I come here from
Jerusalem to speak on behalf of my people, the people
of Israel. I have come to speak about the dangers we
face and about the opportunities we seek. I have come
to expose the brazen lies spoken from this very rostrum
about my country and the brave soldiers who defend it.
The people of Israel pray for peace, but our hopes
for peace, and those of the world, are in danger, because
everywhere we look militant Islam is on the march. It
is not militants; it is not Islam; it is militant Islam, and
typically, its first victims are other Muslims. But it
spares no one. Christians, Jews, Yazidis, Kurds — no
creed, no faith, no ethnic group is beyond its sights,
and it is rapidly spreading in every part of the world.
We know the famous American saying “All politics is
local”. For the militant Islamists, all politics is global,
because their ultimate goal is to dominate the world.
Now that threat might seem exaggerated to some,
since it starts out small, like a cancer that attacks a
particular part of the body. But left unchecked, the
cancer grows, metastasizing over wider and wider
areas. To protect the peace and security of the world,
we must remove that cancer before it is too late. Last
week, many of the countries represented here rightly
applauded President Obama for leading the effort
to confront the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham
(ISIS); and yet weeks before, some of those same
countries — the same countries that now support
confronting ISIS — opposed Israel for confronting
Hamas. Evidently, they do not understand that ISIS and
Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree.
ISIS and Hamas share a fanatical creed that they
both seek to impose well beyond the territory under their
control. Let us listen to what ISIS’s self-declared Caliph,
Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, said two months ago. He said
that the day would soon come when the Muslim would
walk everywhere as a master, and that Muslims would
cause the world to hear and understand the meaning of
terrorism, and destroy the idol of democracy. Now let
us listen to Khaled Mashal, the leader of Hamas. He
proclaims a similar vision of the future. “We say this to
the West”, he says. “By Allah it will be defeated, and
tomorrow our nation will sit on the throne of the world”.
As its Charter makes clear, Hamas’s immediate
goal is to destroy Israel; but it has a broader objective.
It also wants a caliphate. Hamas shares the global
ambitions of its fellow militant Islamists, and that is
why its supporters cheered wildly in the streets of Gaza
when thousands of Americans were murdered on 9/11.
That is why its leaders condemned the United States
for killing Osama Bin Laden, whom they praised as a
holy warrior. When it comes to their ultimate goals,
therefore, Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas.
And what they share in common, all militant
Islamists share in common — Boko Haram in Nigeria,
Al-Shabaab in Somalia, Hizbullah in Lebanon, Al-Nusra
in Syria, the Al-Mahdi Army in Iraq and the Al-Qaida
branches in Yemen, Libya, the Philippines, India and
elsewhere. Some are radical Sunnis, some are radical
Shiites. Some want to restore a pre-medieval caliphate
from the seventh century. Others want to trigger the
apocalyptic return of an imam from the ninth century.
They operate in different lands. They target
different victims. They even kill each other in their
battle for supremacy. But they all share a fanatic
ideology. They all seek to create ever expanding
enclaves of militant Islam, where there is no freedom
and no tolerance, where women are treated as chattel,
Christians are decimated and minorities are subjugated,
and sometimes given the stark choice: convert or die.
For them, anyone can be consider an infidel, including
fellow Muslims.
Militant Islam’s ambition to dominate the world
seems mad, but so too did the global ambitions of
another fanatic ideology that swept into power eight
decades ago. The Nazis believed in a master race. The
militant Islamists believe in a master faith. They just
disagree as to who among them will be the master of
the master faith. That is what they truly disagree about.
Therefore, the question before us is whether militant
Islam will have the power to realize its unbridled
ambitions.
There is one place where that could soon
happen — the Islamic State of Iran. For 35 years, Iran
has relentlessly pursued the global mission that was set
forth by its founding ruler, Ayatollah Khomeini, with
the following words:
“We will export our revolution to the entire world,
until the cry ‘There is no God but Allah’ will echo
throughout the world over”.
Ever since, the regime’s brutal enforcers, Iran’s
Revolutionary Guards, have done exactly that. Let us
listen to its current commander, General Mohammad
Ali Jafari, who clearly stated that goal:
“Our Imam did not limit the Islamic Revolution to
this country. Our duty is to prepare the way for an
Islamic world Government.”
