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Thank you Professor Reichman, for that introduction. You are a visionary and practical man. You established an amazing organization. When Ron Lauder told me about your plans, he told me to wait and see how you would mobilize to create a national and international forum every year that would shape patterns of thinking and refresh them. My friend Uzi Arad joined you and worked alongside you to help do this, and our friend Professor Rubenstein is doing so now. I think you have proven over the years that one can think better and dream realistically. That is actually what Herzl was saying in that quote you just mentioned.We share a common dream - to reach peace with our neighbors. There is good reason for me to hope, realistically, that in the next several weeks we will renew the peace process with the Palestinians without any preconditions. For some time, I have said that the international community has learned to recognize that Israel wants and is ready to renew the peace process. Since the moment that recognition was internalized, central players in the international arena have begun to accept the practical feasibility of such a step.

There is a saying: it takes two to tango. In the Middle East, sometimes it takes three to tango, or at least to start to tango. Later, I suppose, we will be able to continue on as two.

I hope there is a willingness on the Palestinian side - not only to build up the Palestinian economy and Palestinian institutions, but to begin to build the peace itself. The only way to achieve a peace agreement is to begin conducting negotiations towards a peace agreement. If this willingness really does exist now, we will see a renewal of the process in the next several weeks.

I know that one of my predecessors, Ariel Sharon, spoke from this podium about disengagement. Today I would like to speak not of disengagement, but rather of engagement: engagement with our heritage, with Zionism, with our past and with our future here in the land of our forefathers, which is also the land of our children and our grandchildren.

You are dealing with our people’s fate because it is clear today that the fate of the Jewish people is the fate of the Jewish state. There is no demographic or practical existence for the Jewish people without a Jewish state. This doesn’t mean that the Jewish state does not face tremendous challenges, but our existence, our future, is here. The greatest change that came with the establishment of the Jewish state was that Jews became more than just a collection of individuals, communities and fragments of communities. They became a sovereign collective in their own territory. Our ability as a collective to determine our own destiny is what grants us the tools to shape our future - no longer as a ruled people, defeated and persecuted, but as a proud people with a magnificent country and one which always aspires to serve as “a light unto the nations.”

In order to continue ruling our own destiny, we must establish our collective ability in three main fields - in security, the economy and education. I do not intend to expand on the security field today, other than to say that we must continue nurturing and strengthening our military force. The weak do not survive in the geographically difficult space we live in, nor is peace made with the weak. The State of Israel is strong and can guarantee both our existence and peace with our neighbors. However, I want to be clear: our security needs can and will increase over the next decade, and even over the next two decades.

We are entering another world, one in which the aggressor has certain advantages. He can launch projectiles - not even missiles, just pieces of metal with a primitive engine, fuel and explosives - and for us to strike down this flying ball of metal, we have to make a huge investment. Sometimes, under such conditions, the aggressor has an advantage and we must work hard in order to negate that advantage. It is in our power to do so, but it will cost a great deal.

Security demands a strong economy. A strong economy provides strong security. Without a strong economy, we cannot meet the State of Israel’s security needs in the next decade, or our education needs, or our health needs or our need to fight crime and drugs and the plague of alcohol. All this demands money. Where will the money come from? It will only come from economic growth. There is no other source to fund these needs, and it will take billions.

Increased taxation is not the solution: it will only shrink our tax revenues. There is no better way than growing our GNP by 4% or 5% per annum over many years, as we experienced over the past decade. There is no better way to finance our security needs.

Can an economy that approaches a per capita income of $30,000 continue to grow year after year at the rate of 5% per annum? I believe it can. The way to ensure this is to constantly free up the economy. As long as there are limitations and competition in the economy, as long as our taxation levels are not the lowest or among the lowest in the world, we will have engines for growth. By freeing up the economy and reducing our tax rates, we are constantly growing and will receive tax revenues that will allow us to finance our existential needs, as well as our future ones.

In the coming weeks, we will present the government with a number of initiatives. First: a national transportation plan that will connect the entire country through a network of trains and roads and help people be mobile. Second: a revolutionary reform in planning and construction that will allow entrepreneurs to build in the north, the south, the center of the country, here in Herzliya - everywhere. It will no longer take years; it may take months. Plans won’t have to go through clerks or nerve-wracking procedures; a great proportion of the process will be done on the internet. Then the approvals will arrive, some automatically, and one just needs to report them.

We have already begun the planning and construction reform, the national transportation network and the freeing up of land, and have laid the groundwork to them. All these plans encourage growth, as will other plans I will detail in the next year. Strengthening the economy is an integral part of these plans. I want to clarify that the State of Israel is already considered a regional economic powerhouse, and in my vision, we will establish and fortify our position as a global technological powerhouse.

This is a necessary condition, but it is not enough, because a strong army and a strong economy are not enough of a guarantee for our existence here if we are not committed to being here from the outset. This, distinguished guests, can only be created through one thing - through education.

