. Our purpose is to bring to naught the attempts of the Arab armies to conquer our land.
Moshe Dayan
148
With the common Iranian threat bringing the Sunni Arab world and Israel closer together, an Israeli-Palestinian peace would go a long way in improving relations and rebuffing Iran’s regional ambitions.
149
Wow, bad news. Mr. Obama now hates Israel because the Israelis want to build 1,600 apartments in their own capital city, Jerusalem. Russia hates Israel, too. So do the Europeans. So does Ban Ki-moon, a Korean who is secretary-general of the UN.
150
The government of Israel doesn’t like the kinds of things I say, which puts them into the same category as every other government in the world.
151
People in Israel are sick and tired of the old politics.
152
Many of the Europeans who want Israel to go away don’t even know why they do. Nearly a third of those interviewed concede they have no idea what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about. It’s enough to know that Israelis are Jews.
153
Each and every day, Israel’s very existence is at stake.
154
I’m for Israel’s right to exist.
155
To deal with COVID-19, countries like India, Brazil, Jordan and Thailand are cutting press freedom and freedom of expression. In nations like Israel, South Korea and the U.S., intrusive surveillance has been imposed to track the movement of citizens, at the expense of human rights.
156
You can’t have a discussion about Israel and the region without including Iran and their nuclear ambitions.
Peter MacKay
157
Israel is slightly smaller than New Jersey. Moses in effect led the tribes of Israel out of the District of Columbia, parted Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, and wandered for forty years in Delaware.
158
I’m a supporter of Israel, always have been.
159
First of all, Arafat is wrong. Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, will never be divided, and will remain the capital of the State of Israel, the capital of the Jewish people, for ever and ever.
160
A lasting two-state solution requires two credible partners, and not just one side – Israel – taking superficial steps simply to placate world opinion.
161
Israel is a lighthouse and the only democracy in a dark and tyrannical region. It’s part of us, of our European identity.
162
Osama bin Laden, the person, more likely serves the function of a stand-in. Compare the new terrorists with partisans or conventional terrorists in Israel. These people often fight in a decentralized manner in small, autonomous units, too.
163
Israel gives the West Bank water twice a week! One way of promoting good would be not to ration water.
164
As Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak have repeatedly said, the intelligence and security relationship between the United States and Israel at present is unprecedented. It has never been stronger.
165
The missile that downed the Malaysian plane, they say, is a Russian-made missile. But the weapons that are used in the barbarism in the barbaric act against the Palestinians were made by the West, and nobody is blaming them. Nobody talks about it; not even the U.N. Security Council can pass a resolution against Israel!
Yahya Jammeh
166
The principles governing Western democracies, of which Israel rightly considers itself a part, are based on the assurance that everyone has a vote, but also that the minority needs to yield to the wishes of the majority.
167
While in Israel, Mitt Romney said something every sane person knows to be true: There is great cultural and political meaning in the fact that Israel has prospered while the Palestinians have festered.
168
In 1998, I received treatment for my knee by an Israeli therapist. We spoke about Israel and I mentioned ‘Scooterman’ and he just froze. It was like he had met Elvis. I thought he was kidding me and then he called his brother, they yelled to each other over the phone, and then I believed him.
Gary David Goldberg
169
War criminals in the U.S. and Israel are not punished: no international court has the courage to put them on trial.
170
Forty percent of my portfolio is in the U.S. In the rest of the world, most of the places I invest in or invested in are Brazil, Russia, Germany with a little bit of Turkey, China, India, France and Israel sprinkled in there.
Fabrice Grinda
171
I often hear them accuse Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem. That’s like accusing America of Americanizing Washington, or the British of Anglicizing London. You know why we’re called ‘Jews’? Because we come from Judea.
172
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has denounced negotiation with Iran as a ‘historic mistake’ that is making the world ‘a more dangerous place.’ His partners in Washington vigorously echo that view.
173
The only thing chicken about Israel is their soup.
Bob Hope
174
What could become a danger to world peace is Iran’s nuclear program and the country’s open threat to annihilate Israel.
175
I am opposed to any state with an ethnic character, not only to Israel.
176
You still can’t find Israel on a map of the Middle East in a Palestinian schoolbook.
177
I have always thought that Israel, as an independent and sovereign nation, had a right to defend itself.
Don Nickles
178
Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury.
179
Identifying Israel with Jewry obscures the existence of the small but important post-Zionist movement in Israel, including the philosophers Adi Ophir and Anat Biletzki, the sociologist Uri Ram, the professor of theatre Avraham Oz and the poet Yitzhak Laor.
180
Israel will not tolerate Iran developing nuclear power, even if Iran claims it is for peaceful purposes. If there is an attack, oil prices will go through the roof.
181
At the age of nineteen and a half, I went to the Land of Israel to till its soil and live by the labour of my hands. As I did not find work, I sought my livelihood elsewhere.
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
182
Israel is an ally of the United States, and I think as much as you would look to your neighbor to your friends to live out the same values as you are, we want to make sure that our allies are living out the same values that we push for here.
183
Christianity emerged from the religion of Israel. Or rather, it has as its background a persistent strain in that religion. To that strain Christians have looked back, and rightly, as the preparation in history for their faith.
184
I was with a folk trio back in ’63 and ’64, and we traveled all across North Africa, Israel, and Europe.
Creed Bratton
185
I am 73 years old. I was born in Jerusalem. I’m the first prime minister of Israel to be born here. I am the only former general to become a prime minister.
186
The Psalms, the anthology of the hymns of Israel, are still used by Christians.
187
In America, unlike England, unlike Israel, unlike Japan, other democracies, we have elections that have staggered terms.
188
The people of Israel have lived 3,700 years without a memorandum of understanding with America and will continue to live without it another 3,700 years.
189
It would be a mistake to link anything that Israel does to a certain circumstance. And it is a mistake to feel comfortable in any circumstance just because Israel did not act on it.
190
Our two party platforms were emphatic about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel. For the Obama administration to remove this language from the Democratic Party platform drives a wedge into one of the few issues that our two parties agreed on.
