Tzipi Livni Quotes

An Israeli soldier is raised on values of respecting human life, and they don't change their values when they turn 18 and enter the army.

- Tzipi Livni

In general, I don't like formality at all.

- Tzipi Livni

In a democracy, you need to have a strong judicial system. You need freedom of speech, you need art, and you need a free press.

- Tzipi Livni

Something happened to the State of Israel. What was morally obvious in 1948 is not so obvious anymore. When the State of Israel was established, it was, for the parents and grandparents of these young Jews, a miracle. It was David and Goliath. We were the just cause. It was about values. We were small, but we were the good guys in the world!

- Tzipi Livni

Israel was established as a homeland for the Jewish people and embraced all the Jews who had to leave Arab states. This should be also the true meaning of the future Palestinian state. It should be the answer for the Palestinians wherever they are - those who live in the territories, and those who are being kept as political cards in refugee camps.

- Tzipi Livni

Being an Israeli is to know that you have risen from the ashes of those who were killed and knowing you have a responsibility for the coming generations.

- Tzipi Livni

Hamas does not represent the national aspirations of the Palestinians. It represents extreme Islamic ideas, which they share with Iran, Hezbollah, and Syria.

- Tzipi Livni

Most of the Israelis reside in settlement blocs which will be part of the state of Israel in the future, and they will remain in their homes.

- Tzipi Livni

The Iranians are abusing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to gain more support from radical elements in the region.

- Tzipi Livni

The capacity to influence radical groups can diminish significantly once they are viewed as indispensable coalition partners and are able to intimidate the electorate with the authority of the state behind them.

- Tzipi Livni

Radical groups can become legitimate political players in the democratic process if they accept core democratic principles and abandon the use of force as a political tool. Or they can maintain armed terrorist militias in order to threaten their neighbors and intimidate their people. The international community should not allow them to do both.

- Tzipi Livni

I may have been born in Tel Aviv, but my umbilical cord emerges from the Temple Mount.

- Tzipi Livni

I want Israel to have borders. For that, I need a map. I need a map on which our borders are specified.

- Tzipi Livni

A leader in any place must ask himself who he identifies with, with which values, and towards what goals.

- Tzipi Livni

Democracy is not only the right to vote, it is also about not resorting to violence in order to reach political goals and respecting agreements signed by former governments.

- Tzipi Livni

Something that truly frustrates me is the impression in Israel that when you are talking about security, you are bold; you are tough: this is what we need against all the enemies that we have. And when someone is talking about peace, you know, it's the naive left wing, soft.

- Tzipi Livni

I hate the idea that talking security is Likud and right wing, and talking about peace is left wing and Labor and Kadima. The whole idea is to find a way to bridge: to find a way to have security and peace together.

- Tzipi Livni

Supporting the war on terror is not an anti-Palestinian act. It is anti-terror.

- Tzipi Livni

We must draw a distinction between understanding and supporting Israel's values and existence, and criticising any Israeli government's policy.

- Tzipi Livni

Relations between countries are built on values and interests and many other things, but at the end of the day, leaders are also only human beings.

- Tzipi Livni

I've been involved in ties with elements in the Arab world for years now. They wish to establish relations with Israel, but they cannot do so while there is no peace process.

- Tzipi Livni

I am good at persuading people. In convincing the other, I try to start from their point of view so it's easier for me to find a common denominator.

- Tzipi Livni

Turkey knows the importance of its ties with Israel; it knows it's in the same moderate camp with Israel, the moderate Palestinians and other Muslim countries, and the threat to Turkey is not from us.

- Tzipi Livni

When we distinguish between Israel's right to defend itself and settlements, then we legitimize its security needs; when we distinguish between isolated settlements and the blocs, then we legitimize the settlement blocs.

- Tzipi Livni

I arranged the first meeting between Ariel Sharon and the settlers.

- Tzipi Livni

I want Israel to be a normal state, part of the international community, part of the free world, but unique in terms of the Jewish people. I want both.

