181 Address by Prime Minister Begin to Israel Bonds Leaders- 2 August 1978

On the first of February, 1978, I wrote to one of the great world statesmen a personal communication in which I described to him our peace proposal. The most sweeping, forthcoming peace proposal ever elaborated and produced by any government of Israel for the last 30 years. I added, "May I say that I consider it to be one of the ironies of our times that having made such a sweeping and far-reaching peace proposal, the Government of Israel should be the object of such ridiculous charges as intransigence, not forthcoming and so forth." I am not discouraged by such misrepresentations. I wholeheartedly believe that it is the nature of truth to conquer and that distortions will inevitably spend themselves. I have to admit, ladies and gentlemen, and for the last 6 months I asked myself, 'Is this lifetime belief that truth must prevail and win the day and its travesty will never gain? perhaps I was for a lifetime mistaken?' Until a fortnight ago that travesty of justice and distortion of truth had the upper hand in the media and in the press, in many a country including the United States, and they used almost daily to say that Egypt wants peace and President Sadat is the peacemaker and Israel does not want peace. Israel wants land, and that I am an obstacle to peace. My dear friends, we have patience. We proved that we have patience until the 17th of May, 1977. We have patience and we never doubted even one day that truth will prevail. Now tonight I have some good news for you. Truth already started to prevail in the world. I have to prove this thesis.

When the Sunday Times and the Washington Post, from both sides of the ocean, suddenly discovered that President Sadat zigzags from the point of view of peace negotiations and that he proves intransigent and his policies may be an obstacle to peace, that is the beginning of the re-opening of eyes of public opinion. When there are some remarks by the spokesman of the State Department I must be very careful, I don't know what is going to be said tomorrow, but still it's again a proof that something happened, and ladies and gentlemen, why did it happen?

Since President Sadat visited Jerusalem, since we talked in the King David Hotel for 3 hours on end, the never-to-be-forgotten nocturnal talk between him and myself, only ourselves being in the room, which he finished with the following declaration: "You are my friend." Well, this is the highest declaration of love between men, because a man says to a woman some different words, but if a man says to a man, 'You are my friend', that is the declaration. Since those two days in which there was an open heart, friendliness, readiness to listen to each other, and mainly the two common pledges, never again war, never again bloodshed and we shall negotiate. Since those days, everybody asks the following question, "Does Sadat want peace with Israel?" Now, I'll answer it tonight, for the first time perhaps elaborating in some detail the question and the reply. Yes, my friends, Sadat does want peace with Israel. But on his conditions. What are those conditions? This question must be very carefully analyzed and rationally answered.

His first condition is Israel will totally withdraw to the lines of June 1967 - those lines preceding the Six-Day War which a man like Abba Eban calls with the dreadful words, 'the lines of Auschwitz'. Secondly, we mustn't even mention the so-called territorial compromise because if we do, then President Sadat will not even negotiate with us. Thirdly, all the Jewish settlements in southern and northern Sinai, Ramat HaGolan, Judea, Samaria, the Gaza Strip, etc., must be dismantled and must disappear. And, fourthly, Israel must give an a priori commitment for the total withdrawal, 16 kms. from the seashore, otherwise there won't be any negotiations. In advance. These are his conditions. What do they mean? Yes, on these conditions President Sadat is ready to make peace with us because he knows that they will put Israel in the direct danger of being destroyed. So now you have the full truthful reply. If any Gentile friend asks you, "What do you think? Does President Sadat want peace with Israel?" Answer him, "Yes, he does, but on his conditions and his conditions mean the danger of Israel's disappearance." And now we shall analyze point by point those demands.

My dear friends, let us imagine for a while we surrender to that ultimatum and we withdraw to the lines preceding the Six-Day War. Every house is in the range of artillery fire. Every man, woman and child is in the direct danger to their lives, and now some people bring the example from the past called Munich. It is a very serious example, but why should we go to a town nearly 40 years ago, or exactly 40 years ago, when we can have this example before our own eyes - Lebanon. The same people, all of them Arabs, only different religions and traditions, Christians and Moslems. Now, the houses of the Christians are in the range of the artillery fire of the Syrians. What do the Syrians do? They shell the houses and kill the people. In the last month, 2,000 Christians were killed in their own homes in Beirut and many thousands wounded, of course, most of them invalids for a lifetime. Let me tell you my friends, we must draw the conclusion. If our houses would be in the range of their artillery fire, what would they do to us if they can do this to the Christians?

