Arab Quotations | Page 2

It is modernity at stake now. We must explain the distinctions between church and state, and between the press and the state, to our colleagues in the Arab world.

It is another positive sign that the administration is willing to be honest and straightforward about the shortcomings of its allies in the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia.

It is a relatively small number of people who want to impose their will by the use of terror on the rest of civilization, who have got a program. It's not blind violence. It's with a purpose. They want to destroy the state of Israel. They want every westerner out of the Arab countries, Middle East and elsewhere.

Jerusalem is the city where Jewish kings are buried, and not Arab terrorists,

Jerusalem is the base for any peace settlement in the Middle East, and without the return of full Arab control over Jerusalem, there will not be peace in the Middle East,

I said it was a difficult meeting. It was not up to the level of our expectations or the level of the expectations of many Arab and international parties that helped in organizing this meeting with the Israelis.

Our intentions are to promote human rights for everyone, we're not there to change anyone's religion. We pray once they (the hostages' captors) understand that and hear from our Muslim and Arab supporters, they will be released.

Over the last half-century, anti-Semitism has been the essential theology of the Arab world. The Arabs have wasted trillions in oil royalties on weapons of war and propaganda . . . In their flight from reason, they have failed to modernize or civilize their societies, to introduce democracy, or to consolidate the rule of law.

Pakistan is free to do whatever it wants, and we can't impose a veto on their decision, but I hope that this step will not encourage any Arab country to normalize its relations with Israel in this period, ... We consider that any normalization of relations with Israel in this period would be an encouragement for Israel to continue its settlement activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Pakistan is far away and it's not Arab. The positive things we do in Pakistan don't register that loudly in the Arab world.

Our view is that if we are still publishing Du-Et by issue 20 then we have failed to do our job. We hope that by then there's enough integration of Arab journalists into the Hebrew media, that there will be no need for a separate newspaper raising Arab issues.

Our campaigns are focused on increasing the voter turnout and on the importance of voting for Arab parties.

redoubling of Arab efforts to support the Iraqi people in their sad hour.

President Bush has made some statements suggesting the US would accept whatever democratic outcome comes. Should the US be willing to do that, it suggests a major change in their position. But I think it is a little premature to assume that any real decision has been made. I think what they -- in the US administration -- are hoping for is a more gradual reform process in the Arab world, a more gradual expansion of political participation which Islamist groups do not use as an opportunity to come to power. So while I think there has been a shift in the US Middle East policy we will all have to wait to see how great that shift has been.

Our ports are a vital link in national security and it is extremely dangerous to be considering their sale to the United Arab Emirates government.

Peace in the whole of Sudan is vital, not only for this big country -- the biggest in Africa -- but also for the entire African continent and the Arab world.

Some of these forces have gained strength because of a lack of other alternatives. For decades the Middle East has been a political desert. . . . In much of the Muslim world Islam became the language of political opposition because it was the only language that could not be censored. This pattern, of dictators using religious groups to destroy the secular opposition, has played out in virtually every Arab country.

Terry Anderson was held six years in a hole in Beirut. He tried to get Arab newspaper clippings from the U.S. government, and found they were classified. Knock it off!

I think most of the Arab Sunnis have agreed to this constitution. And those who do not agree with it do not represent the Arab Sunnis,

I think they're accustomed to seeing the Palestinians acting different from other Arab regimes.

The alternatives we have for financial aid from some of the Arab and Islamic countries makes the aid from the West redundant for us... If other countries set preconditions for us, we will not accept them.

The Arab world also won the Nobel with me.

The Arab view that someone should bomb Iran and stop it from developing nuclear weapons is familiar to anyone who meets privately with Arab leaders, especially in the Gulf.

The Arab Spring showed that people are not going to wait for an American president to make good on his big talk about democracy and human rights; they are going to fight for those rights themselves and overthrow pro-American dictators who stand in their way.

The Arab League would be wrong to lend its blind support to the Khartoum regime.

The Arab League is melting at the edges. It is a time of change, in many dimensions.

The Arab League has good connections to many parties in Iraq and can use these parties' offices and power to back up the political process. These horizons are welcomed and will witness real support from the Iraqi government.

The Arab countries ought to be working to convince Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to halt the violence and restart the negotiations,

That would create a kind of equilibrium between the two sides -- the Arab and Islamic side on one side and Israel on the other.

I would hope that is not the case. I hope the people of the United Arab Emirates and the government will understand that in a democracy, there is a process of debate.

Members of Congress are very worried about the reaction in their district and their states about having an Arab country run several of our nation's ports.

You call yourself a hero and a leader of the Arab nation, you are a nobody.

We continue to oppose the use of military force and think that there's a very significant risk of grave unrest in the Arab world.

We hope that the advertisement will get Arab consumers to consider whether it is fair to boycott a dairy company that has had nothing to do with these caricatures.

