18 Quotes by David Makovsky

He has basically got to freeze the peace process to woo back alienated right-wing voters.

He wants to demonstrate that under his leadership there will be no compromises over Jerusalem. If the Palestinians choose to confront him, he will use them essentially as props to say, like his campaign slogan, that he's a 'strong leader for a strong nation,'

I think their basic view is, 'When you, the Palestinians, show that you're doing it, we'll get involved. If not we're not going to invest a lot of political capital.' I think that is the message.

The 60,000 settlers on the other side of the fence could become bargaining chips.

That suggests to me that the president wants to make sure that the change is permanent and not subject to tactical sorts of adjustments.

The public is jaded. They think that on the eve of the elections (Netanyahu) is doing things just to capture headlines.

US efforts between now and March may have to be low profile, but Washington need not be dormant.

The right wing in Israel will be the clear beneficiaries of these (Palestinian) elections.

This is an earthquake in the Middle East. It's hard to see any negotiations now between anybody.