191
The banding together by the nations of the world against Israel is the guarantee that their time of destruction is near and the final redemption of the Jew at hand.
192
The United States is a strong and ardent ally of Israel. The fact of the matter is that friends can disagree. I think what’s important is that world leaders are able to sit down with one another, have frank conversations and move forward.
193
When I was born here on one of the farms in Israel, my childhood, I never thought for one day that we will not be living together with Arabs.
194
Israel would not do that, both because we cannot afford to be accused by the world of aggression and because we cannot, for security and social reasons, absorb in our midst a substantial Arab population.
195
In fact, the Iraqi foreign minister admitted in March 2003 that Iraqi funds were sent to families of Palestinian suicide bombers who attacked and killed innocent Israeli citizens, and also 12 Americans in Israel in 2003.
196
The state of Israel seems to owe its very existence to the American Jewish vote, while at the same time consigning the non-religious to political oblivion.
197
To the extent that Israel does face threats, like from say Hamas or Hezbollah, those are threats that do not jeopardise Israel’s existence.
Stephen M. Walt
198
ISIS and radical Islam have declared war on us not because of anything we have done – not because we are a friend to Israel and not because we have not yet toppled the bloody Syrian dictator Assad. ISIS and radical Islamists hate us for who we are. The irony is, we ourselves do not know who we are.
199
Israel cannot afford to stand against the entire world and be denounced as the aggressor.
Moshe Dayan
200
There is a school in Israel called Hand in Hand which I support. There Arab and Jewish students study together on a daily basis.
201
From the day I started to think politically and to develop my own moral values, from my earliest youth, I have been an ardent defender of Israel.
202
That is why if Lebanon concludes a peace agreement with Israel and brings that accord to the Parliament our deputies will reject it; Hezbollah refuses any conciliation with Israel in principle.
203
The NSA and Israel wrote Stuxnet together.
204
Unlike Hezbollah, Israel’s more modest aim is to survive, and that it has done.
205
Egypt has been a partner of the United States over the last 30 years, has been instrumental in keeping the peace in the Middle East between Egypt and Israel, which is a critical accomplishment that has meant so much to so many people.
206
I don’t want to govern the Palestinians. I don’t want them as subjects of Israel or as citizens of Israel. I want them to have their own independent state but a demilitarized state.
207
Other countries, such as Israel, successfully employ behavior detection techniques at their airports, but the bloated, ineffective bureaucracy of TSA has produced another security failure for U.S. transportation systems.
208
Certainly the international community is putting a lot of pressure on Iran and making clear that its nuclear program must stop. If it stops with the sanctions, the combinations of sanctions, diplomacy, other pressures, I, as the prime minister of Israel, will be the happiest person in the world.
209
Jewish existence in the Land of Israel depends only on the Jews, and on what the Jews think of themselves.
210
There is no prospect that the United States will say to Israel, ‘You do such and such and we’ll not support you in your security.’
211
On the other hand, we have in Israel, an Israeli government which has been elected by the Israeli people. Their political agenda is not for peace. They are from the camp anti-peace.
Rafik Hariri
212
The United States and Israel have a unique relationship based on our mutual commitment to democracy, freedom, and peace. Therefore, just as our commitment to these principles must be steadfast, so must our support for Israel.
213
It is important that the right of Israel to exist should be respected and also the viable Palestinian authorities, in terms of political and financial situation, be supported so that both can live side by side in peace and security. That is a two-state solution.
214
I hit the third rail. You cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive.
215
I simply cannot see how denying chemotherapy treatment for Palestinian children increases Israel’s security or advances U.S. national interests.
216
In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
David Ben-Gurion
217
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.
218
Anti-Semitic insults by ‘Svoboda’ have caused outrage on number of occasions both in Ukraine and in Israel.
219
We have organized lobbyists in favor of Israel. You can’t open your mouth. I can call the president of the United States anything in the book, but if you say one thing about Israel, and you’re off limits.
220
I believe India and Israel should focus on building bilateral relations on the basis of shared perspectives and commonalities between our two democracies. This has to be a forward-looking exercise rather than harking back to perceptions of the past.
221
Since Israel is a democratic state surrounded by essentially undemocratic states which have sworn her destruction, those interested in democracy everywhere must support Israel’s existence.
222
If history remembers me at all, in any way, I hope it will be as a man who loved the Land of Israel and watched over it in every way he could, all his life.
223
My goal is always to keep support for Israel a bi-partisan issue and never make a national election any kind of referendum on Israel.
224
I don’t know that there is one serious American representative that will advise Israel to sit with a terrorist government and negotiate with them.
225
I don’t think a wise thing at this moment is for Israel to launch a military attack on Iran.
226
If I wasn’t going to live in Israel, I had to live in New York.
227
The Bush Administration‘s failure to be consistently involved in helping Israel achieve peace with the Palestinians has been both wrong for our friendship with Israel, as well as badly damaging to our standing in the Arab world.
228
Until 1956, America treated Israel not much differently from other friendly states.
George Ball
229
Occupation is the Palestinian people’s tragedy, but also Israel’s present. We must liberate both people from the occupation.
230
I volunteered on a farming community in Israel for two years when I was a teenager. One of the jobs involved clearing out a massive warehouse full of chickens ready for the abattoir. The smell of 40,000 chickens in 45C is awful.
231
As soon as, say, Saddam Hussein started bombing Israel with Scuds, everyone was like, ‘Poor Israel.’ But when Israel retaliates – and most of the time they then win – people turn against them.
232
The most important sign in Matthew has to be the restoration of the Jews to the land in the rebirth of Israel.
Hal Lindsey
233
I think president after president has always stood behind Israel. We always will. They’re our ally there. And we have to do whatever we can help them to protect their citizens.
Dutch Ruppersberger
234
The Holocaust only emerged in American life after Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six Day war against its Arab neighbours.
235
For the earliest period of the history of Israel, all that precedes the building of the temple, not a trace can be found of any sanctuary of exclusive legitimacy.
Julius Wellhausen
236
We know that 99.9% of Arab-Israelis are loyal to Israel.
