Jon Alterman Quotes (18 Quotes)

In the next two weeks or so, we will know if this government is relevant. We will know if there is a political solution to this or not.

My guess is that the U. S. will say we are doing what we can. The Saudis will say please do more and there will be an agreement to work together to do a little bit more.

Suddenly it looks like the policy is not tough diplomacy, but the path to war.

No one really knows what the endgame will be. Our difficulties are creating strong national institutions, and it's a growing problem.

Whatever the disarray in the Knesset, whatever's going on there, he's going to make a deal in the name of the people of Israel, and he's going to sell it to the people of Israel, and ultimately, because the people in the Knesset are politicians, they will have to back him up.

Israeli policy is going to go nowhere and as a consequence American policy goes into suspended animation.

I can't imagine that we are going to get to a constituted government before more violence, more bluffing, more slamming of doors. This is for all the marbles, and people are going to play a tough game.

It's a lot of excellent, well-meaning people who have an impossible job to do, ... There's no way they can make both sides happy when they're done with their investigation and filing their report.

There hasn't been a 'peace process' for some time, and I don't see any signs there's going to be one resuming.

There is going to be regional involvement if an Iraqi civil war breaks out. ... The downsides of this could be absolutely catastrophic.

There was a sense the president was on another planet. What the president has done in the last week or so is be much more frank about challenges without diluting his optimism. ... It puts him back in the debate.

He is going to speak for the administration to two very important countries. The fact that he's going is a sign of the attention that the United States pays to these relationships.

In real terms, all U.S. policy likely comes down to now is making sure the violence in Gaza does not spill over.

This was totally unprecedented - a live interchange with no questions given in advance.

Everybody's going to fight for the mantle of Ariel Sharon. I think partly because he covered such a wide swath of the middle of Israeli politics there are going to be innumerable theories of what he might have done.

I don't see why anyone thinks this is going to be resolved any time soon. The U.N. will be managing this issue for years.

No one really won in this constitution. It left almost everything vague. Everyone played to a tie but we don't know how the ties are going to be resolved.

Most countries in the Gulf do not have to be persuaded that a nuclear Iran is a threat to them. But they ask if the cure is worse than the disease.