YouSaid · the spoken record

Benjamin Netanyahu

lines on the record: 291
first: 1998-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 12
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“But as deeply connected as we are to our homeland, we also recognize that the Palestinians also live there and they want a home of their own. We want to live side by side with them — two free peoples living in peace, living in prosperity, living in dignity. Peace, prosperity and dignity require one other element: we must have security. The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves except a handful of powers that could endanger Israel. That is why the Palestinian State must be effectively demilitarized. I say “effectively” because we do not want another Gaza, another south Lebanon, another Iranian-backed terror base abutting Jerusalem and perched on the hills a few kilometres from Tel Aviv. We want peace. I believe that with goodwill and with hard work such a peace can be achieved.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years: say yes to a Jewish State. It is as simple, as clear and as elementary as that. Just as we are asked to recognize a nation-State of 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. It 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 great 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. This is our homeland.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Because if Israel is again asked to take more risks for peace, we must know today that the Assembly will stand with us tomorrow. Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace. Make no mistake: 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, my Government and I, and my people, 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 and invaded the embryonic Jewish State with the hopes of annihilating it.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Others believed that, even if they did not stop, at the very least Israel, in having made this extraordinary gesture for peace, would have international legitimacy to exercise its right of self- defence if peace failed. What legitimacy? What self- defence? The same United Nations that cheered Israel as it left Gaza and promised to back our right of self- defence now accuses us — my people, my country — of being war criminals? And for what? For acting responsibly in self-defence? For acting in a way that any country would act, with a restraint unmatched by many? What a travesty! Israel justly defended itself against terror. This biased and unjust report provides a clear-cut test for all Governments. Will the Assembly stand with Israel or will it stand with the terrorists? We must know the answer to that question now. Now, not later.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“If you had to choose a date when the United Nations began its descent, almost a freefall, and lost the respect of many thoughtful people in the international community, it was the day in 1975 it decided to equate Zionism with racism. Now this body has a choice to make. If it does not reject this biased report, it would vitiate itself, it would recommence the process of vitiating its own relevance and importance. But it would also do something else. It would send the message to terrorists everywhere that terrorism pays: all you have to do is 09-52320 38 launch your attacks from densely populated areas, and you will win immunity. A third point: in condemning Israel, this body would also deal a mortal blow to peace. Let me explain why. When Israel left Gaza, many hoped that the missile attacks would stop.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“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 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! The delegates to the United Nations and the Governments that they represent have a decision to make. Will they accept this farce? Because if they do, the United Nations would revert to its darkest days, when the worst violators of human rights sat in judgement against the law-abiding democracies, when Zionism was equated with racism and when an automatic majority could be mustered to declare that the Earth is flat.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“That was no easy task because the terrorists were firing their missiles from homes and schools, using mosques as weapons depots and missile caches, 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. We sent thousands and thousands of text messages to the Palestinian residents. We made thousands and thousands of cellular phone calls urging them to vacate, 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 an absolutely clear-cut case of aggressor and victim, who do you think the United Nations Human Rights Council decided to condemn? Israel.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“There is only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country’s civilian population. This happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during the Second World War. During that war, the Allies levelled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties. I am not passing judgement; I am stating a fact, a fact that is the product of the decisions of great and honourable men — the leaders of Britain and the United States — fighting an evil force in the Second World War. It is also a fact that Israel chose to respond differently. Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime — firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians — Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes against the rocket-launchers themselves.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“It was very painful. We dismantled 21 settlements, really bedroom communities and farms. We uprooted over 8,000 Israelis; we just yanked them out of their homes. We did this because many in Israel believed that it would win peace. Well, we did not get peace. Instead we got an Iranian-backed terror base 50 miles from Tel Aviv. But life in the Israeli towns and cities immediately adjacent to Gaza became nothing less than a nightmare. The Hamas rocket attacks not only continued after we left, they actually increased dramatically. They increased tenfold. And again, the United Nations was silent — absolutely silent. Well, after eight years of this unremitting assault, Israel was finally forced to respond. But how should we have responded?”