We hope that our Arab brothers would provide this support and provide it quickly because unfortunately there has been a shortage and lack of commitment.

We hope that our Arab brothers will take the initiative to provide this aid as soon as possible... because the February salaries of many employees have not been paid yet.

We're delighted that our largest Saudi customers have decided to lift the boycott. We expect the other large supermarkets in the rest of the Middle East to follow...However, we're fully aware that many Arab consumers remain skeptical about our products, so we plan to adjust certain parts of our marketing.

We examined Iraq's Arab dimension, its unity and all its negative aspects,

We have some very good neutral venues like California, United Arab Emirates and Holland where there are a large number of expatriates of both countries and they would love to watch their cricketing heroes.

We have warned our neighbors - our Arab brothers, our Islamic brothers - that the new Iraq is going to be a different one, ... It's always been taken by those who oppose change in Iraq that Iraq has been hijacked - by the Americans, by the Israelis, by the Kurds, by the Shiites - to strip it from its Arab womb. ... If you care so much, why don't you have embassies? Why don't you send ambassadors?

Time and again, I am struck by how seldom I hear the word, hurriya , 'freedom,' in conversations about politics in the Arab World, ... Much more common among Arabs is the word, adil , 'justice.'

Unlike Pakistan, which is a Muslim but not Arab country, Iraq is an active member in the Arab League and committed to the decisions of the Arab summit in Beirut,

We have not seen any Arab envoys in Baghdad while foreign officials are coming here one after another, ... have no right to cast doubt on Iraq's (political) experience.

We are in desperate need of Arab aid.

The policy of the Bush administration concerning democracy-building always proceeded along two tracks, with rhetoric that was somewhat far-reaching accompanied by the second level of actual diplomatic contacts with Arab countries, which have been very cautious.

What we have to ask is that Arab leaders and Arabs themselves, who see the importance of having good relations with Europe and the Western world, come out and speak clearly about the importance of not letting the situation deteriorate to the point that the only one who suffers is moderate Islam.

When he attacks Israel, this is something the Arab world can agree upon. He has been criticized for the destruction and carnage he's causing the Muslim nation. He's looking for another justification... . Criticizing Israel sounds more politically correct.

We are confident that through discussing with Arab and Islamic states, as well as with the League of Arab States, we will be able to reach a common vision towards maintaining the constants of our people and deal with reality.

We are going to ask the Arab summit to support us and extend a hand to us.

There are Arab nations and other nations in the region which are working to sabotage the Israeli-Palestinian track of the peace process to prevent creation of a Palestinian state.

There is interest in further integrating the work of the chambers in both regions, which began with the Summit of Arab and South American countries.

Vote for us or for any other Arab party.

the deceitful proposal that America and its ally Britain are trying to pass in the U.N. Security Council not only targets Iraq, but also other Arab countries and friendly countries that have trade and economic ties with Iraq.

We want to assure the Palestinian people that there are many charitable parties in Arab and Islamic countries who have expressed readiness to cooperation and offer support for ensuring the success of our democratic programs.

The fact that some of these Arab states are willing to make this public is heartening, and it's a fair response to the Sharon government for the courage which the Sharon government has shown in moving out of Gaza and those four West Bank settlements,

We use American influence with Israel not to promote economic growth in the West Bank, but to try and impede Jewish - never Arab - construction in the capital city.

There already has been a drift away from U.S. assets by Arab investors. You may well have a further drift.

We call on Arab and Islamic (states) to translate their support for (the Palestinians) into real financial, political and economic assistance.

We have formed a legal defense team that includes prominent American, European, Asian and Arab lawyers who were chosen on the basis of competence and merit to put up a strong defense.

Why did the issue only surface with an Arab country? Here is a perfect example of clear discrimination against Arabs and Muslims.

We were told that we were attacked on 9/11 because the terrorists hate our freedoms and democracy ... not for the real reason: because the Arab Muslims who attacked us hate our Middle Eastern foreign policy.

Yet again, this issue will be raised in capitals throughout the Middle East, and perhaps most importantly in the streets of these Arab capitals. It makes the task of the coalition forces in Iraq yet more difficult.

The problem is that so far in the Arab world, very few leaders are willing to tell their own people that they have to understand that the Holocaust did take place.

The problem is that he became a negative icon in the Arab world, in the eyes of the Palestinians, in the eyes of the entire international community,

The question was never whether the United States, E.U., NATO, Arab League, U.N. Security Council, and African Union could together using economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, and military attacks to bring Qaddafi down. The question was always how much time, how much blood, and what damage to NATO.

The one thing that shaped my life was when I was 15 or 16: I knew I wanted to be a journalist. And not just a journalist, but a journalist in the Middle East, and to go back to the Arab world and try to understand what it meant to be Lebanese.

This really is no more than Arab-phobia. For these politicians, the national interest of the United States is synonymous with their next election. They're not thinking this is a real threat. It's an election year, it's an Arab country, and there's a post-9/11 insecurity they can exploit. It's a lethal brew, and they're stirring it for all it's worth.

