Top 175 Quotes & Sayings by Benjamin Netanyahu - Page 3

The Palestinian society is split into two - those who are openly calling for Israel's destruction like Hamas, and those who are not calling openly for Israel's destruction but refuse to confront those who do. And that's the Palestinian authority. I think they're timid, they're afraid to actually stand up to these killers. And I think that they're afraid, maybe for their own sake, for their own political hides, sometimes for their own physical safety. And they don't take that necessary plunge.

There is an irreplaceable ally. It's called the United States of America.

The real reason we haven't had peace is because of a persistent refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border.

[The decision to travel to Washington and deliver the speech] has injected a degree of partisanship, which is not only unfortunate, I think it's destructive of the fabric of the relationship

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.

Israel has to accommodate the Palestinian demands and aspirations for ending occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. That is the only answer. The Israeli aggression on Gaza does not bring peace to Israel. We know that. We want end of occupation.

The prime minister of Israel is welcome to speak in the United States, obviously. But we don't want to see this turned into some great political football

If there is a birthrate demographic problem, and there is, it is with the non-White races Israeli Arabs who are American will remain Israeli citizens.

I would say we want to stop the firing of rockets, for sure. But we also want to dismantle the terror - the tunnel - the terror tunnel networks that we have uncovered.

Hamas is firing at our cities, at our people, firing from these areas, from these homes, from these schools, from mosques, from hospitals. They are actually using them as weapon storage, as command posts and as firing positions, or right next to them.

We will respond with a heavy hand to the brutal murder of Jews who came to pray and were killed by lowly murderers.

I had differences of opinion with President Obama and most well-known, of course, is Iran.

All I can tell you is that Israel's position in the Arab world has changed because they no longer see Israel as their enemy, but as their ally, in their indispensable battle against the forces of militant Islam, either those led by Iran, the Shiites, or - and those led by Daesh - by ISIS, the militant Sunnis.

I am certain that I speak on behalf of my entire nation when I say: Today, we are all Americans. In grief, as in defiance.

The instability in the region is not a result of Israel and the Palestinians. That was never the cause of this instability. Instead, the disfunctionality of many of these societies that have failed to modernize.

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

Hamas is responsible and Hamas should held accountable for civilian deaths.

Our friendship will weather the current disagreement as well, to grow even stronger in the future.

I don't think that anyone should doubt Israel's determination to defend itself against terror and destruction.

While Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines...

I want to tell you that Israel is a democracy and every citizen is automatically registered to vote. There's a commitment in our declaration of independence, guaranteed under Israel's law, that all our citizens, Arab and Jews, alike, have the right to vote.

I unequivocally condemn the striking of the soldier from the Ethiopian community and those responsible will be brought to justice but nobody has the right to take the law into their own hands, immigrants from Ethiopia and their families are dear to us and Israel is making great efforts to ease their integration in society.

We will take whatever action is necessary to protect our people, including against the terror tunnels that they are trying to dig against us.

You know, I said in the U.N., I said to President Abbas, "Look, we're in the same city, we're in the same building, for God's sake, the U.N. Let 's just sit down and begin to talk peace."

Israel is doing what any other country would do, and certainly the U.S. would do. If 80 percent of your population were under fire and you had 60 seconds or 90 seconds to get into bomb shelters, if terror tunnels were dug underneath your border in order to come in and explode your kindergartens and massacre your people and kidnap American citizens.

I'm very proud of the fact that Israel is the one country in a very broad radius that - in which Arabs have free and fair elections. That's sacrosanct. That will never change. I wasn't trying to suppress a vote. I was trying to get something to counter a foreign-funded effort to get votes that are intended to topple my party. And I was calling on our voters to come out.

90 percent, 85 to 90 percent of Israeli citizens in Judea-Samaria, in the West Bank, live in clusters, in urban blocks. Everybody understands that if we were to have a solution then those blocks would stay in Israel. And that's where you saw these cranes; that's where Israelis live. In the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem, everybody understands, they will stay.

But ... the days that the Jewish people remain passive in the face of genocidal enemies — those days are over.

The US-Israel partnership transcends politics and it always will

A legitimate democracy cannot act against a terror organization because it is using civilians as a human shield, and therefore it should absorb attacks on its own civilians.

Everything should be done to prevent Iran, the world's most dangerous regime, from developing the world's most dangerous weapons.

Hamas is simply continuing all its operations. And Israel will not let this terror operation decide when it's convenient for them and not convenient for them to attack our people.

They're in the red zone. They're in the last 20 yards, and you can't let them cross that goal line. You can't let them score a touchdown, because that would have unbelievable consequences, grievous consequences for the peace and security of us all, of the world really.

The only good thing I can say about the deal with Iran is that it brought the Arab states and Israel closer together.

There is a structural difference between the way that Europe views Israel, and America views Israel. The European view is informed by the importance of colonialism in Europe's past. So for Europeans we are like Belgiums in the Congo, or the French in Alger, or the British in India. Strange interlopers in somebody else's land. But in fact, we [Israeli] have been here for 4,000 years. This is our ancestral homeland.

Israel has no better friend than America. And America has no better friend than Israel. We stand together to defend democracy. We stand together to advance peace. We stand together to fight terrorism.

We wanted peace and we wanted to come to terms with the Israelis.

Don’t be fooled. The battle between Iran and ISIS doesn’t turn Iran into a friend of America.

Israel is very much endangering.

The entire world is focusing on the compromises that are necessary from Israel's side. But people [in the world] are not focusing on the fact that the Palestinians refuse to make the necessary compromises that are required on their side for peace.

The Czech Republic stood with the U.S., Canada and a handful of other countries against the prevailing international current, but history has shown us time and again that what is right is not what is popular.

If the Palestinians do their part, we shall do our part and we shall have an agreement.

The minute Mr. Putin decided to put his military forces in Syria, I went to see him. And I said, "Look, here's what I'm doing. I'm not intervening in Syria. But at the same time, if Syria tries to intervene with us, if Iran tries to use Syria to attack us, we'll stop it.

If the world powers are not prepared to insist that Iran change its behavior before a deal is signed, at the very least they should insist that Iran change its behavior before a deal expires.

I don't want a one-state solution. But I certainly don't want a zero-state solution, a no-state solution, where Israel's very existence would be jeopardized. And that's what the people of Israel overwhelmingly elected me to do.

There’s no one in Israel who appreciates more than me the importance of American support for Israel.

If there is willingness on the Palestinian side to reach an agreement, it is possible. We are conducting the negotiations with goodwill.

The people of Israel have come home never to be uprooted again.

I think that anyone who moves to establish a Palestinian state and evacuate territory gives territory away to radical Islamist attacks against Israel.

The idea of imposing peace from the outside doesn't work.

I'm very proud to be the prime minister of all of Israel's citizens, Arabs and Jews alike.

I certainly will make sure that everybody understands that I'm the prime minister of all of Israel's citizens, and I really believe that. It's something that my actions have shown. It's not a question of fence-mending, it's a question of real belief, and it's there. I don't have to fabricate it.

I don't want a one-state solution. I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution, but for that circumstances have to change.

Israel has done enormous amount of, for peace. I myself have done things that no prime minister previously had done.

I told John Kerry and General Allen, the Americans’ expert, ‘We live here, I live here, I know what we need to ensure the security of Israel’s people.’