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As prime minister, I was the Israeli leader who walked the greatest distance in his offers to the Palestinians.

I am 73 years old. I was born in Jerusalem. I'm the first prime minister of Israel to be born here. I am the only former general to become a prime minister.

I didn't plan to be a politician. The founder of our country, David Ben-Gurion, called me from the kibbutz to serve in the underground. We were short of manpower, short of arms. I was 24 years old. I was supposed to serve my country for one or two years. I am 89 years old this year, and I keep going.

I would like to become the prime minister, do the job for two years, and then leave and devote myself to public work.

I am not entering politics to be another Knesset member. If I enter the political arena I want to be prime minister. Period.

In Israel politics, four years is like 400 years in Europe.

When I was three, I wanted to be four. When I was four, I wanted to be prime minister.

I very much wanted to be editor of the 'New Statesman!' But I never wanted to be prime minister, except maybe as a little boy.

I grew up thinking that if I wanted to go be prime minister, I could.

The scale of time for a politician runs between one primary and the next, and in Israel, this means two to three years because elections almost never take place once every four years as stipulated by law. The timetable for a system of research is completely different.