Iran’s president, Mr. Rouhani, stood here last
week and shed crocodile tears over what he called the
globalization of terrorism. Maybe he should spare us
those phony tears and have a word instead with the
commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. He could
ask them to call off Iran’s global terror campaign,
which has included attacks in two dozen countries
on five continents since 2011 alone. To say that Iran
does not practice terrorism is like saying Derek Jeter
never played shortstop for the New York Yankees. The
bemoaning by the Iranian President of the spread of
terrorism has got to be one of history’s greatest displays
of double talk.
Some argue that Iran’s global terror campaign — its
subversion of countries throughout the Middle East
and well beyond the Middle East — is the work of the
extremists. They say that things are changing. They
point to last year’s election in Iran. They claim that
Iran’s smooth-talking President and Foreign Minister
have changed not only the tone of Iran’s foreign policy
but also its substance. They believe that Rouhani and
Zarif generally want to reconcile with the West, that
they have abandoned the global mission of the Islamic
Revolution. Really?
Let us look at what Foreign Minister Zarif wrote in
his book just a few years ago:
“We have a fundamental problem with the West,
and especially with America. This is because we
are heirs to a global mission which is tied to our
raison d’être”.
A global mission which is tied to our very
reason for being? Then Zarif asks a question — an
interesting question, in my view. He says, “How come
Malaysia” — referring to an overwhelmingly Muslim
country — “does not have similar problems?” Then he
answers: “Because Malaysia is not trying to change the
international order”. That is our moderate.
Let us not be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm
offensive. It is designed for one purpose and one purpose
only — to have the sanctions lifted and the obstacles to
Iran’s path to the bomb removed. The Islamic Republic
is now trying to bamboozle its way to an agreement
that will remove the sanctions it still faces and leave it
with the capacity of thousands of centrifuges to enrich
uranium. That would effectively cement Iran’s place as
a threshold military nuclear Power. In the future, at the
time of its choosing, Iran, the world’s most dangerous
regime, in the world’s most dangerous region, would
obtain the world’s most dangerous weapons. Allowing
that to happen would pose the gravest threat to us all.
It is one thing to confront militant Islamists on
pickup trucks armed with Kalashnikov rifles. It is
another thing to confront militant Islamists armed with
weapons of mass destruction. I remember that last year
everyone here was rightly concerned about the chemical
weapons in Syria, including the possibility that they
would fall into the hands of terrorists. Well, that did
not happen, and President Obama deserves great
credit for leading the diplomatic effort to dismantle
virtually all of Syria’s chemical weapons capability.
We can only imagine how much more dangerous
the Islamic State — ISIS — would be if it possessed
chemical weapons. Now, let us imagine how much
more dangerous the Islamic State of Iran would be if it
possessed nuclear weapons.
Would you let ISIS enrich uranium? Would you let
ISIS build a heavy-water reactor? Would you let ISIS
develop intercontinental ballistic missiles? Of course
you would not. Then you must not let the Islamic
State of Iran do those things either, because if you do,
here is what will happen. Once Iran produces atomic
bombs, all the charm and all the smiles will suddenly
disappear — they will just vanish. It is then that the
ayatollahs will show their true face and unleash their
aggressive fanaticism on the entire world.
There is only one responsible course of action to
address this threat. Iran’s nuclear military capabilities
must be fully dismantled. Make no mistake — ISIS
must be defeated, but to defeat ISIS and leave Iran as
a threshold nuclear Power is to win the battle and lose
the war.
The fight against militant Islam is indivisible. When
militant Islam succeeds anywhere, it is emboldened
everywhere. When it suffers a blow in one place, it is set
back in every place. That is why Israel’s fight against
Hamas is not just our fight; it is everyone’s fight. Israel is
fighting a fanaticism today that other countries may be
forced to fight tomorrow. For 50 days this past summer,
Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israel, many of
them supplied by Iran. I want members to think about
what their countries would do if thousands of rockets
were fired at their cities. Let them imagine millions
of their citizens having seconds at most to scramble to
bomb shelters, day after day. Members would not let
terrorists fire rockets at their cities with impunity, nor
would they let terrorists dig dozens of terror tunnels
under their borders to infiltrate their towns in order to
murder and kidnap their citizens. Israel justly defended
itself against both rocket attacks and terror tunnels.
Yet Israel faced another challenge. We faced a
propaganda war because, in an attempt to win the world’s
sympathy, Hamas cynically used Palestinian civilians
as human shields. It used schools — not just schools,
United Nations schools — private homes, mosques
and even hospitals to store and fire rockets at Israel.
