Israeli President Shimon Peres, speech at a Geneva Initiative Conference titled An Agreement within a Year, January 13, 2008 (translated by Middle East Bulletin):
“It is hard to negotiate a peace agreement. Home support is capricious, like Napoleon used to say, it is better to work against coalitions than try and work with them. I believe all three leaders – Olmert, Abbas and Bush – truly want peace. The biggest problem however is how to bolster Abbas at home. We can provide him and Salam Fayyad with guns and I am not scared that those would turn against us as guns don’t shoot, people do. However, what we really need to do is build an economic horizon and create employment opportunities. There are currently four projects in process that can create 100 thousand jobs. With the Palestinian family averaging at seven people, we can make a difference in the lives of 700,000 Palestinians.
We have less than a year considering the terms of Bush and Abbas. That is a very short period. We need to negotiate with our utmost efforts, and take some risks.”
