More Quotes
“There’s never been a time when the ties were so close. There’s no question that if you think back 40, 50 years — even 25 years ago when the relations started, it was still very cold. Israel was taboo. I remember those days when we dreamed of the Russian president visiting Israel; it was something nobody thought would be possible.” (Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar speaking to the Times of Israel on PM Netanyahu’s visit to Russia, 07/06/2016)
“We will stand up not just for Israel’s security but for its legitimacy. No state is immune from criticism…but when one state is targeted as relentlessly, obsessively, bitterly as Israel is time and time again it is wrong and ugly. It is bullying in the guise of diplomacy and it has to stop.” (Susan Rice speaking at an American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum, 06/06/2016)
“We must remember that Jerusalem is a microcosm of Israel’s entire society and the task of [achieving] familiarity between sectors and between tribes is a national one. If we remember that we are not condemned to live together, but are destined to live together, Jerusalem will be not just a city of the past, but also a city of hope, a city of the future.” (President Reuven Rivlin speaking at the Jerusalem Day ceremony, 05/06/16)
“Our country allowed me, a Christian Arab from Nazareth, to end the war between my soul and my body… If I was somewhere else in this region I would have been in my grave a long time ago. Of course there are problems here, and I’m still Palestinian, but what I’ve gotten here I couldn’t get anywhere else.” (Talleen Abu Hanna speaking to the press after winning Miss Transgender Israel in Tel Aviv, 27/05/2016)
“I am in close and continuous contact with the senior cabinet ministers of the Palestinian Authority. We are making major efforts to strengthen the Palestinian economy. We will continue to strengthen ties between ourselves and the Palestinians and will base them on a healthy economy. Past experience teaches that the seeds that we lay on the economic level also reach the diplomatic and security level.” (Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon speaking in Netanya, 01/06/2016)
“This unique conference is more than just a debate on the delegitimisation of Israel or the boycott movement. This is not an issue of left or right, or of partisan politics. We are here to discuss the existential issue of the right of the Jewish people to exist in the State of Israel. There is no quick fix for this new form of anti-Semitism, and it is up to the next generation to glean the tools to combat these attacks, for the future of the State of Israel and the future of the Jewish people.” (World Jewish Conference CEO Robert Singer speaking at the 1st UN summit against BDS, 31/05/2016)