President Herzog, on a state visit to a number of Western European nations, addressed the ten-nations members of the European Parliament, and used the opportunity to focus on the progress made by Israel in its quest for peace. He described Israel 's efforts to reach a contractual peace with Egypt and Syria going back to June 1967. He hailed Sadat's historic visit and initiative and dwelt at length on Israel's decision to withdraw from Lebanon. Text:
May I express to you my profound thanks for the honour accorded me and my country by inviting me to address this session of the European Parliament. I do so conscious not only of the intrinsic importance of the Parliament, but also because of the significance of this body. Indeed it has a profound significance for those of us who come from the Middle East, because here, despite all the problems involved, great nations which were divided for centuries by war, attrition, conflict and hatred, are joined together in what must represent a new and noble adventure in the history of mankind. Above all it represents a landmark and a lesson for the nations of the world in general and for the strife torn area from where I come, in particular.
You here represent much for one from Israel. You represent what is perhaps the most important of all between nations - dialogue. You represent an attempt to stress the unifying and to resolve the divisive. With all the growing pains which a new Community such as the European Community must endure, you represent a brave and noble example to the world. And as I stand here I cannot but offer a silent prayer that one day we will be privileged to have such an institution in which the representatives of the countries in the Middle East will meet to discuss their problems in free and open debate and not, as in so many instances now, in hostile and menacing diatribe.
In appearing here before you, I do so as a representative of what is, alas, the only parliamentary democracy, as you understand it, in our area. During my period as Ambassador at the United Nations I always regretted the fact that the democracies of the world did not see fit to create their own bloc and to support each other. It was sad at times to observe how democracies on occasion saw fit to abandon a small fellow democracy fighting for its existence in an area where totalitarian rule predominates.
Mr, President,
Ever since the establishment of the State of Israel, all the heads of our Governments, without exception, have declared that our conflict with our Arab neighbours cannot be resolved on the battlefield but only at the negotiating table. All our Governments emphasised our willingness to negotiate on all issues without prior conditions.
For years we maintained that dialogue is the only road to peace and that negotiations, however protracted and difficult must lead to positive results. For years we maintained that no advance could be made without negotiations and no negotiations had ever take place between us and our Arab neighbours without an advance being made. And then, one day, a great man arose in the Middle East and accepted our challenge. The late lamented President Anwar Sadat of Egypt came to Jerusalem, addressed the Knesset, set forth his demands and entered into negotiations. His challenge was taken up by the Government of Israel. The long and protracted negotiations which ensued, with the active help and historic involvement of the U.S. Government and its President, led ultimately to the signing of the Israel-Egyptian Peace Treaty. They also led to the Camp David Agreement, setting out the guidelines for a solution to the Palestinian Arab question. All the territory of Sinai was returned by Israel to Egypt.
Today the border with Egypt is open. Israeli tourists frequent Egyptian resorts in Sinai. A bus leaves Tel-Aviv every morning for Cairo; daily flights connect Israel and Egypt. True, there are problems. Not all developments have been as we would have wished them, but the machinery of negotiation and dialogue exists in the Israel embassy in Cairo and in the Egyptian embassy in Israel. Indeed Israeli and Egyptian negotiators met in Beersheba in recent days to discuss outstanding issues. It is sobering and sad indeed to reflect that the U.N. dedicated as it is supposed to be, to the peace of the world and to the achievement of peaceful relations between nations, condemned an agreement, the most tangible result of which has been the fact that since President Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem on November 19, 1977, not one Israeli or Egyptian soldier has died in the Sinai or on the Israeli-Egyptian border. Because of the process of peace set in motion by President Sadat's visit, there is not one house of mourning in Egypt or in Israel as a result of hostilities on the Egyptian-Israeli border.
Indeed, Mr. President, in May 1983 we signed an agreement with a second Arab country - with Lebanon. Again this was with the active intervention and participation of the U.S. Government, which has been a major force for peace in our area. This agreement was designed to lead to a Lebanon free from all foreign forces - be they Syrian, Israeli, or foreign terrorist groups. This in turn was to lead to a process of normalization along our border with Lebanon which would guarantee that
Southern Lebanon will never again be used for terrorist attacks on Israeli towns and villages in Northern Galilee.
It is sad and tragic, that the main purpose of Syria and its Lebanese surrogates was from the outset the abrogation of the Israel-Lebanon agreement. how tragic it is. against the background of the human misery which has been the lot of the Lebanese people since 1975, to observe that an agreement which would have advanced the cause of peace in Lebanon, was the main target of the Syrian Government, in pursuance of its policy of absorbing Lebanon and creating a Greater Syria. This perhaps, more than anything else demonstrates the inhuman tragedy of the Lebanese situation and the cruel alternatives which face those who are involved. In the final analysis, it is the Lebanese people which is suffering a tragedy, the scope of which it is difficult to comprehend.
