We never had planned to hijack a ship. We never thought of any war plans outside the Palestinian lands. We wished that the program had not failed and then the warriors could have achieved their goals.

The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of the war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land.

Until the June 1967 war I was completely caught up in the life of a young professor of English. Beginning in 1968 I started to think write and travel as someone who felt himself to be directly involved in the renaissance of Palestinian life and politics.

And in this respect the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a tragedy a clash between one very powerful very convincing very painful claim over this land and another no less powerful no less convincing claim.

To our Palestinian neighbours I assure you that we have a genuine intention to respect your right to live independently and in dignity. I have already said that Israel has no desire to continue to govern over you and control your fate.

It is justice and respect that I want the world to dust off and put - without delay and with tenderness - back on the head of the Palestinian child. It will be imperfect justice and respect because the injustice and disrespect have been so severe. But I believe we are right to try.

We would like to ease the life of the Palestinians. I prepared a new plan that we call a positive agenda.

I enter negotiations with Chairman Arafat the leader of the PLO the representative of the Palestinian people with the purpose to have coexistence between our two entities Israel as a Jewish state and Palestinian state entity next to us living in peace.

The Palestinian election is something that was really a turning point. It's a mandate for peace.

Arafat rejected the deal because as a dictator who had directed all his energies toward strengthening the Palestinians hatred toward Israel Arafat could not afford to make peace.

By focusing once and for all on helping the Palestinians build a free society I have no doubt that an historic compromise between Israelis and Palestinians can be reached and that peace can prevail.

On the other hand if the free world is concerned with how a new Palestinian leader governs then the peace process will have a real chance to succeed.

My point was that removing Saddam should not have been our highest priority. Fighting terrorism should have been our number one concern followed by the Palestinian peace process.

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.

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.

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 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.

In addition to removing our democratically elected government Israel wants to sow dissent among Palestinians by claiming that there is a serious leadership rivalry among us. I am compelled to dispel this notion definitively.