- Tzipi Livni

If Syria wants to be part of the international community, there are some conditions that they have to meet. And the first one is to stop embracing the terrorism.

- Tzipi Livni

Mr. Obama's call to support genuine democracy has implications for the kinds of elections the international community promotes and endorses.

- Tzipi Livni

As leaders, we in Israel must take into account the concerns of diaspora Jewry. Israel is strong enough to take criticism from within the family of Jews who say, 'OK, we disapprove of Israeli policy, but we stand firm for Israel.'

- Tzipi Livni

It's not enough to speak loudly and confidently. You have to know how to get the world on your side, to accept Israel's ideas of security and defending its interests. Netanyahu does not know how to do this.

- Tzipi Livni

There is an intimacy and trust that is needed between leaders, between their assistants and advisers. Usually, you have the real substance behind closed doors; and the press conferences, you have niceties, nice photo ops.

- Tzipi Livni

You know how my mother and father met? In a train robbery!

- Tzipi Livni

Without strong Arab backing, it will be hard, if not impossible, for a Palestinian leader to reach peace with Israel.

- Tzipi Livni

Israel needs to change direction, and this is not just political. We're becoming more closed-in, more isolated, more scared. Those who talk tough are making the State of Israel very weak, very isolated - very Jewish, in the Diaspora-sense, in that 'everyone is against us.' We need to get out of this.

- Tzipi Livni

I prefer jeans to a suit, sneakers to high heels, markets to malls.

- Tzipi Livni

When you look at the Lebanon-Syria border, you see a porous border despite the fact that you have a U.N. Security Council decision that speaks of an embargo on weapons transfers to Hezbollah.

- Tzipi Livni

There is the worldview of Greater Israel, the worldview of settlements: to send citizens to live in those places. That's not about security; that's not about the army. That's about an ideology that believes we need to stay in all of the Land of Israel. I don't share that ideology.

- Tzipi Livni

Politically, the ultraorthodox represent a small portion of the Israeli society.

- Tzipi Livni

Hamas's strategy is resistance and survival. As long as they survive, this is a victory.

- Tzipi Livni

I believe Israel needs branding. I want that the word 'Israel' will relate not just to an Israeli soldier or a camel, but Israel as an advanced liberal society with a strong economy and great people.

- Tzipi Livni

The last thing that Israel needs is to be part of the internal agenda in the United States between Republicans and Democrats.

- Tzipi Livni

I resent the idea that Israel is part of the political agenda in United States' campaigns, really.

- Tzipi Livni

Israel's security doctrine is not that Israel must invade every place from which a threat to Israel emanates.

- Tzipi Livni

The Palestinian conflict is the glass ceiling of Israel's economy.

- Tzipi Livni

I am a pretty good lawyer, and I decided to close the office and to enter politics.

- Tzipi Livni

The right to love is granted to anyone.

- Tzipi Livni

Israel has a problem not because of the perception that the entire world is against us, but because of the government's problematic policies.

- Tzipi Livni

There is an essential difference between someone who harms a child on purpose and someone who harms a child by accident during combat in civilian territory.

- Tzipi Livni

After I retire, I have my own vision, which is not connected to the state of Israel. It's about me, living near the sea, and maybe writing something about the past.

- Tzipi Livni

The fact that a terrorist was killed, and it doesn't matter if it was in Dubai or Gaza, is good news to those fighting terrorism.

- Tzipi Livni

The wise Jewish Israeli must work with the moderate Muslim and the Christian leader of the free world against the crazy Muslims.

- Tzipi Livni

When I make decisions, I'm not thinking about my parents. I'm thinking about my children.

- Tzipi Livni

Israel is part of the free world led by the United States, no matter what.

- Tzipi Livni

Radical Islamist terror is a crime against the entire free world, including against Israel.

- Tzipi Livni

There is a mutual interest between Israel and the United States of America. It is more than friendship - it is friendship plus mutual interest, and it is bipartisan.

