Ariel Sharon Quotes

On taking office in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama put Israeli settlements at the center of U.S. policy in the Middle East.

It doesn't serve an American interest. It really doesn't really serve Israeli interests - it serves the interests of the political party that's getting the votes of the settlers on the West Bank.

Many of the Europeans who want Israel to go away don't even know why they do. Nearly a third of those interviewed concede they have no idea what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about. It's enough to know that Israelis are Jews.

I never thought I'd live to see the day that an American administration would denounce the state of Israel for rebuilding Jerusalem.

I believe that if Israel were to put an end to the settlements in the West Bank tomorrow, as it did in Gaza, there would still be reluctance on the part of the Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish secular democracy.

And if we are honest we have to make a distinction between a democratic Israel that wants to live in peace and the terrorists who want Israel wiped out. The Israelis were told to give up land for peace; they gave up the land, but got no peace.

We use American influence with Israel not to promote economic growth in the West Bank, but to try and impede Jewish - never Arab - construction in the capital city.

Palestine-Israel is such a ludicrous issue.

Israel's days without Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip are gone and will not return.

There's no preventative measure between the Palestinians, between those terrorists to the state of Israel.

Every Israeli government since 1967, of left or right, has asserted that Jerusalem is Israel's capital and has allowed Israeli Jews to build there.

I believe that the only alternative Israel has to save itself as a Jewish state - and let's be frank about that: the Jewish state is predicated on having a Jewish majority - the only way we can do that is by unilaterally withdrawing our border and withdrawing our settlements in the West Bank.

Maaele Adumim is part of Israel. Gush Etzion is part of Israel.

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.

Anyone who isn't confused or conflicted on the topic of Israel probably isn't looking into it too deeply.

There is nowhere I encounter greater understanding for Israel's existential issues than in the Oval Office.

It's OK to criticize Israeli policy.

Netanyahu supports - and he truly does support - building a Palestinian state within Israel.

It's not good for Israel to have a Palestinian state in the heart of Israel.

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.

I think the Barack Obama position and the majority position of American Jews and a lot of Americans is a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. Settlements get in the way of that. If they're not stopped soon, there is no prospect for that type of solution.

Despite all the noise and hullabaloo - military cooperation, intelligence cooperation, all of that has continued. We have defended them consistently in every imaginable way. But I also believe that both for our national interests and Israel's national interests that allowing an ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that could get worse and worse over time is a problem. And that settlements contribute.

America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.

I am an American Jew and aware of the sensitivities involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The issue of Palestine has been there since more than 60 years. But more important since 1967 when the war was, ended in the defeat of some Arab countries.