Ehud Barak Quotes

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

- 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

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 do anything to impress anyone, quite successfully I can tell you.

- Ehud Barak

With the globalization, it's difficult for governments to impose decisions on private companies.

- Ehud Barak

If you establish a right unity government, you create an effective platform to make... decisions because you have wider support of your own party.

- Ehud Barak

The aim of the Palestinian terror is not just to kill Israelis but also to break the will of Israeli society in order to dictate a political solution. Israel should never yield to this terror campaign.

- Ehud Barak

Sometimes you have to subordinate strategic considerations to tactical needs.

- Ehud Barak

Saddam Hussein has set an example of defiance, especially against the first President Bush, that other Arab leaders cannot and should not emulate; the example leads only to empty gestures and developmental stagnation, both of which the Arab nations have had enough of already.

- 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

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

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.

- Ehud Barak

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.

- 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

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.

- Ehud Barak

I am the Israeli leader who met most with Arafat.

- 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

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

- Ehud Barak

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

- 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

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

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

- 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

A strong, responsible Israel can become a stabilizer in such a turbulent region.

- Ehud Barak

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

- 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

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

- 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

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.

- 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

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

- 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

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

- 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 know Fiat plans to start manufacturing cars in Iran. This is wrong.

- Ehud Barak

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

- 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

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

I will not discuss future hypothetical situations.

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

- Ehud Barak

Iran sees India, China, Pakistan and, allegedly, Israel around them with nuclear weapons.

- Ehud Barak

The Islamization process in Arab countries is very disturbing.

- Ehud Barak

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

- Ehud Barak

Israel cannot afford to be duped.

- Ehud Barak

We are living in an open world. There is a freedom of speech and, clearly, freedom of speculation.

- 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

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

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

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

- Ehud Barak

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

- 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

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

- 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

There is a perception across the Middle East that America is weakened. I believe the perception is wrong. The United States remains the world's mightiest military, economic and diplomatic power by far, with reach and abilities beyond rival.

- Ehud Barak

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.

- 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

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

- 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

I am confident the Obama administration will work professionally with any Israeli government.

- Ehud Barak

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.

- Ehud Barak

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

- Ehud Barak

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

- Ehud Barak

Israel's secret services are allowed to profile.

- Ehud Barak

Leadership can change its mind; leadership can open its eye. Leadership can even be replaced.

- Ehud Barak

Unfortunately, you cannot let your neck be kind of cut as a gesture for your neighbor, even if it's a good neighbor.

- Ehud Barak

It's the role of a government to defend its soldiers and its citizens.

- Ehud Barak

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

- Ehud Barak

Benjamin Netanyahu seems to avoid any initiative.

- Ehud Barak

Once Iraq becomes a nuclear power, the very decision to go to war against it would become a totally different ball game.

- Ehud Barak

As prime minister, I was the Israeli leader who walked the greatest distance in his offers to the Palestinians.

- 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 afraid of elections. I've won every election I've fought in.

- 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

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

I tend not to believe radical Muslim movements.

- Ehud Barak

I fought against Palestinians. I saw them.

- Ehud Barak

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

- Ehud Barak

When an army doesn't want to fight, you don't need much experience to win.

- 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

I know that I am absolutely reliable. Absolutely.

- Ehud Barak

We want peace, but not at any price.

- Ehud Barak

History never repeats itself in the same way.

- Ehud Barak

ISIS has never fought a real battle.

- Ehud Barak