Abdallah II famous quotes

The monarchy that I hand over to my son is not going to be the same one that I have inherited. ... There is a tendency by a lot of officials to hide behind the king. And it's about time that officials take their responsibility and are responsible in front of the people. Because today, if you're appointed by the king, they don't feel that they're responsible for the people. If you have a government that is elected, they need to do the hard work — because if they don't, they won't be around the next time the ballot box is open.
-- Abdallah II

#Kings #Responsibility #Hard Work

I have the responsibility of over four million people, and I am in a position to do good, to be able to bring about a new life for my people, and I will continue to move in that direction. It's a burden, but it needs to be done, and you have to have the courage and wisdom to see it through.
-- Abdallah II

#Moving #Responsibility #People

You're always going to have extremists in every religion.
-- Abdallah II

#Extremist

I think it's almost impossible for any expert to predict for the rapid changes we see in the Middle East. They are rapid and they will continue for quite a while.
-- Abdallah II

#Thinking #Middle East #Experts

Historic changes and challenges. Breakthroughs in human knowledge and opportunity. And yet, for vast numbers across the globe, the daily realities have not altered.
-- Abdallah II

#Opportunity #Reality #Numbers

Fifty-seven countries in the world, a third of the United Nations, do not recognize Israel. In a way, I think North Korea has better international relations than Israel.
-- Abdallah II

#Country #Thinking #Israel

Earth's dispossessed are vulnerable targets for extremists: those who teach that global justice is meaningless; that satisfaction can come only in violence, division, and intellectual isolation.
-- Abdallah II

#Justice #Intellectual #Target

Each country its cost analysis is going to be different. So what we are you seeing in Syria, for example, is different than what's going on in Jordan. The maps are being rewritten.
-- Abdallah II

#Country #Example #Different

There is resistance to change. There's a resistance to ideas.
-- Abdallah II

#Ideas #Resistance #Resistance To Change

When I talk to people in need, they tell me they want to hope; they are eager for opportunity; they are ready for better days. And I can tell you that every time their hopes are disappointed, all nations lose.
-- Abdallah II

#Opportunity #People #Needs

Many will view the compromises that will be made during your negotiations as painful concessions. But why not view them as peace offerings, ones that will provide in return the priceless gifts of hope, security and freedom for our children and our children's?
-- Abdallah II

#Children #Offering #Views

You're always going to have terrorism.
-- Abdallah II

#Terrorism

Blowing up buses will not induce the Israelis to move forward, and neither will the killing of Palestinians or the demolition of their homes and their future. All this needs to stop. And we pledge that Jordan will do its utmost to help achieve it.
-- Abdallah II

#Moving #Home #Needs

I think this is really a defining moment for the Arab world. The problem is, it is all going to be about blood, sweat and tears. In certain countries it may be just sweat, and in some countries sweat and tears, and in some countries, as you can see, a lot of blood. I think initial instability is something that we are all extremely nervous of.
-- Abdallah II

#Country #Thinking #Blood

If you look at military and intelligence positions from the 1950s, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been against American national interests.
-- Abdallah II

#Military #Looks #Conflict

There is a tendency by a lot of officials to hide behind the king. And it's about time that officials take their responsibility and are responsible in front of the people.
-- Abdallah II

#Kings #Responsibility #People

The Middle East has the highest unemployment percentage of any region in the world we have the largest youth cohort of history coming into the market place that frustration does translate into the political sphere when people are hungry and without jobs.
-- Abdallah II

#Jobs #Frustration #People

I personally believe that any country that has a nuclear program should conform to international regulations and should have international regulatory bodies that check to make sure that any nuclear program moves in the right direction.
-- Abdallah II

#Country #Believe #Moving

For me, I am left leaning when it comes to health and education, on the right when it comes to defense. So I don't know where I come on the political spectrum. And I think this the challenge that a lot of Jordanians have to deal with.
-- Abdallah II

#Thinking #Political #Challenges

It's a tremendous responsibility to be direct descendants of the prophet Muhammad. This family has had the burden of leadership on its shoulders for 1,400 years. I'm not going to drop the ball on my shift.
-- Abdallah II

#Responsibility #Years #Balls

Wikileaks didn't help confidence with American administrations because of conversations made public so easily.
-- Abdallah II

#Wikileaks #Administration #Helping

We're never going to be able to get rid of terrorism, because there is always going to be evil in the world.
-- Abdallah II

