Israel

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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). 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.