Israel Quotes by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Saddam Hussein admired, studied, and copied Stalin, the paragon of modern dictators.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

I love the heat and the excitement of Israel, and I will always love Jerusalem.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

I always find that the more Jewish you are, the more people respect you.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

In 1918, a police chief of Jerusalem was a Montefiore.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

I don't feel that Jewish people have a class.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

Writing about Jerusalem can be such a minefield.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

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

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

The Europeans do tend to delegitimize Israel and turn Israel into a dirty word, which is unforgivable.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

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

I don't think Jerusalem should be controlled 100% by religious people of any denomination, sect, or religion - even my own.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“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

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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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