Education is the melting pot in which our national strength is forged. It has two parts: acquiring the tools and knowledge to deepen our children’s capabilities; and excellence - getting the most from each child and giving him the ability to learn math, to learn English, to learn computers, to learn science, to know how to compose a sentence, to put words together, express himself. All these abilities are essential, and they are what the Minister of Education is working so hard for. I spoke about this with Dov Lautman many times, as well as with many others. This is a central issue, but it is not the main thrust of my comments here tonight.

Tonight, I refer to something even more basic. I am talking about educating children about the values connected to our identity and heritage, teaching children to know our people’s history, educating young people and adults to deepen our ties to one another and to this place.

I believe that this education starts, first and foremost, in the Book of Books - in the Bible - a subject that is close to my heart these days. It starts there. It moves through the history of our people: the Second Temple, the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, leaving the ghettos, the rise of Zionism, the modern era, the wars fought for Israel’s existence - the history of Zionism and of Israel. A people must know its past in order to ensure its future.

There is a well-known story about Napoleon. One day, he passed by a synagogue on Tisha B’Av and he heard the weeping of the worshippers. He asked what they were crying about, and the Jews told him: “We are weeping because our Temple was destroyed.” He asked: “How can it be that I heard nothing about this?” He liked knowing what was going on. He wasn’t really interested, but he would have received a report. So the worshippers told him: “Sir, it happened more than 1,700 years ago.” And he told them: “A people capable of remembering its past so clearly has a guaranteed future.” But the opposite is also true. Yigal Alon said so. He said that a people that doesn’t remember its past, its present is uncertain and its future is unclear.

In other words, our existence depends not only on a weapons system, our military strength, the strength of our economy, our innovation, our exports, or on all these forces that are indeed essential. It depends, first and foremost, on the knowledge and national sentiment we as parents bestow on our children, and as a state to its education system. It depends on our culture; it depends on our cultural heroes; it depends on our ability to explain the justness of our path and demonstrate our affinity for our land - first to ourselves and then to others.

We must remind ourselves that if our feeling of serving a higher purpose dissipates, if our sources of spiritual strength grow weak, then - as Yigal Alon said - our future will also be unclear. It will happen if our young generation is not committed to our people and our country; if they do not love the pioneering spirit, if they do not travel our country, if they do not want to mobilize and sacrifice - then our future is truly unclear.

Every year at this Conference, we exchange thoughts and ideas about our vision, and we are accustomed to aspiring to obtain all the “luxuries”. We want economic abundance and social justice and cultural richness and a groundbreaking spirit of excellence in the sciences, in medicine, in technology, in the business sector. But this culture, the culture of opulence - we have in great measure achieved it. But alongside this is a great challenge of which I would like to speak today.

That challenge is to not get carried away by the illusion that we - each and every one of us - is allowed to become preoccupied solely with self-development. There are a great many talented young people here, and they are being taught to think, quite justifiably, that they are cosmopolitans. But they cannot be just cosmopolitans. A great many of them are taught in surroundings of cultural shallowness, of diluted knowledge and spirituality - and this dilutes and weakens the national strength we have spoken of here today. We have guests here from overseas. I know you know that this problem is not unique to Israel. It affects many other peoples and nations. But nowhere is it more critical than in the State of Israel, because no other country faces the challenges and the threats that we face. Therefore, we must find the balance between integrating into the world at large and maintaining our identity and our uniqueness.

I travel the country and I meet students who have chosen to leave their comfortable urban lives. Like the pioneers of our past, they establish communities in the Negev and the Galilee. They are part of all sorts of very exciting projects and initiatives. I meet teenagers who, right before they begin their military service, decide to contribute an extra year of their lives to assist underprivileged communities or to strengthen youth movements. We are going to expand this program so that it will include all sectors of Israeli society and allow everyone - from the ultra-orthodox public to the Arab public - to contribute to their communities. I see wonderful, even exciting, young people in the pre-army preparation academies. They are caring and sensitive, wrestling with the question, “how can we be Zionists in 2010?” But I honestly must tell you that this is a very small group of young people, and we must - we simply must - get a much broader group of young people interested in our Zionist heritage and continually encourage them to identify with the people of Israel and the Land of Israel. I want to tell you that the simplest and most original way of doing so is to connect these young people to our homeland through their feet - through becoming familiar with the country, travelling the country. But it is not certain that if one travels the country, one becomes attached to our heritage.

Several months ago, I visited the Lachish Region. I saw a large mound. In this case, the mound was one of the few I had not already seen during my army service. I told the motorcade to turn around. We made a u-turn, and they said to me: “Mr. Prime Minister, you cannot climb that hill. We didn’t make security arrangements there.” I answered: “But there’s no problem. You know why? Because there’s no one here!” It was Tel Lachish, one of the most dramatic places in the history of the Jewish people. Carvings of it were found in Iraq and this mound was subject to the siege of Lachish that is described in the Bible - and there was no one there. After some time, a group of Russian tour guides arrived. I was there for almost an hour, and not one veteran Israeli came.

