Ehud Olmert Quotes
Quotations and aphorisms by Ehud Olmert:
I've been mayor of the city of Jerusalem, which is perhaps, in some ways, more complex and more difficult than a ministerial position.
~Ehud Olmert
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Who thinks seriously that if we sit on another hilltop, on another hundred meters, that this is what will make the difference for the state of Israel's basic security?
~Ehud Olmert
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Israel will not tolerate a situation in which Iran has effective control of non-conventional weapons that can be used directly against the state of Israel.
~Ehud Olmert
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The United States provides Israel with crucial security and economic aid and invaluable political backing in the international arena.
~Ehud Olmert
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I always wake up early Saturday morning, and I have a little bit more time, so I go to the gym.
~Ehud Olmert
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I was not interested in being minister of defense or minister of foreign affairs.
~Ehud Olmert
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I don't know that there is one serious American representative that will advise Israel to sit with a terrorist government and negotiate with them.
~Ehud Olmert
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I'm entirely free of any suspicions or complaints about the Obama administration. I think the Obama administration is very friendly to Israel. I know a lot of the people in the administration, and they are committed to Israel.
~Ehud Olmert
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The values of democracy, brotherhood, and freedom that constitute the building blocks of American society are also shared by Israeli society, together with the faith in man's power and ability to change and influence his surroundings.
~Ehud Olmert
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In Israel, we are sorry for the loss of life of Turkish citizens in May 2010, when Israel confronted a provocative flotilla of ships bound for Gaza. I am sure that the proper way to express these sentiments to the Turkish government and the Turkish people can be found.
~Ehud Olmert
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We are the greatest experts in the world in criticizing our country, but no one loves his country more than the Israelis. No one.
~Ehud Olmert
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Merkel is an amazing woman, very experienced in international politics.
~Ehud Olmert
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Stopping all the violent and hostile actions means ending the smuggling of arms into the Gaza territory.
~Ehud Olmert
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As long as there are no negotiations with the Palestinians, Israel is and will continue to be in a difficult situation.
~Ehud Olmert
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Abu Mazen has got to do only one thing: to fight terror. That's what he needs to do.
~Ehud Olmert
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It is important that democracy in Lebanon is protected and that Hezbollah will not be supported by outside forces like Syria and Iran.
~Ehud Olmert
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What's the logic of investing millions in agriculture if it will not pay off?
~Ehud Olmert
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It is impossible to think of a world in which America was not there in the honorable service of humanity.
~Ehud Olmert
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When public figures write memoirs, there is always some indecision regarding how much they want to write of things as they were and how much they want to cut corners to avoid riling up others. I decided to write my memoirs exactly as they were, and I will not digress - not when things are ill at ease and not when they are comfortable.
~Ehud Olmert
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I'm not in power, but my ideas are in power. And my ideas will prevail.
~Ehud Olmert
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There is an alliance between Israel and the United States, and it has never been stronger than at the time of George W. Bush.
~Ehud Olmert
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Turkey is not an enemy of Israel. I have worked closely with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
~Ehud Olmert
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As a young politician, I voted against the return of Sinai and peace with Egypt. I was mistaken.
~Ehud Olmert
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I always admired the tolerance of my family - you know, that they tolerated my dissension for the family consensus.
~Ehud Olmert
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I have to make sure that I am doing the right thing. I can't afford to make any mistake.
~Ehud Olmert
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Peace is important for Israel.
~Ehud Olmert
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Iran is an anti-Semitic, terrorist government.
~Ehud Olmert
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When you fight for the impossible, sometimes you lose everything.
~Ehud Olmert
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Emerging from embattled and humble beginnings, the Jewish state has exceeded all expectations for its success and prosperity.
~Ehud Olmert
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International economic and political sanctions on Iran, as crucial as they may be, are only an initial step, and must be dramatically increased.
~Ehud Olmert
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I'm not saying it was wrong to intervene in Kosovo.
~Ehud Olmert
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What do you prefer? A prime minister obsessed with being popular, or a prime minister who does the job?
~Ehud Olmert
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A prime minister has to keep a certain balance when dealing with sensitive issues.
~Ehud Olmert
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Yasser Arafat never wanted to make peace with Israel.
~Ehud Olmert
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Palestinians want Israel to return back into boundaries, the width of which is 12 km., that can be cut into pieces within minutes.
