What I, as the prime minister of the present government of Israel, started to do, is first to tackle the longest part of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

I would like Israel to be a Jewish state, and therefore not to annex over 2 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to Israel, which will make Israel a bi-national state.

We are ready to compromise. We are ready to take calculated risks, but for a peace that will give us security.

One of my theories about why we've been cranky is Australians have been forced to focus on politics or party politics a little bit more than they normally would.

We have to recognize that there is a Palestinian entity, that the PLO and the Palestinian Authority has to run their life.

Steps toward a rapprochement between Israel and the Arab states create a process that turns economics into the moving force that shapes the regional relations instead of nationalist interests that were dominant in the past.

I invite President Assad to come to Jerusalem and to speak with me, with our parliament, with whomever he wants to speak in Israel and in the territories among the Palestinians.