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Tuesday, March 23, 2010 |
Address by PM Netanyahu at AIPAC |
Israel must always reserve the right to defend itself. Check against Delivery Members of the Obama Administration, As the world faces monumental challenges, I know that Israel and America We stand together because we are fired by the same ideals and inspired by This month, my father celebrated his one-hundredth birthday. When he was During his lifetime, all of these empires collapsed, others rose and fell, For the first time in two thousand years, a sovereign Jewish people could Before that, we were subjected to unremitting savagery: the bloodletting of The founding of Israel did not stop the attacks on the Jews. It merely gave My friends, I want to tell you about the day when I fully understood the depth of this It was the day I met Shlomit Vilmosh over forty years ago. I served with her son, Haim, in the same elite unit in the army. During a battle in 1969, Haim was killed by a burst of gunfire. At his funeral, I discovered that Haim was born shortly after his mother and If Haim had been born two years before, this daring young officer would have Haim's mother Shlomit told me that though she was in great anguish, she was At least, she said, my son fell wearing the uniform of a Jewish soldier Time and again the Israeli army was forced to repel attacks of much larger When Egypt and Jordan recognized that we could not be defeated in battle, Yet there are those who continue the assault against the Jewish state and They seek to achieve this goal through terrorism, missile attacks and most The ingathering of the Jewish people to Israel has not deterred these In fact, it has only whetted their appetite. Iran's rulers say "Israel is a one bomb country." The head of Hezbollah My friends, These are unpleasant facts, but they are the facts. The greatest threat to any living organism or nation is not to recognize Seventy-five years ago, many leaders around the world put their heads in the Ultimately, two of history's greatest leaders helped turn the tide. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill helped save the world. But The future of the Jewish state can never depend on the goodwill of even the Israel must always reserve the right to defend itself. Today, an unprecedented threat to humanity looms large. A radical Iranian regime armed with nuclear weapons could bring an end to Such a regime could provide nuclear weapons to terrorists and might even be Iran's brazen bid to develop nuclear weapons is first and foremost a threat Israel expects the international community to act swiftly and decisively to But we will always reserve the right to self-defense. We must also defend ourselves against lies and vilifications. Throughout history, the slanders against the Jewish people always preceded The Jews were called the well-poisoners of mankind, the fomenters of Unfortunately, these libelous attacks against the Jewish people also did not For a time, overt anti-Semitism was held in check by the shame and shock of In recent decades the hatred of the Jews has reemerged with increasing It is not merely directed at the Jewish people but increasingly at the In its most pernicious form, it argues that if only Israel did not exist, My friends, Does this mean that Israel is above criticism? Of course not. Israel, like any democracy, has its imperfections but we strive to correct Israel has independent courts, the rule of law, a free press and a vigorous I know that members of Congress refer to one another as my distinguished In Israel, members of Knesset don't speak of their distinguished colleagues In Israel, self-criticism is a way of life, and we accept that criticism is But Israel should be judged by the same standards applied to all nations, One allegation that is not is the attempt to describe the Jews as foreign In my office, I have a signet ring that was loaned to me by Israel's The ring was found next to the Western wall, but it dates back some 2,800 The ring is a seal of a Jewish official, and inscribed on it in Hebrew is That's my last name. My first name, Benjamin, dates back 1,000 years One of Benjamin's brothers was named Shimon, which also happens to be the Nearly 4,000 years ago, Benjamin, Shimon and their ten brothers roamed the Ladies and Gentlemen, The connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel cannot be The connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem cannot be denied. The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 year ago and the Jewish Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital. In Jerusalem, my government has maintained the policies of all Israeli Today, nearly a quarter of a million Jews, almost half the city's Jewish All these neighborhoods are within a five-minute drive from the Knesset. They are an integral and inextricable part of modern Jerusalem. Everyone knows that these neighborhoods will be part of Israel in any peace Therefore, building in them in no way precludes the possibility of a Nothing is rarer in the Middle East than tolerance for the beliefs of It's only under Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem that religious freedom for While we cherish our homeland, we also recognize that Palestinians live We don't want to govern them. We don't want to rule them. We want them as Yet Israel is unjustly accused of not wanting peace with the Palestinians. My government has consistently shown its commitment to peace in both word From day one, we called on the Palestinian Authority to begin peace I make that same call today. President Abbas, come and negotiate peace. Leaders who truly want peace should sit down face-to-face. Of course, the United States can help the parties solve their problems but Peace cannot be imposed from the outside. It can only come through direct Last year, I spoke of a vision of peace in which a demilitarized Palestinian Just as the Palestinians expect Israel to recognize a Palestinian state, we My government has removed hundreds of roadblocks, barriers and checkpoints As a result, we have helped spur a fantastic boom in the Palestinian economy And we announced an unprecedented moratorium on new Israeli construction in This is what my government has done for peace. What has the Palestinian Well, they have placed preconditions on peace talks, waged a relentless In fact, they're doing right now in the UN in the grotesquely misnamed UN I want to thank President Obama and the United States Congress for their Regrettably, the Palestinian Authority has also continued incitement against A few days ago, a public square near Ramallah was named after a terrorist Ladies and Gentlemen, Peace requires reciprocity. It cannot be a one-way street in which only Israel stands ready to make the compromises necessary for peace. But we expect the Palestinians to compromise as well. But one thing I will never compromise on is our security. It is hard to explain Israel's security predicament to someone living in a Next, put on New Jersey's northern border an Iranian terror proxy called Then imagine that this terror proxy has amassed 60,000 more missiles to fire Wait. I'm not finished. Now imagine on New Jersey's southern border It too fires 6,000 rockets into your territory while smuggling even more Do you think you would feel a little bit vulnerable? Do you think you would A peace agreement with the Palestinians must include effective security Israel must make sure that what happened in Lebanon and Gaza doesn't happen Israel's main security problem with Lebanon is not its border with Lebanon. Israel's main security problem with Gaza is not its border with Gaza. It's Experience has shown that only an Israeli presence on the ground can prevent This is why a peace agreement with the Palestinians must include an Israeli If peace with the Palestinians proves its durability over time, we can We are prepared to take risks for peace, but we will not be reckless with Ladies and Gentlemen, The people of Israel want a future in which our children no longer We want a future in which Israel realizes its full potential as a global I envision an Israel that can dedicate even more of its creative and And when we find that alternative, we will stop transferring hundreds of I am confident that in pursuing these goals, we have the enduring friendship The American people have always shown their courage, their generosity and From one President to the next, from one Congress to the next, America's In the last year, President Obama and the U.S. Congress have given meaning So too, Israel has been a staunch and steadfast ally of the United States. As Vice President Biden said, America has no better friend in the community For decades, Israel served as a bulwark against Soviet expansionism. Today Israel shares with America everything we know about fighting a new kind of We share intelligence. We cooperate in countless other ways that I am not Our soldiers and your soldiers fight against fanatic enemies that loathe our In the eyes of these fanatics, we are you and you are us. To them, the only difference is that you are big and we are small. You are This fanaticism's hatred of Western civilization predates Israel's Militant Islam does not hate the West because of Israel. It hates Israel Because it sees Israel as an outpost of freedom and democracy that prevents That is why when Israel stands against its enemies, it stands against President Harry Truman, the first leader to recognize Israel, said this: "I have faith in Israel and I believe that it has a glorious future - not My Friends, We are gathered here today because we believe in those common ideals. And because of those ideals, I am certain that Israel and America will |
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