Israel welcomes the wind of change, and sees a window of opportunity. Democratic and science-based economies by nature desire peace. Israel does not want to be an island of affluence in an ocean of poverty. Improvements in our neighbours' lives mean improvements to the neighbourhood in which we live.

You know who is against democracy in the Middle East? The husbands. They got used to their way of life. Now, the traditional way of life must change. Everybody must change. If you don't give equal rights to women, you can't progress.

We have to be reasonable people.

Israel is moving from the realm of poetry to the realm of prose.

Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable.

The problem of the Middle East is poverty more than politics.

He taught me literature, and he actually taught me how to read. He was my personal mentor.