Several years before that I was a chaperone on a trip for one of my children, on the way to the Atlit detention camp at night. At night, they do field exercises on the path to the detention camp. We were on a gravel path along the shoreline, and suddenly I saw a house, a structure, near the water. I left the group and walked over there, and I saw a house - a single structure, a single room near the water - about to crumble. I asked what it was. I was told: “That is the house where Aaron Aaronson and the NILI underground signaled the British.” I always thought they signaled them from the Carmel, but clearly they couldn’t because the Turks would have seen the signals from the shore. However, from the water line they could signal to them and they did. This is a part of our magnificent history, without which we would never have freed our country. It helped the British take control and free the Land of Israel. It opened up the way to Zionism.

Here are examples from both our ancient and our recent past, two sites that one would simply pass by, not see, not know about. No one visits them. We are going to change that. At the end of next month, on Tel Hai Day, I intend to present the government with a work plan that will reverse the neglect of heritage sites. We initiated a national plan to rehabilitate and strengthen infrastructure at heritage sites. I call it the “Heritage Plan.” We are going to preserve tourist sites, archaeological sites, historic buildings and museums. We will also preserve less physical and tangible infrastructure, such as archives, photographs, films, books, songs and music. We will make all these available to the general public. We will utilize new technologies and free up these works so that they are accessible to every boy and girl in Israel, every house, every family, every citizen.

I want you to think about a family outing with your children or grandchildren at one of these sites. I am not telling you not to go to the movies or to a bar. That’s alright; you can do those things, but add in this layer and understand the deeper meaning behind it. I speak from experience. Think about a father and son visiting a Jewish historic site, about the profound significance of transmitting the legacy exactly as commanded in the Bible: “And tell your son.” The plan of which I speak will be financed with government funds and will be spread out over five years. It will encompass a broad range of activities, projects, organizations, authorities and the education and information system - and it is only the first stage. Our commitment is to breathing new life into the Israeli experience. I am talking about rehabilitating those same assets that tell the story of the people of Israel and the Land of Israel; the story of the Jewish settlement; our artistic assets; our nostalgic spirit and memory. A significant portion of those assets are being destroyed or disappearing, and we will take them and preserve them, and fortify them and we will explain them in a way that is accessible to an audience, in simple and clear language. And all this will be integrated into the education system that serves the children of Israel.

We recently learned in a study that the teenagers who are highly motivated to serve in the military are those who have travelled the country extensively. The example I like to give, which is a highly successful one, is the Israel Trail. It has been a tremendous success. Within a decade, the project’s founders have succeeded in transforming this trail into a desirable destination, one that attracts a huge number of young people and not-so-young people. By travelling the Trail, they become familiar with the country and connect to it. According to the plan I will present to the government, we will, within five years, inaugurate two additional trails alongside the Israel Trail. One is the historic Land of Israel trail, which will connect between dozens of ancient archaeological sites. Within our tiny piece of land, there are 30,000 ancient sites, 800 of which have clear national importance. Sadly, only 50 of those sites are open to the public, and even they are not in great shape. That is going to change on a huge scale. The second trail will be the “Israel Experience” trail. This trail will include the treasures of our country, and will serve as a living Land of Israel museum. It will connect between dozens of stops celebrating the history of the Jewish Yishuv [the Jewish population before the establishment of the State of Israel]. It will include historic buildings, settlement sites, small museums, memorial sites and personal stories - all of which are part of our Zionist heritage.

I know people will ask: “This is the topic you chose to speak of here, at a discussion about our national strength?” My answer is yes. Sometimes small steps lead to great things. I want to give you an example of two steps similar to what I have just described that changed our people’s history. I was recently in London. I visited the basement of the Palestine Exploration Fund. It was established in 1860 by Queen Victoria in order to map and scientifically explore the Land of Israel. Queen Victoria sent two men here. One was named Claude R. Conder, who was the head of the expedition. The second was a 21-year-old second lieutenant named Kitchener, who would in time become the 1st Earl Kitchener. Together, they began to map the country, including this place. They made wonderful, accurate topographical maps, and found all the ancient places and reinstated their names. They came armed with all the most advanced measuring tools of the 19th century and with the Bible. The PEF is responsible for some of what we now know. For example, they brought Warren here, and he found Warren’s Shaft and many other ancient sites in Jerusalem and across the Land of Israel.

This fired up the imaginations of the both the aristocracy and common people in Britain. You have no idea what an effect it had. It made them think that perhaps the Land of Israel wasn’t an abstract place. This land is concrete, and maybe it could be revived, be brought back to life, if the original people who lived there could return to it. That started people talking. It took several decades to happen.

