Jordan to go solo with Red Sea to Dead Sea pipeline Sun Sep 27, 2:44 pm ET
AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan has decided to go it alone and build a two-billion-dollar pipeline from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea without help from proposed partners Israel and the Palestinian Authority, an official told AFP.Jordan is thirsty and cannot wait any longer,said Fayez Batayneh, the country's chief representative in the mega-project to provide drinking water and begin refilling the Dead Sea, which is on course to dry out by 2050.Israel and the Palestinians have raised no objection to Jordan starting on the first phase by itself, Batayneh said.The first stage, at an estimated cost of two billion dollars, will begin in 2010 and should be completed in 2014 on a BOT (build, operate, transfer) basis,he said.The plan is for the pipeline to draw off 310 million cubic metres (10.5 billion cubic feet) of water each year, of which 240 million will be fed into the desalination plant at the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba, enabling an annual production of 120 million cubic metres of drinking water.Batayneh said the remaining 190 million cubic metres will be channelled towards the Dead Sea, the saltiest natural lake on the planet and the lowest point on the earth's surface.
Jordan, where the population of six million people is expanding by 3.5 percent a year, is recognised as one of the 10 driest countries in the world, with desert covering 92 percent of its territory.The kingdom relies mainly on winter rain for its water needs, which are projected to reach 1.6 billion cubic metres in 2015.Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan agreed in 2005 on the outlines of a project to channel two billion cubic metres of water a year via a 200-kilometre (120-mile) canal in order to restore the level of the Dead Sea, produce fresh water and generate electricity.The total cost of the scheme has been estimated at 11 billion dollars.
Arabs and Israelis tell clashing tales of the land By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer – Sun Sep 27, 12:00 am ET
RAMOT MENASHE PARK, Israel – Israeli and Palestinian hikers are taking to the hills in the footsteps of their ancestors — deploying maps, holy texts and walking boots in the long-running battle for control of the Holy Land.In Israel and the West Bank, bands of enthusiasts trek over the same paths mentioned in antiquity and past villages abandoned to wars. But Israeli and Palestinian hikers mostly emphasize their attachment to the land and ignore each other's historical footprints.In northern Israel's Ramot Menashe Park, guide Innon Kahalany recently led a group past pungent fig trees, bringing to life characters of the Old Testament, which he calls Israel's first guide book. He vividly described how on nearby Mount Carmel, the Jewish prophet Elijah challenged the priests of the heathen god Baal.But his entranced hikers were not told that they were standing near the ruins of seven Arab villages destroyed during the 1948 Mideast war when Israel became a state and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven out or fled.Kahalany said he speaks of those events carefully, if at all.People don't like a history lesson, I try to make it easy,he said.Some 45 miles south, in the West Bank, Palestinian guide Saleh Jawad led a dozen hikers up a grass knoll to the ruins of the ancient village of Khirbet Kfar Ana, now used as grazing lands.His route was dictated not by the distant past, but by the reality of the modern conflict: He avoided sealed-off Israeli military zones and checkpoints, and stayed away from the Jewish settlements that dot the area.
Settlers are free to roam the West Bank, which is mostly ruled by Israel and which Palestinians hope will be part of their future state. On the other hand, Jawad and other Palestinians would have a hard time getting a permit to enter Israel.At Khirbet Kfar Ana, Jawad described how the village was most likely destroyed a century ago by the Turks who then ruled Palestine and were upset at the villagers for harboring bandits. The conversation quickly fell to tracing a Palestinian connection to the land from biblical times.This is exactly what this struggle is about,said Jawad.It's the feeling that I'm walking on the land of my ancestors.Many Palestinians assert they are the descendants of the biblical Canaanites, who inhabited the Holy Land before the Hebrews conquered it.We never left the land and they can see that,said George Rishmawi, a hiker who leads a walking group of Palestinian eco-tourists.Hiking — from school trips to weekend getaways — is far more ingrained in Israelis than in Palestinians. Pioneering Zionists established a hiking culture to strengthen the connection between ancient Israel and new Jewish immigrants, said Yael Guter, professor of Israel Studies at Bar Ilan University.The same impulse drives the Palestinians, but their recreational hiking is a nascent pastime, hampered by the Israeli restrictions on movement and their own cultural taboo that regards walking as something only poor people do.Jawad's three-year-old group was established by environmentalists, including Raja Shehadeh, who wrote a book about the diminishing trails of the West Bank.
Rishmawi has created the Palestine Trail — part of a larger regional project called the Abraham Path, a planned 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) route that would follow the route of the patriarch revered by both Jews and Muslims from Turkey, where he reputedly first heard the call to God, to his burial place in the West Bank city of Hebron.Some believe hiking could hold a key to reconciliation, acknowledging the history of the other.Eitan Bronstein is the Israeli head of an organization that tries to educate his countrymen about how Palestinians see the 1948 war, including a campaign to signpost Palestinian villages destroyed in 1948, such as those in the Ramot Menashe Park.It's important to know,he said,because not to know is to continue the conflict without knowing why there is a conflict.
Clinton seeks Arabs' help on stalled Mideast talks By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer – Sat Sep 26, 2:59 pm ET
NEW YORK – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday urged Arab nations to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel and supporting the Palestinians in an effort to help restart stalled Mideast peace talks.Clinton made the case with senior officials from Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. The session followed President Barack Obama's talks this past week with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.She declined comment on the substance of her discussions, but told reporters afterward that the talks were extremely productive.But officials said the Obama administration wants Arab states to make tangible and credible goodwill gestures toward Israel and provide political and economic support to Abbas to lay the groundwork for a resumption in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, officials say.Among the gestures toward Israel that U.S. has suggesting are opening trade and commercial offices, allowing Israeli aircraft overflight rights and promoting academic and cultural exchanges.Thus far, most have resisted, demanding that Israel first make concessions, including a total freeze on the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. That's something Netanyahu is refusing to do despite heavy U.S. pressure.
Even in the absence of such a step, American officials say the Arabs should act.
