Quotes from Ehud Barak

I fought against Palestinians. I saw them.

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

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.

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

I don't do anything to impress anyone, quite successfully I can tell you.

War is no picnic. Wars should be prevented, and if you can't prevent them, you have to put them off.

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

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.

We want peace, but not at any price.

In Israel, generally speaking, politics is much more familiar than any other place. We all know each other.

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

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

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.

The Syrian rebels, weakened by infighting, have also been victims of the growing rift between the U.S. and its closest Arab allies.

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

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

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.

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.

Sometimes you have to subordinate strategic considerations to tactical needs.

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.

I became a prime minister within four-and-a-half years, the shortest kind of career ever in Israeli political history.

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.

The Islamization process in Arab countries is very disturbing.

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