The second project, also a modest project, was one that fired the imaginations of young Jews. It was Baron Rothschild’s project. He established villages at several sites after the PEF had been here, from Rosh Pina to Petah Tikva. These new communities revived the ancient land though not on a huge scale; there were only several thousand people living there. However, this action ignited a blaze. One of the people who was carried away by this blaze was a young Jew who came here in 1898 - Benjamin Zeev Herzl. He visited, using - by the way - the PEF maps. He visited all these places and understood what was here, and much more. He dared to dream about what could be. These two blazes are what ignited the greatest empire to rule the world and the new prophet of the Jewish people and many other young Jews - these two blazes merged together and became Zionism.

I won’t tell you that we don’t have tremendous tasks to undertake in all the important fields. We do have them, and we will undertake them. But we will do so only if we are committed to our past in order to ensure our future. Therefore, in light of the plans I laid out today, I hope you will invite me back here in five more years; invite Tzvi Hauser - he is in charge of implementing all this. Our purpose today is to reignite the flame, to introduce a new spirit into the blaze of our lives and reconnect with this land - our land - the unique and singular Land of Israel.

Thank you.

Today the Cabinet will also discuss strengthening the communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip. This area has suffered severely in the past decade from terrorist attacks and rocket and missile fire. Our policy is clear to all and I think it also became clear over the weekend - to respond resolutely to any firing at our territory and at our communities. There is no doubt that this policy, in addition to Operation Cast Lead, has increased deterrence against attack on our communities. But we believe that we cannot suffice thereby. Therefore, the Prime Minister’s Office, along with the Finance Ministry, has formulated a Government package for investment in infrastructures and development in order to help the communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip, especially Sderot, in which most of the population is concentrated, but there are other communities that have suffered, and some of which are still suffering. This NIS 300 million plan will meet their needs. I think that this is a welcome and important step that the Government is taking.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu also commented on the need to promote respect for, and study of, the Hebrew language and commended a plan to this effect by Education Minister Gideon Saar. The Prime Minister also spoke in favor of declaring the birthday of Eliezer Ben-Yehudah as a national day for the Hebrew language.

Credit: PMO website

November 15, 2009

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Speech at the Saban Forum

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I see a lot of old friends here tonight.  I especially want to welcome our distinguished guests from the United States: Former President Clinton, Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Lieberman.  And of course the founder of the Forum, Haim Saban and the Director of the Saban Forum, Martin Indyk.  Welcome to Jerusalem.  I am pleased to see you back here with us again.

The presence of so many prominent American leaders at this forum is an expression of the enduring friendship between the United States and Israel. This friendship rests on our deepest shared values - to nurture national and personal freedom, to defend these freedoms and the aspiration to live in peace.

Last week, in Washington, I spoke about Israel’s commitment to peace with the Palestinians.  I said that I want to begin negotiations immediately, that these negotiations should be a good faith effort to reach a final peace agreement, and that my government is prepared to make generous concessions in exchange for a genuine peace that protects Israel’s security.

The way to achieve peace is through negotiations, cooperation and the agreement of both sides.  This is true with regard to security and economic issues, and also with regard to a genuine political process.  There is no substitute for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and any unilateral attempt outside that framework will unravel the existing agreements between us, and could entail unilateral steps by Israel.

Therefore, the only way to achieve peace is around the negotiating table.

For Palestinians, peace will mean the dignity that comes from an independent national life and living standards that skyrocket from cooperation in tourism, trade and industry.  I believe that in the age of peace, we will see towers rather than missiles in Palestinian cities.

A prosperous Palestinian economy that creates thousands of jobs will help eliminate the scourge of poverty and desperation and will strengthen internal forces within Palestinian society that oppose terrorism.

Clearly a strong economy and a stable security situation helps in peace.

The easing of movement in the West Bank, and an improvement in the quality of life over the past seven months have made a tremendous contribution to a prosperous Palestinian economy, as has the improvement in the functioning of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces.  We must add the component of political peace to economic and security improvements.

For Israel, peace would mean the realization of a dream of ages.  Our sons and daughters would not know the wars of their fathers.  Our economy would benefit from a ubiquitous sense of stability and hope.  And we could invest so much more in other areas of Israeli life, from infrastructure and education to science and culture - in short, in creating a better, more prosperous and complete life for ourselves and our neighbors.

The benefits of peace are clear.  What would it take to advance peace?  First of all, we need to start negotiations immediately in a positive spirit.  I spoke of this in Washington.  I am not setting any preconditions for negotiations.  We have taken steps, and are willing to take further steps that would help launch a political process.

Tonight I want to discuss three challenges to Israel’s security that must be addressed to achieve our goal of a lasting peace.

First, Iran must be prevented from developing a nuclear military capability.  Second, a solution must be found to the threat of missile and rocket attacks.  And third, Israel’s right to defend itself must be preserved not only in principle but in practice.

Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens our security, peace in the Middle East and global stability.

With nuclear weapons, its powers of destruction, already considerable, would grow immensely.  The moderates in the Middle East would be weakened and extremists strengthened.  Other countries in the region would join the race for nuclear weapons.  An Iranian regime that pledges to wipe Israel off the map would work day and night to undermine any attempt to advance peace between Israel and its neighbors - whether it is peace with the Palestinians, with Syria and with anyone else.

In contrast, if Iran’s nuclear ambitions are thwarted, peace would be given a dramatic boost.  Hezbollah and Hamas would be considerably weakened and moderate forces within the region would quickly become ascendant.

This is why the fate of Iran’s nuclear program is a true turning point in history.  It would significantly influence our ability to achieve a stable and secure peace in the Middle East.

Last week, I discussed with President Obama his continuing efforts to mobilize the international community to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

I also heard from the American Senate leadership about their bipartisan efforts to strengthen sanctions on Iran - sanctions that could seriously hamper the regime’s ability to import refined petroleum and its capacity to stifle freedom of information on the internet.

In Paris, President Sarkozy reiterated to me his determination to oppose Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a determination shared by Chancellor Merkel, whom I will meet later this month in Berlin.

A growing number of world leaders are waking up to the dangers of a nuclear Iran but there is no time to waste.  For the sake of peace and security, the international community must stand firmly behind its demands that Iran stop its nuclear weapons program, and must be prepared to speedily apply strong sanctions if those demands are not met, preferably in the framework of the Security Council.  Alternately, strong sanctions may be applied outside the framework of the United Nations by a broad coalition of countries that understands the seriousness of the threat.

The second challenge to peace is the threat to Israel of missile and rocket attacks on Israel.

All it takes is one crude rocket hurtling through the air to sow fear in an entire city.   Israelis have braved this intolerable threat for years, first in Kiryat Shmona and Sderot, later in Acre, Nahariah, Haifa, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Beer Sheva.

After Israel withdrew unilaterally from South Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza in 2005, both areas were turned into Iranian backed terrorist bases from which thousands of rockets were fired into Israel’s towns and cities.

Peace requires that any future peace agreement have effective demilitarization measures that can neutralize the missile threat.

There has been much talk about the precise demarcation of the future border separating Israel and the Palestinians.  Undoubtedly, that is an important question for both parties that can only be resolved through negotiations.

These negotiations must, as United Nations Resolution 242 clearly states, provide Israel with secure and recognized borders.

But we must also recognize that because of the threat posed by short-range rockets and mortars launched from contiguous territory, Israel’s security is not merely a question of the future borders of the Jewish state.  No less important, our security depends on ensuring that dangerous weapons do not pass through the borders of a future Palestinian state.

We have seen how a neighbor’s porous borders can endanger our security. Look at the Lebanese example: despite Security Council Resolution 1701, Lebanon’s border with Syria remains porous, and through them Iran and Syria continue to send weapons to Hezbollah.  Today, Hezbollah has at least three times the number of rockets it had at the end of the Second Lebanon War.

So far, the only thing that has proven effective at reducing the flow of these weapons is direct Israeli action. Just ten days ago, we interdicted a ship sent from Iran bound for Hezbollah with 500 tons of weapons on board.  This is part of an ongoing broader Israeli effort to prevent weapons smuggling to areas controlled by Hezbollah and Hamas.

And with regard to Gaza: when Israel controlled the Philadelphi Corridor, we stopped most, though not all, of the smuggling from Sinai into Gaza.  But after we left, hundreds of tunnels were dug, and the flow of rockets into Palestinian territory became a flood.

The lessons of Lebanon and Gaza cannot be ignored.  Any peace agreement with the Palestinians must ensure effective security arrangements to prevent the flow of missiles and other weapons into the West Bank.

This cannot be left to paper agreements alone, however strongly worded or well intentioned.  It must be backed by powerful concrete security measures on the ground.  That is a prerequisite to an enduring peace.

In addition, we are working closely with the United States to develop missile defenses that may in time largely neutralize this threat.  I appreciate the United States’ continued support of these joint efforts.

The third challenge to peace is the attempt to deny Israel the right to self-defense.   The UN Goldstone report on Gaza attempts to do that.

Before Israel left Gaza, many argued that the missile attacks would stop following the withdrawal.  But even if they didn’t, it was argued at the time, Israel would have clear international legitimacy to respond to those attacks.

Unfortunately, both those assumptions proved false.  Thousands of rockets were fired on Israel.  And when Israel finally responded, far from winning international legitimacy, it was accused of war crimes.

The Goldstone Report is a clear threat to peace in our region.  Achieving a final peace settlement with the Palestinians will require territorial compromise.  But how can Israel vacate additional territories if we cannot defend ourselves against attacks from that territory?