We don't want to have the perfect be the enemy of the good,said Jeffrey Feltman, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East.We're don't want to wait for the perfect package. It's time to start negotiations now.We hope that the Arabs would find ways to demonstrate to the Israeli public that Israel will be an accepted, normalized part of the region,he told reporters ahead of Clinton's meeting. He added that Arab financial and moral support for the Palestinians also was critical.We would hope that the Arabs would find ways to support President Abbas and his team as they go into negotiations,Feltman said.
Israel seals West Bank for Yom Kippur Sat Sep 26, 2:01 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Israeli army will close off the West Bank from Saturday on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar which starts at sunset on Sunday, a military spokesman said.The closure becomes effective from Saturday midnight (2100 GMT) and continues until midnight Monday (2200 GMT), the spokesman said.The Israeli-occupied West Bank is routinely closed before Jewish holidays for fear of attacks by Palestinian militants.Twenty-one Israelis were killed on the eve of Yom Kippur three years ago when a female suicide bomber from Islamic Jihad blew herself up in a restaurant in the northern port city of Haifa.Since the start of the second intifada in September 2000, the West Bank has been partially blocked off, with Israel authorising only tens of thousands of Palestinians to travel to the Jewish state every day.Israel comes to a standstill during Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, when observant Jews fast during 24 hours and pray for forgiveness for their sins.Israel suspends all television and radio broadcasts, stops all public transport, closes ports and airports, and shuts down entertainment venues.The 1973 Arab-Israeli war, in which some 2,700 Israeli soldiers were killed, began when Egyptian and Syrian troops launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur.
Gulf states say Obama's speech is a basis for Mideast peace Fri Sep 25, 3:47 pm ET
DOHA (AFP) – The Arab states of the Gulf said on Friday that US President Obama's speech this week to the UN General Assembly can be a basis for reaching a Middle East peace agreement.We believe the content of (the president's) speech constitutes a basis for reaching a just and global solution to conflict in the Middle East, Abdulrahman al Attiya, secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, said in a statement.It is time to recognise a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as capital on territory occupied in 1967,he said.The GCC's members are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.Obama said in Wednesday's speech: We continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements in occupied territory.The US president also called for a resumption of talks between Israelis and Palestinians without pre-conditions on security for Israelis and Palestinians, borders, refugees and Jerusalem.
Ex-Israeli PM Olmert makes first court appearance by Marius Schattner – Fri Sep 25, 2:07 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert on Friday made his first court appearance on charges of graft, vowing he would prove his innocence.As the first ex-premier to face criminal charges in court, Olmert acknowledged at the arraignment hearing in Jerusalem that he understood the accusations against him. He is scheduled to enter a plea on December 21.Olmert resigned as prime minister under pressure last September after police recommended he be indicted but has insisted on his innocence and told journalists on Friday he was confident the trial would vindicate him.I am innocent, and I am certain the court will clear me of any suspicions,he said.It is not an easy day for me; for the past three years I have been the target of an almost inhuman defamation campaign.The court decided it would start hearing testimony on February 22 and hold three sessions a week.If found guilty, Olmert could be sent behind bars, said justice ministry spokesman Moshe Cohen, without specifying what the maximum sentence would be.Olmert, who turns 64 on Wednesday, was charged in August with three counts of graft. Olmert profile.The 61-page indictment includes allegations of fraud, breach of trust, registering false corporate documents and concealing fraudulent earnings.All the charges concern actions Olmert allegedly took before he became prime minister in May 2006, first as mayor of Jerusalem and later as trade and industry minister.He remained in office as caretaker until late March when hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu, elected in February, was sworn in.
Olmert is accused of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talansky and of multiple-billing foreign trips.He has also been charged with cronyism in relation to an investment centre he oversaw when he was minister of trade and industry between 2003 and 2006.Attorney General Menahem Mazuz dropped three other corruption investigations against Olmert, whom Time Magazine named Israel's most able politician when he became prime minister.In his final months in office, Olmert was subjected to repeated police interrogations, which prompted a wave of calls for him to step down.Nevertheless, during that time he oversaw Israel's 22-day onslaught on the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip that left 1,400 Palestinians dead and wreaked widespread destruction in the impoverished enclave.Israel has been dogged by scandals involving public officials in recent years.Three former ministers have been handed prison sentences and both of the country's most recent former presidents resigned in disgrace, but Olmert is the first ex-premier to face criminal charges.In August, police recommended that current Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman be indicted for bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice.Former president Moshe Katsav is on trial on several counts of rape, sexual harassment and indecent acts.And on September 1, ex-cabinet ministers Avraham Hirshon and Shlomo Benizri went to jail, the former for embezzling one million dollars and the latter for bribery and fraud.
Mideast negotiators lauds Obama's initiative Thu Sep 24, 5:40 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – The Quartet of Mideast peacemakers says President Barack Obama's meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas represents an important step toward the resumption of peace talks.The Quartet — comprising the U.S., U.N., European Union and Russia — said it shared the sense of urgency expressed by Obama regarding the comprehensive resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said some progress had even been made on the thorny issue of Israel's during a series of talks on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.On Tuesday, Obama summoned Netanyahu and Abbas to a joint meeting at the U.N. Obama told the two leaders that too much time had already been wasted and that it's time to resume negotiations.
