22/09/2016
Mr.
President, ...Ladies
and Gentlemen,
What
I'm about to say is going to shock you: Israel has a bright future at the
UN.
Now I
know that hearing that from me must surely come as a surprise, because year
after year
I've
stood at this very podium and slammed the UN for its obsessive bias against
Israel. And the
UN
deserved every scathing word – for the disgrace of the General Assembly
that last year passed
20
resolutions against the democratic State of Israel and a grand total of
three resolutions against
all
the other countries on the planet. Israel
– twenty; rest of the world – three.
And
what about the joke called the UN Human Rights Council, which each year
condemns Israel
more
than all the countries of the world combined. As women are being
systematically raped,
murdered,
sold into slavery across the world, which is the only country that the UN's
Commission
on
Women chose to condemn this year? Yep, you guessed it – Israel. Israel. Israel
where women
fly
fighter jets, lead major corporations, head universities, preside – twice –
over the Supreme Court,
and have served as Speaker of the Knesset
and Prime Minister.
And
this circus continues at UNESCO. UNESCO, the UN body charged with preserving
world
heritage.
Now, this is hard to believe but UNESCO just denied the 4,000 year
connection between
the
Jewish people and its holiest site, the Temple Mount. That's just as absurd
as denying the
connection
between the Great Wall of China and China.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, The UN, begun as a moral force, has become a moral farce. So
when it
comes
to Israel at the UN, you'd probably think nothing will ever change, right?
Well think again.
You
see, everything will change and a lot sooner than you think. The change
will happen in this
hall,
because back home, your governments are rapidly changing their attitudes
towards Israel.
And
sooner or later, that's going to change the way you vote on Israel at the
UN. More and more
nations
in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, more and more nations see Israel as a
potent partner
– a
partner in fighting the terrorism of today, a partner in developing the
technology of tomorrow.
Today
Israel has diplomatic relations with over 160 countries. That's nearly
double the number that
we
had when I served here as Israel's ambassador some 30 years ago. And those
ties are getting
broader
and deeper every day. World leaders increasingly appreciate that Israel is
a powerful
country
with one of the best intelligence services on earth. Because of our unmatched
experience
and
proven capabilities in fighting terrorism, many of your governments seek
our help in keeping
your
countries safe.
Many
also seek to benefit from Israel's ingenuity in agriculture, in health, in
water, in cyber and in
the
fusion of big data, connectivity and artificial intelligence – that fusion
that is changing our world
in every way. You might consider this:
Israel leads the world in recycling wastewater. We recycle
about
90% of our wastewater. Now, how remarkable is that? Well, given that the
next country on
the
list only recycles about 20% of its wastewater, Israel is a global water
power. So if you have a
thirsty world, and we do, there's no better ally
than Israel.
How
about cybersecurity? That's an issue that affects everyone. Israel accounts
for one-tenth of one
percent
of the world's population, yet last year we attracted some 20% of the
global private
investment
in cybersecurity. I want you to digest that number. In cyber, Israel is
punching a
whopping
200 times above its weight. So Israel is also a global cyber power. If
hackers are targeting
your banks, your planes, your power grids
and just about everything else, Israel can offer
indispensable
help. Governments are changing their
attitudes towards Israel because they know that
Israel can help them
protect their peoples, can help them feed them, can help them better their
lives.
This
summer I had an unbelievable opportunity to see this change so vividly
during an unforgettable
visit to four African countries. This is
the first visit to Africa by an Israeli prime minister in decades.
Later today, I'll be meeting with leaders
from 17 African countries. We'll discuss how Israeli
technology
can help them in their efforts to transform their countries.
In
Africa, things are changing. In China, India, Russia, Japan, attitudes
towards Israel have changed
as well. These powerful nations know that,
despite Israel's small size, it can make a big difference
in
many, many areas that are important to them.