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Rather than condemning the terrorists and their Iranian patrons, some here in the United Nations have condemned their victims. This is exactly what a recent United Nations report on Gaza did, falsely equating the terrorists with those they targeted. For eight long years, Hamas fired rockets from Gaza on nearby Israeli cities and citizens — thousands of missiles and mortars hailing down from the sky on schools, homes, shopping centres and bus stops. Year after year, as these missiles were deliberately fired on our civilians, not one single United Nations resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks. We heard nothing — absolutely nothing — from the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, a misnamed institution if ever there was one. In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Will it take action against the dictators who stole an election in broad daylight and then gunned down Iranian protesters, who died on the sidewalks and in the streets choking in their own blood? Will the international community thwart the world’s most pernicious sponsor and practitioner of terrorism? Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons and thereby endangering the peace of the entire world? 37 09-52320 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 throughout the week. Will the United Nations stand with them? The jury is still out on the United Nations. Recent signs are not encouraging.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“However, 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 prevail only after a 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 fundamentalism and the weapons of mass destruction. The most urgent challenge facing this body today is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Are the Members 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?”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“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 fuel, and we will clean up the planet. I am proud that my country, Israel, is at the forefront of many of those advances in science and technology, medicine and biology, agriculture and water, and energy and the environment. Those innovations in my country and in many others offer humanity a sunlit future of unimagined promise.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“It pits civilization against barbarism, the twenty-first century against the ninth, and those who sanctify life against those who glorify death. The primitivism of the ninth century ought to be no match for the progress of the twenty-first. The allure of freedom, the power of technology and the reach of communications should surely win the day. Ultimately, the past cannot triumph over the future, and our future offers all nations magnificent bounties of hope because the pace of progress is growing, and 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.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“For this Iranian regime is fuelled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst onto the world scene three decades ago after lying dormant for centuries. In the past 30 years, that fanaticism has swept across the globe with a murderous violence that knows no bounds and with a cold-blooded impartiality in the choice of its victims. It has callously slaughtered Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and many others. The adherents of that unforgiving creed, although it is comprised of different offshoots, seek to return humanity to medieval times. Wherever they can, they impose a backward, regimented society where women, minorities, gays or anyone else deemed not to be a true believer is brutally subjugated. The struggle against that fanaticism does not pit faith against faith, or civilization against civilization.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“They stood up for moral clarity and brought honour to their countries. But to those who gave that denier of the Holocaust a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and of decent people everywhere: Have they no shame? Have they no decency? A mere six decades after the Holocaust, they give legitimacy to a man who denies the murder of 6 million Jews, while promising to wipe out the State of Israel, the State of the Jews. That is a disgrace. It is a mockery of the Charter of the United Nations. Perhaps some representatives think that that man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. If they believe that, they are wrong — dead wrong. History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many, many others.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Are those plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where 1 million Jews were murdered, a lie too? In June, President Obama visited another concentration camp, one of many — the 09-52320 36 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, too? One third of all Jews perished in the great conflagration of the Holocaust. Nearly every Jewish family, including my own, was affected. My wife’s grandparents, her father’s two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins were murdered by the Nazis. Is that a lie? Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this rostrum. I commend those who refused to come and those who left in protest.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“There, on 20 January 1942, after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided to exterminate my people. They left detailed minutes of that meeting that have been preserved for posterity by successive German Governments. I have here a copy of the minutes of the meeting of senior Nazi officials instructing the Nazi Government exactly how to carry out the extermination of the Jewish people. Is that protocol a lie? Are the German Government and all German Governments lying? The day before I was in Wannsee, in Berlin I was given the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. I now hold in my hand the Auschwitz-Birkenau plans. They contain the signature of Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s deputy, himself.