|
Netanyahu challenges UN:
Have you
|
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Nearly 62 years ago, the United
Nations recognized the right of the Jewsan ancient people 3,500 years
oldto 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 Hitlers 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 wifes
grandparents, her fathers 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. Youre 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 advancesby 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 worlds 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 nothingabsolutely nothingfrom 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 didnt 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 countrys 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 civiliansIsrael 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 enemys civilian population from harms 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.
Heres 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 usmy
people, my countryof 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
peoplesa 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 dont 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
Churchills assessment of the unteachibility of mankind is for once proven
wrong.I speak here today in the hope that we
can learn from historythat 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.”
“Have I not commanded you?
Be strong and of good
courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for
the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua
1:9That promise applies to those who —
like the faithful Joshua — trusted God with all their hearts. Let’s pray
that God’s beloved Israel would soon return to Him in faith, love and
obedience. See
Old
Testament Cycle and
End-Time Events.