Let me also say tonight to the Christian world, that as a man is a human being, sometimes I feel ashamed of the indifference of the civilized world to the massacre going on day in, day out, night in, night out, with the whole world looking, knowing, hearing and doing nothing and may I give you this piece of news so that you are even prouder Jews than you have been until tonight. Only because there is a Jewish State in the Middle East the Christian minority in Lebanon can live. But we don't have to go to 1938 in order to prove our thesis. We go to yesterday. We don't have to travel to Europe. We go to Beirut and we draw our conclusion. Soviet artillery has got a range of 43.8 kilometers, nearly 44 kilometers. We would be, under those circumstances 9 miles, or 14-15 kilometers from the seashore. Then they would cover with their artillery fire Tel-Aviv, Jaffa, Petach Tikva, Kfar Saba, Beer Sheba, Afula, Rehovot, B'nei Brak, Rishon Lezion. Every city and town. If you could see a compact group of our people, 2.5 million living between Haifa and Ashkelon, alongside the seashore, whereas our enemies, the implacable enemies, those with the Palestinian Charter, would be on the mountains above us, with that artillery, you can now realize completely the danger that would be looming over us. This is his demand. Then I can tell you my generation would survive. Whether our children would live is a great question. And we stand here and live here in order to make sure that our children's children, for all generations to come will live in an independent Jewish state.

Then the demand that we must a priori give the commitment for the total withdrawal in order that we should meet somewhere, Beer Sheba or somewhere else, means paradoxically a demand that we should give up the principle of negotiations and negotiations themselves in order to meet with the representatives of Egypt. What paradox is it? if he gives such a prior commitment what is to be negotiated? And President Sadat says that he is ready to guarantee our security. Thank you. President Sadat is going to guarantee our security. We have to rely on his guarantees. In our time, in our region, when you sign agreement after agreement and no agreement is being kept among themselves. It would be the highest expression of irresponsibility to rely on such guarantees instead of real security.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, my friend Ezer was in Salzburg and he met President Sadat for three hours. They were alone, they talked frankly. Sadat has got some weakness for Ezer. He likes him. You cannot dislike Ezer Weizman as I can tell you and Sadat likes him. Very nice. So they talked for 3 hours and during the talk, President Sadat made a certain suggestion to Ezer and Ezer brought it to me and we dealt with it very seriously. I answered and I'll read to you the letter.

"Dear Mr. President, my friend and colleague, Defense Minister General Weizman, delivered to me a message from Salzburg. Your suggestion to me is that I should make, on behalf of Israel, a unilateral act of transferring El Arish and the area known as the Moses Mountain to Egyptian jurisdiction. You will understand Mr. President, that no unilateral step is feasible by any country, whereas negotiation about an accord based on reciprocity is always possible. I suggest that for the purpose of those negotiations the representatives of our countries meet. They may convene in Haifa or in Alexandria, in Cairo or Jerusalem, or in any other place in our countries or abroad. With best personal regards, etc."

