Yitzhak Rabin Quotes

We can continue to fight. We can continue to kill - and continue to be killed. But we can also try to put a stop to this never-ending cycle of blood. We can also give peace a chance.

You have got to sit down and talk to people. You can't understand people from a distance.

We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population?' Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out!

We must think differently, look at things in a different way. Peace requires a world of new concepts, new definitions.

We'll fight terror like there's no peace, and make peace like there's no terror.

I, serial number 30743, Lieutenant General in reserves Yitzhak Rabin, a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces and in the army of peace, I, who have sent armies into fire and soldiers to their death, say today: We sail onto a war which has no casualties, no wounded, no blood nor suffering. It is the only war which is a pleasure to participate in - the war for peace.

I believe that in the long run, separation between Israel and the Palestinians is the best solution for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

If you have the same problem for a long time, maybe it's not a problem. Maybe it's a fact.

Peace is not made with friends. Peace is made with enemies.

Practically the only way to dry the swamp of radical Islam is through economic development and an improved standard of living.

The use of force, including beatings, undoubtedly has brought about the impact we wanted - strengthening the [occupied] population's fear of the Israeli Defense Forces.

I enter negotiations with Chairman Arafat, the leader of the PLO, the representative of the Palestinian people, with the purpose to have coexistence between our two entities, Israel as a Jewish state and Palestinian state, entity, next to us, living in peace.

For me, Jerusalem was united, will be under Israel sovereignty, will be the capital of Israel and the heart of the Jewish people.

Peace has no borders.

Here, in the Land of Israel, we returned and built a nation. Here, in the Land of Israel, we established a State. The Land of the prophets, which bequeathed to the world the values of morality, law and justice, was after two thousand years, restored to its lawful owner - the members of the Jewish People, On its Land, we have built an exceptional national Home and State.

I was a military man for 27 years. I fought so long as there was no chance for peace. I believe that there is now a chance for peace, a great chance. We must take advantage of it for the sake of those standing here, and for those who are not here - and they are many.

[Israel will] create in the course of the next 10 or 20 years conditions which would attract natural and voluntary migration of the refugees from the Gaza Strip and the west Bank to Jordan. To achieve this we have to come to agreement with King Hussein and not with Yasser Arafat.

No Arab ruler will consider the peace process seriously so long as he is able to toy with the idea of achieving more by the way of violence.

I don't believe that in the name of the holiness of the city you have to put barbed wires, machine gun nests, mine pins and everything of that, in the name of the holiness of Jerusalem.

We will not rest until we reach a permanent agreement [with the Palestinians] that would secure a safe future for our children and that would provide us with renewed hope to live in a region where people lead a life of co-operation and not, God forbid, where blood is shed.

Israel has an important principle: It is only Israel that is responsible for our security.

We are ready to compromise. We are ready to take calculated risks, but for a peace that will give us security.

We did not think that [Egyptian President] Nasser wanted war. The two divisions he sent to Sinai on May 14 would not have been sufficient to launch an offensive against Israel. He knew it and we knew it.

Peace will be victorious.

But, more than anything, in the more than three years of this Government's existence, the Israeli people has proven that it is possible to make peace, that peace opens the door to a better economy and society; that peace is not just a prayer. Peace is first of all in our prayers, but it is also the aspiration of the Jewish people, a genuine aspiration for peace.

Peace with Syria would provide more security than a few settlements on the Golan.

Enough of blood and tears. Enough!

Only the change on the international scene, the crisis in the gulf, and the strong, firm position of the United States against aggression between two Arab countries created realities that led to the Madrid Peace Conference.

I, serial number 30743, Major General Yitzhak Rabin, am a soldier in the army of peace.

We, the soldiers who have returned from battle stained with blood, we who have seen our relatives and friends killed before our eyes, we who have attended their funerals and cannot look into the eyes of their parents, we who have come from a land where parents bury their children, we who have fought against you, the Palestinians We say to you today in a loud and clear voice: Enough of blood and tears. Enough.

You don't make friends with friends. You have got to make friends with your enemies.

Israel is no longer a people that dwells alone, and has to join the global journey toward peace, reconciliation and international cooperation.

A diplomatic peace is not yet the real peace. It is an essential step in the peace process leading towards a real peace.

I am healthy. I wish all my colleagues to the peace process to be healthy.

It is my hope that I could be not just a Prime Minister, but a Prime Minister for Aboriginal affairs, the first I imagine that we've ever had.

Steps toward a rapprochement between Israel and the Arab states create a process that turns economics into the moving force that shapes the regional relations instead of nationalist interests that were dominant in the past.

We do not celebrate the death of our enemies.

I am 73 years old. I was born in Jerusalem. I'm the first prime minister of Israel to be born here. I am the only former general to become a prime minister.

Military cemeteries in every corner of the world are silent testimony to the failure of national leaders to sanctify human life.

I'll continue to carry out whatever we are committed to. Whatever we believe leads us to a permanent solution the way we want it, the way I want it.

Jerusalem is united, will never be divided again.

We are committed to free access and free practice, to the members of the other two religions, to the holy shrines in Jerusalem. To the Muslims, to the Christians.

In the midst of fighting there is no place for public debate.

Israel's willingness to cooperate closely with the U.S. in protecting American interests in the region altered her image in the eyes of many officials in Washington.

It is not worth the paper it is written on unless it is backed by the kind of force that will make the other side consider the penalties too heavy to break the agreement.

The negotiations must address all aspects, both peace and withdrawal.

This rally must send a message to the Israeli people, to the Jewish people around the world, to the many people in the Arab world, and indeed to the entire world, that the Israeli people want peace, support peace. For this, I thank you.

The Government chose to give peace a chance. The Government chose to do something to achieve it.

I would like Israel to be a Jewish state, and therefore not to annex over 2 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to Israel, which will make Israel a bi-national state.

The struggle to get weapons is continuous, but the United States will aid us, if it finds Israel displaying a willingness for peace.