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“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 the Assembly on behalf of my country and my people. The United Nations was founded after the carnage of the Second World War and the horrors of the Holocaust. It was charged with preventing the reoccurrence of such horrendous events. Nothing has undermined that mission, nothing has impeded it more, than the systematic assault on the truth. Yesterday, the President of Iran stood at this very rostrum spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he again claimed that the Holocaust was a lie. Last month, I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“It is what has made it possible for us, despite unparalleled persecution, despite the most horrific calamities to befall any people or any nation, clinging to hope, to contribute as much as we have to human progress in the past 4,000 years. And this hope is reflected in the prayer we utter this week as we celebrate the Jewish new year. It is a wish we extend from our eternal capital Jerusalem, the city of peace, to all our neighbours and to all present here today: “May the year and its maledictions end, and a new year and its blessings begin”. Shana tova — may you have a good year.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“They must decide whether the region will continue to be an arena for terrorism and war or become a full participant in a peaceful, prosperous global economy. Cooperation and peace can give the Middle East a leading position in the world of the next millennium. Violence, terrorism and war will assure stagnation and misery. Deep in our hearts, we know which choice we want for our children. My wife and I hope that when our two little boys grow up, the only competition they will engage in with Palestinian boys, and Egyptian boys, and Jordanian and Syrian and Lebanese boys, will be on football fields and in debating societies. It is characteristic of the Jewish people to live in hope. It is the name of our national anthem.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“What is required instead is concerted international action to prevent disaster. 15 That, after all, is what this body was established to do. And if it is to live up to its founders? expectations, it will have to be far more adept at distinguishing between fanatical aggressors and their intended victims. I believe that the United Nations can help foster a climate of peace and stability in our region by encouraging the reactivation of the multilateral committees conceived at the Madrid Conference. By addressing such issues as regional economic development, arms control, the resolution of refugee problems, water and the environment, these committees can produce the important building blocks of peace. But ultimately, as in every conflict, the crucial decisions must be made by the peoples of the Middle East themselves.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“Both Iran and Iraq continue their efforts to acquire non-conventional weapons and ballistic missiles with strategic reach. Iran has just successfully tested an intermediate-range missile. Iraq has declared that it will no longer accept international inspections of its non-conventional programmes, inspections mandated by Security Council resolutions. These developments threaten not only Israel, but all the nations represented in this Hall. In the hands of the rogue regimes of the Middle East, weapons of mass destruction may pose a greater threat to the world, and to world peace, than anything we have known in the past. I want to caution members about something else: to let sweet talk by leaders of these regimes lull us into inaction is to repeat the worst mistakes of this century.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“In our decision, we said that Israel was prepared to withdraw from south Lebanon provided that one condition was met: that there would be security arrangements to ensure the safety of the civilian population on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border. I can report that I find myself now in the bizarre position of offering to withdraw from an Arab country and meeting with Arab refusal to negotiate such a withdrawal. But I can also report that we remain hopeful. We have not abandoned this initiative. Peace with Syria and Lebanon will complete the circle of peace with our immediate neighbours. But the achievement of a lasting peace in our region requires addressing the ominous existential dangers which still threaten Israel beyond the immediate horizon.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“If any representatives were to land at Tel Aviv airport — as many have in the past — their planes could be endangered by the inability of Israel, in a permanent peace settlement, to control the importation of these lethal weapons. This is the great challenge of the permanent status negotiations: to achieve a durable peace that will strike a balance between Palestinian self-rule and Israeli security. This peace can be achieved by negotiation, and negotiation alone. There is no other way. Negotiation for peace is what we want with Lebanon and Syria as well. As representatives know, over six months ago our Government announced an initiative to implement Security Council resolution 425 (1978).”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“We have a right to ensure that the Palestinian entity does not become the base for hostile forces, including foreign forces. We have a right to ensure that it does not become a base and haven for terrorists. In some cases we are talking about a base — in New York city terms — five blocks away, and without the East River. We are talking about something that is not hypothetical. As I prepared this speech, I was informed of a terrorist attack — another one — in Jerusalem, in a bus station. Happily, no one was killed today. But can we be sure? We are seeking a peace that is peaceful, that is not violent — a peace without terror, which is the only peace that means anything. Nor can we accept the mortal threat of weapons such as anti-aircraft missiles on the hills above our cities and airfields.