YouSaid · the spoken record

Shimon Peres

lines on the record
59
first
1994-09-24
most recent
2008-09-24
sittings or episodes
4
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

  1. “With Jordan, we agreed to delineate a permanent border without one side encroaching on the land of the other. Syria was told at the outset of negotiations that the nature of peace would affect the depth of the withdrawal. Lebanon was told that Israel had no demands on its territory and no intention of compromising its integrity. Negotiations have not been easy. With the Palestinians, we negotiated on uncharted ground. Never had the Palestinian people experienced self-rule. Today they possess a territorial address and an administrative authority. For the first time in their history, their children’s education is solely in Palestinian hands. In the coming days Israel will hand over additional responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority. The Declaration of Principles will be fully implemented in the spirit and letter.”

    1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)

  2. “We do not intend to stop this momentum or allow its interruption. For the last five decades the mere existence of Israel has served as a temptation to try and destroy it. For half a century we had to give security top priority. To this very day, we shed tears on the tombs of our children, who paid with their young lives to overcome the menace. When wars became futile, suspicion succeeded fighting. The allegation was that Israel was trying to expand territorially and was unwilling to compromise geographically. Reality ended this allegation as well. Egypt, first to negotiate peace, found an Israel willing to exchange land for peace. The Palestinians, next in line, gained jurisdiction over territories they had never controlled before.”

    1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)

  3. “The poor cannot, and will not, comply with their conditions, tolerated by the indifference of the well-off. Existing institutions were initiated in a different time. They are based today on memories rather than on needs. Ministries of foreign affairs and defence were structured to confront enemies. Now we face dangers more than enemies, but without our being organized to handle them. We are not answering the need. Diplomacy and strategy should be mobilized to face the undefined dangers. Disease will not be overcome by traditional diplomatic démarches. Starvation cannot be eliminated by guns. Deserts will not bloom beneath air raids. Remedies will not arrive of their own accord: they should be invented and introduced. Israel is on the side of this tendency. We are committed to ending the conflicts. We are determined to uproot their causes.”

    1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)

  4. “Technology has no national flags. Information can travel without visas. Armies cannot conquer wisdom. Borders cannot protect knowledge. The talent of creation is replacing the strategies of destruction. Computers, not rifles, mark the difference. The hunting season in history is disappearing. This does not mean an end to agonies. Starvation, disease, terrorism, desertification, nuclear weapons, ecological damage and dangerous drugs overflow the boundaries of land and the boundaries of reason. Violence employs new tactics: it has not disappeared. Confrontations in the future may not necessarily be wars of conquest, but bloodshed of protest. 14 The strong know that they will not be strengthened by dominating the poor, or by owning their deserts.”

    1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)

  5. “In the Middle East, economic growth can compensate for political compromises. We no longer live in a closed world. The intensive flow of information has opened the eyes of many people. No longer can tyranny blind their perceptions. Iron curtains can no longer bar the spread of the true story. Knowledge has finally overcome propaganda. This current is profound and lasting. The sources of strength and wealth are today universal rather than national, intellectual rather than material. The size of the territory, the number of its people, the wealth of its raw materials, no longer decide the fate of a nation. It is the scope of education, the level of science, applied technology and up-to-date information that make all the difference. Intellectual sources are no longer partitioned by traditional divides. Science has no territorial limits.”

    1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)

  6. “There is a role for the United Nations in Gaza, and it has played one. It began by stationing troops - which were recalled, unfortunately, on the eve of the Six-Day War. Then UNRWA came and supplied food, health and education to the refugees. Then UNDP contributed greatly to the construction of an infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. The United Nations can help Gaza today become free from want. It can introduce there the necessary economic and proper social institutions. An enlarged allocation for Gaza, with the existing United Nations administration, will produce immediate results and may make Gaza a new model of United Nations endeavours. The world is moving from military might to social priorities. It is time to turn from political confrontation to economic cooperation.”

    1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)

  7. “I am addressing this Assembly for the first time, not as a party to a controversy, but as a representative of a country that has shown a capacity to solve conflicts that seemed insoluble. The United Nations should play an increasing role facing the changing times. It can define new destinies. It can adopt new means. As the United Nations celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, it may adopt models for new endeavours by mobilizing builders to construct peace, not just by deploying troops to keep it. Economic structures will offer more than military deployment. Gaza, as an example, has a new authority. It needs a new economy. The United Nations can provide an answer. The 7,000 years of Gaza are mainly a history of suffering. Its population density today is among the highest in the world.”

    1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)

  8. “The Palestinian people, as a result of our agreement, gained authority in Gaza and Jericho; Jordan and Israel agreed, in the Washington Declaration, to end the state of war and move towards an agreement of full peace; voices of promise are exchanged between Damascus and Jerusalem; multilateral meetings produced a network of regional cooperation; Morocco and Israel established formal relations; and an agenda for a new Middle East will emerge from an unprecedented economic conference in Casablanca next month. The desire for peace is rooted in the millenniums of Jewish existence. Generations prayed for it, and now a young generation in Israel is today engaged in making it. The search for peace is shared by young people all over the Middle East, Arabs and Israelis alike. We have to fulfil their hope.”

    1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)

  9. “I should like to congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly. We are pleased that the representative of Côte d’Ivoire - a nation for which Israel has high regard - has been elected to this distinguished post. I should like to express to the Secretary General our deepest appreciation 13 for his contribution to world peace in general, and to peace in the Middle East in particular. A year ago, I offered a concept for a new Middle East. Many applauded; more remained sceptical. What at that time seemed lofty is today a reality. I feel I can submit today an invitation to a further journey in the new Middle East. Last year was a year of remarkable events.”

    1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)