Ariel Sharon: Believer

“You cannot like the word, but what is happening is an occupation -- to hold 3.5 million Palestinians under occupation. I believe that is a terrible thing for Israel and for the Palestinians.”

Ariel Sharon

Sharon pledges to 'immediately' remove unauthorized outposts http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/05/26/mideast/, CNN, 26 May 2003.
2000s

“We are very much interested in developing and strengthening our relations with India because India is one of the most important countries in the world. We believe in democracy… I hope my visit will contribute to strengthening our relations with India.”

Ariel Sharon

Source: We want Strong Ties with India: Sharon, 9 September 2003, http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/sep/09sharon1.htm

World , Hope , Democracy , Country

“I believe that Jews and Arabs can live together. It’s not an easy thing but I believe we can reach an agreement. I don’t want to pretend about talking to Arabs because I meet Arabs, here and on our farm at home. I would like to very careful not to pretend but I think I am one of the only ones here at the present time that will have the power and the strength to tell the citizens of Israel what they have to do and to make compromises and painful compromises, to look into their eyes and say that.”

Ariel Sharon

November 5, 2002 Times Newspaper http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7-469593,00.html
2000s

Pain , Home , Thinking , Time

“It had always been one of my convictions that Jews and Arabs could live together. Even as a child it never occurred to me that Jews might someday be living in Israel without Arabs, or separated from Arabs. On the contrary, for me it had always seemed perfectly normal for the two people to live and work side by side. That is the nature of life here and it always will be…. though Israel is a Jewish nation, it is, of course, not only a Jewish nation… I begin with the basic conviction that Jews and Arabs can live together. I have repeated that at every opportunity, not for journalists and not for popular consumption, but because I have never believed differently or thought differently, from my childhood on. I am not afraid of Arabs. I feel I can live with them. I believe I understand their problems. I know that we are both inhabitants of this land, and although the state is Jewish, that does not mean that Arabs should not be full citizens in every sense of the word.”

Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon, ‎David Chanoff (2002) Warrior: An Autobiography p. 343, 542-3
2000s

Life , People , Feeling , Understanding

“I am for lasting peace… United, I believe, we can win the battle for peace. But it must be a different peace, one with full recognition of the rights of the Jews in their one and only land: peace with security for generations and peace with a united Jerusalem as the eternal, undivided capital of the Jewish people in the state of Israel forever.”

Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon. "I an for lasting peace." at New York Post Forum, November 13, 2000, cited at Freeman.org http://www.freeman.org/m_online/dec00/sharon.htm, November 14, 2000.
2000s

People , Peace