Nir Herszenborn > Nir's Quotes

“Thomas Friedman of the New York Times has warned that if terrorism is rewarded in the Middle East, it will “be coming to a theatre near you.”
― Alan M. Dershowitz, The Case for Israel

“Yet the world, including many in the media, academia, and even diplomacy, seems to accept Palestinian violence as cultural. On the other hand, something different is expected from Israelis. This is cultural relativism bordering on racism. To expect less of Palestinians, regardless of their grievances, is to diminish their humanity.”
― Alan M. Dershowitz, The Case for Israel

“I personally favor the creation of a Palestinian state as a consequence of making best efforts to end terrorism, not as a reward for increasing terrorism as a carefully calculated tactic to achieve statehood.”
― Alan M. Dershowitz, The Case for Israel

“The Palestinians will eventually have a state, but it should not come as a reward for terrorism.”
― Alan M. Dershowitz, The Case for Israel

“It is fair to say that although Israeli actions in combating terrorism have been far from perfect, Israel has been in greater compliance with the rule of law than any other country facing comparable dangers.”
― Alan M. Dershowitz, The Case for Israel

“An infamous political prison required a revolution as much as a revolution required an infamous political prison.”
― Tom Rob Smith, Agent 6

“The problem with the “no daylight on security but daylight on diplomacy” tactic was that, in the Middle East, it did not work. Unlike in the West, where security is measured in tanks, jets, and guns, security in this part of the world is largely a product of impressions. A friend who stands by his friends on some issues but not on others is, in Middle Eastern eyes, not really a friend. In a region infamous for its unforgiving sun, any daylight is searing.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“And what makes you think anybody in the White House still cares about American hegemony in the Middle East?”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“The notion of the need to revise America’s global role, to palliate Islam, and achieve diplomatic distance from Israel had become conventional by the time I arrived in Washington.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“the conclusions reached in the Goldstone Report are not worthy of consideration by people of goodwill.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“This is the Middle East, George, where one-sided concessions don’t build trust. They build the demand for the next concessions.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“Fortunately, as Jews, we were never short of excuses for entertaining. Most Jewish holidays, an old joke goes, can be reduced to nine words: “They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“In the Middle East, no one gets credit for a preemptive cringe.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“The secretary quoted the Middle Eastern axiom, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” to which Netanyahu replied—“acidly,” according to Gates—“No, in the Middle East, the enemy of my enemy is my frenemy.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“One night of strategic bombing will restore all your lost prestige in the Middle East,”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“Perhaps more than the prospect of an Iranian bomb, I realized early in my term, Obama feared the impact of a preemptive Israeli strike.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“The violent tension between honor and shame, so central to Middle Eastern cultures and tragically familiar to Israel, was alien to most Americans.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“We were always the ultimate Other—communists in the view of the capitalists and capitalists in communist eyes, nationalists for the cosmopolitans and, for jingoists, the International Jew.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“Being Palestinian,” I said, “means never having to say you’re sorry.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“Israel sells. Arabs massacring Arabs in, say, Syria, is a footnote, while a Palestinian child shot by Israeli soldiers is a scoop.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“The younger the Jews, statistics showed, the shallower their religious roots.”
― Michael B. Oren, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

“The Arabs always seem to accept yesterday’s formulations too late,”
― Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East