Elliott Abrams Quotes

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.

Every administration has this idea to talk tough to Israel and make nice to the Arabs and the Palestinians, and that's the way to bring about peace. It's counter-productive - it's actually the opposite.

Intervention only works when the people concerned seem to be keen for peace.

If you are going to make peace, you can't just meet nice people.

It is the hope of the European Union that Ariel Sharon will keep the peace process alive and continue the dialogue according to the wishes of all the parties involved.

How will decent people in the region ever believe in peace if Arab terrorists interpret every gesture of peace as a display of weakness and then act accordingly?

Making peace is harder than making war.

My colleagues and I have gone in the footsteps of our predecessors since the very first day we were called by our people to care for their future. We went any place, we looked for any avenue, we made any effort to bring about negotiations between Israel and its neighbors, negotiations without which peace remains an abstract desire.

There is no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended. Conflicts are started by human beings, sustained by human beings, and they can be ended by human beings.

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

You don't make peace with your friends. That's the bottom line. You end conflicts by trying to find some political resolution.

A peace deal requires agreements, and you don't make agreements with your friends, you make agreements with your enemies.

I believe however that peace is attainable regardless of the Arabs mentality, society or government.

Peace is a question of will. All conflicts can be settled, and there are no excuses for allowing them to become eternal.

Peace cannot come from punishing the Palestinian people.

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

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.

I feel that we don't have the luxury of asking whether or not the Palestinians and Israelis can achieve peace. I think we have to just ask the question of when and how.

If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

The conflict in the Middle East needs to be solved for the same reasons. It is necessary to reach a two-states solution, built on international law, for sustainable peace and development, and it can only be achieved through joint efforts by the international community.

Prime Minister Sharon, Prime Minister Abbas, I urge you today to end the designs of those who seek destruction, annihilation and occupation, and I urge you to have the will and the courage to begin to realize our dreams of peace, prosperity and coexistence.

War is what happens when language fails.

Myself, I don't think you will ever get security in the Mideast until you have what on the surface appears to be fair to both sides. You have to have leaders committed to peace, on both sides. One side can't impose a solution.

There is not going to be a peace process unless there is talks involving Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas, and I think everyone knows that.

Peace cannot be unilateral.