237
Several hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs live in slums known as refugee camps in Gaza, Judea, and Somalia. Attempts by Israel to rehabilitate and oust them have been defeated by Arab objections. Nor has their fate been any better in Arab states.
238
There’s no fun in a bag if it’s not kicked around so that it looks as if the cat’s been sitting on it – and it usually has. The cat may even be in it! I always put on stickers and beads and worry beads. You can get them from Greece, Israel, Palestine – from anywhere in the world.
239
A small country like Israel has compulsory military training. But countries like India, that are so much bigger, have no compulsory military training, so people don’t understand how the military functions. They have no knowledge of how it works, no respect for it.
240
Arafat rejected the deal because, as a dictator who had directed all his energies toward strengthening the Palestinians hatred toward Israel, Arafat could not afford to make peace.
241
I don’t have any interest to go to Israel. I don’t think I’d ever have a cause to go.
242
I particularly love Israel. I’ve had fantastic experiences there.
243
If Hamas continues to threaten the security of the state of Israel, I believe Israel has the ability and the capacity to control the borders and cut off the weapons supply.
Mosab Hassan Yousef
244
We plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem.
245
I think we need a public, strategic, cooperative relationship with Israel.
246
We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel.
247
I defend Israel’s right to exist, to defend themselves, to not let themselves be exterminated a second time.
248
My father worked for the railroad, and whenever a train crashed, we would go as a family and steal food from the boxcars. One year we stole a case of butterscotch pudding that was for export to Israel. It took us years to get through.
249
It was no accident that just minutes after Israel became a nation, the United States… became the first nation in the world to recognize what was prophesized throughout the Old Testament about Israel returning after its absence.
250
A visit to Israel is always an experience in cognitive dissonance. The Israel you personally see and hear is so completely different from the Israel you read and hear about in the media.
251
Israel is too attached to America, too influenced by America. It should be connected to Europe. America is based on mythology – the free man, the individual, the open frontier. Europe is more conscious of history. Take Britain and Shakespeare. You shape your identity through history.
252
Israel has incredible entrepreneurial spirit and a deep bench of technology talent.
Roelof Botha
253
On 6 October 1973, the Yom Kippur war broke out between a coalition of Arab states and Israel. At 6 A.M. that morning, Kissinger, asleep in the Waldorf, was taken by surprise by the Arab attack – as were the CIA and the rest of the world.
254
When the President of Iran talks about removing Israel from the face of the Earth and is building nuclear bombs with a range of 3000km, you have to be worried.
255
I have been defending Israel’s right to exist, and to defend itself against terrorism, for many years-on college campuses, in television appearances and in debate.
256
It cannot be too often stressed that Israel had no credible pretext for its 2008-9 attack on Gaza, with full U.S. support and illegally using U.S. weapons.
257
Look, Israel doesn’t intend to introduce nuclear weapons, but if people are afraid that we have them, why not? It’s a deterrent.
258
The idea that the rest of the world was somehow being held hostage by the Arab-Israeli conflict once had a minimal basis in reality. In the first 20 years of Israel’s existence, every Arab country was in an active state of war with the Jewish state.
259
I never believed that Israel had the right to exist at all.
260
Second point is no one here could predict or know that Israel was involved or started producing the hydrogen bomb – the most advanced and powerful atomic bomb that can kill millions of people.
261
I want to do everything in my power to ensure the equality between all movements of Judaism in the state of Israel: Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform. In conversions, in budgets, in the eyes of the law. No one can claim ownership over the Jewish God.
262
Our Christian conviction is that Christ is also the messiah of Israel. Certainly it is in the hands of God how and when the unification of Jews and Christians into the people of God will take place.
263
Israel is a piece of real estate that neither Jew or Arab will let go of; neither will leave these shores. And so they will have to learn to live together.
264
The historic nature of Israel’s struggle for self-determination, freedom, and prosperity underscores the gravity of their circumstances and fortifies my commitment to America’s responsibility as their ally.
265
I’m always in favor of Israel responding strongly when it’s threatened. At the same time, a response to a response doesn’t really solve anything. It just creates a perpetual-motion machine.
266
Israel’s willingness to cooperate closely with the U.S. in protecting American interests in the region altered her image in the eyes of many officials in Washington.
267
How can Israel say that everyone is equal before the law – that you’re equal before the law – when the law defines Judaism as the cultural, national and legislative basis for the state?
268
Not all Modern Orthodox Jews, at the present juncture, identify with what the Israeli government does. In Israel many religious Zionists strongly oppose the government because of the disengagement.
Norman Lamm
269
I didn’t act in Israel, but I wrote plays at home and acted in plays at school. I tried to get an agent when I was 12, but they told me that I had too much of an accent.
Odeya Rush
270
God saw fit, for wise reasons to allow the people of Israel thus to make and possess slaves; but is this any license to us to enslave any of our fellow-men, to kill any of our fellow-men whom we please and are able to destroy, and take possession of their estates?
Samuel Hopkins
271
The United States must ensure that Iran does not attain nuclear weapons, as this poses a direct threat to our interests, including Israel, and would in all likelihood provoke a regional arms race.
272
For me the root of evil today is the policy of President Bush. It is a fascist policy. I cannot understand how is it that the Jewish people, who have been the victims of Nazism, can support such a fascist policy. No other people in the world support those policies but Israel! This situation saddens me.
273
Honoring the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, in which more than two million Ukrainian Jews died, Ukraine calls on Israel to also recognize the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people.
274
Jerusalem Syndrome is actually a rare psychological condition that occurs to some visitors to the Middle East. They get to Israel and just snap.
275
For Israel to retain its amazing position as the largest concentration of high tech after Silicon Valley, we need more engineers and mathematicians. We have too many lawyers.
276
The framework for peace signed by Egypt and Israel is almost a peace treaty. We solved the problem for the peace treaty 98%.
277
There is no contradiction between the fact that Israel has full personal equality of citizenship but extends national rights only to the Jewish people.