But
now I'm going to surprise you even more. You see, the biggest change in
attitudes towards
Israel
is taking place elsewhere. It's taking place in the Arab world. Our peace
treaties with Egypt
and
Jordan continue to be anchors of stability in the volatile Middle East. But
I have to tell you
this:
For the first time in my lifetime, many other states in the region
recognize that Israel is not
their
enemy. They recognize that Israel is their ally. Our common enemies are
Iran and ISIS. Our
common
goals are security, prosperity and peace. I believe that in the years ahead
we will work
together to achieve these goals, work together openly.
So
Israel's diplomatic relations are undergoing nothing less than a
revolution. But in this revolution,
we never forget that our most cherished
alliance, our deepest friendship is with the United States
of
America, the most powerful and the most generous nation on earth. Our
unbreakable bond with
the
United States of America transcends parties and politics. It reflects,
above all else, the
overwhelming
support for Israel among the American people, support which is at record
highs and
for
which we are deeply grateful.
The
United Nations denounces Israel; the United States supports Israel. And a
central pillar of that
defense
has been America's consistent support for Israel at the UN. I appreciate
President Obama's
commitment
to that longstanding US policy. In fact, the only time that the United
States cast a UN
Security
Council veto during the Obama presidency was against an anti-Israel
resolution in 2011.
As
President Obama rightly declared at this podium, peace will not come from
statements and
resolutions
at the United Nations.
I
believe the day is not far off when Israel will be able to rely on many,
many countries to stand with
us at the UN. Slowly but surely, the days
when UN ambassadors reflexively condemn Israel, those
days
are coming to an end.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, Today's automatic
majority against Israel at the UN reminds me of the story,
the incredible story of Hiroo Onada. Hiroo
was a Japanese soldier who was sent to the Philippines
in
1944. He lived in the jungle. He scavenged for food. He evaded capture.
Eventually he surrendered,
but that didn't happen until 1974, some 30 years
after World War II ended. For decades, Hiroo refused
to believe the war was
over. As Hiroo was hiding in the jungle, Japanese tourists were swimming in
pools in American luxury hotels in nearby Manila. Finally, mercifully,
Hiroo's former commanding
officer was sent to persuade him to come out of
hiding. Only then did Hiroo
lay
down his arms.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, Distinguished
delegates from so many lands, I have one message for you
today:
Lay down your arms. The war against Israel at the UN is over. Perhaps some
of you don't
know
it yet, but I am confident that one day in the not too distant future you
will also get the
message
from your president or from your prime minister informing you that the war
against Israel
at
the United Nations has ended. Yes, I know, there might be a storm before
the calm. I know there
is
talk about ganging up on Israel at the UN later this year. Given its
history of hostility towards
Israel,
does anyone really believe that Israel will let the UN determine our
security and our vital
national
interests? We will not accept any
attempt by the UN to dictate terms to Israel. The road to
peace
runs through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not through New York.
But
regardless of what happens in the months ahead, I have total confidence
that in the years ahead
the
revolution in Israel's standing among the nations will finally penetrate
this hall of nations. I have
so much confidence, in fact, that I
predict that a decade from now an Israeli prime minister will
stand
right here where I am standing and actually applaud the UN. But I want to
ask you: Why do
we
have to wait a decade? Why keep vilifying Israel? Perhaps because some of
you don't appreciate
that the obsessive bias against Israel is
not just a problem for my country, it's a problem for your
countries
too. Because if the UN spends so much time condemning the only liberal
democracy in
the
Middle East, it has far less time to address war, disease, poverty, climate
change and all the other
serious problems that plague the planet.
Are
the half million slaughtered Syrians helped by your condemnation of Israel?
The same Israel that
has treated thousands of injured Syrians
in our hospitals, including a field hospital that I built right
along the Golan Heights border with Syria.
Are the gays hanging from cranes in Iran helped by your
denigration of
Israel? That same Israel where gays march proudly in our streets and serve
in our
parliament, including I'm proud
to say in my own Likud party. Are the
starving children in North Korea's brutal tyranny, are they
helped
by your demonization of Israel? Israel, whose agricultural knowhow is
feeding the hungry
throughout
the developing world? The sooner the
UN's obsession with Israel ends, the better.