~Ehud Olmert
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I don't understand this pathetic need for luxuries.
~Ehud Olmert
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Everything that can strengthen Abu Mazen is favourable.
~Ehud Olmert
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For me, Arik Sharon - I remember his courage and inspiration. I want to remember him the way he really was, not as an aging 80-year-old man living in bed helpless and unconscious.
~Ehud Olmert
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As one of the participants in the Aqaba summit, I can testify that Israel fully expected the Palestinian Authority's newly reorganized and trained security agencies to take harsh action against the rejectionists who sought to wreck the peace process.
~Ehud Olmert
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Maaele Adumim is part of Israel. Gush Etzion is part of Israel.
~Ehud Olmert
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There were certain people who were out to get me. I know who those people were. They exist, believe me. They know that I know. They spent millions of dollars in order to try to get rid of me. I'm happy they lost most of their money.
~Ehud Olmert
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I love my country more than anything else.
~Ehud Olmert
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I can tell you that if I'd had an opportunity to meet with King Abdullah of the Saudis - which I have not - he would be very surprised to hear what I have to say.
~Ehud Olmert
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I have to think about the possible ramifications of an early retirement.
~Ehud Olmert
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My doctors say I am very healthy.
~Ehud Olmert
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The history of the Zionist enterprise is well-known: surrounded and outnumbered by hostile neighbours, the nascent Israel was forced to defend itself against invasion and certain destruction.
~Ehud Olmert
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As a citizen of a democratic state, I have always believed that when a prime minister is elected in Israel, even those who voted against him at the polls are obligated to desire his success.
~Ehud Olmert
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I believe that there is no path other than the path of peace.
~Ehud Olmert
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The State of Israel, in partnership with Project Better Place and Renault-Nissan, is set to become the first country in the world to initiate the mass deployment of electric vehicles.
~Ehud Olmert
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I'm not in the most comfortable position, but I think my government is very stable, perhaps more stable than any government in modern Israeli history.
~Ehud Olmert
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For me to propose a division of Jerusalem was really terrible. I did it because I reached a conclusion that without which there will not be peace.
~Ehud Olmert
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I want to lead. I want to change. And I'm going to do it.
~Ehud Olmert
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When it was not very comfortable, politically, for me, I said things which lots of people didn't like, some of them may have liked. I said my beliefs, my truth, and my convictions, and that's how I am going to continue to do in the future.
~Ehud Olmert
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Abu Mazen told me he does not want to change the demographics of Israel.
~Ehud Olmert
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The United States is a superpower whose influence reaches across oceans and beyond borders.
~Ehud Olmert
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I don't expect to be coddled, but I'm also a human being.
~Ehud Olmert
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Assad is the president of Syria. He enjoys fairly effective control over his country.
~Ehud Olmert
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A prime minister must not promise things that can't be fulfilled.
~Ehud Olmert
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I have found myself under a wave of investigation and criticism from the moment I was elected. Since my first days in the Prime Minister's Office I have had to fight against evil attacks while I have been busy making decisions on crucial matters related to Israel's security and existence.
~Ehud Olmert
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There is no need to get caught up in any apocalyptic prophecies that have no basis in reality.
~Ehud Olmert
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Political leaders can help change the psychological climate which affects the quality of relationships among people.
~Ehud Olmert
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I am focused on what needs to be done for the people of Israel. Period. I do not pity myself and I do not pat myself on the shoulder. I get up in the morning full of energy to fulfill my mission.
~Ehud Olmert
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Don't fall in love with everything that you may have read and everything that you may have heard from any political leader, including myself.
~Ehud Olmert
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When armed people from Hamas and armed people from Fatah are standing opposite each other, there is more likely to be a confrontation amongst them.
~Ehud Olmert
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Look, miracles in the Middle East are a reality.
~Ehud Olmert
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I trust the integrity of the British government and the British soldiers.
~Ehud Olmert
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The legacies of Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, of Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein, stand as an inspiration for all who work for peace.
~Ehud Olmert
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From the end of 2006 until the end of 2008 I think I met with Abu Mazen more often than any Israeli leader has ever met any Arab leader. I met him more than 35 times. They were intense, serious negotiations.
~Ehud Olmert
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Israel is prepared for a compromise. The majority of Israelis understand this compromise will be serious, will be meaningful, and will be painful.
