Blog

22/02/2010

Transcription
PM Netanyahu’s Speech at the Jewish Agency

Thank you. Each of us is forced to decide if we take a stand on things that matter in our lives and matter to the lives of those we hold dear. And Natan Sharansky took one of the greatest personal stands in the post-war period and the day you stood up in a Soviet court, tore up your indictment and said ‘Next year in Jerusalem’ was a testament, not only to your character, but what you represent in the modern history of our people. And I’ve found it a personal privilege to have had the opportunity to take part in the broad efforts to get Natan out of that large jail, to bring him home and to have an enduring partnership and friendship since. And I also appreciate the fact that you were kind enough to give me a draw in a game of chess that we played. I know you were kind because to others you are unforgiving so I appreciate that very much. I’ve never played with him since and I don’t intend to.

But we do move on the larger chessboards of the nations. And we have to recognize what it is that we need to succeed and to assure the Jewish future. There is a palpable challenge to our future from two main directions. The first one is the loss of identity - the loss of identity through assimilation or through intermarriage or through both is the greatest toll-taker of Jewish numbers in the last half-century. Before that, we had the greatest catastrophe in our history. We lost a third of our people to murderous violence and I think it’s telling to go and visit, as we did, Auschwitz-Birkenau, to stand there in the terrible ice and to understand that those who didn’t burn, froze, and those who didn’t freeze, burnt. That was the condition of our people only 65 years ago as we escaped from a great cauldron, from a great catastrophe and built our life here.

But we see since then that there has been a palpable, if not reduction in Jewish numbers, the absence of growth that would normally have normally accompanied a half-century and more - 65 years - would enable, certainly if not the doubling, if not the tripling, then certainly more than the doubling of our numbers. And yet we were some 12 or 13 million after the Holocaust and those are our numbers today. There’s been no growth at all in most of the Jewish Diaspora. There’s been significant decline in many of the communities and certainly none of the extrapolation that one would have had for the normal development of a population. These have not taken place in the Diaspora. It has taken place only in one place, here in Israel.

And as a result, Israel today has the largest Jewish community in the world. We’re fast approaching six million souls and we’re fast approaching a point where the majority of the Jews will live in the land of Israel. That has not happened since the days of the Second Temple. That is, in one sense, good news and it will happen very shortly, but in another sense, it reflects not merely the growth and the development of Israel - the absorption of millions of immigrants from all over the world including over a million from the Former Soviet Union - and the naturally high growth rate of the Israeli population - very high - I think it’s the highest or among the highest in the developed countries, in developed economies - and that is a reflection of an inner - by the way - secular and religious alike - religious more, secular very high, very high, compared to say our counterparts in Western Europe - very, very high. And there is a natural life force in the Jewish people in response, I think, to the Holocaust - an enduring, lingering response to the Holocaust and to the wars of Israel and to our natural impetus to ensure that the Jewish people survive beyond the personal calculation and consideration that every family makes. So that is the good side and the robust nature of the Israeli economy, the development of the Israeli state, the Israeli society, the Israeli economy, Israeli technology - the capacity not merely to increase our numbers but to increase our productivity well beyond our numbers - to increase our economy, our GDP per capita well beyond the growth rate of our numbers - this is all good news.

The bad news is that we have steadily eroded as a people. The commitment of our young people - the Jewish people - have frayed at the edges, but there was a concomitant development which I think was important, and that is a concentration - a consolidation at the vibrant center including the Diaspora that says we should reverse this. And the most important thing which has happened in the last decade has been the conscious effort of the Diaspora first, and then Israel second, joining it pretty early on, to try to reverse the forces of the loss of identity through such programs as Masa and Taglit and the fostering of Jewish education, the study of Hebrew. These are conscious efforts to arrest the tide of loss of identity and we should continue them - we should increase them. We - I mean as a partnership between the Jewish people outside of Israel and the Jewish State of Israel, between the Jewish Agency and the Government of Israel and any other organization that seeks to support this important effort. We’re committed to this.