278
9/11 was a deliberate, carefully planned evil act of the long-waged war on the West by Koran-inspired soldiers of Allah around the world. They hated us before George W. Bush was in office. They hated us before Israel existed. And the avengers of the religion of perpetual outrage will keep hating us.
279
I believe that much of Hollywood is confused about Israel.
280
I am making this trip to Africa because Washington is an international city, just like Tokyo, Nigeria or Israel. As mayor, I am an international symbol. Can you deny that to Africa?
Marion Barry
281
Each and every day, Israel remains on the frontline along with the United States in the War on Terror and is nothing but an unabashed ally of pro-democratic and pro-American policy.
282
Based on the Gaza precedent, Israel should not simply be expected to withdraw from territory and let it devolve into a state of anarchy. The West Bank is simply too close to Israel’s major population centers and infrastructure to allow it to become another launching pad for rockets.
283
A lot of movies that come from Israel are about war, but there is such good, funny, rounded writing that comes from the country that I wish more people would discover.
Odeya Rush
284
I don’t hide my being Israeli. I say it in every interview. I put out a record with songs in Hebrew. The people who signed me have no connection to Judaism or Israel.
Yael Naim
285
The PLO and the Palestinian people adhere to the renouncement of violence and rejection and condemning of terrorism in all its forms, especially State terrorism, and adhere to all agreements signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel.
286
I am against any reconciliation with Israel.
287
Then the administration tied it in to the regional dispute between Israel and its enemies, as if that’s about international terrorism. No, it’s not.
288
It is my Middle Eastern hat and my attachment to Israel that ultimately inspires my support for Obama. I know he understands that neither Israel nor America can afford four more years of Iran and the radical Islamists gaining strategic leverage in the Middle East.
Dennis Ross
289
I’m always in favor of Israel responding strongly when it’s threatened.
290
Every country that has experimented with women in actual combat has abandoned the idea, and the notion that Israel uses women in combat is a feminist myth.
291
George W. Bush is long gone, and with him the idea that ‘Israel can do no wrong.’
292
The only way to security for Israel and a humane life for Palestinians in their own land is political. No matter where the fault for past negotiating failures lies, there is no other path.
Anthony Lewis
293
To our Palestinian neighbours, I assure you that we have a genuine intention to respect your right to live independently and in dignity. I have already said that Israel has no desire to continue to govern over you and control your fate.
294
I have been, and will remain, outspoken in my insistence that Israel has a right to live in peace and security.
295
When you live in a small country such as Israel, the dream of any musician is to go abroad.
296
Those who closely watched the campaign should not be surprised by Obama’s hostility toward Israel, given his relations with pro-Palestinian, virulent critics of Israel and his voluntary membership in Reverend Wright‘s decidedly anti-Semitic church. Furthermore, his campaign website featured anti-Semitic posts.
297
Israel’s Supreme Court is one of the best in the world, and I think that it should stay that way; I don’t want to weaken it, I just want to change its approach.
298
Religion is a big problem in Israel and the Arab world, but again, the problem isn’t religion but political leaders who want to use the religion.
299
I believe that peace with the Palestinians is most urgent – urgent than ever before. It is necessary. It is crucial. It is possible. A delay may worsen its chances. Israel and the Palestinians are, in my judgment, ripe today to restart the peace process.
300
I contend that Bush would be a lot more moderate if there weren’t some fundamentalists breathing down his neck every time he wants to establish the state of Israel, every time he wants to do justice for the Palestinian people.
301
I believe that the people of Israel are the chosen people of God.
302
An independent, strong, thriving and peaceful State of Israel is the vengeance of the dead.
303
Well, Israel, obviously, thinks of the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel.
304
The state of Israel must, from time to time, prove clearly that it is strong, and able and willing to use force, in a devastating and highly effective way. If it does not prove this, it will be swallowed up, and perhaps wiped off the face of the earth.
305
I believe God has a future for ethnic Israel.
306
I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.
307
The bonds of trust between the United States and Israel have been frayed, but even the hostility and disrespect the Obama administration has shown has not severed those bonds.
Adam Hasner
308
As Prime Minister of Israel, I will introduce a bill into the Knesset that will simply pay the Arabs not to shoot at the Jews.
309
Bulgaria is a true friend of Israel, that stood up to save the Jewish people 70 years ago in Europe, and who stood by throughout the terror attack that took place in Burgas last July.
310
I heard an Israeli speaking on Palestinian human rights issues, an interesting guy, and he said ‘There’s no military solution to terrorism. If there were, Israel would be the safest place in the world. But there’s no military solution.’
311
I am often critical of Israel’s policies when in the country, but then feel defensive of them when overseas.
312
The Oslo Accords in 1993 determined that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are a single territorial entity which cannot be divided. Immediately, the United States and Israel set about separating the two and making sure that they would not be united.
313
My commitment to the security and future of Israel is based upon basic morality as well as enlightened self-interest. Our role in supporting Israel honors our own heritage.
314
As an American Jew who loves Israel, I cannot support John McCain. He cannot provide what Israel needs most – a respected, credible, morally strong America.
315
Israel remains a foreign body in this large area, and it always proved that it is unable to coexist with this environment, because the, the scope of the massacres that it has committed does not permit it to coexist.
316
If there will be a serious Palestinian prime minister who makes a 100 percent effort to end terrorism, then we can have peace. Each side has to take steps. If terror continues, there will not be an independent Palestinian state. Israel will not accept it, if terror continues.
317
All of the land of Israel is ours.
318
Overwhelmingly, Israel’s political and military establishment want the rest of the world to act diplomatically or otherwise to stop Iran. But if that doesn’t happen, then the impulse toward the use of force will become quite strong.
Dennis Ross
319
The security of Israel is a moral imperative for all free peoples.
320
David – the man after God’s own heart – was a man of war and a mighty man of valour. When all Israel were on the run, David faced Goliath – alone… with God – and he but a stripling, and well scolded, too, by his brother for having come to see the battle.
Charles Studd
321
Israel has always been pro-American. Israel will always be pro-American.