And President Sadat didn't want to receive this letter and now today I know that he got insulted by it. Have you heard such an insult? I got a suggestion to deliver El Arish to the Egyptian jurisdiction during a state of war, with no peace, with no quid pro quo, unilateral, and then the mountain called the Sinai Mountain or Moses Mountain, of which the legend goes that from that mountain the Ten Commandments were given. It is a legend. We don't know. Let us look for Mt. Sinai. But there is such a legend. And there is Santa Caterina. The famous monastery and he wants the two places and I said, "Well, we are ready to consider it, but it should be made on the base of reciprocity. Let us negotiate. What is the reciprocity?" An insult. We are not so easily insulted, may I tell you. Usually we hear words about Arab pride. Kol hakavod. I will never speak about Jewish pride but I will always speak about Jewish dignity. Yet, I do not answer, because I don't want to exacerbate the situation and on this we are also patient because we want peace and we want to negotiate peace and we want security and we shall never, never give up hope that peace will come and therefore I prefer to be silent on this, even on such a poetic comparison that I am a robber of animals and I am like a man who stole a cow and now he asks for a ransom for it. I must tell you, since Demosthenes I haven't heard such a great rhetorical figure and comparison. I am a robber of animals and then I ask for money for the cow. May I tell you ladies and gentlemen, we don't need Egyptian cows. Our milk-producing industry is self-sustaining. And may I also say something in truthfulness, Mr. President, my friend. You tried three times to take from us our souls but with God's help you failed and we won and so it will be in the future if at any time we are attacked. And please don't threaten us with warlike operations. We cannot be frightened by such operations. We hate war, we hate bloodshed. For us, one human being is a world apart, but you should remember, if ever we are attacked we shall defend ourselves in this country and it is the nature of Israel's self-defense that sometimes it finds its expression in a victorious counter attack. So don't threaten us please. Let us negotiate. That is good. No more war, no more bloodshed and everything is negotiable. Don't tell us that we must give you a commitment that sovereignty and territory is not negotiable at all from your point of view, so that you will be so kind to sit with us around the table. I'll tell you ladies and gentlemen, what we are going to do in order to make sure that there is a future for our children. We are ready always to negotiate, but we shall never surrender to an ultimatum.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, this truth is starting to prevail. People see the situation better now. There was a session in Washington. Questions were asked, especially after the package deal wherein the so-called moderation Saudi Arabia which we were promised to see in our time. On the contrary. Mr. Fahed came to Cairo to say "Finish it and let us go back and make friends with Assad," etc. But we will continue on that road never to give up hope for peace, always believing that truth will win the day and it is winning the day. Now, my friends, I can tell you, since last fortnight, after six months of painful phenomena, we asked this question "For God's sake, it is all distorted and why should it be so? We made the most forthcoming proposal and we are always being accused." Now we can see with patience and with devotion to truth and to the just cause there will come better days. I do hope I can say that now also in the circles of the American government our case and stand is better understood. I hope so, and so in the media and so in the press. So, there is no reason whatsoever to despair about peace suggestions. Indeed, Mr. Atherton couldn't bring us today good news. He said the Egyptians do not agree to that tripartite conference between Egyptians and Americans and Israelis. Well, perhaps they won't agree even if Secretary Vance comes here. We welcome him as an honored guest, as a fine man, as a friend, and Israel wants that tripartite conference in Sinai as it was decided at the Leeds Conference. But no more illusions. What the people call territorial compromise is being utterly rejected, completely rejected by the other side. Let us know the facts as they are. Eventually peace must come. Every war is evitable. What is inevitable is peace, as we can learn from history. It will come. I hope in our own time. But the proper road to achieve it is to be steadfast, not arrogant, no insulting words. Steadfast, knowing the justice of our cause. Where is the nation which would agree to have its Knesset, its parliament in the range of enemy's fire? simple mortars. Remember my dear friends, it was not so 11 years ago. We have now an eastern front. Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, together nearly 6,000 tanks. More than 3,000 heavy guns. More than 500 first-line fighting planes and bombers. On the threshold of our homes. If we should leave this mountain then the whole front would move against us one day, and the Iraqis acquired already a thousand trucks for tanks. In other words, in 48 hours they can transfer through the desert, 4 armoured divisions in two days, in 48 hours to be here again on the threshold of our homes. How can we put in jeopardy after all the experience we have, the whole civilian population of Israel, men, women and children. But our generation, with all it lived through had to give the sacred oath that this must never happen again. It is our sacred duty to defend our people and not to put them into such a danger to their very existence and we are going to fulfill this duty. Our peace plan is no danger to any Arab state, to even one Arab resident. It means real peace with security for all. Advancement, human dignity and therefore it must work. With patience it will. Now I appeal to you tonight for this sacred cause and just cause. Let us all stand together. The Jewish people abroad, the Jewish people in Israel and you will see as it happened already, after 5-6 months of difficulties, of sometimes unbelievable distortion of the facts, already there is the beginning of the dawn of the truth and its winning days are coming so it will be in the future and it will complete win against any attempts to distort it. Let us stand together and we shall live to see great days. There may be difficult days as well, but they will be great. We shall live to see an aliyah from Russia.