I was the first Prime Minister who actually gave money from the Israeli official budget to foster Jewish education abroad and to help Taglit. I thought it was a tremendous development which has since been augmented. But we are committed to do this and as our economy grows, we will add more resources for this common effort - stopping the loss of identity, strengthening the identity in the Diaspora, especially with young Jews - getting them to come to Israel, getting them to know Israel, getting them to consider staying in Israel or becoming ambassadors in their own communities and on their campuses fighting the vilification of Israel and also cementing their own commitment to it is a vital component for the Jewish future. And I assure you, Natan, that we will work together on this because we deeply believe it and ultimately we act on our beliefs.

Now there is one other component of this. As we strengthen - seek to strengthen - Jewish identity in the Diaspora, we must strengthen Jewish identity here in Israel. For one, we’re in a global economy, we’re in a global information economy and there is a widespread dissemination of a global culture - it’s not always very deep, it’s not always very inspiring but it is sweeping - it catches our young people, it gets them to deal and immerse themselves in matters or cultural matters that is not necessarily connected to their individual roots. This happens to their individual national roots or particular national roots. This problem challenges many, many nations and especially the smaller nations. The smaller peoples are facing this challenge of being effectively culturally swamped. And we know that without strong identification, without strong roots - we cannot create the motivations, the energies, the commitment to continue to build the State of Israel so this is not a minor effort. We also know that people are mobile and the more gifted, the more able and the more talented the people, the more their capacities and their skills are worthwhile and worthy on the universal market - they can just move. It’s a global marketplace. And therefore what will keep people here and what will keep our best young people here? What will keep them here is a strong commitment to ensuring their own personal fortunes here, their own personal lives here but also to ensure to deepen their commitment to the Jewish state in the Jewish land. And this requires a directed and purposeful effort.

This was the nature of our effort yesterday - we went to Tel Hai the place where Joseph Trumpledor fell some 90 years ago to secure the Upper Galilee, and we started a program for roughly 150 projects which are both from antiquity, archaeological projects from Biblical and post-Biblical periods but also the restoration of sites of modern Zionism, and in so doing also correct the distortions of history. We’re just presenting the facts. We need not color the facts, we need not prove the facts - we just have to explain the facts - the actual facts of the growth of Zionism, the return of the Jews, the origins of the attacks against us, the defense, the value of defense that people gave up - pulp history warts and all. And there are some warts. Put it up front because I don’t think that any people, any other people, can be as proud of our ancient and modern history as the Jewish people. And this pride is part of our identity - it’s part of the thing that connects us to this land and to each other. It deepens our roots in our country and it also connects, I believe, Jews around the world to the Jewish state and to the Jewish land. We’re going to do this in a variety of ways obviously suited for the 21st century and for the new means of communication. But at the end of the day, the greatest experience that we can have is to have young people in Israel, young Jews from abroad come here and actually walk this land - walk it, sense it, feel it, study about it, learn it directly - we say in the army - through the boots - through the boots but also through your eyes, through your brain and through your heart to learn about our heritage and to make that heritage part of the foundation of our future. And I think this is what our real challenge is - to be firmly grounded in our history and yet be open to the world - to the changes that take place and to our remarkable success in finding a unique capacity to continue projecting the Jewish genius in the modern world as we are cognizant and as we cherish the Jewish genius from antiquity to today.

This is what our Heritage Program is about and I would like to consider ways to coordinate this program which was by the way a considerable expenditure - I’ve always found that people take you seriously only if you spend money. Well, we’re spending money on this but I think that we should spend some time, and I plan to do this in whatever form we designate, to see how we can tighten this Moreshet Program - Tochnit Moreshet - which is our heritage program with the Jewish Agency and with the Jewish communities around the world. I think this is not merely an exercise in education. I think it’s an exercise in survival because I think this is a key part of the history and the mystery of the Jews. It’s because we wanted to come back. It’s because we broke the laws of history. It’s because we said while we were strewn to the four corners of the world absolutely powerless, absolutely defenseless - we said - ‘We will come back - next year in Jerusalem’.

It’s because, Natan, you said it in a court against one of the greatest totalitarian, perhaps the greatest totalitarian system in the world. It’s because young Ethiopians who walked from Ethiopia - many of them losing their brothers and sisters - they said ‘Next Year in Jerusalem’. It’s because the last people in the Warsaw Ghetto standing up against impossible odds said ‘Next Year in Jerusalem’. And some of them died saying it, and some of them escaped and are here. It’s because this happened not only in the Warsaw Ghetto, it happened in the Ghetto of Toledo hundreds of years before that. This is a great power. But now we’re in Jerusalem and we have to teach the Children of Zion about Zion and about the Land of Israel - the Children of Israel about the Land of Israel and about the People of Israel, about our connection and our unique commitment to our past and to our future in this land and to each other. This is not a small matter but we are not short of big matters that affect us.

