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.

The subject matter is very tricky. It's about the Munich massacre and what Mossad did afterwards with the assassination squads. I think it's a turning point in history especially for the Palestinians.

I believe the government of the United States should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause.

And on the other hand we see that the Israeli government is attacking that part of the Palestinian leader.

The Israeli government has proved over the past year its commitment to peace both in words and deeds. By contrast the Palestinians are posing preconditions for renewing the diplomatic process in a way they have not done over the course of 16 years.

Blowing up buses will not induce the Israelis to move forward and neither will the killing of Palestinians or the demolition of their homes and their future. All this needs to stop. And we pledge that Jordan will do its utmost to help achieve it.

The security and the future of Jordan is hand-in-hand with the future of the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Peace with the Palestinians will open ports of peace all around the Mediterranean. The duty of leaders is to pursue freedom ceaselessly even in the face of hostility in the face of doubt and disappointment. Just imagine what could be.

When I said a few weeks ago that our people would eat cooking oil and olives if necessary I didn't mean that there really would be only oil and olives. What I meant was that our people have the necessary patience to endure the current difficult situation. Palestinians would rather do without certain food items than their national rights.

Only weeks after Oslo began when nearly all the world and most of Israel was drunk with the idea of peace I argued that a Palestinian society not constrained by democratic norms would be a fear society that would pose a grave threat to Israel.

The Bush Administration's failure to be consistently involved in helping Israel achieve peace with the Palestinians has been both wrong for our friendship with Israel as well as badly damaging to our standing in the Arab world.

Bringing an end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians may help the young Arab generation to realise their aspirations. Israel is more than willing to offer our experience in building a modern economy in spite of limited resources to the whole region.

I don't think the Palestinian people or Afghan children or some other things I'm concerned about are at the top of other people's agendas - not right now when America is going through such a recession and people are suffering across the board financially. But I think all that will change.

It is time to change our policy of appeasement toward the Palestinians to strengthen our ties with the nation of Israel.