The better for Israel, the
better for your countries, the better for the UN itself.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, If UN habits die
hard, Palestinian habits die even harder. President Abbas
just
attacked from this podium the Balfour Declaration. He's preparing a lawsuit
against Britain for
that
declaration from 1917. That's almost 100 years ago – talk about being stuck
in the past. The
Palestinians
may just as well sue Iran for the Cyrus Declaration, which enabled the Jews
to rebuild
our
Temple in Jerusalem 2,500 years ago. Come to think of it, why not a
Palestinian class action
suit
against Abraham for buying that plot of land in Hebron where the fathers
and mothers of the
Jewish
people were buried 4,000 years ago? You're not laughing. It's as absurd as
that. To sue the
British
government for the Balfour Declaration? Is he kidding? And this is taken
seriously here?
President
Abbas attacked the Balfour Declaration because it recognized the right of
the Jewish
people
to a national home in the land of Israel. When the United Nations supported
the establishment
of a Jewish state in 1947, it recognized
our historical and our moral rights in our homeland and to
our
homeland. Yet today, nearly 70 years later, the Palestinians still refuse
to recognize those rights
– not our right to a homeland, not our
right to a state, not our right to anything. And this remains
the
true core of the conflict, the persistent Palestinian refusal to recognize
the Jewish state in any
boundary.
You see, this conflict is not about the settlements. It never was.
The
conflict raged for decades before there was a single settlement, when Judea
Samaria and Gaza
were
all in Arab hands. The West Bank and Gaza were in Arab hands and they
attacked us again
and
again and again. And when we uprooted all 21 settlements in Gaza and
withdrew from every
last inch of Gaza, we didn't get peace from Gaza – we
got thousands of rockets fired at us from Gaza.
This conflict rages because for the
Palestinians, the real settlements they're after are Haifa, Jaffa and
Tel
Aviv.
Now
mind you, the issue of settlements is a real one and it can and must be
resolved in final status
negotiations. But this conflict has never been
about the settlements or about establishing a Palestinian
state. It's
always been about the existence of a Jewish state, a Jewish state in any
boundary.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, Israel is ready, I am
ready to negotiate all final status issues but one thing I
will never
negotiate: Our right to the one and only Jewish state. Wow, sustained applause for the
Prime
Minister of Israel in the General Assembly? The change may be coming sooner
than I thought.
Had
the Palestinians said yes to a Jewish state in 1947, there would have been
no war, no refugees
and
no conflict. And when the Palestinians finally say yes to a Jewish state,
we will be able to end
this
conflict once and for all.
Now
here's the tragedy, because, see, the Palestinians are not only trapped in
the past, their leaders
are
poisoning the future.
I
want you to imagine a day in the life of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy,
I'll call him Ali. Ali wakes
up
before school, he goes to practice with a soccer team named after Dalal
Mughrabi, a Palestinian
terrorist
responsible for the murder of a busload of 37 Israelis.
At
school, Ali attends an event sponsored by the Palestinian Ministry of
Education honoring
Baha
Alyan, who last year murdered three Israeli civilians. On his walk home,
Ali looks up at a
towering
statue erected just a few weeks ago by the Palestinian Authority to honor
Abu Sukar, who
detonated a bomb in the center of Jerusalem, killing 15
Israelis.
When
Ali gets home, he turns on the TV and sees an interview with a senior
Palestinian official,
Jibril
Rajoub, who says that if he had a nuclear bomb, he'd detonate it over
Israel that very day.
Ali
then turns on the radio and he hears President Abbas's adviser, Sultan Abu
al-Einein, urging
Palestinians,
here's a quote, "to slit the throats of Israelis wherever you find
them." Ali checks his
Facebook
and he sees a recent post by President Abbas's Fatah Party calling the
massacre of
11
Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics a "heroic act". On
YouTube, Ali watches a clip of
President
Abbas himself saying, "We welcome every drop of blood spilled in
Jerusalem."
