7 Broadcast to the Nation by President Navon on Independence Day- 1 May 1979

Good evening to you all.

Yoni Netanyahu, who fell at Entebbe, wrote the following sentence in one of his last letters: "Today is Independence Day, twenty-five years since the establishment of the State. So few and yet so much."

That was six years ago. Today again, on the thirty-first anniversary of the state, we can say: So few, and yet so much. The years are so few and the achievements so many.

I once said that if the archangel Gabriel, according to one tradition, is in charge of the souls in the land of Israel, were to come to me and say: "I am prepared to take your soul from you at this moment and restore it to you at any time you choose in the past history of Israel." Then, apart from the revelation on Mount Sinai and the building of the temple, there is no other period in our history in which I could choose to live rather than this time of ours: the last generation of servitude and the first to redemption.

The events it has been our destiny to experience are so tremendous in content and scope that our generation is entitled to regard itself as uniquely privileged: It has enjoyed a privilege given only once in centuries or millennia. But no one is conscious of his own miracle. We are so deeply engrossed in everyday activity that we have no time to spare for such calculations. Events follow each other so continuously that today pushes yesterday into oblivion, and the burden of tomorrow already lies heavy on today. What was of supreme importance yesterday is pushed into a corner today, and what seems a tiny molehill today becomes a high mountain tomorrow.

Nothing is harder than to reach great achievements, and nothing is more boring than to enumerate them in detail. But from time to time we need to pause, consider, and evaluate our experiences, keeping a certain distance from the plane of everyday life. We owe it to ourselves, lest we lose the right perspective and deviate from the right road.

When I was born in Jerusalem in 1921, the Jewish population in the entire territory of the Land of Israel, on both sides of the Jordan, was not more than 80,000. Today there are more than three millions. In my childhood there were still struggles over the Hebrew language. Today it is spoken by kindergarten children and university lecturers. In my youth, the Jewish tomato was the subject of a special song, for soloist with orchestra and choir. Today we export hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of agricultural produce.

Here in Jerusalem, in the midst of the War of Independence, we celebrated 'the manufacture of a small pistol. Today we make aircraft and missiles, and try to find markets for them abroad. Thirty years ago, Israel's exports totalled fifty million dollars. Today fifty million dollars' worth of goods is what we sell to a single chain of stores in London: Marks and Spencer, while the grand total of our exports is close to 7,000 million dollars a year. Thirty years ago we sold the world oranges, primus-heads and artificial teeth. Today we export electronics, including some of the most advanced medical laser equipment in the world.

When David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the state, the entire Jewish population totalled 650,000. During the War of Independence this small community took in 100,000 new immigrants, in the following year 250,000 and in the next two years another 350,000. In other words, in four years the population was more than doubled, growing by 120 per cent.

In those days, over 200,000 men and women, old and young, lived in tents, enduring the burning winds of summer and the freezing cold of winter, without employment, without schools or clinics. People were embittered and frustrated, cursing the day they were born and Ben-Gurion who had brought them to Israel.

We endured all these things, because the people had a vision, and where there is no vision the people run wild. The citizen felt it his duty to make demands on himself and not on the state. He was prepared to put up with a strict austerity regime, to make do with egg powder, brown sugar and a small ration of meat once a week. He did not chase after material possessions. He regarded himself as working for a supreme goal and found spiritual satisfaction in service to the nation. This is the spirit that we long for today. That we need today.

Dear citizens,

I had no intentions of enumerating, one after the other, all the extraordinary achievements of this century. I did not dwell upon the wonderful settlement movement, or the ingathering of the exiles, to which there is no parallel in the history of mankind or on the forging of the Israel Defence Forces, their battles and their victories, or on the transformation of Israel into the world's major center of Jewish learning. All I wanted to do on this day of stocktaking, the festival of our independence, was to outline a few of the extraordinary things that our small people has been able to achieve by a strong will and an iron determination to mould its destiny with its own hands. Our losses, on the other hand, have not been few. Earlier today, the nation paid tribute to the memory of its heroes with profound grief and appreciation, for without their sacrifice we should not have reached the place we are today, and certainly not the peace treaty that was recently signed with Egypt.

For the first time since our return to the land of Israel we are in a state of peace with an Arab country. With all the pain we feel at the price of the peace, and our concern at the extent of its stability, this is a unique event in our history. We shall only be able to evaluate its full significance and the scope of its effects gradually, more and more, like the dawn of a new day. There may still be difficulties in the further progress of the negotiations. There will still be ups and downs. There will still be hostile forces who will try to tear apart the tender fabric of relationships that we are weaving with Egypt. But I believe that none of these possibilities can wipe out the new page that has begun to be written in our history.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There are problems the solution of which extends over a prolonged period. But there are some that require a short-term solution. For the coming year, it seems to me, there are three tasks to which we ought to give supreme priority.

