Top 147 Quotes & Sayings by Ehud Olmert

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Israeli politician Ehud Olmert.

Last updated on September 16, 2024.

Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as the 12th Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 and before that as a cabinet minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006. Between his first and second stints as a cabinet member, he served as mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003. After serving as PM he was sentenced to serve a prison term over convictions for accepting bribes and for obstruction of justice during his terms as mayor of Jerusalem and as trade minister.

Israeli - Politician | Born: September 30, 1945

Source: Wikipedia

Peace is important for Israel.

Ehud Olmert

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nobody stands above the law.

Ehud Olmert

Merkel is an amazing woman, very experienced in international politics.

Ehud Olmert

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

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

Stopping all the violent and hostile actions means ending the smuggling of arms into the Gaza territory.

Ehud Olmert

I'm not in power, but my ideas are in power. And my ideas will prevail.

Ehud Olmert

The days that Israel was separated from Europe are gone.

Ehud Olmert

Politicians are strong to the extent that they are ready to take serious decisions and fight for it.

Ehud Olmert

A prime minister must not promise things that can't be fulfilled.

Ehud Olmert

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

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

I don't expect to be coddled, but I'm also a human being.

Ehud Olmert

Every prime minister ... has the responsibility to provide security for his people.

Ehud Olmert

Israel always has to be in a position to defend itself against any adversary and against any threat of any kind.

Ehud Olmert

Israel has the power to protect itself and its citizens.

Ehud Olmert

In Israel we tend to be carried away by our emotions.

Ehud Olmert

Promoting tolerance and human dignity is one of mankind's unfinished challenges.

Ehud Olmert

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

I always wake up early Saturday morning, and I have a little bit more time, so I go to the gym.

Ehud Olmert

Look, miracles in the Middle East are a reality.

Ehud Olmert

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

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

The newspapers are always reminding the public that I am an unpopular prime minister.

Ehud Olmert

A prime minister has to keep a certain balance when dealing with sensitive issues.

Ehud Olmert

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

When you fight for the impossible, sometimes you lose everything.

Ehud Olmert

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

I love my country more than anything else.

Ehud Olmert

I don't understand this pathetic need for luxuries.

Ehud Olmert

Iran is an anti-Semitic, terrorist government.

Ehud Olmert

I have to think about the possible ramifications of an early retirement.

Ehud Olmert

Saudi Arabia is the country that in the end will determine the ability of the Arabs to reach a compromise with Israel.

Ehud Olmert

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

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

What do you prefer? A prime minister obsessed with being popular, or a prime minister who does the job?

Ehud Olmert

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

I'm not saying it was wrong to intervene in Kosovo.

Ehud Olmert

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

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

My doctors say I am very healthy.

Ehud Olmert

I know I'm unpopular.

Ehud Olmert

There is no doubt that there is a very strange phenomenon called the 'State Comptroller.'

Ehud Olmert

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

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

I sometimes feel tired. But there are so many reasons for being tired.

Ehud Olmert

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

I think the attempt to draw a comparison between Iran and Syria is false, misleading and dangerous.

Ehud Olmert

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

Political leaders can help change the psychological climate which affects the quality of relationships among people.

Ehud Olmert

The military operation in Lebanon was the most successful military operation in recent Israeli history. Many in Israel don't recognise that.

Ehud Olmert

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

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

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