Mr. President, let me remind you that Israeli forces entered Lebanon because terrorists in the vicinity of its borders had been making life intolerable for approximately one fifth of the population of my country. Children were growing up in shelters, frequently not seeing the light of day for days on end. Innocent travellers and passers-by were being killed on the roads and in the streets by Soviet supplied Katyusha rockets. Industry was almost at a standstill. Farmers went into the fields at the risk of their lives. Life in the towns and villages was being paralysed. I challenge you to tell me how each of your governments would have reacted in similar circumstances.
A month ago our National Unity Government decided on withdrawal from Lebanon in stages, back to the international border. This withdrawal is now taking place and in less then a week from now our forces will have reached the first phaseline in the withdrawal.
We gave adequate notice to the Lebanese Government and to the U.N. of our intentions. What has been so tragic, and has moved me most, has been the fact that most of the communal groups in Lebanon have been privately urging us not to withdraw, their public declarations notwithstanding.
We have left the option open all along for an agreed political-military solution between Israel and Lebanon. We have emphasized the important role that U.N. Forces can play in preventing further communal strife, in protecting the weaker minority groups and in preventing the return of terrorists to usurp Lebanese sovereignty in Southern Lebanon. The blame for whatever might happen in Lebanon after the long period of notice that we gave, in which we agreed in principle to hand over the areas we leave in an orderly fashion to the Lebanese army, and to UNIFIL, will rest squarely at the door of the Lebanese Government and of its masters in Damascus.
Israel's primary interest in embarking on the "Peace for Galilee" campaign against the PLO was the security of our northern border. We are interested in a sovereign and independent Lebanon, free of foreign forces on its soil, capable of acting as necessary to ensure its security and to live in proper relations with its neighbours. We will continue to work for this. But we will insist on our northern towns and villages in the Galilee being free from the nightmare of Katyusha rocket attacks threatening life and property.
Obviously, one of the problems facing Israel in the field of our relations with the Arab world is that of the Palestine Arabs, residents of the Judea, Samaria districts in the West Bank and Gaza district. It is clear to all in Israel that this is a major problem which must find a solution. We had gone a long way towards solving the problem when our Government signed the Camp David Accord. To our regret the Palestinian Arabs and Jordan did not take advantage of the opportunity which Camp David gave them, refused to join the negotiations and rejected Israel's outstretched hand.
We regret too that Egypt discontinued the autonomy talks, despite its undertaking on this subject. The situation today is an anomalous one. Egypt is unwilling to reopen the autonomy negotiations without the participation of Jordan and the Palestinians. Jordan has yet to indicate its agreement to enter into such negotiations. Thus we find ourselves in a vicious circle. The tragedy of the Palestinian people has been their leadership which has invariably rejected compromise. Had they entered the autonomy negotiations which Israel proposed at the outset, the Palestine Arabs would now have been living in a regime of full autonomy, as laid down by the Camp David Accord, and we would by now have been in the concluding phase of negotiations on the final status of the territories. Here is another example of a missed opportunity which characterizes the Palestinian tragedy.
In the history of the Arab Israeli conflict, Israel was invariably prepared for compromise. On no issue was the Palestinian Arab leadership ever prepared for any form of compromise.
Only now that the bloody conflict in the PLO has weakened the reign of terror which the PLO exercised over the Palestinian Arab population, are the Palestinian Arabs beginning to give expression to their feeling of betrayal at the hands of the Arab countries and of their leadership over the years.
King Hussein has hesitated on the issue of negotiating with Israel. He wants Yassar Arafat's approval. Arafat, for his part, was and is looking over his shoulder at the extreme elements in the PLO and as in the past, so today, he is incapable of reaching any clear cut decision or policy. He cannot apparently escape from the language of equivocation and double-talk in favour of clear unequivocal enunciation of policy. For years we maintained consistently that within the equation of the Arab-Israeli conflict the PLO is an irrelevant organization. An organization with the aims of the PLO as laid down in the Palestinian covenant, including the destruction of Israel, is doomed to failure unless it can do one of two things: either be strong enough to achieve its aims, or have a leadership strong enough to compromise. The PLO was capable of neither, and accordingly doomed itself historically to oblivion. The Camp David Accord was a breakthrough of historic dimensions. It provided once again an opportunity for the Palestinian Arabs. It would be a tragedy for them to let this opportunity slip, as they have done in the case of all previous opportunities which were offered to them.
