In a Haaretz interview, he maintained the following: Jews came here 3,000 years ago and this is the cradle of Jewish civilization. Jews are the only people in history who kept their loyalty to their identity and their land throughout the 2,000 years of exile, and no doubt that they have the right to have their place among nations—not only historically but also geographically. As to the Palestinians, who are the descendants of those Arabs who migrated in the last 200 years, they have the right, if they want, to have their own state ... but not at the expense of the state of Israel. In the wake of the Arab uprisings of 2011, he told Moment Magazine, "To sign an agreement you must have a partner who is dependent on the well-being of his people, which is what democracy means." In February 2022, Sharansky called on the Israeli government to take “a clear moral stand” against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. He called the Russian invasion of Ukraine the greatest threat to the free world since World War II and said that Israel must stand firmly with the Ukrainian people. See also Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair Town square test New antisemitism Notes References Bibliography Fear No Evil: The Classic Memoir of One Man's Triumph over a Police State, Public Affairs: 1998. . The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, Public Affairs: 2004. . Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy, Public Affairs: 2008. . Further reading External links Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs The View from the Gulag. An interview with Natan Sharansky Sharansky's Final Statement in the Soviet Court, 14 July 1978 Autobiographical article about his time in the GULAG Solitary Lessons October 2008. Natan Sharansky short speech on The Strength of a United Jewish People Natan Sharansky Right Web Profile Natan Sharansky Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies Is This the Deal We Were Hoping For? February 2009. Garry Kasparov vs Natan Sharansky 1996 simulation 1948 births Living people Sportspeople from Donetsk Ukrainian Jews Soviet emigrants to Israel Israeli people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Congressional Gold Medal recipients Gulag detainees Heads of the Jewish Agency for Israel Israeli anti-communists Israeli curators Israeli human rights activists Leaders of political parties in Israel Israeli political writers Jewish anti-communists Jewish human rights activists Jewish Israeli politicians Jewish writers Likud politicians Ministers of Internal