Words matter. These are the best Ehud Barak Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Benjamin Netanyahu seems to avoid any initiative.
Toward the Palestinians, Israel can only give. But when dealing with the entire Arab world, Israel can get a lot.
The Islamization process in Arab countries is very disturbing.
International legitimacy is a fundamental source of power for Israel nowadays.
With the globalization, it’s difficult for governments to impose decisions on private companies.
There is no entity in the world that will dare attack Israel with chemical weapons.
I don’t think that the Iranians, even if they got the bomb, they’re going to drop it immediately on some neighbor. They fully understand what might follow. They’re radical, but not total mishuginas.
There is a thin line between peace of the brave and peace of the hostage… between compromise – even calculated risk – and irresponsibility and capitulation.
Israel always has a special filter to look at things, and that is the attitude toward Jews.
We are living in an open world. There is a freedom of speech and, clearly, freedom of speculation.
When an army doesn’t want to fight, you don’t need much experience to win.
I don’t feel opportunistic ever, in anything.
I know that I am absolutely reliable. Absolutely.
I respect General Halutz very much so.
Hezbollah will support Assad to the end because his continuing hold on power is critical to its own survival.
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.
If I were a Palestinian of the right age, I’d eventually join one of the terrorist organizations.
As prime minister, I was the Israeli leader who walked the greatest distance in his offers to the Palestinians.
Israel is the strongest nation in the Middle East, but we have to apply our strength wisely.
I will not discuss future hypothetical situations.
Russians in top positions always told me, ‘We don’t want to deal with our allies the way that the Americans dealt with Mubarak,’ which is a very live example in the minds of many.
History never repeats itself in the same way.
There is a need to accept a limited disruption of civil liberties in order to penetrate terror.
Once Iraq becomes a nuclear power, the very decision to go to war against it would become a totally different ball game.
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.
When you launch a surgical operation, you must already be well deployed to follow it through with larger forces. That complicates matters: you need to be ready for a full-fledged campaign on the operational level and have the diplomatic backing lined up as well.
I fought against Palestinians. I saw them.
In Israel, generally speaking, politics is much more familiar than any other place. We all know each other.
Sometimes you have to subordinate strategic considerations to tactical needs.
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.
I do not believe the efforts of the international community to stop Iran’s nuclear program will bear fruit.
I tend not to believe radical Muslim movements.
The Palestinian Authority cannot hold the stick at both ends: to incite violence, to participate in it, and to tell the world how – what kind of underdog they are.
We want peace, but not at any price.
I’m such a failed politician that all of my rivals have disappeared, on both sides.
Israel cannot afford to be duped.
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.
Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered the destruction of an Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad in 1981. This action delayed an Iraqi bomb by at least 15 years. The whole world condemned Israel – only to realize later how farsighted it had been.
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.
I don’t do anything to impress anyone, quite successfully I can tell you.
I became a prime minister within four-and-a-half years, the shortest kind of career ever in Israeli political history.
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.
A strong, responsible Israel can become a stabilizer in such a turbulent region.
I believe President Obama means everything he says about sticking to the unprecedented backing of Israel and keeping all options on the table against Tehran, as well as countering its adventures in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.