We are equally responsible for this in the eyes of the Arab world. We are viewed as the enablers.

The president realizes that the whole world has changed. He's thinking about his record in the history books. I think he believes if there's going to be a model for democracy in the Arab world, it's got to be Egypt.

The position of Arab and Muslim capitals we visited so far has been positive.

finally lead to a full diplomatic relationship with Pakistan as we would like to see with all Arab countries, but of course it needs to be done step by step.

To put this in perspective, planes with pilots from the United Arab Emirates fly into this country every day. We don't ban them. Ship pilots from the UAE can steer ships into U.S. ports every day. We don't ban them, either.

We also discussed the part of Arab chambers in the development of trade and of investment in the Arab countries, especially in Saudi Arabia.

There is nothing defined, but all that we have heard from the Arab and Islamic states, officially and from the public, is reassuring.

There is no real Arab empathy with the hundreds of women and children in Iraq killed on a daily basis at the hands of criminal terrorists who come from the Arab countries -- These criminals and executioners, who consider the Shiites -- who constitute the majority in Iraq -- to be infidels, and consider the Kurds - the second largest nationality in Iraq-to be traitors, are glorified by the Arab press.

We have accepted the amendments which we think necessary for the Islamic and Arab world,

We firmly oppose the use of violence in the course of current transformations in Arab States, especially against civilians. We are well aware of the fact that the transformation of a society is a complex and generally long process, which rarely goes smoothly.

We just don't have the same relationship with the United Arab Emirates that we have with Britain. Do we really want to entrust security to a foreign government that had connections to some of the 9/11 hijackers?

We welcome very much the Arab League conclusions as an opportunity for peace.

We don't view ourselves as a settlement. We view ourselves as a continuation of the Jewish dream, but the Jewish dream has an Arab minority.

We are very concerned, ... We feel that the Arab world is being radicalized by the recent Israeli actions.

We saw three successful elections last year... In that success of those elections, you can see the gravitational pole working on the Sunni Arab population pulling them into the political process.

To reach final details about the establishment of the expected government and, at the same time, to continue our dialogue and discussion with Egyptian government in order to reconstruct our relationship with Egypt and with the Arab countries.

This of course is a big sum, and it is bigger than what Arab summits in Amman and Beirut had approved.

We should have had the support of the Arab world in a more active manner - but as they say, better late than never.

We should be alert to the danger that cutting off assistance prior to the formation of a new government might be interpreted by the Palestinians and the Arab world as a punishment for the way the Palestinians voted in January.

We have decided to support the draft and agreed to some changes which we think necessary for the country's ties with the Arab League, as Iraq is a founding member in the AL,

We do not know which irresponsible Israeli prime minister will take office and decide to use nuclear weapons in the struggle against neighboring Arab countries. What has already been exposed about the weapons Israel is holding can destroy the region and kill millions.

Even if there has been a delay, it is compatible with the efforts exerted to convince our Sunni Arab brothers.

Besides the already full dance card around the Arab world, now you've got this going on. It certainly ignites in people's minds that this situation is going to get worse before it gets better.

Every society has its values, traditions and inclinations, and that's why the so-called Greater Middle East Initiative initiated by the United States was rejected by all the Arab countries.

Diplomatically, I think that the Arab countries are going to be re-looking at their relationship with the European Union, particularly by requiring a certain amount of respect (on issues like religion). Even if this doesn't necessarily correspond to European values.

Dublin will provide a great new destination for Arab nationals to visit. The warmth and great personalities of the Irish people will make sure of a warm welcome.

Dubai has been trying to prove to the rest of the Arab world that there is life after oil, and that in fact it's a better life. The good news is there is room for a second and a third Dubai, just like there was room for a second Singapore in Asia.

The timing was linked more to the trouble the U.S. administration is having with the domestic impact of high oil prices and the situation in Iraq rather than a deterioration of ties between Washington and the Arab World.

The United States and our allies and the Arab neighbors of Saddam ... must recognize that as long as Saddam Hussein remains in power he is a destabilizing factor for the entire region. He's a very dangerous man,

The United Arab Emirates today is a good friend and a good ally. After the events of 9/11, the government of the U.A.E. made a strategic decision to be on the right side of the issue and has cooperated with us very, very extensively on the war on terrorism and anti-proliferation.

Israel is now sustaining a war for its own existence. A nation defending its citizens against terrorist bombings and a military and diplomatic onslaught by an array of Arab foes is practicing survival, not genocide.

I've been many times to Dubai and the U.A.E., and I have friends that live there. It would be exciting to stage world heavyweight championship fights in the Arab world. It's something Muhammad Ali achieved when he fought in Zaire or the Philippines. It's absolutely exciting to fight in countries where you have never fought.

It would be hard to ignore the absence of democracy in any Arab nation.