Quotes from Yitzhak Shamir

I said it several times: a blow you are getting from a friend is still a blow, but more painful.

The main aim of the Palestinians is to destroy the state of Israel.

We must never bend too much.

I believe that the will of the people is resolved by a strong leadership. Even in a democratic society, events depend on a strong leadership with a strong power of persuasion, and not on the opinion of the masses.

Wars have not solved anything in our region. They have only caused misery, suffering, bereavement, and hatred.

If history remembers me at all, in any way, I hope it will be as a man who loved the Land of Israel and watched over it in every way he could, all his life.

We have said that Israel has had a very bad history with the United Nations, and whoever cares for himself in Israel distances himself from that Organization.

Everybody knows what I represent. My message is that Israel wants peace, and I am going to do everything possible to find ways to get this peace, this objective of all our people. All of us want peace. The differences are about the conditions of this peace.

Zionism is a revolutionary process. And in a revolution, you must be ready not to think too much about sentiments or human weaknesses.

I am not afraid of taking risks. We have to take risks for peace.

There is no better way to make peace than to talk in each other's home. Avoiding such talks is a denial of the purpose of the negotiations.

I believe that the will of the people is resolved by a strong leadership. Even in a democratic society, events depend on a strong leadership with a strong power of persuasion, and not on the opinion of the masses.

Israel's capital will never again be a divided city, a city with a wall at its center, a city in which two flags fly. This city, will, in its entirety, absorb immigrants, welcome pilgrims and be the eternal capital of Israel forever.

Most of the Jewish refugees, stripped of their considerable possessions, came to Israel. They were welcomed by the Jewish state. They were given shelter and support, and they were integrated into Israeli society together with half a million survivors of the European Holocaust.

I do not want to respond to leaks that concern things that have to do with state secrets of the first degree.

A man who goes forth to take the life of another whom he does not know must believe one thing only - that by his act he will change the course of history.

I am miserable when everything is in order and quiet. Seriously, it's hard for me when I can go home quietly, go to sleep, and get up in the morning without fear and tension.

Even if there is peace with all the Arab states, I don't know if the terrorism against us will pass from this world.

I'm called a terrorist in the Arab media still today.

Several hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs live in slums known as refugee camps in Gaza, Judea, and Somalia. Attempts by Israel to rehabilitate and oust them have been defeated by Arab objections. Nor has their fate been any better in Arab states.

The U.N. did not create Israel. The Jewish state came into being because the tiny Jewish community in what was mandatory Palestine rebelled against foreign imperialist rule. We did not conquer a foreign land.

In their war against Israel's existence, the Arab governments took advantage of the Cold War. They enlisted the military, economic, and political support of the communist world against Israel, and they turned a local, regional conflict into an international powder keg.

Only Arab Israel, the land of Israel, is our true homeland.

When we fought for freedom, for the establishment of a Jewish state, we didn't send a questionnaire to the Jewish nation asking if it wanted a Jewish state.