322
Legitimate steps of self-defence which Israel takes in its war against Palestinian terror – actions which any sovereign state is obligated to undertake to ensure the security of its citizens – are presented by those who hate Israel as aggressive, Nazi-like steps.
323
Even the poorest in Israel are looked upon as freemen who have lost their possessions, for they are the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Akiva ben Joseph
324
Through these adversities, Israel has endured with continued strength, conviction, and faith.
325
In general, states do not count on pledges of ‘no more war’ from their neighbors. Israel’s army never counted on it from Egypt, for example.
326
The Lord shall have made his American Israel high above all nations which he hath made.
Ezra Stiles
327
The religious doctrine of traditional Judaism entails the acceptance of the nationhood of the Jewish people and the everlasting sanctity of the Land of Israel for them.
328
Well, the right-wing policy with regard to Israel – the people who don’t want to deal with Arafat, who don’t want a Palestinian state – the whole sort of right-wing view is consistent with the view toward Iraq. It’s the same policy and the same people.
329
When a peace agreement is concluded between the Lebanese government and Israel, we would surely disagree with the Lebanese government about that, but we would not make any turmoil out of it.
330
Israel was seen as having demonstrated unmistakably it wanted peace, and the reason it wasn’t available, achievable was because Arafat wouldn’t accept it.
Dennis Ross
331
There’s no one in Israel who appreciates more than me the importance of American support for Israel.
332
Israel welcomes the wind of change, and sees a window of opportunity. Democratic and science-based economies by nature desire peace. Israel does not want to be an island of affluence in an ocean of poverty. Improvements in our neighbours’ lives mean improvements to the neighbourhood in which we live.
333
Holocaust survivors came to Israel in order to establish a new human society where nobody would be able to hurt them just because they’re Jewish. This is both a furious and vulnerable message.
334
At the same time as we clearly condemn actions of violence by groups in Palestinian against Israel.
Jane Harman
335
I’ve been to Israel many times – I’ve lost count of how many times.
336
Egypt is the second-largest recipient over a long period of U.S. military and economic aid. Israel is first.
337
Israel can’t be the only country in the Western world not to have freedom of religion.
338
No one could seriously dispute that almost all of sub-Saharan Africa, all of North Africa except Morocco, all of the Middle East except Israel and Jordan and most of the oil-rich states, and the entire former British Indian Empire were better governed by Europeans.
339
I am not against Israel, I am against Zionists.
340
There is little doubt that Iran is on a mission to rebuild its nuclear weapons and use that capability to wreak havoc and destruction on Israel and others throughout the world.
341
Without that assured American largesse Israel would have been obliged to come to an accommodation with her neighbours.
342
Unlike Iran, Israel refuses to allow inspections at all, refuses to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty, has hundreds of nuclear weapons, has advanced delivery systems.
343
Unprovoked attacks on Israel’s borders, murdering Israeli soldiers, taking Israeli hostages and showering rockets targeting and killing Israeli civilians are not furthering any legitimate goal.
344
My husband is not American. He was born in Brazil, where he grew up under a filthy, corrupt dictatorship. In his twenties, he moved to Europe, where he lived for a while under various socialist democracies. He spent a few years on a kibbutz in Israel, living out a utopian experiment in communal existence.
345
Everyone should unconditionally accept that Israel is an indispensable element of the Middle Eastern mosaic.
346
The international community and Israel have the same opinion regarding the Hamas government. We don’t say we are going to boycott it forever. We say the Hamas government must abide by the obligations the Palestinian Authority has signed.
Moshe Katsav
347
Look, we have existed for 4,000 years – 2,000 years in diaspora, in exile. Nobody in the Middle East speaks their original language but Israel. When we started 64 years ago, we were 650,000 people. So, you know, we are maybe swimming a little bit against the stream, but we continue to swim.
348
Lots of countries, like Israel, live with terrorism every day, and it doesn’t impact their integrity. The big threat to America is the way we react to terrorism by throwing away what everybody values about our country – a commitment to human rights. America is a great nation because we are a good nation.
349
One wonders what exactly Israel did to earn Arab enmity between 1948 and 1967, when Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip and Jordan controlled Judea and Samaria.
350
I would like to see real peace and a state of Israel living peacefully alongside a state of Palestine.
351
As a Jew I am aware of how important the existence of Israel is for the survival of us all. And because I am proud of being Jewish, I am worried by the growing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in the world.
352
Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial.
353
We as a country have something to learn from Israel, especially in the areas of security and defense, and we will of course be doing that.
354
There is no truth which the prophets press more steadily upon Israel than that all their national life lies in the sight and on the care of God.
George A. Smith
355
Surely it is time for Jews, worried over the huge growth of Arabs in Israel, to consider finishing the exchange of populations that began 35 years ago.
356
In Israel, the role of the writer is dictated by the language in which you write. Writers see themselves as cultural prophets.
357
God is whoever raised Jesus from the dead, having before raised Israel from Egypt. There is no God but this God.
358
Contrary to many of the rumors and innuendo in circulation, I wholeheartedly believe that Obama views Israel’s security as absolute.
359
My theology is such that the God who loves Israel and will not forsake Israel – which is why I want to see Israel have a secure nation with secure borders – also loves the Palestinians.
360
As long as the Palestinians send terrorists onto school buses and to nightclubs to blow up people, Israel has no choice but to build the fence.
361
You in Lebanon, your power is no match to Israel. Israel, militarily, is more powerful than you and maybe it is more powerful than all the Arab countries, or most of them.
362
I believe that it is my responsibility as the prime minister of Israel to do whatever can be done to exploit the unique opportunities that lie ahead of us to move towards peace. Not everything can be done by one act.
363
The claim that Israel seeks to annihilate the Palestinians is simply a lie. Israel seeks to stop rocket attacks and tunnel invasions, and as long as Hamas is dedicated to those actions, they can expect a forceful Israeli reaction.
364
I don’t think that Iran with a nuclear capability will be just the problem of the state of Israel. This is a matter that concerns the whole world.
Moshe Katsav
365
There are plenty of opportunities for common grounds that we need to explore and strengthen. The Hispanic community has a strong affinity for our relationship with Israel.