#Evil #World #Able

We have to always hope in humanity that people will make the right choices.
-- Abdallah II

#People #Choices #Humanity

Remember you don't do anything in isolation.
-- Abdallah II

#Remember #Isolation

The incentive that you give to your youth is going to be the make-or-break future of the country.
-- Abdallah II

#Country #Giving #Incentives

There are so many different sub-societies inside of Syria.
-- Abdallah II

#Different #Syria

The Arab Spring I think we will look back whether it's two years, five years, ten or fifteen. And say it's a good thing.
-- Abdallah II

#Spring #Thinking #Years

Together, we can create a world in which peace is real; in which every human being can thrive; in which all share the promise of our century. I believe we can succeed.
-- Abdallah II

#Real #Believe #Promise

I'm not the type of person that is forced.
-- Abdallah II

#Type #Persons

If you believe that the killing of innocent people is right, then you are not part of my future.
-- Abdallah II

#Believe #People #Killing

We want to be, I think, an example for the rest of the Arab world, because there are a lot of people who say that the only democracy you can have in the Middle East is the Muslim Brotherhood.
-- Abdallah II

#Thinking #People #Brotherhood

Whenever you have a crisis, you're always going to have the extremists taking advantage of the situation.
-- Abdallah II

#Advantage #Crisis #Situation

In our view, successful reform is not an event. It is a sustainable process that will build on its own successes - a virtuous cycle of change.
-- Abdallah II

#Successful #Views #Events

The Arab World is writing a new future; the pen is in our own hands.
-- Abdallah II

#Writing #Hands #World

The security and the future of Jordan is hand-in-hand with the future of the Palestinians and the Israelis.
-- Abdallah II

#Hands #Jordan #Palestinian

I like to look at the glass half full.
-- Abdallah II

#Glasses #Looks #Half

If everybody is happy, then something is wrong with the democratic process.
-- Abdallah II

#Process #Democratic #Democratic Process

Jerusalem is a time bomb that I fear is just waiting to go off.
-- Abdallah II

#Waiting #Bombs #Jerusalem

I'm just very wary that once you start military operations in any country, it's very difficult to predict what the outcome is.
-- Abdallah II

#Country #Military #Outcomes

It is always dangerous to underestimate anybody.
-- Abdallah II

#Underestimate #Dangerous

I look at Jerusalem as being a beacon for the three monotheistic religions.
-- Abdallah II

#Three #Looks #Jerusalem

I hope that none of the countries in the Middle East are planning anything but the peaceful utilization of nuclear energy.
-- Abdallah II

#Country #Peaceful #Energy

I don't think the Middle East could afford another war.
-- Abdallah II

#War #Thinking #Middle East

I think the debate in our society now is that people have to agree on zero-tolerance to terrorism.
-- Abdallah II

#Zero #Thinking #People

I believe nuclear energy in Jordan will be done in such a way where it is a public-private partnership so everyone can see exactly what's going on.
-- Abdallah II

#Believe #Energy #Nuclear

Don't take 'no' for an answer.
-- Abdallah II

#Answers

I'm easily entertained.
-- Abdallah II

I've benefited from the best of both societies and both cultures, East and West.
-- Abdallah II

#East #Culture #West

Chemical weapons are something that scares everybody.
-- Abdallah II

#Scare #Weapons #Chemicals

My view is when you use violence on your people, that never ends well.
-- Abdallah II

#Views #People #Use

At the end of the day we want to bring stability and hope to Iraq. That's the only way to defeat terrorism.
-- Abdallah II

#Iraq #The End Of The Day #Want

Peace with Israel is a strategic imperative for Jordan.
-- Abdallah II

#Israel #Jordan

There are going to be a lot of questions, not just in my country but across the Middle East: Is Israel going to continue to be 'Fortress Israel' — or, as we all hope, become accepted into the neighborhood? Which I believe is the only way we can move forward in harmony. And no matter what's happening in the Middle East — the Arab Spring, et cetera, the economic challenges, high rates of unemployment — the emotional, critical issue is always the Israeli-Palestinian one.
-- Abdallah II

#Country #Spring #Moving

What keeps me up at night is poverty and unemployment.
-- Abdallah II

#Night #Unemployment #Poverty

Through Hamas, Iran has been able to buy itself a seat on the table in talking about the Palestinian issue. And, as a result, through Hamas it does play a role in the issue of the Palestinians, as strange as that should sound.
-- Abdallah II

