Mrs. Thatcher started her visit to Israel by kneeling on the floor at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. The next day, Mr. Peres extolled her leadership at a state dinner in Jerusalem. He stressed the role Britain and she played in the Arab world and expressed the hope that Britain could help promote a peace process in the region. Excerpts:
..We are so pleased to have you in Jerusalem. I won't be a typical Israeli; I shall remain modest all the time and just pay compliments to Great Britain. I feel at least on the one issue we are better than you are: And that is that we have had a lady prime minister before you have. And not only do we cherish that experience, we don't regret it. As a matter of fact, we saw Mrs. Golda Meir at war as a leader, and politics [inaudible] and otherwise as such a fine lady, with motherly feelings, that we have learned to admire her being prime minister, and to admire the way she has set an example so dear to our heart. So if the British people ask us beforehand, we would strongly recommend (inaudible) a lady prime minister in their own history, and I'm sure that following us, the British people are not disappointed in having this very unique and important experience.
It took us 38 years for us to earn your visit here. Would you come at another occasion, you would never have Mr. Shamir and myself sitting at the same table in a reception for a British prime minister. And today, being free of controversy and arguments, I can share a deep feeling for the history of cooperation between Great Britain and Israel, from the Balfour Declaration to this very evening where you have set an important precedent in the annals of our relationship. We are free today to remember, we are free to cooperate, and we feel that you came not just to add another chapter to our history, but on a mission of good will being yourself a politician of convictions, as you call it, you really have come and tried to add to the attempt to bring peace to this historic, troublesome region which is called the Middle East.
From our point of view, the existing relations between Great Britain and the Arab countries is an advantage as the path that you have walked among Arab leaders is an added advantage because finally we too would like to live in peace and understanding with the Arab countries and the Arab leaders. And I am sure that you can add a great deal to the climate and strategy of peace in the Middle East. Surely right now we are facing a great deal of difficulties, obstacles on the road of peace, yet we have to maintain a climate of hope, a strategy of patience that may renew the momentum of peace in the Middle East.
Our own agenda in order to follow this process begins really in our efforts to settle the outstanding issues between Egypt and ourselves. A great deal was done already in the past, and the remaining straits are not too wide to overcome. Right now we are in the middle of negotiating to complete the full agreement with Egypt, hoping that not only shall we settle these agreements, but we shall open a wide door where both Egypt and ourselves together can bring our countries into the camp of peace and offer joint suggestions on the burning issues of the day.
The second point on our agenda, and I know Mrs. Prime Minister that you are very sensitive to it, is our coexistence with the Arab people residing on the West Bank and Gaza. No matter what the permanent solution will be, but as for today and every day, we would like to see them live in peace, in security, in economic progress. We feel that even temporary measures may be of a permanent nature, remembering that both of us, their people and our people, have to live forever together as neighbors, one close to the other. And you will find, I'm sure, in our country, a sincere readiness to improve the conditions and the quality of life of the people, the Arab people, who live in the territories. I know that you are meeting some of their leaders tomorrow; and I believe you can surely deliver these very deep and sincere feelings on our side. Our enemies were never a nation, were never a people; our problem is always hostility and belligerency, and that we would like to overcome.
Then again, we hope that the day will come when we will be able to meet face to face with the Jordanian leadership and King Hussein, whom you know so well, and who we feel too is looking for a peaceful solution between his country and ours and for the solution of the Palestinian problem. From our point of view, we wish the king will overcome the curtain of timidity, of shyness, and meet face to face with us. And while we start at the point of disagreement, there is still room for real ingenuity, for solutions that were neither announced nor even thought of, but which lay in the future and that may permit him and us to solve a problem which is so hard upon him and so difficult upon us.
The fourth issue on our agenda is surely the recent tension that was raised between Syria and ourselves. And I'm not sure that the Syrians are ready to meet with us again on a face to face level and discuss the prospects for peace, but even if we don't have peace, if we don't sense a readiness on the part of the Syrians to go in a peaceful direction, the prevention of war, the de-escalation of the rhetoric, is again an immediate need which we on the Israeli side are ready to contribute, and are doing [inaudible], namely to translate declarations and suspicions into a full-fledged war.
Then again, we appreciate very much the position that President Reagan, and you Mrs. Thatcher took in trying to bring an end to capitulation to terror. I would like just to mention another angle of the international terror - that is that the international terror in fact terrorizes the leaders of the Middle East. I think the real victims of terror, not only in physical terms but in political terms, are many Arab leaders who are simply frightened or paralyzed by the existence of threats by the terrorist organizations to move in a direction that they themselves may be convinced is necessary for their own destinies and their own people. Mayors, presidents, ministers, where on so many occasions threatened and even assassinated, that many others of them are worried or frightened to take the necessary steps and speak. The serious attempt under the leadership of the United States and the United Kingdom to bring an end to this frightening campaign which endangers the lives of so many innocent people which paralized the processes of good will and hopeful occasions is really a great hope for our nation.
And then, finally, I do believe the over-riding problem in the region right now is the economic situation very much, because the drop in the price of oil - which has affected not so much the oil-producing countries, but the countries that are neighboring the oil producing countries. Countries like Egypt or Jordan or others, who were helped, with heavy contributions of wealth, of commerce with the oil-producing countries, lost those opportunities and are facing immediately an economic crisis. We cannot solve the economic crisis of other countries. But we are surely interested in seeing countries like Egypt and Jordan doing well economically, in a mood to negotiate, and not becoming a victim of an impossible crisis that may overshadow the chances for peace and progress. Very few people realize that the annual Middle Eastern military expenditure has increased from $23.8 billion in 1973 to $60.9 billion in 1983, three times as much in a region eaten up by poverty and starvation. And I am afraid that many of our countries are beating their plowshares into swords, instead of putting it the other way around. There is a real need, for the good of the people, Arabs and Jews, young and old, Moslems and Christians, that we change the priorities. To grow and invest in the future of all of us. To cut the expenditure of the military budget, to invest more in the social infrastructure, in the economic well-being. [inaudible] I would say that hopeless as peace may sometime seem, the politics of force are even more hopeless. We have to go from the politics of war to the politics of peace, which will benefit all of us equally.
Mrs. Thatcher, it is a real pleasure and a moving occasion of our country, for our people, to have you here in the united, independent Jerusalem, as a great representative of the great British people, as a lady who became a world leader in her own right. I think you have felt this in the short time you're here, wherever you went. It stems from the depths of our conviction and the depths of our feeling. It is in that sense that I shall raise my glass. Ladies and gentlemen, may I ask you to rise and raise our glass to the Queen of England, to the Prime Minister and Mr. Thatcher, our welcome guests. L'Chayim!