We will honor all the agreements and all the undertakings of previous
governments and act exactly according to the Road Map.

Good afternoon, honorable outgoing Foreign Minister, honorable outgoing
Deputy Foreign Minister, incoming Deputy Foreign Minister, Director-General
Ministry employees, honored guests,

When my fellow students and I studied international relations, and learned
what an international system is, we learned that there is a State and there
are international organizations and all kinds of global economic
corporations. Things have changed since then and, unfortunately, in the
modern system, there are countries that are semi-states. It is hard to call
a country like Somalia a state in the full sense of the word and the same
holds true for the various autonomies in Eastern Europe, in the Balkans and
here as well. It is even hard to call a country like Iraq a state in the
full sense of the word. And even worse, there are now international players
that are irrational, like the Al Qaeda organization. And we can certainly
also ask if the leader of a strong and important country like Iran is a
rational player.

In my view, we must explain to the world that the priorities of the
international community must change, and that all the previous benchmarks -
the Warsaw Pact, the NATO Alliance, socialist countries, capitalist
countries - have changed. There is a world order that the countries of the
free world are trying to preserve, and there are forces, or countries or
extremist entities that are trying to violate it.

The claim that what is threatening the world today is the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a way of evading reality. The reality is
that the problems coming from the direction of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran
and Iraq.

What is important is to maintain global and regional stability. Egypt is
definitely an important country in the Arab world, a stabilizing factor in
the regional system and perhaps even beyond that, and I certainly view it as
an important partner. I would be happy to visit Egypt and to host Egyptian
leaders here, including the Egyptian Foreign Minister - all based on mutual
respect.

I think that we have been disparaging many concepts, and we have shown the
greatest distain of all for the word "peace." The fact that we say the word
"peace" twenty times a day will not bring peace any closer. There have been
two governments here that took far-reaching measures: the Sharon government
and the Olmert government. They took dramatic steps and made far-reaching
proposals. We have seen the disengagement and witnessed the Annapolis
accord. I read in the newspaper about the dramatic proposals made by the
Prime Minister to the other side, which I do not think have ever been made,
outside of Barak's visit to Camp David.

Yisrael Beiteinu was not then part of the coalition, Avigdor Liberman was
not the foreign minister and we even if we wanted to, we would have been
unable to prevent the arrival of peace. But I do not see that it brought
peace. To the contrary. We have seen that during this period, after all the
gestures that we made, after all the dramatic steps we took and all the far
reaching proposals we presented, in the past few years this country has gone
through wars - the Second War in Lebanon and Operation Cast Lead - and not
because we choose to. I have not seen peace here. It is precisely when we
made all the concessions that I saw the Durban Conference, I saw two
countries in the Arab world suddenly sever relations, recalling their
ambassadors - Mauritania and Qatar. Qatar suddenly became extremist.

We are also losing ground every day in public opinion. Does anyone think
that concessions, and constantly saying "I am prepared to concede," and
using the word "peace" will lead to anything? No, that will just invite
pressure, and more and more wars. "Si vis pacem, para bellum" - if you want
peace, prepare for war, be strong.

We definitely want peace, but the other side also bears responsibility. We
have proven this more than any other country in the world. No country has
made concessions the way that Israel has. Since 1977, we have given up areas
of land three times the size of the State of Israel. So we have proven the
point.

The Oslo process began in 1993. Sixteen years have passed since then and I
do not see that we are any closer to a permanent settlement. There is one
document that binds us and it is not the Annapolis Conference. That has no
validity. When we drafted the basic government policy guidelines, we
certainly stated that we would honor all the agreements and all the
undertakings of previous governments. The continuity of government is
respected in Israel. In the cabinet I voted against the Road Map, but that
was the only document approved by the cabinet and by the Security Council -
I believe as Resolution 1505. It is a binding resolution and it binds this
government as well.

The Israeli government never ratified the Annapolis accord. Neither the
cabinet nor the Knesset ever ratified it, so anyone who wants to amuse
himself can continue to do so. I have seen all the proposals made so
generously by Ehud Olmert, but I have not seen any result.

So we will therefore act exactly according to that document, the Road Map,
including the Tenet document and the Zinni document. I will never agree to
our waiving all the clauses - I believe there are 48 of them - and going
directly to the last clause, negotiations on a permanent settlement. No.
These concessions do not achieve anything. We will adhere to it to the
letter, exactly as written. Clauses one, two, three, four - dismantling
terrorist organizations, establishing an effective government, making a
profound constitutional change in the Palestinian Authority. We will proceed
exactly according to the clauses. We are also obligated to implement what is
required of us in each clause, but so is the other side. They must implement
the document in full, including - as I said - the Zinni document and the
Tenet document. I am not so sure that the Palestinian Authority or even we -
in those circles that espouse peace so much, are aware of the existence of
the Tenet and Zinni documents.

When was Israel at its strongest in terms of public opinion around the
world? After the victory of the Six Day War, not after all the concessions
in Oslo Accords I, II, III and IV. Anyone who wants to maintain his status
in public opinion must understand that if he wants respect, he must first
respect himself. I think that, at least from our standpoint, that will be
our policy.