Perspectives.(Brief Article)

"Will he make peace? Let's see him first make a government." Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea, on the landslide election victory of hard-liner Ariel Sharon

"Barak lost because the situation is impossible. We reached the stage where we could virtually touch peace and at the same time a Jew was being murdered every day." Yael Dayan, a Labor Party lawmaker

"I have to confess, it was hard for me to concentrate in the conversation with Condoleezza Rice because she has very nice legs." Ariel Sharon, on his meeting last summer with the newly named U.S. national-security adviser

"We all need peace. Optimism is the last thing you lose." Colombian rebel chief Manuel Marulanda, before his meeting with President Andres Pastrana to begin talks on the country's raging war

"I have been a victim of a corrupt government." Robert Pickett, the man who allegedly fired shots outside the White House, in a letter to the Internal Revenue Service. Police have suggested the man was planning to commit suicide--either by shooting himself or forcing the officers to open fire.

"A warning light is flashing on the dashboard of our economy, and we just can't drive on and hope for the best." President George W. Bush, sending Congress his plan for $1.6 trillion in tax cuts

"I am actually ...