366
Those who hate Israel hate America. Those who hate Jews hate Christians.
367
The Arabs are ready to accept a strong Israel with nuclear arms – all it has to do is open the gates of its fortress and make peace.
Mahmoud Darwish
368
Everyone who supports Israel is a Zionist.
369
The security of the citizens of Israel, the future of the state of Israel, this is the Israeli government’s responsibility.
370
Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life.
371
Israel no longer has allies in Egypt and in Tunisia, we are saying to the Zionist enemies that times have changed and that the time of the Arab Spring, the time of the revolution, of dignity and of pride has arrived.
372
The aggressive, unprovoked acts of violence against Israel by Hezbollah and Hamas are revealing. It is clear they don’t want peace, but rather seek the ultimate destruction of Israel.
373
I do believe that Israel is covenant land. That’s very controversial, but I read the Bible literally, and I believe that God gave them that land, all the way back to Deuteronomy.
374
The State of Israel was not established by anxiety but, rather, through pride.
375
I studied at the Hebrew University Medical Faculty, graduated, and was an Israel Defense Forces’ combat physician on a Navy ship.
376
The struggle to get weapons is continuous, but the United States will aid us, if it finds Israel displaying a willingness for peace.
377
I’m going into politics because I think that the kind of discourse taking place in Israel is leading this country to oblivion, and I want to change it.
378
Except for the projects in Israel, my being Israeli has contributed negatively to my global activity. It is hard for me, for example, to get projects in the Persian Gulf emirates.
379
Israel has a right to defend itself.
380
If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.
Abba Eban
381
The sad reality is that there are no purely domestic issues in Israel. Issues that would be dealt with by municipalities in other countries – such as how to deal with a dangerous bridge or how to resolve conflicts between religious and secular bus riders – become major international issues when they occur in Israel.
382
The President of Iran has called for the destruction of Israel and the West and has even denied the holocaust took place. Iran and its terrorist arm Hezbollah are responsible for the current conflicts between Israel and Lebanon.
383
Hamas thinks they can kill the will of people by intimidation. Most of those who are killed in the Gaza Strip for the suspicion of collaborating with Israel, have nothing to do with Israel.
Mosab Hassan Yousef
384
My constant prayer, my number one foreign goal, is to bring peace to Israel. And in the process to Israel’s neighbours.
385
The Jewish journey started in the land of Israel, and it always strove to return there against all odds and all limitations.
386
I never wanted to write. I just wrote letters home from a kibbutz in Israel to reassure my parents that I was still alive and well fed and having a great time. They thought these letters were brilliant and sent them to a newspaper. So I became a writer by accident.
387
I was a member of the Haifa City Council when I was 23 years old, which made me the youngest city councilman in Israel.
388
Enclosed by a sand berm four miles around and 160 feet high, the Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility entombs what remains of reactors bombed by Israel in 1981 and the United States in 1991. It has stored industrial and medical wastes, along with spent reactor fuel.
389
If you’re criticizing Israel, but you’re doing it in a way that implies that the Jewish people in America have a dual loyalty, that’s anti-Semitism. It’s more than just criticizing Israeli policy.
390
There was an opinion expressed in the newspapers that, after 20 years, maybe the Israel Philharmonic should consider asking me to leave. I thought they might have a point, so I asked my orchestra. They told me overwhelmingly that they wanted me to stay.
391
The U.S. has a stronger military than Israel, but, but don’t short-change Israel, either. Don’t short-change them.
392
The Golan Heights is an area in the north of the State of Israel that has no part in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
393
Both during the elections and as Prime Minister, I have repeatedly and publicly said that I support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.
394
Israel produces more conceptual products than any other country.
395
The Palestinians want a state, but they have to give peace in return. What they’re trying to do in the United Nations is to get a state without giving Israel peace or giving Israel peace and security. And I think that’s, that’s wrong. That should not succeed. That should, that should fail.
396
Yes, Israel’s our ally. But, are the Palestinians our enemy? No, they are not.
397
It’s hard to find an emblem of cultural, national pride that burns as bright as Israel’s success in classical music.
398
Israel is now sustaining a war for its own existence. A nation defending its citizens against terrorist bombings and a military and diplomatic onslaught by an array of Arab foes is practicing survival, not genocide.
399
It’s not good for Israel to have a Palestinian state in the heart of Israel.
400
I have often supported Israel, I have often visited the country and want the country to exist and at last find peace with its neighbours.
401
Under Hitler it was the entrepreneurial and professional classes who were the first victims of Nazi boycotts and exclusion. Today it is Israel, the most powerful symbol of Jewish national resurgence in two millennia.
402
Israel has created a new image of the Jew in the world – the image of a working and an intellectual people, of a people that can fight with heroism.
Nnamdi Azikiwe
403
The fall of the Syrian regime is in the interest of America and Israel.
404
We have no desire to permanently rule over millions of Palestinians, who double their numbers every generation. Israel, which wishes to be an exemplary democracy, will not be able to bear such a reality over time. The Disengagement Plan presents the possibility of opening a gate to a different reality.
405
Not only must Americans admire Israel, there can be no doubt that we have an interest in, and special responsibility for, that valiant nation.
George Ball
406
I love the nation of Israel. I love Jewish people. My King was Jewish, and I embrace that.
407
This resolution simply says Israel has the right to defend itself. This includes conducting operations both inside its borders and in the territory of nations that threaten it, which is in accordance with international law.
408
Israel made peace with Egypt, the largest Arab State. There are militant Islamists there, but there is also law. There are agreements and also defense arrangements there.
409
Perhaps areas of Israel where current large Palestinian populations and demographic realities exist could be exchanged for Israeli expansion into the West Bank to include most of East Jerusalem.
410
In addition to the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, which is crucial to U.S. interests both domestically and in the Middle East, the U.S. has had and will continue to need Egypt’s collaboration in the war on terrorism.
411
The present Arab uprising didn’t stem from Israel. The old guard is trying to keep down the young chickens. The old guard is better organized. They may win elections, but unless they have a solution to poverty, to corruption, to oppression, they will not last. I am with the young people.
