Walter Laqueur > Quotes

“Ha egyszer kiszabadul a soviniszta dzsinn a palackból, az nem csak a Nyugat ellen irányulhat. Otthon is találhat célpontokat, mint a nemzeti kisebbségek és a vendégmunkások milliói a mai Oroszországban. Ahogy egy közép-ázsiai nagykövet kérdezte Moszkvában orosz barátjától:
- Mit műveltek ti a nektek dolgozó embereinkkel? Harcos iszlamistaként térnek haza...”
― Walter Laqueur, Putinism: Russia and Its Future with the West

“Megbízható közvélemény-kutatások szerint Oroszországban manapság mindössze 15%-nyian vallják magukat ateistának. És a megkérdezettek kétharmada gondolta úgy, hogy a vallásnak nagyobb szerepet kéne játszania az orosz életben. De csak egy csekély töredékük mondta, hogy megpróbál a keresztény elvek szerint élni. És mindössze két-három százalékuk látogatta rendszeresen az istentiszteleteket.”
― Walter Laqueur, Putinism: Russia and Its Future with the West

“nor can the erection of such a Jewish State be accomplished without the gravest trespass upon the “civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”
― Walter Laqueur, The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict

“an undisturbed national development.” It is also necessary to point out that the Zionist Commission in Palestine, now termed the Palestine Zionist Executive, has not desired to possess, and does not possess, any share in the general administration of the country. Nor does the special position assigned to the Zionist Organization in Article IV of the Draft Mandate for Palestine imply any such functions. That special position relates to the measures to be taken in Palestine affecting the Jewish population, and contemplates that the Organization may assist in the general development of the country, but does not entitle it to share in any degree in its Government.”
― Walter Laqueur, The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict: Eighth Revised and Updated Edition

“Valentin Rasputin,”
― Walter Laqueur, Putinism: Russia and Its Future in the West

“I have been writing mainly on history and politics, and the choice was in some ways obvious for, like most of my contemporaries, I was at the mercy of political forces that we could not possibly influence and the question why this was the case constantly obtruded itself.”
― Walter Laqueur, Best of Times, Worst of Times

“As Mao observed, the guerrilla is like a fish: it needs water- that is, popular support -to survive, and, I might add, a freedom of movement that exists only if the government is relatively liberal or relatively inefficient. If government control and coercion are effective, a guerrilla movement cannot make progress. It is not that dictatorships are free of grievances- on the contrary -but that they permit no outlet for protest; the rebels will be arrested, sent to prison, or shot. Their arrest will not be reported by the mass media, and as it has no palpable political consequences, their sacrifice will be in vain. If intellectuals are alienated they will keep the fact strictly to themselves, for fear of losing their jobs or worse.”
― Walter Laqueur, Best of Times, Worst of Times