Netanyahu hits back at Iran Holocaust claims By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Thu Sep 24, 6:17 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – Waving the blueprints for Auschwitz and invoking the memory of his own family members murdered by the Nazis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his most passionate and public riposte yet to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's questioning of the Holocaust.The documents he brought to the podium of the U.N. General Assembly Thursday also included the protocol of the meeting where the Nazis decided on the Final Solution.Netanyahu tied the Holocaust issue to Iran's nuclear program and Ahmadinejad's rejection of Israel's right to exist, and seemed to tacitly draw a parallel between the world's treatment of Iran today and its failure to act against Hitler in time to head off World War II and save European Jewry.The Israeli leader came armed with original documents handed to him last month when he visited Germany, and launched into an angry denunciation of Ahmadinejad's comments on the Holocaust, most recently in a speech in Tehran last week in which he spoke of twisted propaganda plots to depict Jews as oppressed, and said the Holocaust needed research ... to clear up facts.Holding up the protocol of the 1942 conference at Wannsee, outside Berlin, where top Nazis decided on the destruction of European Jewry, Netanyahu asked: Is this protocol a lie? Then he held up the blueprints including gas chambers and crematoria for Auschwitz-Birkenau, the death camp where more than 1 million Jews were murdered.Those plans are signed by Hitler's deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself. Is this, too, a lie? he asked.Six million Jews were killed during World War II, one-third of all world Jewry. In Europe, nearly every family was affected — including Netanyahu's own.
What of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? he asked.Are those tattoos a lie? My wife's grandparents, her father's two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins, were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie? Netanyahu asked.To those who remained at the General Assembly on Wednesday when Ahmadinejad spoke, he asked: Have you no shame? Have you no decency? In an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, Ahmadinejad turned aside the subject of his questioning of the Holocaust. Instead he argued that since the Holocaust was perpetrated by Europeans, the Palestinians should not have had to pay the price by accepting a Jewish state in their midst.
Netanyahu went on to warn that Iran's nuclear program could evolve into another world catastrophe.The greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction,he warned.The most urgent challenge facing the U.N. is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons,he said.The Iranians deny they are producing such weapons, but Israel, the U.S. and other world powers don't believe them. Iran so far has refused to stop enriching uranium, a process that could be used to make bombs. Israel considers Iran to be its greatest threat.There has been much speculation Israel might launch a military strike against Iran's nuclear sites as it did against an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981. This week, Netanyahu said again that all options are on the table and Israel reserves the right of self-defense.Netanyahu questioned whether the U.N. was up to the task of standing up to Tehran — and strongly denounced its report accusing Israel of war crimes in its winter war against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.(This version CORRECTS RECASTS top with more color, quotes, corrects that more than 1 million died at Auschwitz. For global distribution.)
All-round pessimism after dud Middle East summit Thu Sep 24, 11:40 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A cloud of pessimism is suffocating hopes that U.S. President Barack Obama can pull off a miracle in the Middle East by setting negotiations on course for rapid progress toward a comprehensive peace agreement.The New York encounter he arranged between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas this week produced no more than a schedule of lower-level meetings this week and next, which has only deepened skepticism.
Here is a sample of fairly typical comments:We're in a corner. Obama is running out of steam. He was expected to set the direction in the first six months. But now it's the politics of no choice, of deadlock,said Zakaria al Qaq, foreign affairs director at Al-Quds University.Al Qaq and other commentators say Netanyahu seems content with the status quo, and in no hurry to open talks on a final settlement leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.In Netanyahu's view, the threat of an atom bomb in the hands of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the top priority. In his own words: The Iranian issue overshadows everything.Obama, Palestinian analysts note, has his hands tied by issues of greater immediacy for American voters -- healthcare policy and war in Afghanistan -- and cannot afford to open a new front with the right by taking on Israel in a test of wills.He is captive of the healthcare issue and he cannot move freely, so the Palestinians are captive also,al Qaq said.Abbas wants to allow Obama 3or 4 months more to see what happens on healthcare. But what we are getting is meetings, not negotiations, and the people are not fooled.
Pessimism is not limited to the Palestinians.Aaron David Miller, Mideast counsel to six U.S. secretaries of state, writes in Politico that to all but the terminally obtuse,the chances of a deal right now are about zero.Even if Obama could deliver a freeze on Israeli settlement building in the West Bank that Abbas has again demanded and Netanyahu has again refused, Miller says, the fact remains that the Palestinian national movement is divided and Israel still doesn't know what price it's prepared to pay for peace.Obama may soon have to decide whether to get out of the serious peacemaking business ... or get more deeply involved and consider an unprecedented American effort to bridge the gaps.
SOMETHING DRAMATIC
Palestinians put one positive gloss on New York's meeting, saying it proved Obama's personal commitment to securing a deal.It is clear that Obama will not accept failure of his political investment in dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict, columnist Talal Okal wrote it the newspaper al-Ayyam.But domestic concerns including the continuing recession, Afghanistan and Iraq would severely limit his scope and it would not be Israel that would feel the impact, said Okal.It's clear that the American administration is about to exercise certain pressures (and) it will be easier to put pressure on the weaker side i.e. the Palestinians.American Jewish groups who advocate a critical approach to Israel over the interminable peace process were also downbeat.There is a mood of resignation, of quiet despair that there is really (no) way out of the conflict,said Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of the pro-peace group J Street.Ben-Ami said it would take more than incremental diplomatic business-as-usual, along well-trodden paths, to make any change. It needs something more assertive and more dramatic.
James Besser in New York-based Jewish Week wrote that when the late Yasser Arafat and the late Yitzhak Rabin shook hands on the White House lawn 16 years ago there was a sense among most mainstream Jewish leaders that the long Israel-Palestinian impasse could soon be broken.Now there is a new consensus crystallizing that says that the status quo is about the best that can be hoped for.The conflict has reached another impasse, according to Michael Goldfarb in the Weekly Standard. Israel is fixed on Iran's perceived nuclear threat while Abbas and his Palestinian Authority cannot speak for the 1.5 million Palestinian of the Gaza Strip -- which is under the control of Islamist Hamas leaders opposed to recognizing Israel.Obama is talking about having talks, and when talks do get underway, Hamas won't be at the table, and the Palestinian Authority will not be able to speak on their behalf. Abbas can make no deals and offer no concessions without confronting Hamas first, and the Israelis can make no concessions without forcing some kind of confrontation with Iran first.
