I'm on the board of directors for Peace Now which works tirelessly between the Palestinians and the Israelis to create peace in the Middle East and we've never been closer.

It would behoove the world to become used to this fact: that without a just solution to the Palestine tragedy there can be no stable peace in the Middle East.

Peace in Palestine is inevitable. The question is how do we make it happen today.

The Arabs could have peace tomorrow if sufficient numbers of Palestinians were not content to be used as cannon fodder in fruitless assaults on Israel even as the surrounding Arab powers distract the Arab masses with the red herring of Israel while retarding their countries with their repression and corruption.

If there will be a serious Palestinian prime minister who makes a 100 percent effort to end terrorism then we can have peace. Each side has to take steps. If terror continues there will not be an independent Palestinian state. Israel will not accept it if terror continues.

Peace should provide security. It should be durable. I'm ready to go far in making painful concessions. But there is one thing I will never make any concessions on and that's the security of the Israeli citizens and the very existence of the state of Israel. The Palestinians are losing time.

Like all Israelis I yearn for peace. I see the utmost importance in taking all possible steps that will lead to a solution of the conflict with the Palestinians.

God willing we shall come to a stage where the world looks at the Palestinian question and Palestinian rights on Palestinian national soil as well as the questions of the occupied Syrian and Lebanese territories. These are the bases on which peace will be built.

You can set up whatever negotiations or structure you want but until the Palestinians are willing to accept the fact as the majority of Israelis do that there should be two states between the Jordan and the Mediterranean we won't have peace.

Success is not assured but America is resolute: this is the best chance for peace we are likely to see for some years to come - and we are acting to help Israelis and Palestinians seize this chance.

I believe that peace with the Palestinians is most urgent - urgent than ever before. It is necessary. It is crucial. It is possible. A delay may worsen its chances. Israel and the Palestinians are in my judgment ripe today to restart the peace process.

Most of the approaches to peace between Israel and the Palestinians have been directed at trying to resolve the most complex problems like refugees and Jerusalem which is akin to building the pyramid from the top down.

You know I think I think the Palestinians are trying to get away without negotiating. They're trying to get a state to continue the conflict with Israel rather than to end it. They're trying to basically detour around peace negotiations by going to the U.N. and have the automatic majority in the U.N. General Assembly give them give them a state.

The Palestinians want a state but they have to give peace in return. What they're trying to do in the United Nations is to get a state without giving Israel peace or giving Israel peace and security. And I think that's that's wrong. That should not succeed. That should that should fail.

Mr. President prime ministers let us have ambitions: ambitions to move beyond the violence and occupation to the day when two states Palestine and Israel can live together side by side in peace and security.

I think that peace will require two states a Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state.

Because I know about the Holy Land I've taught lessons about the Holy Land all my life and - but you can't bring peace to Israel without giving the Palestinian also peace. And Lebanon and Jordan and Syria as well.

On balance my life has been a constant stream of blessings rather than disappointments and failures and tragedies. I wish I had been re-elected. I think I could have kept our country at peace. I think I could have consolidated what we achieved at Camp David with a treaty between Israel and the Palestinians.

I remember a hundred lovely lakes and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it as upon a thread of silk opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets.

I have written about the dispossessed immigrants the condition of women who do not enjoy the same legal rights as men the Palestinians who are deprived of their land and condemned to exile.

The message of the free world to any potential Palestinian leadership should be a simple one: Embrace democratic reform and we will embrace you.

It simply cannot be disputed that for decades the Palestinian leadership was more interested in there not being a Jewish state than in there being a Palestinian state.

If you look at military and intelligence positions from the 1950s the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been against American national interests.

I told the President I told Rahm Emanuel and others in the administration that I thought the policy they took to try to bring about negotiations is counter-productive because when you give the Palestinians hope that the United States will do its negotiating for them they are not going to sit down and talk.