Top 105 Quotes & Sayings by Ehud Barak

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Israeli statesman Ehud Barak.

Last updated on December 21, 2024.

Ehud Barak is an Israeli general and politician who served as the tenth prime minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011. He previously held the posts of defense minister and deputy prime minister under Ehud Olmert and then in Benjamin Netanyahu's second government from 2007 to 2013. He attempted a policial comeback, running in the September 2019 Israeli legislative election as the leader of a new party that he formed. His party merged with other parties to form an alliance called the Democratic Union, but the alliance did not win enough seats for him to become a member of the Knesset.

Israeli - Statesman | Born: February 12, 1942

Source: Wikipedia

I think first of all that Iran is a problem for the whole world.

Ehud Barak

I delivered lectures, and I was also a consultant for international companies in finance, both private equity and big venture capital funds.

Ehud Barak

History never repeats itself in the same way.

Ehud Barak

Israel is much more effective when the Israelis are convinced that we are on the moral high ground: that we are acting not just out of might, but also out of right.

Ehud Barak

I'm such a failed politician that all of my rivals have disappeared, on both sides.

Ehud Barak

As long as in this territory west of the Jordan river there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.

Ehud Barak

Assad wanted Israel to capitulate in advance to all his demands. Only then would he agree to enter into substantive negotiations. I couldn't agree to this.

Ehud Barak

If I were a Palestinian of the right age, I'd eventually join one of the terrorist organizations.

Ehud Barak

I hope any government formed in Egypt will understand there is no choice but to maintain the framework of international agreements, which include the peace agreement with Israel.

Ehud Barak

The Islamization process in Arab countries is very disturbing.

Ehud Barak

I fought against Palestinians. I saw them.

Ehud Barak

The red line must be drawn on Iran's nuclear enrichment program because these enrichment facilities are the only nuclear installations that we can definitely see and credibly target.

Ehud Barak

I have acquired - some would say deservedly - quite a few rivals: former Israeli politicians, some of whom at their height were stars beloved by large parts of the public. But today, they aren't in politics, and when they sit alone in their room, they say to themselves that Barak is the one who showed them out the door.

Ehud Barak

There is a need to accept a limited disruption of civil liberties in order to penetrate terror.

Ehud Barak

International legitimacy is a fundamental source of power for Israel nowadays.

Ehud Barak

In Israel, generally speaking, politics is much more familiar than any other place. We all know each other.

Ehud Barak

I'm not a tycoon or anything like that. Does my property amount to several million dollars? Of course it does.

Ehud Barak

Who can guarantee that if we allow the Palestinians to establish a state, we won't find rockets there as well, half a mile from the airport or 10 miles from Tel Aviv?

Ehud Barak

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

Ehud Barak

I will not discuss future hypothetical situations.

Ehud Barak

I am the Israeli leader who met most with Arafat.

Ehud Barak

There is no entity in the world that will dare attack Israel with chemical weapons.

Ehud Barak

Israel always has a special filter to look at things, and that is the attitude toward Jews.

Ehud Barak

Sometimes you have to subordinate strategic considerations to tactical needs.

Ehud Barak

If Israel does not find the way to disengage from the Palestinians, its future might resemble the experience of Belfast or Bosnia - two communities bleeding each other to death for generations.

Ehud Barak

There is a thin line between peace of the brave and peace of the hostage... between compromise - even calculated risk - and irresponsibility and capitulation.

Ehud Barak

Israel fits into the zeitgeist of our era. It is true that there are demographic threats to its existence. That is why a separation from the Palestinians is a compelling imperative.

Ehud Barak

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.

Ehud Barak

We want peace, but not at any price.

Ehud Barak

I cannot penetrate the soul of Arafat. I cannot know in advance whether, behind all the masks, he's the kind of leader who can reach an agreement or whether he wants to be the Moses of the Palestinians, staying in front of the river and not crossing into the promised land.

Ehud Barak

I don't do anything to impress anyone, quite successfully I can tell you.

Ehud Barak

I don't feel opportunistic ever, in anything.

Ehud Barak

Israel cannot afford to be duped.

Ehud Barak

I'm in the government to make sure that if there's an opportunity to make peace, it won't be missed.

Ehud Barak

Ladies and gentlemen, the relevant question is not when Iran will get the bomb. The relevant question is at what stage can we no longer stop Iran from getting the bomb.

Ehud Barak

Israel is the strongest nation in the Middle East, but we have to apply our strength wisely.

Ehud Barak

Try to think for your own why the Russians and the Chinese do not like the idea that whoever takes aggressive steps to keep order within his sovereign borders should not accept others to intervene physically.

Ehud Barak

I don't hate people. I just accept missions.

Ehud Barak

The Middle East is a region where predictions go to die.

Ehud Barak

An independent, strong, thriving and peaceful State of Israel is the vengeance of the dead.

Ehud Barak

I'm not afraid of elections. I've won every election I've fought in.

Ehud Barak

To think that you can - as a Zionist, Jewish independent state at the end of the 20th century - rule over another people for generations without having any consequences - it's ridiculous.

Ehud Barak

Either we destroy world terror or world terror will destroy us.

Ehud Barak

War is no picnic. Wars should be prevented, and if you can't prevent them, you have to put them off.

Ehud Barak

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.

Ehud Barak

I know that I am absolutely reliable. Absolutely.

Ehud Barak

You can easily justify to anyone about the need to keep supporting Israel. We get very generous support. We need it.

Ehud Barak

I think that Jordan is strong. I think that they will hold on. I believe that they've already opened their parliament and their system, the press and others, to many voices... And I hope and wish that they will remain stable for a long time.

Ehud Barak

Hezbollah will support Assad to the end because his continuing hold on power is critical to its own survival.

Ehud Barak

Iran poses the most serious long-term threat to regional stability.

Ehud Barak

The Syrian rebels, weakened by infighting, have also been victims of the growing rift between the U.S. and its closest Arab allies.

Ehud Barak

The Labor party under my leadership is working to bring the Israeli people together from all nationalities in the spirit of the scroll of independence.

Ehud Barak

I became a prime minister within four-and-a-half years, the shortest kind of career ever in Israeli political history.

Ehud Barak

Yes, the world is short of perfect.

Ehud Barak

Israel will continue to act proactively to prevent the transfer of heavy missiles or advanced air defense systems from Syria to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, which, of course, carries the risk of a military showdown.

Ehud Barak

They say in the Middle East a pessimist is simply an optimist with experience.

Ehud Barak

The first intifada, I was then commander of Central Command, commanding the West Bank, basically. And I know to what extent the first intifada was a popular uprising.

Ehud Barak

I do not believe the efforts of the international community to stop Iran's nuclear program will bear fruit.

Ehud Barak

I'm no wealthier than Bibi Netanyahu or Arik Sharon. I don't feel that I'm more hedonistic than Ehud Olmert, or Yitzhak Rabin or Shimon Peres.

Ehud Barak

Toward the Palestinians, Israel can only give. But when dealing with the entire Arab world, Israel can get a lot.

Ehud Barak