(Writing by Douglas Hamilton, editing by Jon Boyle)
Gaza rocket lands in Israel without causing injuries Thu Sep 24, 8:50 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired a rocket into Israel early on Thursday, with the projectile landing inside the Jewish state without causing casualties or damage, the army said.A rocket fired from Gaza fell this morning in Israel without causing injuries,a spokeswoman said.Israel launched a deadly offensive into Gaza in late December in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement.The 22-day war ended with mutual ceasefires by Israel and Hamas on January 18 and since then the border between the territory and Israel has remained largely quiet, despite occasional violations by both sides.
Israel hails US call for talks without conditions By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Sep 24, 5:58 am ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister welcomed Thursday President Barack Obama's call for the resumption of Mideast peace talks without preconditions despite Palestinian demands for a halt to new Jewish settlements in the West Bank before any new negotiations begin.In the past, Obama had said all Israeli building must stop on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state. But he toned down his language Tuesday at a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York, where he spoke of Israeli steps to restrain settlement activity.And in a speech to the U.N. Wednesday, Obama called for talks to restart without conditions.I'm pleased that President Obama accepted my request that there should be no preconditions,Netanyahu told Israel Radio by telephone from New York.Netanyahu is proposing a partial and temporary slowdown, while Palestinian leaders say there can be no negotiations without a complete halt to Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, Obama criticized Israel's settlement policy, saying that American does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.But the Obama's statement was no more critical of the settlements than previous U.S. administrations have been since Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast War.Netanyahu said the U.S. position was nothing new but said he was pleased Obama did not make the issue a prerequisite for talks.The president of the United States said unequivocally that is not an issue that should prevent the start of negotiations, he said.
Netanyahu added that dropping preconditions to talks along with Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state were the key to peace in the Middle East. In his U.N. speech Obama supported that goal, along with creation of an independent Palestinian state.At the end of the day those are the most important things for peace,Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu wants Israel recognized as Jewish Thu Sep 24, 3:09 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not drop his demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state in peace negotiations that the United States wants to revive.I told Abu Mazen I believe peace hinges first on his readiness to stand before his people and say,We ... are committed to recognizing Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,Netanyahu told Israel Radio in an interview aired Thursday, referring to President Mahmoud Abbas.I will not drop this subject and other important issues under any final peace agreement,Netanyahu said.U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday brought the Israeli and Palestinian leaders together for the first time since Netanyahu came to power in March and urged them to revive stalled peace negotiations soon.The Palestinians have rejected Israel's demand that they recognize it as a Jewish state. They say Israel should meet its previous commitments to fully halt settlement activity in the occupied West Bank before talks can resume.Netanyahu has rejected this demand and Israeli officials say he has offered a nine-month construction freeze.Netanyahu will address the United Nations General Assembly in New York Thursday and Israeli officials say his speech will focus on Iran's disputed nuclear program, which Israel deems as a threat to its existence.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blasted Israel's inhumane policies toward the Palestinians in his speech at the United Nations Wednesday and several delegations walked out after he made apparently anti-Semitic remarks directed at Israel.(Writing by Joseph Nasr)
NETANYAHU ON BLITZER - ON GAZA WE-PROTECTED OURSELVES FROM 10,000 ROCKETS AGAINST US,WHILE ARBS COMITTED DOUBLE WAR CRIMES-FIRING ON ISRAELI CIVILLIANS WHILE HIDING BEHIND THEIR OWN WOMEN AND CHILDREN.WAY TO GO BENJAMIN.AND ON JERUSALEM-NETANYAHU-ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM NEVER DIVIDED.SEPT 22,09 6:15PM
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A big day today, the president of the United States hosting a summit with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders right here in New York.
Let's get right to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. He's joining us.Mr. Prime Minister, thanks very much for coming in.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Good to be with you, Wolf.
BLITZER: The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, told our Fareed Zakaria the other day that he had an assurance from the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, that Israel has no intention of attacking Iran.
Is that true?
NETANYAHU: Well, I'm not going to deal with hypotheticals.
I think the important thing is to recognize that Iran's ambitions to acquire or develop nuclear weapons is a threat, not only to Israel, but to the entire world.
Remember, this is the country that sponsored terrorism worldwide. And imagine what would happen if these terrorists had a patron that had -- that gave them a nuclear umbrella, or, worse, actually gave them the nuclear weapon. I think that these are catastrophic consequences. And it's the interests of the entire international community to make sure this doesn't happen.
BLITZER: So, are you willing to repeat what you have been quoted in the Israeli press as saying, that -- quote -- all options for Israel are on the table right now?
NETANYAHU: Well, I'm willing to say that -- what President Obama has said, namely, that all options are on the table is a position we support.
BLITZER: Have you been concerned at all about the Obama administration's diplomatic initiative in trying to reach out to Iran to see if that will secure some results?
NETANYAHU: Wolf, I have spoken to President Obama several times about this. And he assured me that the goal of all his activities, diplomatic and otherwise, is to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons.And I think the goal is what counts. And, increasingly, I think people understand in Washington and certainly in -- certainly in Washington and elsewhere, in the major capitals, that the problem of Iran's acquiring nuclear weapons threatens everyone. It threatens world peace in a way that very few events could possibly threaten it.I'm hopeful and I would like to believe that the international community understands that Iran has to be pressed strongly. There are ways of pressing this regime right now, because it's weak. It's weaker than people think. It doesn't enjoy the support of its own people.
BLITZER: How much time is there, Mr. Prime Minister?
NETANYAHU: Whatever time is there, Wolf, it's getting shorter, because Iran is moving ahead.But this is a regime that is -- is susceptible to pressure. It's been exposed for what it is. It tyrannizes its own people. The Iranian people detest this regime, as has been plainly evident in the recent election fraud. But, equally, I think that Iran is susceptible because its economy is susceptible. And pressure -- the time for pressure is now, with or without talks.
BLITZER: Would you act unilaterally, without U.S. support?
NETANYAHU: Well, there you go again asking a hypothetical question.