As Israel surgically struck at the rocket launchers and
at the tunnels, Palestinian civilians were tragically but
unintentionally killed. There are heartrending images
that resulted, and these fuelled libellous charges that
Israel was deliberately targeting civilians. We were not.
We deeply regret every single civilian casualty.
And the truth is, Israel was doing everything to
minimize Palestinian civilian casualties. Hamas was
doing everything to maximize Israeli civilian casualties
and Palestinian civilian casualties. Israel dropped
flyers, made phone calls, sent text messages, broadcast
warnings in Arabic on Palestinian television — all
this to enable Palestinian civilians to evaluate targeted
areas. No other country and no other army in history
have gone to greater lengths to avoid casualties among
the civilian population of their enemies.
Such concern for Palestinian life was all the more
remarkable given that Israeli civilians were being
bombarded by rockets, day after day, night after
night. And as their families were being rocketed by
Hamas, Israel’s citizen army, the brave soldiers of
the Israel Defense Forces, our young boys and girls,
upheld the highest moral values of any army in the
world. Israel’s soldiers deserve not condemnation
but admiration — admiration from decent people
everywhere.
Here is what Hamas did. Hamas embedded
its missile batteries in residential areas and told
Palestinians to ignore Israel’s warnings to leave.
And just in case people did not get the message, they
executed Palestinian civilians in Gaza who dared to
protest. And, no less reprehensible, Hamas deliberately
placed its rockets where Palestinian children live and
play.
Let me show the Assembly a photograph. It was
taken by a France 24 crew during the recent conflict.
It shows two Hamas rocket launchers, which were used
to attack us. Three children can be seen playing next to
them. Hamas deliberately put its rockets in hundreds
of residential areas like this — hundreds of them. That
is a war crime. I say to President Abbas, these are the
crimes — the war crimes — committed by his Hamas
partners in the national unity Government which he
heads and for which he is responsible. These are the
real war crimes he should have investigated or spoken
out against from this rostrum last week.
As Israel’s children huddle in bomb shelters and
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence knocked Hamas
rockets out of the sky, the profound moral difference
between Israel and Hamas could not have been clearer.
Israel was using its missiles to protect its children;
Hamas was using its children to protect its missiles.
By investigating Israel rather than Hamas for war
crimes, the United Nations Human Rights Council has
betrayed its noble mission to protect the innocent. In
fact, what it is doing is to turn the laws of war upside
down. Israel, which took unprecedented steps to
minimize civilian casualties, is condemned; Hamas,
which both targeted and hid behind civilians — that is a
double war crime — is given a pass. The Human Rights
Council is thus sending a clear message to terrorists
everywhere: “Use civilians as a human shield. Use
them again and again and again.” And you know why?
Because, sadly, it works. By granting international
legitimacy to the use of human shields, the Human
Rights Council has become a terrorist rights council,
and it will have repercussions — it probably already
has — in terms of the use of civilians as human shields.
It is not just our interests and values that are under
attack: it is the interests and values of all of us.
We live in a world steeped in tyranny and terror,
where gays are hanged from cranes in Tehran, political
prisoners are executed in Gaza, young girls are abducted
en masse in Nigeria and hundreds of thousands are
butchered in Syria, Libya and Iraq, yet nearly half of
the Human Rights Council’s resolutions focusing on a
single country have been directed against Israel — the
one true democracy in the Middle East; Israel, where
issues are openly debated in a boisterous Parliament,
where human rights are protected by independent
courts, and where women, gays and minorities live in a
genuinely free society.
The biased treatment of Israel by the Human Rights
Council — that is a misnomer, but I will use it just the
same — is only one manifestation of the return of one
of the world’s oldest prejudices. We hear mobs today in
Europe calling for the gassing of Jews. We hear some
national leaders compare Israel to the Nazis. This is
not a function of Israel’s policies; it is a function of
diseased minds, and that disease has a name. It is called
anti-Semitism. It is now spreading in polite society
where it masquerades as legitimate criticism of Israel.
For centuries, the Jewish people have been demonized
with blood libels and charges of deicide. Today, the
Jewish State is demonized with the apartheid libel and
charges of genocide.
In what moral universe does genocide include
warning the enemy civilian population to get out
of harm’s way or ensuring that they receive tons of
humanitarian aid each day, even as thousands of rockets
are being fired at us, or setting up a field hospital
to aid their wounded? I suppose it is the same moral
universe in which a man who wrote a dissertation of
lies about the Holocaust and who insists on a Palestine
free of Jews — Judenrein — can stand at this rostrum
and shamelessly accuse Israel of genocide and ethnic
cleansing. In the past, outrageous lies against the Jews
were the precursors to the wholesale slaughter of our
people. But no more; today, we the Jewish people have
the power to defend ourselves. We will defend ourselves
against our enemies on the battlefield and we will expose
their lies against us in the court of public opinion. Israel
will continue to stand proud and unbowed.
