Israelis are the total Jews.
It's not what the rabbis say that defines Jewishness but what we Israelis do every day - our actions and our values.
The malady of the Jews is that they don't see territory as part of their identity.
I was proud my father spoke Arabic fluently - his father sent him to learn Arabic from a sheikh - and we had Arab friends. His task of understanding the Arabs - not only politics but poetry - was very important; he took it as a vocation.
I come from two parts of the oriental community - Jerusalemite and North African Jews.
Jerusalem doesn't belong only to Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims and Jews, but to the world.
This is why I am a Zionist: because Diaspora leads to hatred and the Holocaust.
I admit I think it is immoral for Jews to live in the Diaspora.
Jews outside Israel live in permanent contradiction. I think they should come home.
We have to rethink the two-state solution.
In my own view, Hamas's frustration derives from a lack of legitimization by Israel and by much of the world. It is this frustration that leads them to such destructive desperation. That's why we need to grant them status as a legitimate enemy - before we talk about an agreement or, alternatively, about a frontal war.
Our synagogues are spread all over the world, and we want people to respect them and look after them. And we have to respect the places of prayer of others.
For 50 years - that is, for most of my adult life - I worked tirelessly for the two-state solution in the face of countless frustrations, both on the part of the Israeli governments and the Palestinian Authority.
In my DNA, the Zionist gene is extremely strong.
I think about the Arabs not as enemies but as cousins. Even when we are in a fierce conflict with them, they are more of a kind of family - with all the problems of a family. We have to live with them.
Israel is too attached to America, too influenced by America. It should be connected to Europe. America is based on mythology - the free man, the individual, the open frontier. Europe is more conscious of history. Take Britain and Shakespeare. You shape your identity through history.