I -- I would like to believe that the United States and the major powers of the world understand that this threat, that this danger threatens them as well. And you know what? From everything that I have seen and heard, speaking to President Obama, speaking to President Sarkozy this afternoon as well, speaking to all the major -- many of the major leaders of the world, I stand by that assessment. Iran is certainly a grave threat to Israel, but it's a grave threat to international peace. It's a grave threat to America and to everyone else.
BLITZER: I want to read to you what -- some comments that the former national security adviser to then President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, wrote the other day. He said this. He said: We,referring to the United States, are not exactly impotent little babies. They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch? If they fly over, you go up and confront them, Brzezinski writes. They have the choice of turning back or not.That's a pretty strong statement. What does it say about the current state of U.S.-Israeli relations when a former national security adviser writes something like that?
NETANYAHU: See, now you're asking me to comment on a hypothetical on a hypothetical. I'm not going to do that.But I will tell you that the state of the U.S.-Israeli relations is very good, indeed. I was very pleased with the meeting hosted by President Obama today. For months, I have been calling for such a meeting, to put aside all these preconditions, and get on with the business of talking about peace.
It's very hard to make peace unless you talk about it, although we have been improving conditions on the West Bank, and life is getting a lot better there. But we can do a lot more if we talk to each other. So, on Iran, I have given you my answer. But, on peace, I think the -- the possibilities are there. Let's just get on with it. Let's move. And I think that a good and firm U.S.-Israel relationship is the pivot of that peace and the pivot of security in the Middle East.
BLITZER: I want to get on and talk a little bit about the peace process.
But just give me an answer, if you can, to a sensitive question that a lot of people are asking, especially friends of Israel here in the United States. Who is a better friend of Israel, the former President George W. Bush, who had a very close relationship with you, or the current president, Barack Obama?
NETANYAHU: Let me tell you something about President Obama, because I think this should be fully appreciated.He stood before the entire Muslim world. I don't know if a billion people heard him, but hundreds of millions of people in Muslim countries heard him. And he said: The bond between America and Israel is unshakeable. We are absolutely committed to Israel's security. I think that was a very important statement. And I think every president of the United States has had his contribution to Israeli- American relations and to the friendship between our countries. It is a very strong friendship, indeed. And I appreciated the president's comments in Cairo. And I appreciated his comments today, too.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: I hear you saying you trust this president.
NETANYAHU: I think that President Obama's commitment to Israel has been expressed very loud, very clearly by him. And I think this reflects the underlying friendship between our two countries. It's very strong.You know, I walk on the streets of -- well, New York, yes, but also the Midwest and every part of the United States. I have been in every part of it. I will tell you, it's warm -- heartwarming, because I see this tremendous, tremendous effusion of friendship towards Israel as a sister democracy, yes, often embattled by these dark forces of terrorism that embattle all of us.And I think Israel has a terrific friend in America and the American people. And I want the American people to know that you -- they have a terrific friend in Israel. In the Middle East, you don't have that many friends, but we're definitely right at the top of the list.
BLITZER: In the first eight months of his administration, he's repeatedly appealed to you to freeze all settlement activity, and you have declined that request. Did anything change today?
NETANYAHU: I think what is important is that we're moving on to talk peace. And I hope to make peace.Any time we have encountered an Arab leader who wanted to make peace, we made peace. Anwar Sadat came. Menachem Begin of the Likud made peace. The late King Hussein came. Yitzhak Rabin of Labor made peace. I'm telling you that, if Mr. Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, genuinely steps forward and says, we recognize the state of Israel, we're willing to make peace with the Jewish state, just that, the Jewish state, and it will be a peace of the recognition and security, then my government will make peace.I'm no exception, because the people of Israel want peace. And I think people understand that now. As to the question of settlements, I think that raising this condition, something that hasn't happened in 15 years of Israeli- Palestinian dialogue -- nobody put this precondition -- this is just costing us a great deal of time.The issue of settlements has to be discussed at the end or in the context within these negotiations, not before. It has to be resolved. And we're prepared to look into this issue, as into other issues. But we have to talk in order to talk about it. That's obvious. And yet we haven't. For six months, we have been waiting to talk about talks. I say let's put that aside. Let's just get on with it and start the peace process again.
BLITZER: We're hearing from U.S. officials and Palestinian officials that the president gave them, the Palestinians, a commitment that, once the negotiations resume, they would resume where they left off, including such sensitive issues as the future of Jerusalem, allowing Jerusalem to -- at least part of it, to be under Palestinian control.Is that even available to you? Is that even open to you, that Jerusalem could be a subject for these negotiations?
NETANYAHU: Well, you asked me two questions in that question.The first is, will the talks continue where they left off? Well, there were no agreements. I mean, the previous government spoke for three years, but came to no agreements. And we were elected with a clear mandate to provide peace and security. And, of course, we will do that.We will take into account the 15 years of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, but we're -- we will be committed to the mandate that we received. And that mandate seeks to arrive at a better future for all of us. That is a future of peace for our children and for future generations of Israelis and Palestinians, and, for that matter, any Arab party in the Middle East. We're prepared to begin negotiations immediately or go anywhere.
(CROSSTALK)
NETANYAHU: Yes.
BLITZER: Are you ready to talk about Jerusalem?
(CROSSTALK)
NETANYAHU: Well, now the -- we have certain views about Jerusalem. I think the fact that it's been united under Israeli sovereignty has ensured that, for the last four decades, all major faiths, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, all monotheistic faiths, have enjoyed the great freedom of worship and access to their religious sites, something that hasn't happened before since the rise of the three monotheistic religions.It's only under Israeli sovereignty that this city has been open to all religions. Jerusalem for us is our internal capital. We don't want to redivide it and see a Berlin Wall in the center of it. So, obviously, that's our position. The Palestinians will raise their point of view. And that's clear. But we will talk about these things, but my position is well- known.
BLITZER: You know this United Nations commission, which just came back with a scathing report suggesting that Israel, your military, committed war crimes or something close to that, crimes against humanity, perhaps, even, during the fighting in Gaza.And I know you strongly disagree, but I want you to react to that United Nations report.