You mentioned one of them that I’ve been involved with for just a little under twenty years which is the great challenge that is facing the world because of the rise of militant Islam and its attempts to acquire nuclear weapons. I mean, if I had to put in a nutshell the greatest threat that faces humanity - it is that a militant Islamic regime will meet up with nuclear weapons or that nuclear weapons will meet up with a militant Islamic regime. The first is a danger now focused in Iran and the second is a concern that many people have about a Taliban takeover of Pakistan. I think that both are eminently preventable but things are not prevented by themselves, they depend on actions and the most important action vis-à-vis Iran is action that the international community can take and must take in time. This regime depends virtually entirely on energy. Its budgets depend on energy - on the exportation of oil and natural gas. The first and most powerful sanction - biting sanctions - is to prevent the export of oil from Iran. Right alongside it is to prevent the import of oil or specifically refined petroleum which means gasoline into Iran. These are sanctions with teeth. Other sanctions are now being discussed by the international community but without these sanctions, I think they will not have the impact to actually make a dent in this regime and force it to consider whether to continue its brazen pursuit of a nuclear weapons program.

If one is talking about what are effective sanctions - what are crippling sanctions - what are sanctions that can actually work - they must include, they must include the constriction of the export of oil from Iran and the import of refined oil into Iran. I think that nothing else stands a real chance to stop the progress of the regime but this has a chance - at least it must be tried and must be tried now. There has been a slow lag of understanding of things that we have been talking about for years. At first, there was a question whether Iran is - whether this regime is as tyrannical as it is. People said that it’s a populous regime - it may have a theological bent but it is a popular regime that seeks to better the lives of Iran’s people. Well, they no longer think that. I think the regime has been exposed by the clear sunlight that fell on those sidewalks where young Iranians were bleeding, choking on their blood, being gunned down by these goons. People now know the truth about the nature of the regime. And a regime that tyrannizes its own people will tyrannize its neighbors very soon. In fact, that’s already happening.

The second thing that people said is does Iran have a nuclear program? There was some debate about that. Well, that’s pretty much evaporated as Iran’s secret nuclear facility has been exposed and other facts came to light. So now we know that this is a tyrannical regime that is developing atomic bombs.

The third thing that we know is that they threatened to use those bombs against us and possibly as weapons of terror against anyone else they choose. This is a formidable combination. When you have no inhibition and you have far-reaching ideological, theological ambitions - the combination of a militant Islamic regime that has the weapons of mass death and could use atomic weapons, not merely to threaten directly but also to use it as weapons of nuclear terror could be a pivot of history. That too is understood in most of the capitals and by most of the leaders that I’ve spoken to in recent months and over the years and there is a crystallization of an understanding.

And now comes another question that caused a lot of arguments and disagreements. How long will it take for them to develop a weapon? That too, as Iran is advancing and as it is demonstrably accruing low, enriched uranium which is one step short of a process called high enrichment which they’ve just begun. That too begins to fade as an issue of discord because people understand it will happen a lot sooner than people think. So now the leading countries in the world and the leading leaders of the world today understand that Iran is a brutal tyranny, that it has a nuclear weapons program, that it is using its power to tyrannize its own people and its neighbors and that it is fast approaching a nuclear weapons capacity. Well what is it going to do when you have the understanding? There’s a difference between not knowing and knowing. Then there’s a difference between knowing and understanding. And then there’s a difference between understanding and having the international community actually act on that understanding.

We’re at that fate point. We’re at the point where the international community has to decide whether it is serious about stopping Iran. If it is serious about stopping Iran, then what it needs to do is not water-down sanctions, moderate sanctions, sanctions that will only enable people to put a ‘V’ around the rubric box of sanctions, but effective , biting sanctions that curtail the import and export of oil into and out of Iran. This is what is required now. It may not do the job but nothing else will. And at least we will have known that it’s been tried. And if this cannot pass in the Security Council, then it should be done outside the Security Council but immediately. I never fail to quote Hillel the Elder who said several thousand years ago some pretty smart things. They were short and succinct and to the point. And one of the things that he said was: ‘If not now, when?’ If not now, when is the international community going to impose biting sanctions on Iran? A year from now? Two years from now? Three years from now when it’s all pointless? If not now, when and the answer is right now! That is what is required: Crippling sanctions that affect Iran’s import and export of oil now.

