On Economics

"Economy is a business for people who seek food. And every country that goes from glory to food, from trying to make an impression to render a service, is really leading the people to a new era."
(New York Times, November 22, 1997)

"Everything that makes money has been privatized and everything that costs money is being phased out."
(Jerusalem Post Internet Edition, November 19, 1997)

COMMENT: Peres made this announcement in a speech in which he called for all multinational companies to allocate 0.1 percent of their sales revenues to the Peres Peace Center. That's sales revenue, not profits: giving new meaning to the word chutzpah, Peres is demanding that international corporations be taxed to give him control of untold billions of dollars.

"You can launder money, but you cannot launder human blood."
(Haaretz, July 3, 2001)

"Fundamentalism is a way of protesting against poverty, corruption, ignorance and discrimination. So if you want to bring an end to it, you have to approach the roots of it, the reasons for it. You cannot kill poverty with rifles. You cannot finish discrimination with guns. You have to have a new economy, a higher standard of living. And that is what we are trying to build in the Middle East."
(Middle East Quarterly, March 1995).

COMMENT: Osama Bin Laden is the son of one of the wealthiest men in Saudi Arabia, and inherited hundreds of millions of dollars. Bin Laden's second in command, reputedly the operational mastermind of his organization, is Ayman al-Sawahiri, who comes from a prominent Egyptian family. Bin Laden's chief lieutenants are upper and middle class, as were most of the suicide bombers of September 11. Poverty is not the "root"of their hatred of the West.