Shimon Peres Quotes

I am proud to be the president of the state of Israel.

Our role in Israel is a pioneering one, and we need people with certain strength of fiber.

The Jews will return to Palestine and make the desert bloom like a rose.

Mr. Brandeis is perfectly infatuated with the work that you have done along the lines of Zionism. It would have done your heart good to have heard him assert what a valuable contribution to the cause your document is. In fact he agrees with me that you are the Father of Zionism, as your work antedates Herzl.

The U.N. did not create Israel. The Jewish state came into being because the tiny Jewish community in what was mandatory Palestine rebelled against foreign imperialist rule. We did not conquer a foreign land.

After '45, Ben Gurion started to organize the Zionist movement and the conference in Baltimore. At this convention, they decided that the helm of the Zionist movement has to be a Jewish commonwealth... a Jewish commonwealth!

Something happened to the State of Israel. What was morally obvious in 1948 is not so obvious anymore. When the State of Israel was established, it was, for the parents and grandparents of these young Jews, a miracle. It was David and Goliath. We were the just cause. It was about values. We were small, but we were the good guys in the world!

At the age of 16 I immigrated to Palestine from Europe, where I became a member of the Haganah, the main underground army of the Jews.

In 1947 and '48, everybody in then-Palestine belonged to some group. I chose the group that was the forerunner of the Israel Defense Forces.

Here, in the Land of Israel, we returned and built a nation. Here, in the Land of Israel, we established a State. The Land of the prophets, which bequeathed to the world the values of morality, law and justice, was after two thousand years, restored to its lawful owner - the members of the Jewish People, On its Land, we have built an exceptional national Home and State.

Were I to sum up the Basle Congress in a word- which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly- it would be this: 'At Basle, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. If not in 5 years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it.'

The State of Israel was not established by anxiety but, rather, through pride.

If you're dealing with a powerful leader, you're inevitably going to have a dialogue with her political past. It was always my intention to interrogate Thatcher's political life.

I love the people of Israel. I love the land of Israel. I love the Torah of Israel. I love the Israel Defense Forces. I love our soldiers. If you feel the same way I do, you have a home.

I have probably become a lot more Zionist than I used to be. Jews have a history of being persecuted over a long, long period of time so I think it is absolutely right to have a country that is a Jewish state.

I am a Jew, and I'm convinced that Israel is the homeland.

I'm proud to say that we are the party of Canada's first prime minister, the father of our federation, and the visionary who made this land possible.

I'm never going to give up - it's part of my lifeblood to help, protect, and defend Israel.

I would love to play Indira Gandhi.

David Ben-Gurion established the Israeli intelligence community in June of 1948, just three weeks after the establishment of Israel and in the midst of war.

I don't accept the Zionist idea.

The Land of Israel goes with the Torah of Israel under the sovereignty of the State of Israel.

Our eternal capital Jerusalem was and remains our top national priority.

Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people, and the modern presence there just cements this.

We need to do everything possible to save the Jewish state. We don't have another Jewish state.