The first is the question of housing for young couples, which goes beyond any formula of so many square metres per dwelling. It is a national problem of the first importance. It involves emotional difficulties of the gravest kind, the bitterest complaints and frustrations in the sphere of our social problems, especially when the young couples come from large families. A young couple must feel, must know, that they can build and plan their lives, even if. their parents have not bequeathed them the enormous sums required for buying a flat. We must eradicate bitterness and hostility towards society - sometimes even thoughts of emigration - from their hearts, and implant in their stead the feeling and the faith that society will give them a helping hand and solve their basic problem. The solution is not in heaven or across the sea. If this question is given its rightful place in the scale of priorities the problem will be solved, though not in a year or two. The government's recent decision on this subject, is a step in the right direction.

The second task focuses on those tens of thousands of boys and girls who are not at work or at school. They are, as it were, beyond the pale. They belong to the anarchy of the street. They are an ideal reservoir for delinquency, failure to do army service, and every kind of transgression. This question will not be solved of itself A supreme effort is required by all concerned in order to defuse this explosive mass as rapidly as possible. In this field, help can be given by youth movements, which can locate these boys and girls and try to introduce them to study or productive work.

In these remarks, I had no intention of trying to reveal things previously unknown. My purpose was to place a strong emphasis on them and to propose that they be given top priority in the social field during the coming year.

The third question, that of immigration and absorption, is more complex and difficult than most of our problems, but it is also the most vital. Aliya is the meaning of our existence and the condition for our development. The solution, however, is not entirely in our hands. The days of mass immigration have passed. Aliya is now the fruit of a personal decision by the Jew who fives in the Diaspora. At Passover he says "next year in Jerusalem", but he goes on living where he is. This is a painful situation, but it has not been proved to be inevitable. It is difficult to agree - we must not agree - that only three million Jews will live in their homeland, and eleven million will continue to live in exile. The "prisoners of Zion" who reached us this week can perhaps show the Jews of the world the meaning of yearnings for the homeland and the struggle for Aliya. On another occasion I tried to describe the conflicting processes that are taking place among these Jews. On the one hand, Jewish organizations with memberships in the millions join the Zionist movement. But, on the other hand, entire branches of our people wither away as a consequence of growing assimilation. A significant proportion of those who are lost consist of idealistic youth seeking a sublime idea, a great challenge, to which they can dedicate their spiritual powers and thus express their creative impulses.

I am not sure that we are familiar with the spiritual world of these young people, their ideals and yearnings. But it seems obvious to me that we should not try to attract them with material inducements. We must confront them on the spiritual level; we must find a way to reveal to them the eternal values of Judaism and its great heritage, to awaken within them a sense of a common historic destiny, to confront them with challenges that will win their hearts and enable them to realize both personal and national goals: The development of the desert, bold pioneering in all fields of activity, participation in the creation of a society of quality, living on the fruits of its labours, the unification of the nation and the enhancement of its cultural, scientific and technological standards, as well as other subjects that will fit in with their inner needs. The Jewish people is undergoing an accelerated sociological process that is transforming it more and more into a university-trained population. We must exert our minds to find new roads to this people. The old methods have lost direction and will not do any longer.

The Zionist movement alone cannot grapple with the task. The government and the Zionist organization must establish a special headquarters, which will be at work every day and every hour. What can be more vital than this?

In the meantime, we, the citizens, must create a fitting climate for the newcomer from the western countries. This means, first and foremost, an appropriate way of life, respect for the law, and courtesy towards one another. Both we and they should find it good and pleasant to live in this country. These are simple, almost banal words, but I have learned from experience that they contain a vital key to Aliya.

Nor do I feel that we should despair of the emigres. Their repatriation also requires a special and persistent effort, and not only in the material realm.

In the past, we confronted formidable problems and grappled with them successfully. If we dedicate our will and our energies I have no doubt that we shall also be able to tackle the problems I have mentioned. There are latent spiritual qualities in our people, which have only to be brought to light.

The Children of Israel, our sages said, were compared with the dust and also with the stars. When they decline, they go down to the dust. When they rise, they ascend to the stars. It is in our power to ensure that we do not descend to the dust, but soar to the stars.

Good evening, and a happy holiday.