412
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.
413
When I’d go to Israel, I felt like a tourist. My social and professional ties had started to dissolve, and it confused me. I didn’t know whether I should stay here in Paris or go back to Israel, or even cut off all my ties with Israel so I could really plant roots here. Or maybe go somewhere else altogether.
Yael Naim
414
Now, when I hear that Christians are getting together in order to defend the people of Israel, of course it brings joy to my heart. And it simply says, look, people have learned from history.
415
Building walls isn’t going to work in the long run. Some people are happy with the wall in Israel, but somebody will get a weapon someday and knock it over or something. Walls aren’t the answer between countries, though.
416
My dream was to study psychology in Israel. It’s a long journey – it’s seven years of study.
Moran Atias
417
When I was elected President nobody asked me to negotiate between Israel and Egypt. It was not even a question raised in my campaign. But I felt that one of the reasons that I was elected President was to try to bring peace to the Holy Land.
418
Israel was born under the British mandate. We learned from the British what democracy means, and how it behaves in a time of danger, war and terror. We thank Britain for introducing freedom and respect of human rights both in normal and demanding circumstances.
419
We are not going to damage our safety and our security. We’re not going to give those extremists the privilege to come so freely to Israel in order to carry out more attacks against us and kill us one day after another.
Silvan Shalom
420
The driving force for the Arabs is hatred of Israel. Hatred of the Jewish people.
421
But there is a difference here: When Jewish children are murdered, Arabs celebrate the deed. The death of an Arab child is no cause for celebration in Israel.
422
The moral equation strongly tells everyone who understands freedom, who understands morality, that Israel is engaging in a just war in defense of its people and its freedom.
423
I will continue to believe that Israel’s security is paramount.
424
On foreign policy, President Obama has kept our nation safe from terrorism and restored our standing in the world. When it comes to one of our closest allies – Israel – President Obama has been resolute.
425
Peace with Israel is a strategic imperative for Jordan.
426
It is because I recognize the brutality with which my own multi-branched ancestors have been treated that I can identify the despicable, lawless, cruel, and sadistic behavior that has characterized Israel’s attempts to erase a people, the Palestinians, from their own land.
427
There are no military options for Iran. Attack them, and they will destroy the Gulf States oil industries, rain hundreds of missiles onto Israel, close the Arabian Gulf, and shoot oil prices to $300 per barrel, which could cause our own economic downfall.
428
There is no comparison between the training here and the training in Israel.
Isaac Yeffet
429
Why does Israel always have to suffer for others to feel bad for it?
430
It is time to change our policy of appeasement toward the Palestinians, to strengthen our ties with the nation of Israel.
431
Israel’s days without Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip are gone and will not return.
432
Apparently, the line you take on Israel trumps everything else in life.
433
Israel is following policies which maximise its security threats… policies which choose expansion over security… policies which lead to their moral degradation, their isolation, their delegitimation, as they call it now, and very likely ultimate destruction. That’s not impossible.
434
Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations.
435
As long as Palestinian violence exists, but not a Palestinian state, Israel is in danger, because it cannot obtain assistance from the international community against an entity that is not subordinate to international law.
Stephane Hessel
436
Because I know about the Holy Land, I’ve taught lessons about the Holy Land all my life, and – but you can’t bring peace to Israel without giving the Palestinian also peace. And Lebanon and Jordan and Syria as well.
437
It’s hard for a Jew of my generation, an American Jew, who is philo-Zionistic, not to romanticize Israel.
438
We do not build new Jewish communities in Samaria, Judea and Gaza. The United States has never accepted our building of communities or of the fence. Yet, I’ve managed to develop relations between Israel and the United States even though President Bush never supported settlements.
439
The U.S. and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians, just slaughtering them, for years. Robbing them and slaughtering them.
Bobby Fischer
440
My dad’s Israeli. He was born in Baghdad to Iraqi Jews. Then, at age two, his parents wanted to move to their homeland and he grew up in Israel. I’ve been there twice, once as a baby and once when I was 15.
Elliott Yamin
441
Israel cannot be a democracy if it occupies land of other people.
442
I would like to be more active outside of Israel.
443
In Israel politics, four years is like 400 years in Europe.
444
I cannot say that the attitude of the United Nations always is for the Israeli attitude. Israel, I think, has been under severe attacks by members of the United Nations many times.
445
The mortal mind alone cannot devise an answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because the true answer lies on a level of consciousness that’s beyond our mortal thinking. Quite simply, when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians, we need a miracle.
446
There is no entity in the world that will dare attack Israel with chemical weapons.
447
It does irritate me when I am described as a controversialist and commentator on Israel.
448
The Arabs could have peace tomorrow if sufficient numbers of Palestinians were not content to be used as cannon fodder in fruitless assaults on Israel, even as the surrounding Arab powers distract the Arab masses with the red herring of Israel while retarding their countries with their repression and corruption.
449
Israel should not feel satisfaction at my son’s death, for he died on the battlefield, facing the conquerors as he wished, with a gun in his hand.
450
In Israel, you see strong borders as the best way to ensure peace, while in Europe, people see it as a cause of war.
Douglas Murray
451
Ukraine and Israel have long-standing historical ties. Our nations have together experienced all the tragedies in recent history – the Holodomor and the Holocaust, the Second World War, and the totalitarian Soviet regime.
452
Let me tell you the first president to recognize the state of Israel was Harry Truman, a Democrat and every president since, Democrat and Republican, has stood closely with Israel.
453
Many European countries, as well as Australia, Canada, Israel, and New Zealand, have adopted legislation that creates a ‘public lending right’, where the government recognises that enabling hundreds of people to read a single copy of a book provides a public good, but that doing so is likely to reduce sales of the book.
454
You can’t ignore reality. You won’t wake up one morning and find that the Arabs of Umm al-Faham have become part of Palestine and are no longer in Israel.
Ami Ayalon
455
Well, I grew up between Holland and Israel and then moved to France when I was eleven.