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“I strongly urge the Palestinian Authority not to take this course. Such actions will inevitably prompt unilateral responses on our part, and that development would not be good for the Palestinians, not good for Israel, and not good for peace. We must continue to negotiate, earnestly, continuously and tirelessly until a final peace agreement is reached. No other way will do. What would such a peace look like? I envision its success would lie in ensuring the following balance: the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern their lives and none of the powers to threaten our lives. They will have control of all aspects of their society, such as law, religion and education; industry, commerce and agriculture; tourism, health and welfare. They can prosper and flourish. What they cannot do is endanger our existence.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“Once we complete the current talks we will begin negotiations for the final settlement — a final settlement of peace with the Palestinian Authority. I urged starting these negotiations a year ago, but I regret to say that my offer was turned down. This phase is long overdue. But as the late Yitzhak Rabin noted, no dates in the Oslo accords are sacrosanct. No target date in them was met on schedule. This failure to meet deadlines did not put an end to the agreement. The Oslo accords are not about meeting deadlines. Their essential purpose is to reach a peace agreement through negotiations. An arbitrary, unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State, in disregard of this basic purpose of Oslo, would constitute a fundamental violation of the Oslo accords. It would cause the complete collapse of the process.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“Three years ago we transferred about 700 million shekels to the Palestinian Authority from the work of Palestinian workers in Israel. This year that figure will reach 2 billion shekels. That is almost a threefold increase in three years. Representatives do not know that; none of them knows that we have dramatically improved the Palestinian economy because we believe that life better for them is life better for us. The absence of violence will enable all of us, Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians and Israelis, and, I may add, Syrians and Lebanese — this is not a far- 14 fetched dream; it is certainly one that I have — to reach a standard of living and quality of life now considered unimaginable.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“That is the only way that terrorism will decline and its growth be arrested and that it will ultimately be rooted out from our lives. The elimination of terrorism will undoubtedly lead to prosperity in our region. We envision a market-based regional economy between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. As I speak we are lifting the barriers to trade, eliminating red tape and promoting joint business ventures between the parties. Trade between Israel and the Palestinians has shot up enormously in the last two years because our policy is a liberal policy. If things are better for them economically, things are better for us. I should like to give an example relating to the transfer of value added tax (VAT) from Palestinian workers working in Israel, whose numbers have grown enormously in the last two years.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“Many leaders today understand this, as President Clinton made abundantly clear from this very podium a few days ago. But what makes the terrorism rooted in the Middle East so pernicious and so dangerous is that the terrorists invoke a distorted, twisted and fanatic interpretation of Islam, which is very distant from enlightened Islam. We have no quarrel with Islam. It is one of the world?s great religions, and we have admiration and respect for its institutions and its teachings. But fanatic Islamist terrorism is religion betrayed, and it not only threatens us but undermines Arab Governments and societies. It endangers the peace of the world. For terrorism to be defeated, terrorists must be punished and deterred, and the climate of support they enjoy in various lands must disappear.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“They also agreed to cease the vicious daily propaganda on official Palestinian television; there are Sesame Street programmes which exhort five-year olds to become suicide warriors. This, I am afraid, is education for war, not for peace. And they agreed that they must complete the annulment of the Palestinian Charter, which can only be done by the Palestinian National Council. That Charter is still on the books and still on the Internet — if representatives turn it on they can find it. It still calls for Israel?s destruction thorough armed struggle, which is a euphemism for terrorism. So I say today to our Palestinian partners “Choose peace. Fight for peace. You cannot talk peace and tolerate terrorism”. Of course, terrorism endangers our peace, but it is also a global cancer.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“Yet in the spirit of compromise and reconciliation we have agreed to transfer to Palestinian jurisdiction some of this hallowed land, provided that the principles of security and reciprocity are kept. This means that Israel would retain the ability to defend itself, and that the Palestinians would fulfil their commitments, first and foremost to shun violence and fight terrorism. Under the Oslo and Hebron agreements, which I signed, the Palestinian Authority and Chairman Arafat agreed to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and arrest and prosecute terrorist operatives. They agreed to collect and dispose of illegal weapons, imprison and hand over wanted murderers and reduce the Palestinian police to the numbers prescribed in the Oslo agreements. That has not been done to date.