Benjamin Netanyahu Quotes

The Palestinians want a state, but they have to give peace in return. What they're trying to do in the United Nations is to get a state without giving Israel peace or giving Israel peace and security. And I think that's, that's wrong. That should not succeed. That should, that should fail.

Only if you give the Palestinians something to lose is there a hope that they will agree to moderate their demands.... I believe that as soon as Ahmed has a seat in the bus, he will limit his demands.

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.

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.

The central premise behind Oslo was that if Arafat were given enough legitimacy, territory, weapons and money, he would use his power to fight terror and make peace with Israel.

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.

Should we consider recognizing Israel?

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.

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

I think the gap between Israelis and Palestinians is too deep to be bridged in our generation. Politically, we are in favor of a regional solution. A part of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) should be annexed by Israel, and the other parts should be incorporated in a confederation with Jordan.

It is Israel that must recognize Palestine's rights. We cannot believe in empty statements, twiddle our thumbs and watch our children getting killed. Israel must end occupation and aggression, and our actions won't take much longer after that.

The era of a Palestinian state is over.

The ultimate goal is two states for two people: Israel as a Jewish state and the homeland for the Jewish people and the State of Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian people - each state in joined self-determination, mutual recognition, and peace.

The international community must make pressure on Israel to recognize our right to get freedom, to fight against occupation, to have real peace, legitimacy on our ground. If the international community obliged Israel to do that, then they can come to us and ask us to take our step.

I don't think the Palestinians are in this position they're in, divided with Hamas and the P.A., unwilling to allow - or recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

If I were president, I'd be very glad to see the Palestinians have a nation recognized by the United Nations. There's no downside to it.

I think the Israelis are beginning to realize more that they are moving toward a one-state solution, which would be a catastrophe for Israel.

Palestinians will never realize their independence by denying the right of Israel to exist.

The people of Israel will have to be convinced that the Palestinians are ready for peace.

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

We need to see a Palestinian state.

Palestinians don't really believe in a state of Israel. They, unlike a majority of Israelis, who have come to the conclusion that they can live with a two-state solution to be determined by the parties, the majority of Palestinians are still very reluctant, and they need to be pushed to get there.

Israel was seen as having demonstrated unmistakably it wanted peace, and the reason it wasn't available, achievable was because Arafat wouldn't accept it.

The United States is for a two-state solution. The United States wants to see the Israelis and Palestinians come together.