Pizzas galore!

So a land for peace deal on the Golan Heights is a possibility?

If you talk about the land you also have to talk about the peace. In order to give land you must be sure that you got peace. The problem with Syria is not so much the land but the peace. Several Israeli prime ministers indicated that they are ready to give back the land. But the Syrians do not indicate they are ready to provide peace. We shall continue to negotiate. We are not short tempered but neither are we blind.

You are coming to Britain this week, are you upset by the anti-Israel sentiment in the country?

I don’t understand them, what do they want? What the hell are they looking for? We did not go to conquer land -- never. We were attacked. Thanks heaven we won the wars without the help of any foreigners. We did not have foreign soldiers on our land. When we tried to make peace we gave back all the land to Egypt and Jordan. I don't understand the criticism. Why are they criticising us? That war is an ugly story, we know it. I can assure them we did not invite it and we are not happy with it and as we have shown we are ready to pay the cost. I do not take their superior position. They do not go into the realities of the situation. They just want to be politically correct…

The one most controversial area is the expansion of Jewish settlements, what is being done about that?

Good I am glad you raised it. We left Gaza. We dismantled, not by pressure but our own initiative, 30 settlements by force and look what happened. The minute we left Gaza, we left the settlements, some of them becoming bases for shooting rockets against Israel. The Israelis ask: 'Do you want us to do it again? To be targeted by missiles?’ Why are they so surprised that we want to make sure it will not happen again?

Has Britain damaged its image in the region because of its role in the Iraq war?

I don't think so. The biggest failure in Iraq was not Britain but Saddam Hussein. If he had not been stopped in Kuwait he would have gone to Saudi Arabia. He was the greatest killer in the Middle East. He initiated the war against Iran and killed one million people, he killed hundreds of thousands of Kurds and fired missiles at Israel. If he would have remained he would have been a brutal dictator with unlimited ambitions. You don't have to apologise for trying to bring an end to it. Churchill does not have to apologise for bringing down another brutal dictator. Thanks heaven.

You are 85, you have lived through the whole of Israel's history, do you expect to see real peace in your life time?

Yes. I don't say that I will live for ever. From my experiences, behind the door, from time to time, you are not only a tiger but a dove too. I know people who are pessimistic are considered more serious than optimists, but they both pass the same way.

Do you think you will ever visit Damascus or Riyadh?

Yes, oh yes. I never imagined that we would have achieved what we did already. A year ago I would never dream, for example, that the secretary general of the United Nations would invite a person like myself to come to a forum with the King of Saudi Arabia. It is not the full performance, neither is it the old convention.

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