Direct
quote. Over dinner, Ali asks his
mother what would happen if he killed a Jew and went to
an
Israeli prison? Here's what she tells him. She tells him he'd be paid
thousands of dollars each
month
by the Palestinian Authority. In fact, she tells him, the more Jews he
would kill, the more
money
he'd get. Oh, and when he gets out of prison, Ali would be guaranteed a job
with the
Palestinian
Authority.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, All this is real. It
happens every day, all the time. Sadly, Ali represents
hundreds
of thousands of Palestinian children who are indoctrinated with hate every
moment,
every
hour. This is child abuse.
Imagine
your child undergoing this brainwashing. Imagine what it takes for a young
boy or girl to
break
free out of this culture of hate. Some do but far too many don't. How can
any of us expect
young
Palestinians to support peace when their leaders poison their minds against
peace?
We in
Israel don't do this. We educate our children for peace. In fact, we
recently launched a pilot
program,
my government did, to make the study of Arabic mandatory for Jewish
children so that
we
can better understand each other, so that we can live together side-by-side
in peace.
Of
course, like all societies Israel has fringe elements. But it's our
response to those fringe elements,
it's our response to those fringe elements
that makes all the difference.
Take
the tragic case of Ahmed Dawabsha. I'll never forget visiting Ahmed in the
hospital just hours
after he was attacked. A little boy,
really a baby, he was badly burned. Ahmed was the victim of a
horrible
terrorist act perpetrated by Jews. He lay bandaged and unconscious as
Israeli doctors
worked
around the clock to save him. No
words can bring comfort to this boy or to his family.
Still,
as I stood by his bedside I told his uncle, "This is not our people.
This is not our way." I then
ordered
extraordinary measures to bring Ahmed's assailants to justice and today the
Jewish citizens
of Israel accused of attacking the Dawabsha family are in
jail awaiting trial.
Now,
for some, this story shows that both sides have their extremists and both
sides are equally
responsible
for this seemingly endless conflict.
But what Ahmed's story actually proves is the very
opposite. It
illustrates the profound difference between our two societies, because
while Israeli leaders
condemn terrorists,
all
terrorists, Arabs and Jews alike, Palestinian leaders celebrate terrorists.
While Israel jails the
handful of Jewish terrorists among us, the
Palestinians pay thousands of terrorists among them.
So I
call on President Abbas: you have a choice to make. You can continue to
stoke hatred as you
did
today or you can finally confront hatred and work with me to establish
peace between our two
peoples.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, I hear the buzz. I
know that many of you have given up on peace. But I
want
you to know – I have not given up on peace. I remain committed to a vision
of peace based
on
two states for two peoples. I believe as never before that changes taking
place in the Arab world
today offer a unique opportunity to advance that
peace.
I
commend President el-Sisi of Egypt for his efforts to advance peace and
stability in our region.
Israel
welcomes the spirit of the Arab peace initiative and welcomes a dialogue
with Arab states to
advance
a broader peace. I believe that for that broader peace to be fully achieved
the Palestinians
have
to be part of it. I'm ready to begin negotiations to achieve this today –
not tomorrow, not next
week,
today. President Abbas spoke here an
hour ago. Wouldn't it be better if instead of speaking
past
each other we were speaking to one another? President Abbas, instead of
railing against Israel
at
the United Nations in New York, I invite you to speak to the Israeli people
at the Knesset in
Jerusalem.
And I would gladly come to speak to the Palestinian parliament in Ramallah.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, While Israel seeks
peace with all our neighbors, we also know that peace
has
no greater enemy than the forces of militant Islam. The bloody trail of
this fanaticism runs
through
all the continents represented here. It runs through Paris and Nice,
Brussels and Baghdad,
Tel
Aviv and Jerusalem, Minnesota and New York, from Sydney to San Bernardino.
So many have
suffered its savagery: Christian and Jews,
women and gays, Yazidis and Kurds and many, many
others.
Yet the heaviest price, the heaviest price of all has been paid by innocent
Muslims.
Hundreds
of thousands unmercifully slaughtered. Millions turned into desperate
refugees, tens of
millions
brutally subjugated. The defeat of militant Islam will thus be a victory
for all humanity,
but
it would especially be a victory for those many Muslims who seek a life
without fear, a life of
peace,
a life of hope.