NETANYAHU: Now you're being a diplomat.I strongly disagree? I think this is preposterous. It's absurd. Israel was rocketed, pummeled for eight years by thousands of rockets that came from Gaza. We vacated all of Gaza, hoping that this thing would stop, and they fired not one rocket, but thousands of rockets, after we left Gaza.So, what's a country to do? I mean, what would you do if thousands of rockets fell on -- Where are you talking from, Wolf, Washington, right? -- Washington, D.C., or any part of the United States? You know what the United States would do.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: The argument, though, Mr. Prime Minister, was -- the argument in this U.N. report is that you overreacted, and, in the process, you killed a lot of civilians.
NETANYAHU: We overreacted, did we? Well, let me tell you, after millions -- I million, a million or so of our people were under rocket fire, progressively larger and larger circles of rockets falling on our cities, we did what no -- no -- what every reasonable country would do. We tried to get at the rocketeers, those terrorists firing those missiles and rockets who placed themselves, embedded themselves in homes and schools and mosques, and you name it.And we tried to target these people. We even sent them SMS text messages, telling the Palestinian civilians, please get out of harm's way, cellular phones, you name it. So, we did everything possible to minimize the loss of innocent civilian lives.And yet the Hamas that -- actually was committing a double war crime, firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians. That's a double war crime. We're -- they're the ones who sort of get a free bill out of this biased U.N. report, and Israel, that is defending itself, is accused.
BLITZER: All right.
NETANYAHU: So, the terrorists are exonerated. The victims are accused. That's -- that's an upside-down world. And I think this does grievous harm to the battle against terrorism, because the terrorists are basically being told, you get a free ride. All you have to do is fire at a democracy from -- from built-up areas, from residential quarters, and you will get a clean bill of health. And I think it does a great disservice to peace, too, because we're asked to take risks for peace. The international community says, if you take risks for peace, we will support your right of self- defense. And yet we did just that. We vacated Gaza in the hopes of -- that this would advance peace.And when we're rocketed with thousands of rockets and missiles from the places we vacated, people say Israel is the war criminal.
BLITZER: All right.
NETANYAHU: Come on. I mean, this is absurd.
BLITZER: If there is a trial at the International Court and the accusation is that Israel committed war crimes, or crimes against humanity in Gaza, will you cooperate with that?
NETANYAHU: Well, that's -- the question is, will any serious country cooperate with it? I took note of the fact that the leading democracies that were in this U.N. commission, they -- they opposed this. They were against this mandate, because it looked like a kangaroo court in the first place, where Israel was basically hanged, drawn, and quartered morally and given an unfair trial to boot right at the start of these proceedings. I think this is wrong. But understand this. It's not only we who will be damaged. It's you, too. I mean, American pilots, NATO pilots, let alone Russia and other countries that are fighting terrorists, are going to be put on the dock, too, because it's said that you cannot fight terrorists. It means that all the terrorists have to do is put themselves in a residential quarter, and they receive immunity. And that's not something that any country fighting terrorism can accept. And I don't think you can accept it either.
BLITZER: Mr. Prime Minister, there was an op-ed article written in The New York Times back in July by an Israeli journalist named Aluf Benn, who writes for the Haaretz newspaper. And, among other things, he said that President Obama is ignoring Israel, has not visited Israel, even though he's been to several Arab countries, and he's not reaching out to the Israeli people, the way he's reaching out to the Arab and Muslim world. He hasn't given any interviews, as far as I know, to the Israeli press, for example, or Israeli television.Do you agree with that assessment?
NETANYAHU: I think that people should not rush to judgment. I -- I think that these are two new administrations, my own new government and the new government in Washington. We have found a way to communicate. I think we have resolved a lot of the issues between us. We can have differences. That happens among the best of friends. It even happens in our own families.But I think there's a -- there's a growing closeness that I have found. What people don't know -- and I -- and I'm not referring to the public diplomacy -- but I want to tell you something about private diplomacy. There's virtually not a day that goes by that the Obama administration and my own government don't communicate in a very -- on a very senior level on very important matters in a very confidential and respectful way.And I say that advisedly. I'm choosing my words carefully. There's barely a day that goes by without that happening. So, that should give you some indication of the growing -- of the closeness of that relationship. And it's getting better, for sure. There's no question about it.
BLITZER: Because there was a very explosive charge in that same article on the op-ed page of The New York Times.And I will read it to you, because I want -- give you a chance to respond. It caused a huge commotion. This is what Aluf Benn wrote in The New York Times.In Mr. Netanyahu's narrative, the president has fallen under the influence of top aides, in this case, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, and David Axelrod, the White House adviser, whom the prime minister has called -- quote -- self-hating Jews.Is that true?
NETANYAHU: No. No, it's not. I never -- I never called them any such thing. And I don't think that. I have known Rahm Emanuel for some time. I just met David Axelrod today, in fact. And I think they're American patriots. They think of what is important for the United States. And they certainly bear no enmity to Israel.They probably want the best for Israel, too. So, I think that this is -- and we can have, as we say, occasional differences of opinion. But I never called them those things, and I don't think that, and I'm -- I'm sorry that anyone has given credence to this kind of nonsense. It's just...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Did you reach out to Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod and reassure them that that -- that that was a lie?
NETANYAHU: Well, we immediately denied it. And, yes, we did reach out to them, of course.
BLITZER: Did you personally call them?
NETANYAHU: I didn't personally call them, but I had my aides communicate this to the White House as quickly as we could.
BLITZER: All right, let's move ahead and take and look and see where the situation goes from here. You have now met with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. Are there going to be more direct meetings with you and the Palestinian leader without the United States in the room?
NETANYAHU: I hope so. And I think we should.I said to Mr. Abbas today, listen, we're old hands. We have had many meetings in the past when I was prime minister during my first tenure, and I met him. And I respect him. And I think there is a lot we can do together. Look, we have -- you know, we have lifted all these roadblocks in the West Bank, checkpoints. I've opened the Allenby Bridge on the Jordan River to allow the inflow of goods into the West Bank.So life is getting better. The IMF is talking about a seven percent growth rate in the West Bank.And guess what, Wolf?
