Helen Thomas Quotes

Grasping the realities of the Middle East is never easy. This is not primarily because they change quickly, but because so much time, effort, and money is spent to prevent reality from breaking through.

Yes, Israel's our ally. But, are the Palestinians our enemy? No, they are not.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned, it seems, to direct the Middle East policy of the Obama administration.

You can't have a discussion about Israel and the region without including Iran and their nuclear ambitions.

Public interest in most of the Middle East was slight at that time; the Arab-Israeli conflict was all that people were interested in and that was not my specialty.

Everything in the Middle East is connected to everything else

One of the lessons learned in the Middle East is to never try to anticipate the other side's moves.

Israel can't make peace without the clear support of the United States.

Both Bibi and Obama realize that they are going to have to face the problem of Iran together.

The government would have preferred not to take a stand, but the constant presence of the Israeli-Arab conflict on our television screens made it an issue that could no longer be avoided.

There is very little hope that the United States or anyone else can do much to stabilize Iraq, Libya, Syria or Egypt. Stabilizing Iran, and bringing it back into the family of nations, is much more possible. That would be a 'win' for both sides.

Since the Six-Day War, the whole world, which is the real arena of battle between us and the Palestinians, believes that Israel is right in regard to procedure, namely problems and disputes should be solved around the negotiating table.

I believe the government of the United States should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause.

My conviction is that the best strategy to defend the West is to defend Israel.

I think if you're going to master policy, especially world affairs, you've got to know history.

Israel ranks her priorities in the following way: security, land, and water.

Everyone should unconditionally accept that Israel is an indispensable element of the Middle Eastern mosaic.

I don't think that anyone seriously fears that the world can be blown to pieces all together. But what one can fear and rightly so are regional things, like in the Middle East, India, Pakistan, the Korean Peninsula, borders in Africa, etc.

Even before 9/11 I was gripped by a sense of dread: our lack of criticism about what we were doing in the Middle East - the slagging off of a whole religious tradition.

You can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria.

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

We are together with the British and Americans because one should fight terror. But we are not going to pay the price for it by endangering Israel and its citizens.

We have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts.

It is not possible to create peace in the Middle East by jeopardizing the peace of the world.

When it comes to the Middle East, this is always a very difficult issue for any American president.