Palestinian Leadership Quotes

As the Palestinian leadership never seems to pay any penalty for its words, America's seriousness about the peace process is in doubt.

Abu Mazen has no more hope for Netanyahu's approach. He's searching for a way to establish the Palestinian state. He doesn't want a militarized struggle with Israel.

I do not support peace in the Middle East. And I do not support Arafat. He is a stupid, incompetent fool!

I don't want to block every contact with the Palestinians, I think that would be a mistake, and I think that Abu Mazen has an independent status as democratically elected head of the Palestinian people, and it's important if I will talk with him.

It's for the Palestinians to decide who will lead them.

In Israel, there is a peace camp that can convene 200,000 people in central square of this city, on very short notice, and there is a major movement among academics, politicians, thinkers, and public leaders for peace, even at a painful price. On the Palestinian side, you can find them individually here and there, but there is no public movement.

Israel can make peace with an organization that seeks its destruction. That's Hamas. But Israel can make peace with the Palestinian Authority. It requires a lot of courage from both sides including President Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.

It's not that I place less value on Palestinian lives, but that Chairman Arafat and his chums in Hamas do.

In addition to removing our democratically elected government, Israel wants to sow dissent among Palestinians by claiming that there is a serious leadership rivalry among us. I am compelled to dispel this notion definitively.

For the Palestinians' efforts to delegitimize Israel will end in failure. Palestinian leaders will not achieve peace or prosperity if Hamas insists on a path of terror and rejection. And Palestinians will never realize their independence by denying the right of Israel to exist.

The message of the free world to any potential Palestinian leadership should be a simple one: Embrace democratic reform and we will embrace you.

It simply cannot be disputed that for decades the Palestinian leadership was more interested in there not being a Jewish state than in there being a Palestinian state.

I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders - leaders not compromised by terror.

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.

Frankly, the Palestinian Authority, which is corrupt and cavorts with terror...is not the basis for a Palestinian state moving forward

Much of what has gone wrong in the pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace is due to a lack of strong leadership, primarily among the Palestinians.

In my view, Arafat is the only Palestinian in the world that isn't willing to have an independent Palestinian state.

In Lebanon, there was an agreement not to liquidate Yasser Arafat. In principle, I'm sorry that we didn't liquidate him.

Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas have recognized Israel's right to exist. The Israeli government has never recognized our right to a sovereign state and self-determination.

Yasser Arafat never wanted to make peace with Israel.

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

The Arab leaders, they don't have a love affair with the Palestinians or the Palestinian leadership, but the publics have, and they cannot feel safe in their own chairs if they accept Israel, the mistress, so to speak, to acknowledge her as a main, the Unter den Linden, the main road, as long as we are not moving forward with the Palestinians.

Abu Mazen told me he does not want to change the demographics of Israel.

The United States stands willing to work with a transformed Palestinian Authority with new leaders coming to the front.

Abu Mazen is not a member of the Zionist movement. He is a Palestinian.