I make it a point of meeting very frequently with the Arab leaders in the Judea and Samaria districts of the West Bank and the Gaza district. What is perhaps characteristic of the new winds blowing in the Palestinian camp, is the fact that all are willing to admit today that their great tragedy has been an extreme and intransigent Arab leadership over the years, whether it was the Mufti of Jerusaelm or Shukeiry, or Nasser or Arafat. For 19 years, from 1949 to 1967 Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt the Gaza Strip. There were no settlements in these areas then and there was nothing to stop the creation of a Palestinian state. The Arab Governments did not create one because then as today, despite their rhetoric - in the Middle East lip-service is the cheapest commodity available - the last thing they were interested in was a Palestinian State.
10 days after the conclusion of the Six-Day-War, on June 19 1967, the Israeli national coalition government, which included Mr. Begin, agreed to return Sinai to Egypt and the Golan Heights to Syria, in return for peace and demilitarization. Shortly thereafter it prepared for negotiations with King Hussein. King Hussein was prevented by President Nasser from coming to the negotiations pending the decision of the Khartoum Arab Summit Conference which enunciated the Arab policy of three NO's - no negotiations enunciated the Arab policy of three NO's - no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no peace with Israel.
In 1977, after President Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem, the then Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, proposed Autonomy for the Palestinian Arabs. Israel, Egypt and the United States negotiated most of the Autonomy Agreement, but Jordan and the Palestinians refused to join these negotiations.
Here you have the sad story of the Palestinian tragedy. The tragedy of a people with an intransigent leadership backed by the assassin's bullet.
A dramatic outcome of President Sadat's historic initiative in coming to Jerusalem in 1977 was a psychological revolution in the area. An historic watershed was crossed. As far as the central moderate elements in the Arab world are concerned, whether they give public expression to it or not, Israel is accepted in the area. All of you who have followed our conflict closely, will readily appreciate the significance of this development. The debate in certain Arab countries today is not whether or not to negotiate with Israel - the debate is a substantive one on what issues to negotiate, who can deliver the goods and what is there in it for each one of the parties. Tens of thousands of Israelis frequent Egyptian hotels. Thousands of Lebanese cross daily into Israel to work. Arabs from all over the Middle East come to benefit from medical facilities in Israel. In the past summer 180,000 Arabs from all over the Middle East crossed the Jordan River. Annually thousands of Israeli Moslems make the Hai pilgrimage to Mecca.
Our Arab and Druze population maintain close links to the cultural currents and mainstreams of the Arab life. Not so long ago I opened the Israel-Arab Book Week with a display of books from all over the Arab world. Nightly, Israelis watch Arab television broadcasts from all the Arab neighbouring countries, Nightly Arabs in countries surrounding Israel tune in to Israel television in Arabic and, incidentally, get their first insight in many cases to the process of democracy and political debate in action.
I am not saying that there are no problems and that complete peace reigns - far from it. But the impression as reflected outside Israel of a black and white confrontation between two peoples, is utterly false. The shades of grey in the picture far outweigh the extremes of black and white.
Mr. President, I am the Head of a State, 17% of whose citizens are Arabs and Druzes. Given the problems which we have faced over the past 37 years and the fact that most Arab countries continue to maintain a state of war with Israel, the condition of our Arab population, which is a loyal and integral part of our society, is perhaps the greatest tribute to our free and democratic society. Our Arab and Druze citizens are an important element in the political life of our country, participating as they do within their own ethnic frameworks, or within the general party framework in the country. Many of you met their representatives in the Knesset. We can boast the only free Arab press in the Middle East, published both by the Arabs of Israel and by the Arabs residing in the territories administered by Israel. Ours is the only society in the whole Middle East in which an Arab who feels that he is being politically wronged, may turn to the courts of the land and does so. The Jewish Mayor of Jerusalem, received more votes from the Arab population in East Jerusalem, in the last municipal elections than any Arab Mayor ever received in the city.
Mr. President, as I look at the societies which are obsessed so much with decrying Israel, I do so with a feeling of intense pride in the people of Israel, which I represent here before you - Jewish, Arab and Druze.
It is because we are so proud of the achievements of our own Arab minority enjoying all the privileges of a free and open society, despite the attitude of Arab countries around us to Israel, that we can raise our voice once again in bodies such as this Parliament to ask for similar treatment of our minorities in other countries.
I know that you, a body representing people dedicated to the supreme value of the dignity of man, do not remain silent in the face of the imprisonment by the Soviet Union of our Jewish brothers and sisters whose sole crime is to want to rejoin their brothers and sisters in Israel. This "crime" is compounded by an additional one of their insistence on the exercise of their religious rights and the preservation of their ancient culture.