Be assured that this UN report is not Israel’s problem alone.  It threatens to handcuff all states fighting terrorism.  For if terrorists believe that the international community will justify their crimes when they fire on civilians while hiding behind civilians, they will employ this tactic again and again.

Perhaps the most important moral distinction in the laws of war is that between the deliberate targeting of civilians and the unintended casualties that are the tragic consequence of wars, even those that are carefully waged.

Israel made this moral distinction in order to prevent harming innocent civilians.  During Operation ‘Cast Lead’, the Israeli Defense Forces dropped more than two million fliers, made 165,000 phone calls, sent thousands of text messages and called off countless military operations to evacuate Palestinian civilians from targets from which the Hamas fired missiles and rockets on our cities.

In contrast, the Hamas terrorists wiped this distinction away.  They embedded themselves within the civilian population, used Palestinian civilians as human shields, and targeted as many innocent Israeli civilians as possible.

A responsible government should always seek to minimize civilian casualties in territories controlled by the enemy.  But they also have an obligation to defend their citizens.

So when terrorists embedded in civilian areas deliberately launch attacks on the innocent, governments cannot become paralyzed.  They must respond with the minimal force necessary to end the attacks.  The responsibility for the unintended civilian casualties such an operation entails should be place squarely on the terrorists and not on the defending government.

This moral clarity is no less important for defeating terrorism than vigorous military action.

From my conversations with many leaders around the world, this observation is understood.  That is why I have hope that it will soon become the prevailing norm.

Paradoxically, it is possible that the firm response of important international leaders and jurists to this morally twisted report will accelerate the re-examination of the laws of war in an age of terror.

These three challenges - preventing a nuclear armed Iran, neutralizing the missile threat and reaffirming Israel’s right to self-defense - are critical for the pursuit of peace.

None of these challenges is insurmountable.  Given that peace would provide immense benefits to Israelis, Palestinians and to the region, they are challenges that we must overcome.  God-willing, we will.

09/11/2009

Thank you all.
My dear friends, leaders of the Jewish communities of North America,
The history of the Jewish people has been marked by a paradox. We are at once both small and great. We are few in number but luminous in achievement. In the ancient world, the Jews were a small people on the foothills of Asia touching the Mediterranean. But in Alexandria some 2200 years ago, the Bible was translated into Greek, and the world has never been the same since.

The Jews brought to civilization at least three big ideas: the idea of monotheism, the belief that all people have innate rights that transcend the power of kings, and a prophetic vision of universal peace.

It is impossible to fully describe the revolutionary impact of these ideas throughout history, nor the poetic power of the Biblical stories that overshadowed much of the literature of the ancient world.

As in antiquity so in modernity.

Israel is one of the world’s smallest countries. But our success in science and technology, agriculture, medicine, and the arts belies our size. And on this continent, the Jewish community accounts for less than 2% of the population, yet its creative accomplishments in every field are legend and legendary.

In modern times, Jews everywhere have made extraordinary contributions to humanity.

So, smallness and greatness have thus accompanied our people throughout nearly 4,000 years of our history. But our conspicuous achievements often masked our small size and the vulnerability that comes with being small.

Being prominent but small, we often could not defend ourselves against larger foes who envied our achievements, despised the ideas we championed, and periodically sought to expel or even annihilate us outright.

The rebirth of Israel did not eliminate such attacks. But it fundamentally changed our ability to repel them.

In 1948, some 600,000 Jews, their backs against the sea, fended off the assault of much larger enemies sworn to our destruction. We were aided by many of our fellow American Jews. You gave money, arms, and most important, tremendous moral support.

You helped Israel absorb waves of immigrants, you spearheaded the historic struggle to free Soviet Jewry and you have tirelessly worked to strengthen the American-Israeli alliance which is a cornerstone of Israel’s security. Today, you support Birthright, Masa and Nefesh B’ Nefesh - these are programs that promote Aliyah and strengthen Jewish identity, thereby ensuring that our numbers are not further diminished and dwindled by the forces of assimilation.

Strengthening Jewish identity can no longer be a task exclusively for the Diaspora.
It is increasingly the responsibility of the Jewish State. Over a decade ago, I was proud to be the first Prime Minister to allocate state funds to bolster Jewish identity outside of Israel.

And I assure you that in my second term, I intend to do even more.

The result of our joint efforts has been a stronger Israel. And only a strong Israel can achieve peace. But even a strong Israel is still a small Israel. And a small Israel demands a secure peace. Peace in our land, the peace of Jerusalem, our eternal capital, is one of our oldest longings, expressed in our Psalms and our prayers.

Peace between Israel and our Arab neighbors: the first and immediate result would spare our children the horrors of war. It would spare our children the horrors of war. It would spare our grandchildren the horrors of war. What a great gift.

Peace could usher in a new age of economic progress for the benefit of all. We have already signed peace agreements, two of them, with Egypt and Jordan. And we are eager to achieve peace with all our other neighbors, especially with the Palestinians.

