Yasser Arafat Quotes

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

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.

My friends, there is no Palestinian-Israeli conflict. There is only the global war on terrorism.

You cannot achieve Middle East peace without deciding the fate of the Temple Mount.

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.

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

It is clear a Palestinian state is needed.

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.

The U.S. should support the historic Gaza withdrawal as a first step toward a final settlement: a permanent Palestinian state in Gaza and nearly all of the West Bank.

I think that peace will require two states, a Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state.

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.

No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it

There is no country that has made as many concessions as Israel. Since 1967, we gave up territory that is three times the size of Israel. We showed willingness.

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.

I don't feel we need a declaration from the Palestinians that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

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

Without strong Arab backing, it will be hard, if not impossible, for a Palestinian leader to reach peace with Israel.

Palestine is the issue, and until this issue is resolved, there can be no peace.

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

While Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines...

Virtually all informed observers agree that a fair and equitable resolution of the plight of the Palestinians would considerably weaken the anger and hatred of Israel and the US in the Arab and Muslim worlds - and far beyond, as international polls reveal. Such an agreement is surely within reach, if the US and Israel depart from their long-standing rejectionism.

The world should commit Israel to withdraw from our territories and stop occupation and aggression, and allow the Palestinian people to establish their independent state.

I don't think there's going to be peace as long as Israel is occupying land that belongs to the Palestinians, to Lebanon and to Syria.

I have long believed that Israel should seek to give up the so-called Occupied Territories in return for security, and that a Palestinian state should be established. I have felt that way all my life. I think it is unreasonable to ask the Israelis to do this in a context where there is no guarantee at all that suicide bombers will be controlled.