Populism is dangerous.

Hamas is firing at our cities, at our people, firing from these areas, from these homes, from these schools, from mosques, from hospitals. They are actually using them as weapon storage, as command posts and as firing positions, or right next to them.

The history of warfare has not yet enabled any army, any civilized army, the army of a democracy like Israel, to be able to deal with a ruthless terrorist enemy that uses civilians as a human shield without having some incidental civilian casualties.

Israel does not target civilians. It targets the terrorists.

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

In order to restore security for Israeli citizens, every home, mother and child in Israel, and to establish a stable and strong government that will unite the nation...I hereby declare my candidacy.

[The decision to travel to Washington and deliver the speech] has injected a degree of partisanship, which is not only unfortunate, I think it's destructive of the fabric of the relationship