Keren Ann
456
No country in the history of the world has ever contributed more to humankind and accomplished more for its people in so brief a period of time as Israel has done since its relatively recent rebirth in 1948.
457
Israel is one of the easiest places to play ball. When I say easy I am referring to the easy lifestyle an athlete has while in Israel. It’s very easy to get around the country, because it’s so small.
Michael Kennedy
458
My father is sure that Israel keeps the Holocaust from happening again. I worry that it might hasten its recurrence.
459
According to Gallup, Obama has already lost support among Jewish voters, down from 78 percent to 68 percent. If Romney shows that he is genuinely committed to Israel and that Obama is not, he’ll make further inroads.
460
I’m very much tied to the state of Israel, but I am against their policy of settlements in Palestine.
461
Mutual investments of Israeli and American companies strengthen economic ties between the two countries and contribute to Israel and to the U.S. alike.
462
The State of Israel has faced obstacles and challenges to its very survival, with conventional military attacks leading the way to suicide bombers who have killed innocent Israeli men, women, and children.
463
As a Jew, it is my historic responsibility to defend the Jewish people. I feel this responsibility for the survival of the Jewish people. We’re not going to accept any decision by anybody else about security of the State of Israel. It is our role and only our role.
464
Is Israel going to continue to be ‘Fortress Israel’? Or, as we all hope, become accepted into the neighborhood, which I believe is the only way we can move forward in harmony.
465
As long as I’m needed. I’ll be ready to serve. I look forward with optimism. We need the Jews here. Move to Israel! Move to Israel!
466
It is not surprising, then, that in the decade since Oslo began, Arafat used all the resources placed at his disposal to fan the flames of hatred against Israel.
467
A number of people who have supported me on the border fence in the U.S. have observed the fences in Israel and their effectiveness.
Duncan Hunter
468
I feel there’s a lot of anti-Israel sentiment in the world and a lot of ignorance about what Israel is and does. But it’s not for me to speak on Israel’s behalf.
469
Now, the people that helped get Obama elected, who think Israel is a good idea, need to wake up and tell him they’re our friends, let’s preserve them. And then it would happen. Because that’s the only kind of thing he responds to. But he throws our friends under the bus and rewards our enemies.
470
We have said that Israel has had a very bad history with the United Nations, and whoever cares for himself in Israel distances himself from that Organization.
471
Jews outside Israel live in permanent contradiction. I think they should come home.
472
Most of the approaches to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, have been directed at trying to resolve the most complex problems, like refugees and Jerusalem, which is akin to building the pyramid from the top down.
473
There’s no doubt about it that Mubarak has been indeed a partner with Israel, but there’s also no doubt about something else. Conditions in Egypt were getting worse and worse, and it was almost just a matter of time before the popular uprising started.
474
But there’s one thing we are not going to compromise at all: when it comes to security of Israeli citizens and the State of Israel, there are not going to be any compromises – not now and not in the future.
475
All the other members of the U.N. were admitted, at the outset or subsequently, but Israel was created by the U.N. as a Jewish state, on the motion of Stalin‘s ambassador, seconded by President Truman’s.
476
President George W. Bush is the first American president to call openly for two-states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.
477
It seems Palestinians can’t win. The language of peace negotiations has always been predicated on a representation that Palestinians are violent and that is why Israel behaves as it does.
478
Israel is the canary in the mine. What happens to Israel will eventually happen to America itself.
David Horowitz
479
My goal is to embrace the people, the ‘natural resources‘ of Israel, and to build businesses with the creative Israelis.
480
Netanyahu is pressured easily, gets into a panic, and loses his senses… to run a country like Israel a leader needs to have reason and judgment and nerves of steel, two traits he does not have.
481
I think that a strong Israel is the only Israel that will bring the Arabs to the peace table.
482
Israel is no longer a people that dwells alone, and has to join the global journey toward peace, reconciliation and international cooperation.
483
We in the Jewish Home party talk all the time about how Judea and Samaria are our homeland and they are part of Israel, so we are there to stay.
484
Israel of the coastal plain, where eight out of ten Israeli Jews live far removed from the occupied territories, from the fiery Jerusalem, from the religious and nationalistic conflicts, is unknown to the outside world, almost unknown to itself.
485
My conviction is that the best strategy to defend the West is to defend Israel.
486
It is impossible to have a Jewish, democratic state and at the same time to control all of Eretz Israel. If we insist on fulfilling the dream in its entirety, we are liable to lose it all. Everything. That is where the extremist path takes us.
487
It was in our power to cause the Arab governments to renounce the policy of strength toward Israel by turning it into a demonstration of weakness.
Moshe Dayan
488
Israel is a wonderful country. It’s a beautiful country. It is ours. But it is a country with 10,000 problems that we have to solve and deal.
489
I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have in it now. I believe it has a glorious future before it – not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization.
490
We see today that there is a growing understanding in the international community that the extremist regime in Tehran is not just Israel’s problem, but rather an issue that the entire international community must grapple with.
491
The greatest king of Israel, King David, the author of the Psalms, sent a man out to die in battle so that he could sleep with his wife.
492
I have written to Israel’s friends around the world, including the U.S. Congress and the E.U., and asked them to make funding for the United Nations dependent on ending blatant discrimination against Israel at the U.N. Human Rights Council.
493
On balance, my life has been a constant stream of blessings rather than disappointments and failures and tragedies. I wish I had been re-elected. I think I could have kept our country at peace. I think I could have consolidated what we achieved at Camp David with a treaty between Israel and the Palestinians.
494
As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile.
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
495
I’m from Israel, so America has no limits. I started a record label, and then I started managing other artists, like Liza Minelli.
496
The U.S. and Israel need to address points of difference between them in private, not in the UN or in front of cameras.
497
We need to separate the two peoples: Israeli Arabs are part and parcel of Israel, and Palestinians should be separate, as part of a two-state solution.
498
I don’t feel we need a declaration from the Palestinians that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
499
Iran has long sponsored terrorists who carry out homicide bombings in Israeli cities. However, it is a mistake to believe the danger Iran poses is directed at Israel alone.