#Issues #Iran #Talking

When there's a status quo, usually what shakes everybody up is some sort of military confrontation, at which point we all come running and screaming to pick up the pieces.
-- Abdallah II

#Running #Military #Pieces

We have no right to dictate, through irresponsible action or narrow-mindedness, the future of our children, and our children's children. There has been enough destruction, enough death, enough waste.
-- Abdallah II

#Children #Waste #Action

Mr. President, prime ministers, let us have ambitions: ambitions to move beyond the violence and occupation, to the day when two states, Palestine and Israel, can live together side by side in peace and security.
-- Abdallah II

#Moving #Ambition #Israel

Extremists, who thrive on conflict; who do not tolerate diversity; who seek power through division and destruction. The global system they hope to create is one of new walls and new isolation, and radically smaller horizons. It is an anti-democratic, anti-economic-growth, and anti-progress agenda.
-- Abdallah II

#Wall #Diversity #Growth

Ten years ago I said, you know, my goal is to be able to get food on the table. What I'm trying to say by that is trying to create a vibrant, capable and effective middle class. The quicker and stronger that we can be able to do this, the easier it is for political reform to move forward.
-- Abdallah II

#Moving #Years #Class

Jordan has to show the Arab world that there's another way of doing things. We're a monarchy, yes, but if we can show democracy that leads to a two-, three-, four-party system - left, right and center - in a couple of years' time, then the Muslim Brotherhood will no longer be something to contend with.
-- Abdallah II

#Couple #Party #Years

Many occasions I've sat down with Israelis to say, where do you see your country in 10 years time, and work me back, so we can figure out the synergies and the connections between Israel and the rest of the Arab world. No Israeli has ever been able to answer that question.
-- Abdallah II

#Country #Israel #Years

Our response has been, 'Well, let's then make an effort to get the Israelis and the Palestinians to sit around the table.' That hasn't happened. So we only have ourselves to blame for this crisis.
-- Abdallah II

#Effort #Tables #Blame

Over the past few years, the road to confrontation has shown its consequences: loss of innocent lives, destruction and fear. Most costly, however, was the loss of hope. The most precious gift that you can present to your peoples over the coming weeks is renewed hope born out of tangible progress on the ground.
-- Abdallah II

#Loss #Past #Years

When we try to push the envelope, there are certain sectors of society that say this is a Zionist plot to sort of destabilize our country, or this is an American agenda.
-- Abdallah II

#Country #Trying #Plot

Today more than ever we need creative minds to address the issues of the age. And one of the most urgent is this: How can humanity know so much, achieve so much, and still fail so many people so badly?
-- Abdallah II

#Birthday #Issues #People

Prime Minister Sharon, Prime Minister Abbas, I urge you today to end the designs of those who seek destruction, annihilation and occupation, and I urge you to have the will and the courage to begin to realize our dreams of peace, prosperity and coexistence.
-- Abdallah II

#Dream #Design #Occupation

I think the success of democracy is not really police security; it's the presence of a broad middle class. The stronger the middle class of a people is, the less you have to worry about one group coming in and exploiting the democratic process for its own ends.
-- Abdallah II

#Thinking #Class #People

The monarchy that I hand over to my son is not going to be the same one that I have inherited.
-- Abdallah II

#Son #Hands #My Son

We have peace with Israel. We're actually the last man standing. So there is going to be immense pressure and people asking, 'Why are we having this relationship when it's not benefiting anybody?' Obviously, my answer is you always benefit from peace.
-- Abdallah II

#Men #Israel #People

Is Israel going to continue to be 'Fortress Israel'? Or, as we all hope, become accepted into the neighborhood, which I believe is the only way we can move forward in harmony.
-- Abdallah II

#Believe #Moving #Israel

No matter what's happening in the Middle East - the Arab Spring, et cetera, the economic challenges, high rates of unemployment - the emotional, critical issue is always the Israeli-Palestinian one.
-- Abdallah II

#Spring #Emotional #Issues

Political development should start at the grassroots.
-- Abdallah II

#Political #Development #Grassroots

When you get billions in aid and your weapons resupplied and your ammunition stock resupplied, you don't learn the lesson that war is bad and nobody wins.
-- Abdallah II

#War #Winning #Lessons

If you have a government that is elected, they need to do the hard work - because if they don't, they won't be around the next time the ballot box is open.
-- Abdallah II

#Hard Work #Government #Needs