- Tzipi Livni

What I am trying to say to Israel is, 'Listen, borders is something that we need, and hopefully, peace is something that we need.'

- Tzipi Livni

The Israeli public has been brainwashed into believing that its global isolation stems from delegitimization and anti-Semitism.

- Tzipi Livni

The reason for the blockade on Gaza was not to punish the Palestinians but to continue to delegitimize Hamas.

- Tzipi Livni

The state of Israel, and a government under me, will make it a strategic objective to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza. The means for doing this should be military, economic, and diplomatic.

- Tzipi Livni

A romantic relationship requires honesty between a couple.

- Tzipi Livni

Wars are not a choice we make for no reason.

- Tzipi Livni

The Israeli people deserve better than a life in between rounds of violence.

- Tzipi Livni

I don't think that everything is a zero-sum game in which, when the president of the United States says something, that means that he is pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli, or vice versa.

- Tzipi Livni

When it comes to matters of religion and state, Bayit Yehudi is more extreme than the ultra-Orthodox.

- Tzipi Livni

Netanyahu's government and its faulty and politicized priorities are leading Israel into bankruptcy.

- Tzipi Livni

Israel is a country that reacts vigorously when its citizens are fired upon, which is a good thing.

- Tzipi Livni

The attitude of 'every nation unto itself' is a destructive one for the future of Israel.

- Tzipi Livni

The world cannot afford a nuclear Iran.

- Tzipi Livni

I didn't go into politics out of concern for the Palestinians but out of concern for Israel.

- Tzipi Livni

The role of a leader is to create a reality and not to be influenced by polls.

- Tzipi Livni

I think we need to change the system of elections in order to give less power to some sectors in Israeli society.

- Tzipi Livni

I know that Israeli soldiers will do everything they can in order to avoid loss of innocent life.

- Tzipi Livni

I believe most of the public should be involved in the election of the leadership.

- Tzipi Livni

Sept. 11 was a shock to the whole world.

- Tzipi Livni

On the right of Israel to exist and to defend itself, there is no opposition in Israel.

- Tzipi Livni

The Palestinian national movement is not an Islamic religious movement.

- Tzipi Livni

I was by Ariel Sharon's side on the day it was decided to form Kadima. It was founded in aim to create a government of hope and responsibility.

- Tzipi Livni

I believe that democracy is about values before it is about voting. These values must be nurtured within society and integrated into the electoral process itself.

- Tzipi Livni

When I was young, I went to the Sinai and worked as a waitress.

- Tzipi Livni

I'm not a person of mentors.

- Tzipi Livni

If someone is willing to sell out his principles for the job, he is not worthy of it.

- Tzipi Livni

My ideology is not connected to the Palestinians.

- Tzipi Livni

We are fighting to keep Israel a democracy - not just in terms of its electoral system but also in terms of its values.

- Tzipi Livni

My husband is in branding. He brands places - cities, institutions.

- Tzipi Livni

I don't question any American president in terms of his commitment to the security of the state of Israel.

- Tzipi Livni

The real danger is a politics that buries its head in the sand.

- Tzipi Livni

I'm not asking myself, 'How I can be different from Netanyahu?' because I am different, and Kadima is different from Likud, by its own nature.

- Tzipi Livni

I don't envy my teachers. I used to preach to them.

- Tzipi Livni

I was born in Israel. My parents came in 1925.

- Tzipi Livni

It's important to be the gatekeeper against dangerous ideas.

- Tzipi Livni

For me, it is clear that when it comes to the need of Israel to defend itself, the role of the United States of America is crucial.

- Tzipi Livni

My responsibility is to ask, 'How can I serve my ideology and my voters?'

- Tzipi Livni

You can't put your name, recognition, your money in a company without having share in the control.

- Tzipi Livni

Sinai is demilitarized in accordance with the Israel-Egypt peace agreement.

- Tzipi Livni

I have come to fight for peace, and I will not give my hand to those who try to turn the word 'peace' into a dirty one.

- Tzipi Livni