I love the heat and the excitement of Israel, and I will always love Jerusalem. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Saddam Hussein admired, studied, and copied Stalin, the paragon of modern dictators. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
I always find that the more Jewish you are, the more people respect you. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Around us, we do see attempts to delegitimize Israel, a sort of secret, hidden anti-Semitism growing in many countries, often on the… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
As a youth, I was much more of a Zionist. But Israel was very different then. Israel's changed, and so have I. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
I don't think Jerusalem should be controlled 100% by religious people of any denomination, sect, or religion - even my own. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
When I'm in Jerusalem, I stay at the American Colony Hotel, neutral territory: the secret peace talks of 1992/3 started there. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
The Europeans do tend to delegitimize Israel and turn Israel into a dirty word, which is unforgivable. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Moses Montefiore loved Jerusalem, lived for Jerusalem, and even made it our family motto. A Zionist before the word was invented, he… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
“Jerusalem is the house of the one God, the capital of two peoples, the temple of three religions and she is the… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
“To return to where we started, there have always been two Jerusalems, the temporal and the celestial, both ruled more by faith… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
“The European upper-class could not decide if the Jews were a noble race of persecuted biblical heroes, everyone a King David and… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
“Jerusalem has a way of disappointing in tormenting both conquerors and visitors. The contrast between the real and heavenly cities is so… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
“Jemal hanged two Jewish spies in Damascus, then he announced the deportation of all Jerusalem’s Jews: there would no Jews left alive… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
“Herzl concluded that Jews could never be safe without their own homeland. At first, this half-pragmatist, half-utopian dreamed of a Germanic aristocratic… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
Trump wants to be the first American tsar. With his hero worship of Putin, his admiration for the apparent omnipotence of the Kremlin, schoolboyish… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
“History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind." --- Edward Gibbon” — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
Every Russian emperor from Peter the Great to Stalin and Putin knows a leader and his security agencies must never be parted. His safety… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
“Sex fills a few hours of our lives yet those precious minutes count for more than months and years” — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
“Iraq was already in the grip of a bloody insurgency against British rule. Churchill therefore called a conference in Cairo to hand over a… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
I don't think Jerusalem should be controlled 100% by religious people of any denomination, sect, or religion - even my own. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
The memoirs of the Grand Duchess Olga are an entertaining record for anyone interested in the imperial family's home life during the last years… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
I am a passionate nonfinisher. Life is too short, and there are too many great books to read, so if I lose interest or… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
There is a view of Russian exceptionalism, that they are a unique civilisation, a view right since Ivan the Terrible that Russia is a… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
The political lives of tyrants play out human affairs with a special intensity: the death of a democratic leader long after his retirement is… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
Mr. Putin presents himself as a czar - and like any czar, he fears revolution above all else. — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
'Daddy used to be a Georgian,' Stalin's son, Vasily, once said. Actually, the dictator didn't truly become Russian; he remained Georgian culturally. Yet he… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
“Once in power, Stalin’s campaign to succeed Lenin required a legitimate heroic career which he did not possess because of his experience in what… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share