I’ve just come back from Russia where I had a very successful trip. I thought of you, Natan, and I know that you’re working to strengthen the ties between the Jewish people and the Jewish Agency in Russia and although this didn’t take place this year - the meeting that you had planned - I have reason to believe that it will be possible in the near future.

But I thought of the transformation of our world. I thought of the great odyssey that we have made and the fact that over a million of our fellow Jews from Russia are now in Israel in key places. I said to Prime Minister Putin and before that to President Medvedev: ‘You know. I’ve brought with me my own Minister, Yuli Edelstein, as a translator; they told me he speaks good Russian. So I had Yuli Edelstein on one side and I had Ze’ev Elkin who’s the coalition chief and the head of the Likud faction in the Knesset on the other side. Eugene Kandel who’s the son of a famous dissident who’s the head of our Council of Economic Advisors - he was in that delegation too. And I mentioned you, Natan, as the head of the Jewish Agency. These are all people that I try to advance their careers - these are all very gifted people who’ve come up in their own right. And I thought of this wondrous transformation that only 20 years ago - 25 years ago - all these people were probably struggling and yearning, facing impossible odds and they may even have seen already at that time the horizon begin to clear up. But this required many, many years of conviction and faith and steely determination and hope to be ‘next year in Jerusalem’.

Well, we’re here this year in Jerusalem. And I think part of the reason we’re here is this unique partnership that exists between the Jewish State and the Jewish people. We face problems and challenges like no other people but we have a bond like no other people. People comment about it. They have all sorts of - both admiration and sometimes odd speculation - that’s a nice way of saying it. It’s a mythic and sometimes mythical bond between us - between the Jewish people, between the Jewish state and the Diaspora. But it is a wondrous force. It has enabled us to defeat the greatest forces of history - overcome them - and to stand up to the greatest empires in history and to meet that challenge too. So we are here today in Jerusalem because that saying is not a cliché - we are one - but we have to make sure that our youngsters know that, that our children and grandchildren and our great-grandchildren know that. And we also must ensure that those who seek to extinguish Jewish identity or Jewish life will never succeed. This partnership will assure that they don’t.

Thank you very much.

weekly Cabinet meeting, 07/02/2010

“Israel aspires to complete peace agreements with all of its neighbors. We did this with Egypt and Jordan, and we aspire to achieve similar agreements with both the Palestinians and Syria. Two principles dictate our approach to peace negotiations with our neighbors:

First, we will conduct negotiations without preconditions. We do not accept the idea that Israel must always make extraordinary concessions in advance while the other side is exempt from making its own concessions. It is negotiations that will bring about an agreement and we will not enter into negotiations when everything is known in advance.

Second, at the end of the negotiations we need to maintain the State of Israel’s vital national interests, especially security. It is doubtful whether any peace agreement that is unaccompanied by solid security arrangements on the ground can last. We want peace that will last for years, decades and generations and to this end, these components, especially security, are essential.

I hope that we are before the resumption of the negotiations with the Palestinians. We are open to the resumption of the process with the Syrians. While involvement in the negotiations is important for us, it is less important than the two abovementioned principles, in both the Palestinian and the Syrian arenas.

Today, the Cabinet will establish a directors-general committee chaired by National Economic Council Chairman Prof. Eugene Kandel to formulate a national plan to reduce dependence on petroleum. This is one of the State of Israel’s vital interests. In my opinion, this is an international interest regarding air pollution, the instability of the international system as a result of the transfer of great sums of capital from certain countries, and - of course - the fact that certain countries which control the petroleum market also support terrorism. This interest is worldwide and the effort that we are making, in addition to the establishment of a scientific and academic team, is due to be supported by other countries. I spoke about this with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and others. They showed great interest in cooperating with our effort. While this effort will not bear fruit within a year or two, within a decade there will certainly be breakthroughs that could change and dramatically reduce the world’s dependence, especially regarding the use of petroleum for transportation. While there are many alternative energy solutions outside transportation, the world is very strongly dependent on petroleum due to the dependence of transportation on petroleum. Therefore, the focus of our diplomatic and organizational effort will be to find alternatives to petroleum in transportation.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu noted that the Cabinet would be briefed on the plan to establish Israel’s fifth medical school, in Safed, and added that this would - inter alia - boost regional development in the Galilee.