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“We should remember that at its widest point Israel is all of 50 miles wide, and should it cede all of the West Bank, as some so cavalierly tell us to do, that distance would be reduced to the distance between this building and La Guardia airport. How many Governments and leaders would put their nations at such risk? None. Yet we are prepared to undertake careful, controlled and calculated risks for peace. Nevertheless, to part with one square inch of this land is agonizing for us, and for me personally. Every stone and every hill and valley that I have walked — I know them intimately, as do my people — resonates with our forefathers? footsteps, from the cradle of Jewish civilization through the biblical kings and prophets and the sages, scholars and poets of Israel, down to our own time.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“They enjoy the 13 attributes of self-government: they have their own flag, their own executive, legislative and judiciary bodies and their own police force. It can no longer be claimed by anyone that Israel is occupying the Palestinians. We do not govern their lives. But we cannot accept a situation in which they will threaten our lives, and that is of paramount concern to us as we approach further redeployment. The territory we are negotiating about is virtually uninhabited by Palestinians — there are only a few thousand Bedouins there who roam about. Yet this land is the canvas on which thousands of years of Jewish history have been etched. And it has powerful implications for our security.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“As the Prime Minister of the one Jewish State, I must ensure Israel?s ability to defend itself, regardless of criticism and misunderstanding by those who do not share this responsibility. The second principle of a durable peace is reciprocity. Only agreements honoured by both sides can be successful. The agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is at bottom based on a simple equation: the Palestinians receive jurisdiction in the territory in which they live, and in return they prevent terrorist attacks against Israel from those territories. Israel has been fulfilling its part of this agreement: 100 per cent of the Palestinians in the Gaza district and 98 per cent of the Palestinians in Judean Samaria, known as the West Bank, are now living under Palestinian rule.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“King Hussein?s contribution to this peace, his devotion to the advancement of our relationship and his efforts to help the peace process with the Palestinians have been invaluable. In the name of the people of Israel and, I am sure, on behalf of all the peoples and Governments represented in the Assembly, I want to send King Hussein our most heartfelt wishes for a quick and complete recovery. I believe we can achieve a successful peace agreement with the Palestinians as well. But for that peace to endure, it must be based on two principles. The first is security. A peace that cannot be defended will not last. That is the central lesson of the twentieth century. None of us can afford to forget this lesson, least of all the Jewish people.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“But only negotiations can solve our problems. An outcome which is not the result of negotiations is an invitation to continued conflict. Negotiations accompanied by violence and threats of violence are an invitation to failure. T h e option of violence must therefore be totally discarded and permanently disavowed. Peace will be achieved only by heeding the call made by two great leaders, the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israel?s former Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Twenty-one years ago they declared in Jerusalem, “No more war. No more bloodshed”. The Treaty they hammered out at Camp David was a historic turning point which changed the face of our region. It has benefited both countries and brought hope to all of us, as has the peace with Jordan, which is a model peace for all our neighbours.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“I have been on the fields of battle. I have seen my comrades fall. I have two small children at home. I want a future free of war — a future of peace, for them and for Palestinian children like them. We want peace for us and for the Palestinian people, whose prolonged suffering has been one of the cruel consequences of the wars waged against us. We are willing to make painful compromises for peace. We hope that the Palestinians are ready to make those necessary compromises as well. What is at stake is our life together in a very small land, and there is no reason that we should not be able to live together. All of us are, after all, the sons and daughters of Abraham. As we search for peace, we naturally encounter crises and stalemates, frustrations and obstacles — that is inevitable in any negotiating process.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“Yet ever since that miracle occurred, we have all been hoping that it would be accompanied by the fulfilment of another biblical prophesy: “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (The Holy Bible, Isaiah 2:4) It was in fact in that spirit that the founders of Israel stretched out the hand of peace to our neighbours in our Declaration of Independence some 50 years ago. Now, half a century later, as we view with pride our nation?s extraordinary accomplishments and achievements, we are determined to complete the circle of peace around us. No people have suffered more from war and violence than the Jewish people and no one wants peace more than we do. I know that that is not a common perception of us. I, personally, am often accused of not wanting peace. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)
“As the Prime Minister of Israel, I represent a State whose creation was envisioned, encouraged and advocated by the League of Nations 80 years ago and by the United Nations 50 years ago. That extraordinary recognition by the international community confirmed what the Jewish people have known and felt for two millennia: the bond between the people of Israel and the land of Israel is eternal, and the rebirth of the Jewish State in the land of Israel is a historic imperative. Religious and non-religious people alike have viewed this rebirth as a modern miracle, the realization of the vision of the Hebrew prophets.”
1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)