I believe there is no time to waste. We need to move towards peace with a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose. I want to be clear. My goal is not to have endless negotiations. My goal is not negotiations for negotiations sake. My goal is to reach a peace treaty, and soon.

But to get a peace agreement, we must start negotiating. Let’s stop talking about negotiations. Let’s start moving.

This past June at Bar-Ilan University, I put forward a vision of peace that has united the vast majority of Israelis.

In this vision of two states for two peoples, a demilitarized Palestinian state would recognize the Jewish state.

Now, what do I mean by a Jewish state? It is a state in which all individuals and all minorities have equal individual rights. Yet our national symbols, language and culture spring from the heritage of the Jewish people. And most important, any Jew from anywhere in the world has a right to immigrate to Israel and become a citizen.

I want to make it clear: Any Jew, of any denomination, will always have the right to come home to the Jewish state. Religious pluralism and tolerance will always guide my policy.

What does a Jewish state mean for the Palestinians? They must abandon the fantasy of flooding Israel with refugees, give up irredentist claims to the Negev and Galilee, and declare unequivocally that the conflict is finally over.

Yet, even after we achieve peace it may take years for the spirit of peace to permeate most levels of Palestinian society. Therefore, any peace agreement we sign today must include ironclad security measures that will protect the State of Israel.

Here comes that paradox again.

Israel is powerful but small. No matter where our final borders are drawn, Israel will remain exceedingly small. I am not sure you know how small Israel is. The United States and Canada are each roughly 400 times the size of Israel and the Arab world is 500 times the size of Israel. Egypt alone is roughly 40 times larger and even a small country like Jordan, our neighbor to the east, is almost four times as big. Israel is bigger than Rhode Island, but that’s about it.

Small countries are not necessarily insecure. Belgium and Luxemburg are small but they today are not insecure. Yet if their neighbors included radical regimes bent on their conquest and destruction with terror proxies firing thousands of missiles on their people, believe me, they would feel insecure. Anyone would.

Because of our small size and the radical and violent neighborhood in which we live, Israel faces security threats like that of no other nation.

A few facts to drive the point home.

A few days ago, the Israeli navy interdicted a ship carrying hundreds of tons of rockets and explosives from Iran bound for Hezbollah via Syria. Last week, Hamas tested a rocket with a range of nearly 40 miles.

Now, for a large country, that might not be too consequential. But in tiny Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah now have the power to reach Tel Aviv.

Israel’s security therefore requires that any territory vacated in a future peace agreement must be effectively demilitarized.

An effective demilitarizion of Palestinian areas is an essential component of peace recognized by successive American presidents. I want to assure you Israel is willing to make great concessions for peace. But there can be no concessions on Israel’s security. We have to ensure that weapons do not flow into the Palestinian areas in the West Bank, which overlooks Tel Aviv and surrounds Jerusalem.

We cannot permit another Gaza or South Lebanon in the heart of the country. What we want is a durable peace, a peace that can be defended. We fervently hope that such a peace will hold, but we must be prepared to defend ourselves in case it doesn’t.

The UN report on Gaza, which falsely accuses Israel of war crimes for legitimately defending itself against real war criminals, in effect seeks to deprive us of the right of self-defense. This report must be firmly rejected.

We are proud of the Israeli Defense Forces. We are proud of our sons and daughters who are defending our country every day. We know that our army, Israel’s army, is as moral as any army on earth. In supporting the IDF and rejecting this report you’re sending a message to terrorists that they cannot get away with firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians.

And you do something else. You support peace. For only an Israel that can defend itself is an Israel that can take further risks for peace.

I thank President Obama for resolutely opposing this twisted UN resolution.

I applaud the overwhelming vote last week in the American Congress condemning this biased report.

I know there are many Canadian friends with us here today. I wish to extend my thanks to Prime Minister Harper for his staunch support for Israel’s right of self-defense.

Last week, I watched a joint exercise of the IDF and some 1400 American soldiers to improve Israel’s defense against incoming missiles. I salute these American soldiers, and I thank their President, their Commander in Chief, President Obama for his commitment to Israel’s security. On behalf of the people of Israel, I send my condolences to the American servicemen and women who were killed at Fort Hood last week.

My friends,

My government is working to advance peace and we are not just talking.

We have removed hundreds of security checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank. I personally extended the hours of operation on the Allenby Bridge and I’ve removed bureaucratic hurdles to Palestinian economic development.

These efforts, along with measures taken by the Palestinian Authority to improve security, have spurred an unmatched boom in the West Bank and has made life better for ordinary Palestinians.

For the first time in years, businesses, banks and industry are sprouting. Restaurants, theaters, and shopping malls are overflowing. Thousands and thousands of Palestinian jobs are being created.

I think we can do a lot more to improve the reality on the ground, and we will. I intend to do a lot more.