Prime Minister Netanyahu also said that the Cabinet would decide to allocate NIS 30 million to support focused immigration plans from the US and France.

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

Translated by: Eitan Behar

From this stage, I would like to send my warm greetings to the President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, and to the Egyptian people.
The peace between Israel and Egypt changed history and proved that the swords can indeed be beaten into plowshares.
The peace agreement with the most important country in the Arab world changed the face of the Middle East and created the basic partnership between those who seek peace in the region.
“Mr. President, we are seeking a full peace, a true one, that will combine an absolute reconciliation between the Jewish and the Arab people.” So said Menachem Begin, late Prime Minister of Israel, to Anwar Sadat, President of Egyptian President, on the Knesset podium.
Thirty years have passed, one generation has passed and a new one has arrived, and these words are as true today as they were the day they first were spoken.
The courage and vision of those two gentlemen, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, made the impossible possible, 30 years ago.
Sadat’s call for “No more war” touched Israeli hearts.  That call fostered a situation in which Israeli citizens became willing to make generous concessions and to go far for the sake of peace.
As a matter of fact, Israel takes this stand whenever an Arab leader shows he is truly committed to peace, whether it is President Sadat of Egypt, whether it is King Hussein of Jordan, whether it is a Likud government under Menachem Begin or a Labor government under Yitzhak Rabin.
The people of Israel strive for peace, dream for peace, long for peace.
The great aspiration to peace, and the willingness to act, with a true heart, for it, has always existed.  And, make no mistake, this same aspiration is valid and it exists in all its strength, even today.
Only those who have tasted the bitter taste of war and suffered the terrible grief of bereavement, may understand and value the importance of peace.
The government that I am about to form will do everything necessary to achieve a just and lasting peace with all our neighbors as well as the entire Arab world.
Any of our neighbors who would truly be willing to walk toward peace will find our hands open.
Thirty years ago, Anwar Sadat proved his true commitment to peace.  He permanently abandoned violence and chose true peace.  He did not speak peace while secretly preparing for war.  He did not negotiate with Israel while providing shelter for terrorist organizations.
He spoke about the hope for a new and better future for both Egypt and Israel, and the concern for the wealth and lives of Jews and Arabs, as one.  And, he meant everything he said, word for word.
But, in the end, peace is not to be examined by the beauty of declarations and fancy speeches.  The test of peace is its durability, and the peace with Egypt has proven its strength and stability without doubt.
The peace between us has lasted more than a generation.  Facing all storms of time, our peace has not weakened during regional wars, it has lasted through waves of terrorism and stood strong as the world and governments have changed.
The agreement that so many expected to be short lived has proven itself to be permanent, solid and irreversible.
What is the secret of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty?
The answer is clear: the existence of peace serves the deepest interests of both countries.  It promises the future of our children and the future generations of both people.
We certainly hope the roots of the peace with Egypt will deepen, and that it will sprout branches of blessing, that the political ties between us will become even stronger and that the peace will spread to the horizons.
True, we would be happier if our relationship would grow closer, most importantly in the arena of economics, and I believe there is a lot we can do in this field.
In 1956, we had to tape our windows because of bombing.  In the beginning of June 1967, I landed in Lod airport, into absolute darkness, and I recall the flashes of the light bombs and the sound of cannons on the banks of the Suez Canal.  I remember my fellow soldiers who fell and the grief of their families who lost their most precious loved ones.
It happened in Israel.  It happened in Egypt, too.
But, today we mark three decades with no war, no bloodshed, and for this historic change, we should be grateful.
Let us mark this moment by traveling back in our minds, to that landmark meeting that took place over this podium, between the president of Egypt and the prime minister of Israel.
May it be that we, too, will be blessed with the spirit of those distinguished leaders, and take it upon ourselves to strive indefatigably to see their exalted vision of peace be fulfilled in many more fronts.