I can tell you I also smoked cigars 10 years before, and the watch, which is a Patek Philippe - it was my former wife who bought it for me as a gift when I completed my military service. What is all of this about anyway? I'm no wealthier than Bibi Netanyahu or Arik Sharon. I don't feel that I'm more hedonistic than Ehud Olmert, or Yitzhak Rabin or Shimon Peres.

Israel is surrounded by a raging sea, parts of which are not willing to accept us as a partner with equal rights among the nations. The reality we live in presents us with profound challenges, the need to effectively use all of our resources, and the need to prepare for any development, near or far. The IDF will protect the security and the future of the state. The IDF will provide the response when the order is given.

Geopolitics needs not just rhetoric, not just certain instincts, not just political skillful manipulation; it needs vision and what the Germans call erdung - you have to be connected to the ground always. You cannot float on your wishful thinking and hope that some miracles will become reality.

In Israel, generally speaking, politics is much more familiar than any other place. We all know each other.

I compare the Middle East to a big condominium, we called shared residence? Well, you have many families that you don't like; some of them are bad families. But, unlike in a condominium, you are doomed to be with your neighbors; a person cannot choose his parents, and a nation cannot choose its neighbors, they were both there. One of them which happened to be quite problematic, short of perfect, called the Palestinians. So we have problems with them.

We are talking about a major change in reality that has to come about, ... We are not idiots. If it turns out that this situation where there is no partner (in peace) remains the same, then we will know what to do.

I don't do anything to impress anyone, quite successfully I can tell you.