I appeal once again from this rostrum to the Soviet Union to grant equality in the field of education, religion and human rights to its Jewish citizens and to allow those who wish to join their brothers and sisters in Israel, to do so. Is it not a sad commentary on what has happened to our world that on the eve of 1984, a Soviet Jewish citizens, Joseph Bigun, was sentenced to 7 years in prison and an additional period of 5 years of exile for the "crime" of teaching Hebrew, the language of the Prophets, the language in which the immortal prophecy of the Prophet Isaiah about peace among nations was spoken.
We - you and we - dare not pass over in silence the deprivation of the basic freedoms as we know them, such as our people are experiencing in the Soviet Union, in Syria and in other countries.
We, as a people, know our failings, we know our shortcomings. We do not need to be lectured on them. We are a free and open society in which they are openly discussed. We have never compromised and will never compromise on certain issues. One of them is the struggle against the scourge of international terrorism, from which we and you have suffered so much. We are proud of the fact that our response to this danger to the world has been firm, unequivocal and courageous.
We believe that we have also set an example in our approach to our people's sufferings. We have never compromised on this issue and no sacrifice has been too great a one for us. Only last month, in the midst of a most grave economic crisis which is affecting our country, was published the noble saga of the absorption of many of our brothers and sisters from Ethiopia.
The Israel-Arab conflict gave rise to two refugee problems of equal dimensions. Some 800,006 Arabs and some 800,000 Jews from Arab and Islam countries became refugees. Despite the enormous difficulties involved, we absorbed our refugees, trained them, housed them, gave them a new life with dignity and honour. Compare this with the behaviour of certain Arab countries who left the Arab refugees rot in camps for over 30 years so as to use them as political pawns. All this, when the revenue of one day's oil production in the Arab world could solve the entire Palestinian refugee problem.
We are proud of our cooperation programme with the developing countries. Thousands of their people, including nations with no diplomatic relations with us have been and are being trained in Israel. In 1948 when the State was established, we had little or no food and were living under the most extreme conditions of austerity. Today, thanks to some of the most advanced technologies in the world in the field of agriculture, we can feed our people. In addition, one of our important exports, as you are doubtless aware, is that of agricultural products. But this export is threatened. The European Community had in the past recognized its own traditional association with the countries of the Mediterranean Basin, an association which historically was so important to the cultures of all our people. It gave expression to this community of interest in the association agreements which we had so laboriously reached. The negotiations of the Community -with Spain and Portugal, as no remedial arrangements are reached with my country, are threatening not only our agricultural exports to the countries of Europe, but are virtually threatening the social and economic basis of Israel's all important agricultural sector, which represents not only the livelihood, but also the dreams of generations. I appeal from this rostrum to you and through you to the countries of the EEC not to close your eyes to a problem which, if not tackled, could turn into a tragedy.
We are struggling to overcome a very serious economic problem brought about by the fact that we have to devote one third of our national budget to defence. For we face some of the largest armies of the world today whose governments have not renounced the aim of our destruction. The combined forces facing us on our eastern front are not much smaller than Nato's forces in Europe. But in trying to solve our economic problem we have never lost sight of the human being. The battle to overcome inflation and reach economic stability might be slower than in other countries because we are loath to condemn entire generations to the tragedy of unemployment. Many of you who are suffering from this social tragedy will understand our hesitation.
Standing before you, the exalted representatives of 10 sovereign European States, united in the cause of the advancement of the lot of your citizens, I cannot but reflect in sorrow how far removed we in our area are from the fulfillment of the dream which the founders of the European Community had in mind, when they finally set their feet on the road which has brought you so far. You might, as you were elected to do, look at what has not yet been achieved in Europe. But, I as an outsider, who comes from a people whose heritage is so deeply and often so tragically interwoven with that of Europe, cannot but reflect with envy on your achievement.
We, in Israel, Jews and Arabs, dream of the day when peace will come. But you, during 40 long years have achieved peace and the continent of Europe has not known war. We, in Israel dream that our neighbours and ourselves will emulate you. It is with your example in mind that from this rostrum I turn once again to our neighbours and to the representatives of the great Arab nation and the peoples of Islam, in the name of our common heritage and the golden ages of cooperation between our peoples in the past, and say, let us renew our days as in the past for our mutual benefit and for the benefit of the peoples of our region.
I once again extend the hand of friendship and cooperation on behalf of my people to our neighbours. Let us begin to talk, let us open a dialogue, let us forget the bitterness of the past and more forward together on a basis of mutual respect and tolerance to a new era, which will bring healing, recovery and advance to a region which has suffered so much.