But
to defeat the forces of militant Islam, we must fight them relentlessly. We
must fight them in
the
real world. We must fight them in the virtual world. We must dismantle
their networks, disrupt
their
funding, discredit their ideology. We can defeat them and we will defeat
them. Medievalism is
no match for modernity. Hope is stronger than hate,
freedom mightier than fear. We can
do this.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, Israel fights this
fateful battle against the forces of militant Islam every day.
We keep our borders safe from ISIS, we
prevent the smuggling of game-changing weapons to
Hezbollah
in Lebanon, we thwart Palestinian terror attacks in Judea and Samaria, the
West Bank,
and
we deter missile attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza.
That's
the same Hamas terror organization that cruelly, unbelievably cruelly
refuses to return three
of
our citizens and the bodies of our fallen soldiers, Oron Shaul and Hadar
Goldin. Hadar Goldin's
parents, Leah and Simcha Goldin, are here
with us today. They have one request – to bury their
beloved
son in Israel. All they ask for is one simple thing – to be able to visit
the grave of their
fallen
son Hadar in Israel. Hamas refuses. They couldn't care less.
I
implore you to stand with them, with us, with all that's decent in our
world against the inhumanity
of Hamas – all that is indecent and
barbaric. Hamas breaks every humanitarian rule in the book,
throw
the book at them.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, The greatest threat
to my country, to our region, and ultimately to our world
remains the militant Islamic regime of
Iran. Iran openly seeks Israel's annihilation. It threatens
countries
across the Middle East, it sponsors terror worldwide. This year, Iran has fired ballistic
missiles
in direct defiance of Security Council Resolutions. It has expended its
aggression in Iraq,
in
Syria, in Yemen. Iran, the world's foremost sponsor of terrorism continued
to build its global
terror
network. That terror network now spans five continents.
So my
point to you is this: The threat Iran poses to all of us is not behind us,
it's before us. In the
coming
years, there must be a sustained and united effort to push back against Iran's
aggression
and
Iran's terror. With the nuclear constraints on Iran one year closer to
being removed, let me be
clear:
Israel will not allow the terrorist regime in Iran to develop nuclear
weapons – not now, not in
a decade, not ever.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, I stand before you
today at a time when Israel's former president, Shimon
Peres,
is fighting for his life. Shimon is one of Israel's founding fathers, one
of its boldest
statesmen,
one of its most respected leaders. I know you will all join me and join all
the people of
Israel
in wishing him refuah shlemah Shimon, a speedy recovery.
I've
always admired Shimon's boundless optimism, and like him, I too am filled
with hope. I am
filled
with hope because Israel is capable of defending itself by itself against
any threat. I am filled
with
hope because the valor of our fighting men and women is second to none. I
am filled with hope
because I know the forces of civilization
will ultimately triumph over the forces of terror. I am
filled
with hope because in the age of innovation, Israel – the innovation nation
– is thriving as
never
before. I am filled with hope because Israel works tirelessly to advance
equality and
opportunity
for all its citizens: Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, everyone. And I am
filled
with
hope because despite all the naysayers, I believe that in the years ahead,
Israel will forge a
lasting
peace with all our neighbors.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, I am hopeful about
what Israel can accomplish because I've seen what
Israel
has accomplished. In 1948, the year
of Israel's independence, our population was 800,000.
Our
main export was oranges. People said then we were too small, too weak, too
isolated, too
demographically
outnumbered to survive, let alone thrive. The skeptics were wrong about
Israel
then;
the skeptics are wrong about Israel now. Israel's population has grown
tenfold, our economy
fortyfold.
Today our biggest export is technology – Israeli technology, which powers
the world's
computers,
cellphones, cars and so much more.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, The future belongs to
those who innovate and this is why the future belongs
to countries like Israel. Israel wants to
be your partner in seizing that future, so I call on all of you:
Cooperate
with Israel, embrace Israel, dream with Israel. Dream of the future that we
can build
together,
a future of breathtaking progress, a future of security, prosperity and
peace, a future of
hope
for all humanity, a future where even at the UN, even in this hall, Israel
will finally, inevitably,
take its rightful place among the nations.
Thank
you.
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