Despite the enormous challenges facing Israel, I
believe we have a historic opportunity. After decades of
seeing Israel as their enemy, leading States in the Arab
world increasingly recognize that together we and they
face many of the same dangers. Principally, that means
a nuclear-armed Iran and militant Islamist movements
gaining ground in the Sunni world. Our challenge is to
transform those common interests in order to create a
productive partnership that would build a more secure,
peaceful and prosperous Middle East. Together we can
strengthen regional security. We can advance projects
in water, agriculture, transportation, health care, energy
and so many other fields.
I believe that the partnership between us can also
help facilitate peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Many have long assumed that an Israeli-Palestinian
peace can help facilitate a broader rapprochement
between Israel and the Arab world. But I believe that,
these days, it may work the other way around, namely,
that a broader rapprochement between Israel and the
Arab world may help facilitate an Israeli-Palestinian
peace. Therefore, to achieve that peace, we must look
not only to Jerusalem and Ramallah but also to Cairo,
Amman, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and elsewhere. I believe
that peace could be realized with the active involvement
of Arab countries that are willing to provide political,
material and other indispensable support.
I am ready to make a historic compromise, and not
because Israel occupies a foreign land. The people of
Israel are not occupiers in the land of Israel. History,
archaeology and common sense all make clear that we
have had a singular attachment to this land for over
3,000 years. I want peace because I want to create a
better future for my people. But it must be a genuine
peace, one that is anchored in mutual recognition and
enduring security arrangements — rock-solid security
arrangements — on the ground. Israel’s withdrawal
from Lebanon and Gaza created two militant Islamic
enclaves on our borders from which tens of thousands
of rockets have been fired at Israel. Those sobering
experiences heighten Israel’s security concerns
regarding potential territorial concessions in the future.
Those security concerns are even greater today. Let
us just look around. The Middle East is in chaos. States
are disintegrating, and militant Islamists are filling
the void. Israel cannot have territories from which it
withdraws taken over by Islamic militants yet again,
as happened in Gaza and Lebanon. That would place
the likes of ISIS within mortar range, a few miles of
80 per cent of our population. Think about that. The
distance between the 1967 lines and the suburbs of
Tel Aviv is similar to the distance between United
Nations Headquarters and Times Square. Israel is a tiny
country. That is why in any peace agreement, which
will obviously necessitate a territorial compromise, I
will always insist that Israel be able to defend itself, by
itself, against any threat.
Yet despite everything that has happened, some still
do not take Israel’s security concerns seriously, but I do
and I always will. That is because as Prime Minister of
Israel I am entrusted with the awesome responsibility
of ensuring the future of the Jewish people and the
future of the Jewish State. No matter what pressure is
brought to bear, I will never waver in fulfilling that
responsibility.
I believe that with a fresh approach on the part
of our neighbours, we can advance peace despite the
difficulties we face. In Israel, we have a record of making
the impossible possible. We have made a desolate land
flourish, and with very few natural resources we have
used the fertile minds of our people to turn Israel into
a global centre of technology and innovation. Peace
would enable Israel to realize its full potential and to
bring a promising future not only to our people and not
only to the Palestinian people, but to many, many others
in our region. But the old template for peace must be
updated. It must take into account new realities and
new roles and responsibilities for our Arab neighbours.
There is a new Middle East. It presents new dangers
but also new opportunities. Israel is prepared to work
with Arab partners and the international community to
confront those dangers and to seize those opportunities.
Together, we must recognize the global threat of
militant Islam, the primacy of dismantling Iran’s
nuclear weapons capability, and the indispensable role
of Arab States in advancing peace with the Palestinians.
All that may fly in the face of conventional wisdom, but
it is the truth. And the truth must always be spoken,
especially in the United Nations. Isaiah, a great prophet
of peace, taught us nearly 3,000 years ago in Jerusalem
to speak truth to power. He said:
“For the sake of Zion, I will not be silent. For the
sake of Jerusalem, I will not be still until her justice
shines bright and her salvation glows like a flaming
torch”.
Let us light a torch of truth and justice to safeguard
our common future.