“The prime minister of Israel is welcome to speak in the United States, obviously. But we don’t want to see this turned into some great political football”

The relationship between Israel and the United States is a bond of – it’s just a very powerful bond. It was, it is, and will be and will continue to be.

But … the days that the Jewish people remain passive in the face of genocidal enemies — those days are over.

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.

Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories.

Iran is a country that talks about, denies the Holocaust, promises to wipe out Israel, is engaged in terror throughout the world. This is a regime that is giving vent to the worst impulses that you see right now in the Middle East.

Leaders must see reality as it is, not as it ought to be.

You know, I think, I think the Palestinians are trying to get away without negotiating. They’re trying to get a state to continue the conflict with Israel rather than to end it.

A legitimate democracy cannot act against a terror organization because it is using civilians as a human shield, and therefore it should absorb attacks on its own civilians.

I don’t want a one-state solution. I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution, but for that circumstances have to change.

They’re trying to basically detour around peace negotiations by going to the U.N. and have the automatic majority in the U.N. General Assembly give them, give them a state.

The real reason we haven’t had peace is because of a persistent refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border.

I always lose the election in the polls, and I always win it on election day.

There is an irreplaceable ally. It’s called the United States of America.

So for Europeans we are like Belgiums in the Congo, or the French in Alger, or the British in India. Strange interlopers in somebody else’s land. But in fact, we [Israeli] have been here for 4,000 years. This is our ancestral homeland.

I know that Israel does not stand alone. I know that America stands with Israel.

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

Socially, a journalist ranks somewhere between the madam of a whorehouse and a bartender. but spiritually he ranks with Galileo, for he knows the world is round.

With hip-hop music, it allowed me to talk about political and social things but also to tell stories.

Our political divides have become our personal divides.

I have the happy circumstance of either being accused of political grandstanding on the one hand or cover-ups on the other.

My family life and early political life – being exposed to the news constantly, being enrolled in an Afrocentric education program, and doing the extracurriculars I did – played a huge role in me finding my path.

Using terrorism or jihadists or extremists for any political agenda is immoral.

I assure this committee that, if I am confirmed, I will be strictly independent of all political influences… essential to that institution’s ability to function effectively and achieve its mandated objectives.

I was a soul singer first and I’d write love songs. I find with soul music it’s really hard to write about anything else. But I was 15 at the time when I was doing that and, to be honest, I’d never experienced love, so the words were kind of meaningless.