~Ehud Olmert
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I sometimes feel tired. But there are so many reasons for being tired.
~Ehud Olmert
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Many Palestinians have been living for decades in camps, disconnected from the environment in which they grew up, wallowing in poverty, in neglect, alienation, bitterness, and a deep, unrelenting sense of humiliation.
~Ehud Olmert
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As mayor of Jerusalem, I wanted the government to invest the necessary funds in order to unite the city in an effective manner with full rights for the Palestinians living in Jerusalem, so the world would say, 'Okay, it can work.'
~Ehud Olmert
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Arafat is the greatest instigator of terror.
~Ehud Olmert
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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.
~Ehud Olmert
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It's a problem sometimes when you speak to journalists. They quote you, and then they read what they wrote, and then they even explain it. It's dangerous.
~Ehud Olmert
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Mofaz was elected to head Kadima since the party had been shattered.
~Ehud Olmert
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There is a Western world. There is America. There is Great Britain and Germany and France and Russia and China and other nations. I doubt that there is one country amongst those I mentioned which has a desire to see Iran, with its fundamentalist, Islamic, extremist government, possessing nuclear weapons.
~Ehud Olmert
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There is always a human being behind the titles and the status.
~Ehud Olmert
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I want to arrive at the possibility of peace with the Syrians, and when I believe that the conditions are right, I will not miss the opportunity.
~Ehud Olmert
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I don't like this terminology that you have no choice. You always have a choice.
~Ehud Olmert
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The enemies of peace have not disappeared.
~Ehud Olmert
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The dreadful terrorism perpetrated by Palestinian terrorist organizations has affected thousands of Israeli citizens, has destroyed families, and has tried to disrupt the lives of the citizens of Israel.
~Ehud Olmert
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Israel is grateful that America believes in us.
~Ehud Olmert
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Dictates are futile, and mutual accusations are nothing but useless word games.
~Ehud Olmert
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I want to make one thing clear: I am proud to be a citizen of a country in which a prime minister can be investigated like any other citizen.
~Ehud Olmert
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Promoting tolerance and human dignity is one of mankind's unfinished challenges.
~Ehud Olmert
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Growing up in Israel, how can I not be an optimist? When you remember what Israel was 50 years ago and you see Israel now, one of the most successful countries in the world, stable, democratic, with an enormously stable economy despite everything that has happened in the global economy in the last few years, how can I not be an optimist?
~Ehud Olmert
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Israel has the power to protect itself and its citizens.
~Ehud Olmert
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The Palestinians are facing a historic junction at which they will have to decide whether they want to remain stuck in a corner of extreme fundamentalism, which will cut them off from the entire world, or whether they are ready to take the necessary steps. My role is to assist in building this process.
~Ehud Olmert
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The situation of any leader in the Middle East is not easy.
~Ehud Olmert
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I was not born to be prime minister, and I'm not going to stay here until the end of my life. I'm too young for that.
~Ehud Olmert
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Every prime minister ... has the responsibility to provide security for his people.
~Ehud Olmert
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I never thought that Syria and Israel should engage in a violent confrontation because I don't think that there is any particular interest for any of us to do it.
~Ehud Olmert
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The Palestinian Authority is ruled by Hamas, an organization committed to vehement anti-Semitism, the glorification of terror, and the total destruction of Israel.
~Ehud Olmert
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I want to separate from the Palestinians. I want them to have their independent, separate state on a contiguous territory, and I want Israel to exist, of course, as a Jewish state in its own territory, as an independent state in its own territory. The Palestinian state, the Israeli state, separate. This is my dream.
~Ehud Olmert
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There is no doubt that there is a very strange phenomenon called the 'State Comptroller.'
~Ehud Olmert
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Terrorist organizations such as Hamas must be shut down.
~Ehud Olmert
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Palestinian violence is not a response to the capture of the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian nationalism's roots are not so shallow.
~Ehud Olmert
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The military operation in Lebanon was the most successful military operation in recent Israeli history. Many in Israel don't recognise that.
~Ehud Olmert
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I never took a bribe. This is the truth, and there is no other.
~Ehud Olmert
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Israel always has to be in a position to defend itself against any adversary and against any threat of any kind.
~Ehud Olmert
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I understand the importance which the Palestinian society attributes to the issue of prisoners.