I think we can top that. I think -- this is what we're doing. I mean we're easing those restrictions and opening up passage, even though there's a certain security risk involved, because I think that prosperity is good for peace. I don't think it's a substitute for a political peace, but I think it really enables it because young Palestinians see there -- there is a future there. I mean they -- they have jobs. They're -- there are investments. There are buildings sprouting out in Palestinian cities like Ramallah and Jenin and not missiles, as in Gaza, but, you know, high rises, apartment blocks, office buildings.This is what I'd like to see. I'd like to see this dynamic of peace, prosperity and security. And if we meet, then we can -- we could get a lot more of this going and that's good for us. It's good for the Palestinians. It's good for peace.
BLITZER: Mr. -- Mr. -- Mr. Prime Minister, a year from now, will there be an agreement, a peace treaty, if you will, between the Israelis and the Palestinians?
NETANYAHU: Well, I -- I think -- I don't want to set a timetable on it or a stopwatch, but the sooner we get going, the sooner we'll get an agreement. If there is a willingness on the part of the Palestinians to remove the main obstacle to peace. And the main obstacle to peace is the persistent refusal to recognize Israel as the Jewish state -- the nation state of the Jewish people.There are non-Jews living there and they have equal rights. The Arab citizens of Israel vote in the Knesset. They're represented in every form of life and have political rights. But -- equal political rights. But Israel is the state -- the nation state of the Jewish people. And I think if we're asked to recognize the Palestinian state as the nation state of the Palestinian people, then the least we expect from the Palestinians is to come right out and say yes, you know, it's over. Yes, we accept the state of Israel...
BLITZER: But if the Palestinians do that...
NETANYAHU: ...and this (INAUDIBLE).
BLITZER: If the Palestinians do that, Mr. Prime Minister, are you ready to bite the bullet and make the tough concessions that have to be made? And everybody seems to know what the final agreement is going to look like.Are you ready to make those territorial concessions and go back, sort of, close to the '67 line?
NETANYAHU: Well, I think we need to make sure that Israel can defend itself and defend the peace. Because even if the Palestinian leaders make that simple statement that they so far haven't made, that they recognize the Jewish state -- and I think that's imperative for peace -- it may take a long time for this to be internalized by the Palestinian people that have been subjected repeatedly to very harmful propaganda against Israel.So we have to make sure that we can defend ourselves, that we don't have these Palestinian territories become the sites for the -- the launching of thousands of missiles and rockets, which is exactly what happened to us from the other areas we vacated.We need a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state. That's the winning formula for peace.Now, look, any time Israel was faced with an Arab leader that genuinely wanted peace, whether Anwar Sadat or -- or the late King Hussein, Israel made peace. And if President Abbas takes this forceful step, deciding that he wants to be a Sadat and not an Arafat, then he will find in me a partner for peace. And believe me, the Israeli people are yearning -- yearning is not -- praying, hoping that we have such a Palestinian partner on the other side.
BLITZER: Prime Minister Netanyahu, thanks very much for joining us.And good luck to the Israelis, good luck to you, good luck to the Palestinians.We'll be covering this story every step of the way.We appreciate it very much.
NETANYAHU: Thank you, Wolf.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHUS SPEECH AT UN - VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44HkjBDQz_k&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofIwsB7xDm8&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gkjEUjK4as&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPEdIWa5H9k&feature=player_embedded
AHMADINEJADS HATE SPEECH AGAINST ISRAEL AT THE UN SEPT 23,09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EBgqgIWuoc#
Here's the full transcript of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the UN General Assembly Thursday, in which he responded to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial by holding up dcoumentary evidence, blasted the Goldstone Report and urged the international community to stop Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons:http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2009/09/24/1008134/netanyahus-un-general-assembly-speech
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland. I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people.The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. It was charged with preventing the recurrence of such horrendous events. Nothing has undermined that central mission more than the systematic assault on the truth. Yesterday the President of Iran stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he again claimed that the Holocaust is a lie. Last month, I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee. There, on January 20, 1942, after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided how to exterminate the Jewish people. The detailed minutes of that meeting have been preserved by successive German governments. Here is a copy of those minutes, in which the Nazis issued precise instructions on how to carry out the extermination of the Jews. Is this a lie?
A day before I was in Wannsee, I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Those plans are signed by Hitler’s deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself. Here is a copy of the plans for Auschwitz-Birkenau, where one million Jews were murdered. Is this too a lie? This June, President Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp. Did President Obama pay tribute to a lie? And what of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? Are those tattoos a lie? One-third of all Jews perished in the conflagration. Nearly every Jewish family was affected, including my own. My wife's grandparents, her father’s two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie? Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries.But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency? A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state.What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations! Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You're wrong. History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others.This Iranian regime is fueled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst onto the world scene three decades ago after lying dormant for centuries. In the past thirty years, this fanaticism has swept the globe with a murderous violence and cold-blooded impartiality in its choice of victims. It has callously slaughtered Moslems and Christians, Jews and Hindus, and many others. Though it is comprised of different offshoots, the adherents of this unforgiving creed seek to return humanity to medieval times.
Wherever they can, they impose a backward regimented society where women, minorities, gays or anyone not deemed to be a true believer is brutally subjugated. The struggle against this fanaticism does not pit faith against faith nor civilization against civilization. It pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the 9th century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death.The primitivism of the 9th century ought to be no match for the progress of the 21st century. The allure of freedom, the power of technology, the reach of communications should surely win the day. Ultimately, the past cannot triumph over the future. And the future offers all nations magnificent bounties of hope. The pace of progress is growing exponentially. It took us centuries to get from the printing press to the telephone, decades to get from the telephone to the personal computer, and only a few years to get from the personal computer to the internet. What seemed impossible a few years ago is already outdated, and we can scarcely fathom the changes that are yet to come. We will crack the genetic code. We will cure the incurable. We will lengthen our lives. We will find a cheap alternative to fossil fuels and clean up the planet.I am proud that my country Israel is at the forefront of these advances – by leading innovations in science and technology, medicine and biology, agriculture and water, energy and the environment. These innovations the world over offer humanity a sunlit future of unimagined promise.But if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history could be reversed for a time. And like the belated victory over the Nazis, the forces of progress and freedom will prevail only after an horrific toll of blood and fortune has been exacted from mankind. That is why the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction.