Prosperity can help advance peace - but only so far. To truly resolve the outstanding issues between us, we must begin and complete peace negotiations.

We should not place preconditions for holding talks. Such obstacles to talks were never set in the 16 years of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. From the day my government was sworn in seven months ago, I have been calling for peace negotiations to start.

I said I would go anywhere, anytime to advance peace. And no Israeli government has been so willing to restrain settlement activity as part of an effort to re-launch peace talks. So I say today to the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas: let us seize the moment to reach an historic agreement. Let us begin talks immediately.

I know there are many skeptics. I am not one of them. I believe that peace is possible. I know how committed the Israeli people are to peace and how committed I am to make peace. But I need and we need a determined Palestinian partner as well. A partner willing to shoulder the risk and burdens as we are.

I believe that with good will and with courageous leadership on both sides, and no less important, with the continued support of the United States, peace can become a reality. We can surprise a skeptical world.

Achieving peace is a great challenge facing Israel. At the United Nations in September, I spoke of another great challenge: preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability. The Iranian regime tyrannizes its own people, sponsors and supplies terrorism, and openly pledges to wipe Israel off the map. Imagine how much more dangerous this regime would be if it had atomic bombs.

The responsible members of the international community must unite to prevent this grave threat to the peace of the entire world.

I support President Obama’s continued efforts toward these ends, and I appreciate the firm position taken by the leading European countries. We must not succumb to the Iranian regime’s deceit and cunning. We must stand together to stop Tehran from realizing its nuclear ambitions.

In addition to achieving peace and preventing a nuclear Iran, there is a third momentous challenge before us - reducing the world’s dependence on oil.
This would help cleanse our world after more than a century of industrial pollution.

It would help our economies by decreasing our dependence on depleting resources. And it would end the massive transfer of wealth to some of the world’s most odious exporters of terrorism and fanaticism.

Here’s the question: can we dramatically reduce our dependence on oil?

Remember, sometimes, one or two inventions can change centuries of habit. For many centuries, salt was highly valued for preserving food. Caravans of camels carried it across the deserts, and it was nearly worth its weight in gold. The salt trade helped build economic empires, and the world’s dependence on salt showed no signs of slackening.

But then came two inventions: canning and refrigeration. Virtually overnight, salt lost its immense value. The same thing may happen to oil. Scientific and technological breakthroughs could dramatically reduce the world’s dependence on petroleum. And Israel could play an important role in making that happen.

You know, of course, about our high-tech companies and venture capital funds, our engineers and scientists, our patents and our Nobel laureates. In biotech and agro-tech, in solar energy and desalination, and in many other fields, Israeli innovation is transforming the way we live.

Two perceptive writers recently wrote a book called, “The Start-Up Nation”. We are the start-up nation. Now we must use our minds to help achieve breakthroughs in the field of clean energy. For example, Israel could apply its unique expertise to the juncture of water and energy. The global need for water is rapidly increasing. Yet, a third of the cost of producing clean water is energy. Sea-water in abundance can be readily desalinated with solar power and channeled inland.

Having mastered both of these technologies, Israel can make a decisive contribution to alleviating water shortages around the world, especially in the growing economies of Asia and the parched expanses of the Middle East.

I am in the process of establishing a national commission that will bring together Israel’s finest scientists, businessmen and engineers. We hope to work with other governments and experts to dramatically reduce our dependence on oil in the next decade, providing an example to be emulated by the rest of the world.

If we could cross the oceans, fly the skies, and reach the moon, we should be able to harness water, wind and sun to power our world.

My friends,

I know that these three enormous challenges - achieving peace, preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and developing alternative energies - seem daunting.
But I want you to remember another mission whose success seemed completely implausible when Theodore Herzl embarked on it over a century ago.

The challenges confronting Herzl’s vision of a Jewish state were not less than overwhelming. Most of the world’s Jews lived in Europe and had no intention of moving to the barren land of their forefathers.

Few saw the clouds gathering on the horizon. Fewer still saw the need for action. But with a clear plan and a prophetic sense of urgency, Herzl helped the Jewish people overcome their tragic condition of powerlessness.

His implausible idea gathered so much force that within a few decades our people emerged from the worst massacre in history to establish an independent state in our ancestral homeland. And then our small people then dedicated itself to the great task of building a modern Jewish state.

In an understandable moment of frustration, Herzl lamented, “The tragedy of the Jewish people is that we do not believe in ourselves.”

But Herzl did not lose faith. He said, “We are strong enough to form a state”. “We possess all the human and material resources for this purpose.”

If we will it, he famously said, it is no dream.

My friends,

We have learned from history that if the Jewish people are united and determined, if we harness our hopes and our dreams, the hardest tasks are within our reach.

We are a small people but a great people; a people generous enough to pave a path toward a lasting peace; a people brave enough to thwart the dangers that confront us; and a people creative enough to once again help steer humanity towards a better future for all.