~Ehud Olmert
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Abu Mazen has deprived himself of all the practical authorities of government.
~Ehud Olmert
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In my position as prime minister, I bear the highest responsibility for decisions.
~Ehud Olmert
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Terrorist groups and their extremist state sponsors cannot be fought with kid gloves and flowery words of persuasion. As the U.S. has displayed in Afghanistan and in Iraq, only a vigilant and determined campaign of confrontation can deter and obstruct them.
~Ehud Olmert
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Have I made mistakes in my many years of political activity? Of course! I am sorry and regret them.
~Ehud Olmert
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How are fears born? They are born because of differences in tradition and history; they are born because of differences in emotional, political and national circumstances. Because of such differences, people fear they cannot live together.
~Ehud Olmert
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Iran is a major threat to the well-being of Europe and America just as much as it is for the state of Israel.
~Ehud Olmert
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I know I'm unpopular.
~Ehud Olmert
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Before I became prime minister, as mayor of Jerusalem, I became world-renowned because of my fight for the unity of Jerusalem.
~Ehud Olmert
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I know the war in Iraq is controversial in the States, but for us in the Middle East it has made a great and significant impact.
~Ehud Olmert
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We must give up Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem and return to the core of the territory that is the State of Israel prior to 1967, with minor corrections dictated by the reality created since then.
~Ehud Olmert
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Nobody stands above the law.
~Ehud Olmert
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Throughout the second intifada, America provided unprecedented support for Israel's struggle against Palestinian terrorism and Israel's construction of the security barrier.
~Ehud Olmert
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Saudi Arabia is the country that in the end will determine the ability of the Arabs to reach a compromise with Israel.
~Ehud Olmert
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When I addressed international forums as prime minister, the Israeli people expected me to present bold political initiatives that would bring peace - not arguments outlining why achieving peace now is not possible.
~Ehud Olmert
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The fundamental interest - long-range strategic interest - of the state of Israel is that we will have the international bodies and primarily the United Nations recognize the two-state solution, so that there will never be any doubt as to the right of Israel to have its own Jewish independent state.
~Ehud Olmert
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Already at the time of Israel's birth, Ben-Gurion extended his hand in peace to the Arab nations. His hand was rejected, but it remains extended.
~Ehud Olmert
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The days that Israel was separated from Europe are gone.
~Ehud Olmert
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I have reached a conclusion that when we have to make a choice between greater Israel or a Jewish democratic state - and we have to make this choice, it is inevitable - then my choice is a Jewish democratic country.
~Ehud Olmert
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If the Gaza ceasefire proves stable, Israel will not remain in the Strip.
~Ehud Olmert
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Israel has said many times - and I also said this to German television in an interview - that we will not be the first country that introduces nuclear weapons to the Middle East.
~Ehud Olmert
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In Israel we tend to be carried away by our emotions.
~Ehud Olmert
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I think the attempt to draw a comparison between Iran and Syria is false, misleading and dangerous.
~Ehud Olmert
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The newspapers are always reminding the public that I am an unpopular prime minister.
~Ehud Olmert
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A bloc of states is emerging that understands that they may have been wrong to think that Israel is the world's greatest problem.
~Ehud Olmert
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Politicians are strong to the extent that they are ready to take serious decisions and fight for it.
~Ehud Olmert
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Israel stands proudly at the forefront of international achievement. The world's leading corporations - Google, Intel and Motorola, to name but a few - maintain research and development facilities here, and our technology start-ups continue to be acquired by the likes of AOL, eBay and IBM.
~Ehud Olmert
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I would never agree to an exclusive Muslim sovereignty over areas that are religiously important to Jews and Christians.
~Ehud Olmert
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When the President of Iran talks about removing Israel from the face of the Earth and is building nuclear bombs with a range of 3000km, you have to be worried.
~Ehud Olmert
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Historic scores cannot be settled, and scars cannot be obliterated.
~Ehud Olmert
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There is nowhere I encounter greater understanding for Israel's existential issues than in the Oval Office.
~Ehud Olmert
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Barack Obama's journey to the White House has impressed and inspired the entire world.
~Ehud Olmert
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Every word I wrote in my book is documented, certified, true, and correct. The truth wins, and that is my picture.
~Ehud Olmert
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The Goldstone Committee was formed in April of 2009, after I was not prime minister. So it was a new political situation.
~Ehud Olmert
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