The most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Are the member states of the United Nations up to that challenge? Will the international community confront a despotism that terrorizes its own people as they bravely stand up for freedom? Will it take action against the dictators who stole an election in broad daylight and gunned down Iranian protesters who died in the streets choking in their own blood? Will the international community thwart the world's most pernicious sponsors and practitioners of terrorism? Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world? The people of Iran are courageously standing up to this regime. People of goodwill around the world stand with them, as do the thousands who have been protesting outside this hall. Will the United Nations stand by their side?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The jury is still out on the United Nations, and recent signs are not encouraging. Rather than condemning the terrorists and their Iranian patrons, some here have condemned their victims. That is exactly what a recent UN report on Gaza did, falsely equating the terrorists with those they targeted. For eight long years, Hamas fired from Gaza thousands of missiles, mortars and rockets on nearby Israeli cities. Year after year, as these missiles were deliberately hurled at our civilians, not a single UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks. We heard nothing – absolutely nothing – from the UN Human Rights Council, a misnamed institution if there ever was one.In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza. It dismantled 21 settlements and uprooted over 8,000 Israelis. We didn't get peace. Instead we got an Iranian backed terror base fifty miles from Tel Aviv. Life in Israeli towns and cities next to Gaza became a nightmare. You see, the Hamas rocket attacks not only continued, they increased tenfold. Again, the UN was silent.Finally, after eight years of this unremitting assault, Israel was finally forced to respond. But how should we have responded? Well, there is only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country's civilian population. It happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II. During that war, the allies leveled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties. Israel chose to respond differently. Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime of firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians – Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes against the rocket launchers.That was no easy task because the terrorists were firing missiles from homes and schools, using mosques as weapons depots and ferreting explosives in ambulances. Israel, by contrast, tried to minimize casualties by urging Palestinian civilians to vacate the targeted areas.We dropped countless flyers over their homes, sent thousands of text messages and called thousands of cell phones asking people to leave. Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy's civilian population from harm's way.
Yet faced with such a clear case of aggressor and victim, who did the UN Human Rights Council decide to condemn? Israel. A democracy legitimately defending itself against terror is morally hanged, drawn and quartered, and given an unfair trial to boot.By these twisted standards, the UN Human Rights Council would have dragged Roosevelt and Churchill to the dock as war criminals. What a perversion of truth. What a perversion of justice.
Delegates of the United Nations,Will you accept this farce?
Because if you do, the United Nations would revert to its darkest days, when the worst violators of human rights sat in judgment against the law-abiding democracies, when Zionism was equated with racism and when an automatic majority could declare that the earth is flat.If this body does not reject this report, it would send a message to terrorists everywhere: Terror pays; if you launch your attacks from densely populated areas, you will win immunity. And in condemning Israel, this body would also deal a mortal blow to peace. Here's why.When Israel left Gaza, many hoped that the missile attacks would stop. Others believed that at the very least, Israel would have international legitimacy to exercise its right of self-defense. What legitimacy? What self-defense? The same UN that cheered Israel as it left Gaza and promised to back our right of self-defense now accuses us –my people, my country - of war crimes? And for what? For acting responsibly in self-defense. What a travesty!
Israel justly defended itself against terror. This biased and unjust report is a clear-cut test for all governments. Will you stand with Israel or will you stand with the terrorists? We must know the answer to that question now. Now and not later. Because if Israel is again asked to take more risks for peace, we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow. Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace.
Ladies and Gentlemen,All of Israel wants peace.
Any time an Arab leader genuinely wanted peace with us, we made peace. We made peace with Egypt led by Anwar Sadat. We made peace with Jordan led by King Hussein. And if the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government, and the people of Israel, will make peace. But we want a genuine peace, a defensible peace, a permanent peace. In 1947, this body voted to establish two states for two peoples – a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted that resolution. The Arabs rejected it. We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years: Say yes to a Jewish state. Just as we are asked to recognize a nation-state for the Palestinian people, the Palestinians must be asked to recognize the nation state of the Jewish people. The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the Land of Israel. This is the land of our forefathers.Inscribed on the walls outside this building is the great Biblical vision of peace: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. They shall learn war no more.These words were spoken by the Jewish prophet Isaiah 2,800 years ago as he walked in my country, in my city, in the hills of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem.We are not strangers to this land. It is our homeland. As deeply connected as we are to this land, we recognize that the Palestinians also live there and want a home of their own. We want to live side by side with them, two free peoples living in peace, prosperity and dignity.But we must have security. The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves except those handful of powers that could endanger Israel.That is why a Palestinian state must be effectively demilitarized. We don't want another Gaza, another Iranian backed terror base abutting Jerusalem and perched on the hills a few kilometers from Tel Aviv.
We want peace.
I believe such a peace can be achieved. But only if we roll back the forces of terror, led by Iran, that seek to destroy peace, eliminate Israel and overthrow the world order. The question facing the international community is whether it is prepared to confront those forces or accommodate them. Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the confirmed unteachability of mankind, the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them. Churchill bemoaned what he called the want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong.I speak here today in the hope that Churchill's assessment of the unteachibility of mankind is for once proven wrong. I speak here today in the hope that we can learn from history -- that we can prevent danger in time.In the spirit of the timeless words spoken to Joshua over 3,000 years ago, let us be strong and of good courage. Let us confront this peril, secure our future and, God willing, forge an enduring peace for generations to come.
