Benjamin Netanyahu

I think placing preconditions before negotiations is the quickest way to undermine peace.

We want Israel as a democratic and Jewish state. So you have to maintain a Jewish majority, and you want to do that by legal means, by democratic means.

Israel is so tiny. It's, you know, a little less than the length of Manhattan, without the West Bank, without Judea and Samaria.

Israel has, enjoys bipartisan support - both Democrats and Republicans - and we extend bipartisan hospitality to both Democrats and Republicans.

Israel produces more conceptual products than any other country.

The Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons would be infinitely more costly than any scenario you can imagine to stop it.

There's no one in Israel who appreciates more than me the importance of American support for Israel.

As far as a nuclear weapons-free zone, you know, when the lion lies down with the lamb, and you don't need a new lamb every day to satisfy the lion, then we might have this kind of transformation in the Middle East.

There is a fundamental situation in which the country has reached rock bottom, that a mother can't send her children out of the house in the morning. The country has reached rock bottom and this needs to be changed.

I say that to my colleagues, by the way, in the internal Cabinet meetings, I say, 'Look, I want to be very clear about what I want.' I just - I don't want a peace process, I want a peace result.

The rules of engagement have become so rigid that governments often straightjacket themselves in the face of unambiguous aggression.

If we accept the notion that terrorists will have immunity because as they fire on civilians they hide behind civilians, then this tactic will be legitimized and the terrorists will have their greatest victory.

So I think we should stay focused on the real problem in the Middle East. It's not Israel. It's these dictatorships that are developing nuclear weapons with the specific goal of wiping Israel away.

Most of the approaches to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, have been directed at trying to resolve the most complex problems, like refugees and Jerusalem, which is akin to building the pyramid from the top down.

The Israeli government has proved over the past year its commitment to peace, both in words and deeds. By contrast, the Palestinians are posing preconditions for renewing the diplomatic process in a way they have not done over the course of 16 years.

I don't think Israel can accept an Iranian terror base next to its major cities any more than the United States could accept an al Qaeda base next to New York City.

Now, when we say we want peace, what we want is really for our Palestinian neighbours to have a demilitarized state next to us that recognizes the Jewish State. We're willing to recognize their state, the Palestinian state. But we ask them to recognize the Jewish state.

You know, I said in the U.N., I said to President Abbas, 'Look, we're in the same city, we're in the same building, for God's sake, the U.N. Let's just sit down and begin to talk peace.'

The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.

You can't end negotiations unless you begin them. And you can't begin them if you continually negotiate about the terms to begin negotiations.