Yitzhak Rabin Quotes

I think history will judge him very harshly for not having seized the opportunity in the year 2000 to embrace the offer that was very courageously made by the then Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barack, which involved the Israelis agreeing to 90 per cent of what the Palestinians had wanted.

Conduct peace talks only with those among the Arabs residing in the Land of Israel who are truly willing to recognize the existence of the State of Israel. As to all those who want to continue the battle against Israel, it is incumbent upon us -- including, and above all, the Government and Prime Minister -- to obey the law and wage war against them until their demise.

What happens in Israel should be decided between Israel and the Palestinians.

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.

When a deeply sympathetic American president asks for concessions and compromises and appears able to cajole some from the Palestinians, which was the Clinton/Rabin and Bush/Sharon combination, Israel must respond.

I believe that in the long run, separation between Israel and the Palestinians is the best solution for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

How have the past four years served Israel or the Palestinians? We want a solution for the sake of humanity.

Should we consider recognizing Israel?

How do you negotiate a two state solution with the Palestinians when they do not believe that one of the states has the right to exist?

Israel is the only country in the world that is ready to make compromises - even though it did not lose any wars.

I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.

If the United States has to accept the U.N. resolutions, we have to generalize it across the board. We can't just pick and choose where we impose and accept the U.N. resolution and don't accept them. U.N. Resolution 242 is very clear and states very clearly that Israel has to go back to the borders of the pre-war of 1967.

Here, I declare that the Palestine Liberation Organization is ready to return immediately to the negotiating table on the basis of the adopted terms of reference based on international legitimacy and a complete cessation of settlement activities.

I enter negotiations with Chairman Arafat, the leader of the PLO, the representative of the Palestinian people, with the purpose to have coexistence between our two entities, Israel as a Jewish state and Palestinian state, entity, next to us, living in peace.

The core issue here is that the Israeli government refuses to commit to terms of reference for the negotiations that are based on international law and United Nations resolutions, and that it frantically continues to intensify building of settlements on the territory of the State of Palestine.

We expect President Bush to implement his own vision of a two-state solution, the birth of the Palestinian State and the ending of the occupation that started in 1967.

The United States cannot want peace more than the Palestinians and the Israelis.

There is no such thing as a happy compromise. Israelis and Palestinians cannot become one happy family because they are not one, not happy and not family either. They are two unhappy families who must divide a small house into even smaller apartments. The first step, is to sign peace with clenched teeth, and after signing the contract, start working slowly on a gradual emotional de-escalation on both sides.

Everybody knows what I represent. My message is that Israel wants peace, and I am going to do everything possible to find ways to get this peace, this objective of all our people. All of us want peace. The differences are about the conditions of this peace.

We started the peace process on the basis of land for peace and on the basis of U.N. resolution 242 and 338,1 as well as other international decisions on achieving the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

No one was talking about a two-state solution until the '90s, then it became an acceptable solution.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to have been overshadowed by the upheavals in the region. I have followed events there for almost 40 years. I am convinced that what is needed for a solution is not only the willingness to negotiate in good faith but also to take into account the needs and sensibility of the negotiating partner. I, for one, just cannot believe that the value of settlements for Israel is bigger than the damage these settlements do as an obstacle to peace.

Only if you give the Palestinians something to lose is there a hope that they will agree to moderate their demands.... I believe that as soon as Ahmed has a seat in the bus, he will limit his demands.

There cannot be peace in the Middle East without giving Palestinians their full rights.

You know, I said in the U.N., I said to President Abbas, 'Look, we're in the same city, we're in the same building, for God's sake, the U.N. Let's just sit down and begin to talk peace.'