Silvan Shalom Quotes

It's necessary for Israelis and Palestinians to make the compromises that are required to get the direct talks back on track.

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

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.

Our response has been, 'Well, let's then make an effort to get the Israelis and the Palestinians to sit around the table.' That hasn't happened. So we only have ourselves to blame for this crisis.

There is nothing that I'd love to do more than negotiate with Palestinians. This is my desire. This is my dream. This is my mission.

Direct talks is the only possible way to build trust and to resolve the conditions for a peace perspective between Palestinians and Israelis.

A peace talk is always difficult, always complicated.

Peace with the Palestinians will open ports of peace all around the Mediterranean. The duty of leaders is to pursue freedom ceaselessly, even in the face of hostility, in the face of doubt and disappointment. Just imagine what could be.

Like all Israelis, I yearn for peace. I see the utmost importance in taking all possible steps that will lead to a solution of the conflict with the Palestinians.

You can only end a negotiation for peace if you begin it.

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

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.

I think placing preconditions before negotiations is the quickest way to undermine peace.

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.

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

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.

A peace agreement isn't like a fairy story. You don't live happily ever after.

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.

There is no better way to make peace than to talk in each other's home. Avoiding such talks is a denial of the purpose of the negotiations.

My view is to try and not demonize the Palestinians. I'm not denying that there are Palestinians who fire rockets and do terrible things; I know that that happens. But to get a fundamental solution, you have to have hope on both sides.

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Take that off the table. Tell both sides to come together and say, 'Okay, you decide how you want to split up Jerusalem. You decide if you're going to create boundaries or borders there.' And let them decide.

Our problem with Israel is that its leaders always talk about war and security but never about peace.

Whenever you have political conflict, such as the one that we have now between Russia and Ukraine, but also in many other conflicts around the world, it has always proved to be right to try again and again to solve such a conflict.