[In Gaza] a "dynamic reconstruction has started"... Women are throwing away their veils and are going swimming in the sea." [Interview, Die Welt (Berlin), July 14, 1995]
Fundamentalism is a protest, not an alternative. And peace is an alternative, not a protest. That is the difference. [Briefing to Foreign Journalists, June 8, 1993]
[Referring to Hamas] Their whole existence is based on unreasonableness. So what do they need to win [an election] for? [Middle East Quarterly, March 1995, p. 76]
The Middle East was a complex place for three basic reasons: The conflict was unprecedented, deep, full of emotion and full of military strength and confrontation. Secondly, the number of participants in this conflict was large and varied and different. And, thirdly, it was basically a military and political conflict rather than an economic cooperation and social outlook. May I say that over the last year everything has changed completely. [Speech at White House following meeting with Clinton and Crown Prince Hassan, October 3, 1994]
Ultimately, if the leaders of the Arab states do not adopt democracy, they will lose power. [New Middle East, p. 179]
(Asked about Arafat's Johannesburg speech stating that the peace with Israel is temporary, similar to that between Mohammed and the Quraysh tribe): I am not certain that Arafat and Mohammed resemble one another....I am not their lawyer....I have no doubt, however, that he was drawn into a harmful speech. [Interview on Kol Israel, May 23, 1994].
If you ask me today what is the nature of the conflict in the Middle East, it is not a conflict between West and East, nor is it a conflict between north and south, nor even is it a conflict between Jews and Arabs. It is a single conflict, which divides the entire world, between yesterday and tomorrow; between what was, and what is; between the dangers, the enemies, the habits, the norms, the stigmas of the past, and the need to adjust our entire way of thinking, our worldview, to a world that has undergone a radical change, and is continuing to change. [Address to Zionist Executive, June 23, 1993]
(Spoken at the secret signing in Norway of the Declaration of Principles) The fate of Gaza can be like that of Singapore. From poverty to prosperity in one sustained leap. [Battling for Peace, p. 302]
(Speaking at the anti-terrorism summit at Sharm el Sheikh in the wake of the suicide attacks that killed 61 in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv) The dark days are at an end. The shadows of its past are lengthening. The twilight of wars is still red with blood, yet its sunset is inevitable and imminent....It will be a new Middle East. [New York Times, March 14, 1996]