To understand why dictators have a problem with making peace – or at least a genuine peace – the link between the nature of a regime and its external behavior must be understood. – Natan Sharansky
Can someone within that society walk into the town square and say what they want without fear of being punished for his or her views? If so, then that society is a free society. If not, it is a fear society. – Natan Sharansky
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. – Natan Sharansky
When we are unwilling to draw clear moral lines between free societies and fear societies, when we are unwilling to call the former good and the latter evil, we will not be able to advance the cause of peace because peace cannot be disconnected from freedom. – Natan Sharansky
Ive always had questions about what it meant to be a protester, to be in the minority. Are the people who are trying to find peace, who are trying to have the Constitution apply to everybody, are they really the radicals? Were not protesting from the outside. Were inside. – Gil Scott-Heron