Ariel Sharon Quotes

No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it

The driving force for the Arabs is hatred of Israel. Hatred of the Jewish people.

Hamas is really a problem for the Palestinians and for Egypt more than Israel.

The biggest aggravation in the Arab world, the biggest reason for their anger toward us and the creation of those suicide terrorists, is Israel and the difficulty with the Palestinian issue.

Arafat rejected the deal because, as a dictator who had directed all his energies toward strengthening the Palestinians hatred toward Israel, Arafat could not afford to make peace.

The Arabs could have peace tomorrow if sufficient numbers of Palestinians were not content to be used as cannon fodder in fruitless assaults on Israel, even as the surrounding Arab powers distract the Arab masses with the red herring of Israel while retarding their countries with their repression and corruption.

One wonders what exactly Israel did to earn Arab enmity between 1948 and 1967, when Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip and Jordan controlled Judea and Samaria.

We of course will say we claim sovereignty of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district. Others will come, and they will say we claim sovereignty. What can be the outcome?

The Palestinians need more help from the Arab countries. Since 1967, the world has learned that there is not going to be real progress in the region until Palestine gets something back that they had.

It is Israel's very existence as a sovereign non-Islamic entity in a land sacred to Islam and surrounded by Islam that creates the inherent tension between the tiny Jewish nation and the vast Islamic world.

In demanding the return of the Palestinian refugees, the Arabs mean their return as masters, not slaves; or to put it quite clearly – the intention is the extermination of Israel.

Palestinian violence is not a response to the capture of the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian nationalism's roots are not so shallow.

The Palestinians should have understood by now that what they haven't gotten today they won't be given tomorrow.

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

I have no doubt that the Palestinian Arab leadership made a mistake when it did not accept the partition plan in 1947, but I want to try to understand it.

Sooner or later, Israel will have to defeat Hamas. There is no way around it.

A popular intifada is most beneficial for the Palestinians.

We know what they say, they want all of Palestine (including Israel) and say that negotiations did not work. They talk about wanting reform. That doesn't mean they will do it.

If you want to be a Jewish state and you want to remain a democracy, you have to have a two-state solution.

I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.

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

And on the other hand, we see that the Israeli government is attacking that part of the Palestinian leader.

We have been in the territories since 1967. In 2002, we had sometimes three or four suicide attacks every day. We came to the conclusion that it can't continue like that.

Hamas says in its charter they want to see a world without Israel. They want to obliterate Israel.

The truth about Hamas and Islamic Jihad is that they don't prevent Israel from existing or even flourishing, they prevent Palestine from coming into existence.