In the morning of 16 September, the government held its first meeting to determine the modalities of its operation. It focussed attention of the grave economic situation. That evening the prime minister addressed the United Jewish Appeal Leadership Conference in Jerusalem. He devoted the bulk of his speech to the new spirit of unity pervading in Israel and saluted Israel-America relations. He announced that the first foreign policy priority would be to withdraw the Israeli army from Lebanon Highlights follow:
"... Over the last several weeks, we tried to commit a sin in Jewish history. We tried to do something which is completely anti-Jewish - and that is, to unite our people. We are so used to being divided, to argue, to attack each other, that we feel almost at a loss to sit together, and try to deal with the major issues of our lives. In our case, the Jewish people had a democracy before we actually had a people. We had parties before we became a nation. And this most unusual experience of the in gathering of exiles from all over the world - which at the beginning was a sensation, and then it became a drama - divided our people not necessarily according to the political parties, but also very much ethnically, emotionally, religiously; and in the last electoral campaign we have discovered time and again that we are not divided just according to the political parties, but we are divided in a different way, more than it is necessary, more than we can afford. And then we reached the simple conclusion: Why not try and have a democracy, and a Jewish democracy, which instead of being so much polarized, fragmented, misunderstood by each other up to the point of becoming weak and revolting, why not try our hands, and come to terms together, and serve our people as one government. Usually, in a democracy, when you have a majority and you have a minority, the rule is that the majority decides and the minority complies. Here we tried a completely new structure: To form a government which is not based actually on the rule of the majority, but on the experiment of mutual, continuous and permanent conviction. We have to pursue rather than decide. And when you look at the government, it is so Jewish, so varied, so refreshing, so difficult, that you can hardly believe your owns eyes. We have in the government a former president, two former prime ministers, three former chiefs of staff, two former generals, a real rabbi, and we have a member of a kibbutz, a member of a moshav, a member of a development town, and three full-fledged professors... Now go and run a government like it!
"Yet there was an additional sense, a more serious one, and a real purpose in that union. One I have mentioned already: We felt that we as a people are simply too much divided. We have developed a style which bordered almost with hatred, exaggeration. We lost the style which is so necessary in a pluralistic, democratic country. And since the parliament and the government and the politicians are in a way educating the people, we felt deeply and strongly that we have to offer another style, a different government marked by (inaudible-ed.) More restraint... In order to return to a normal, accepted and promising way of life.
"Then, we feel very strongly that the economic state of affairs in our country reached a low point. We know how hard and devoted, time and again, over the years, you and your friends and your children worked so hard to make Israel an economic success. Now we feel that we have to turn first of all to ourselves, control our standard of life, reduce our expenses, and make Israel an independent, self-reliant country from an economic point of view. The problems are serious. We have a very high expenditure for the security of Israel. We are the only country on earth, in the free world, that spends close to 25% of its G.N.P. for the security of the country. A quarter of our labor force is engaged in the army and in the military industries; and alas, it cannot be reduced. We have to defend ourselves, and surely this affects the whole economy of the country. Still, we have to deal with the education and making of a new people, which is another expense. Yet in spite of all that we are convinced that this generation of ours, at this time, must work harder, more seriously in order to balance our own budget and our life. So the government of national unity is a turn to ourselves with a demand to not spend frivolously, to try to balance our budget and to reintroduce the element of growth - particularly with high technology - in the economy of our country.
"And there is a third goal which united the government, in spite of the different points of view, the difference between the parties, and that is to bring an end to our presence in Lebanon. We want to secure the Galil, the northern part of Israel, and then bring our boys back home, and do so in an air which is free of criticism, of controversy. Unfortunately, the end of the war in Lebanon became a partisan issue in the country; and we feel that under a united, serious government we can make decisions to the point, without turning our heads to any sort of criticism or resentment, to do so in a way of national consensus, with due respect to our soldiers, who did a marvelous job, though they're not responsible for the nature of the mission, and relieve our army from an engagement which became so controversial in the eyes of the Israeli people, in the eyes of the Jewish people, in the eyes of the world. Hopefully, we shall be able to accomplish this mission in a matter of several months.
"And fourth, we are going to seek together the reopening of the road to peace. The two major parties in the government do not agree about the right way which will lead Israel to a peaceful settlement with our neighbors, and to a solution of the Palestinian problem. Now, the Likud party did not accept the Labor, and the Labor party did not accept the Likud. The real difference between us is that the Likud believes that the wholeness of Israel is a condition for its security, and we believe that the wholeness of the Jewish state remaining Jewish is a condition for the future and peace of our people. Yet we have agreed to sit together, without any prejudices, without any preconditions, to call on our neighbors - all of them - and beginning with the Jordanian kingdom, to sit together, to dialogue, and with an open mind, with a tendency to ingenuity, to try our hands together, and to see if we cannot promise to our own children, to the Arab children, a different future. Not a future of belligerency, but a future of co-existence, of a developed Middle East, not in the military sense, but in the human, social, and economic one.
"These are our four major tasks - not simple - [and] we remain divided on the others. But there are some conditions which are necessary outside of our own country in order to achieve those purposes. One: We have to maintain and strengthen our relationship with the United States of America. If I shall be objective, I shall say that Israel was so lucky in finding in the United States so much sympathy, so many groups of supporters, with the Jewish people in the center, but never leaving it to the Jewish community alone. Labor, church, politicians, media - supported our country over so many years with such a great deal of understanding; and we have to maintain it, surely. If I should be not objective but Israeli, I shall say that America was so lucky to discover Israel, the only and real democracy in this part of the world, a democracy not for sale, a democracy which is not opportunistic, and a democracy which is not afraid to face challenges, hostility, and is able to maintain on many occasions, a shining example of self-defense, of self-orientation, of a real, free spirit blowing in all corners of our existence. The story that to be free is to be weak was challenged in the annals of the American people; it was challenged in Israel, too. We are free. We argue, we divide, we attack - yet in this country, as well as in great America, democracy is a winning system, the strongest one may think of, To be free and strong is our great mission.
"I said already on another occasion that Israel is probably the only country on earth which, in spite of the fact that the United States has helped us, we remain pro-American. You won't find any other example. And I really want to express my gratitude of the leaders of the United States, to many of its civic leaders - and surely in the center and the heart of it, the Jewish community...
"And my final comment: We shall never be satisfied by just building another state, or constructing another people. Our devotion is to the Jewish life, our homeland here in Israel in the eternal Jerusalem. But our ambition is higher than that. We would like to continue to build a special country, where not only technology and science and a successful economy and a strong army will play such an important role, but a country that will be guided by the heritage of our forefathers, of our people. A country which always has a preference for the moral judgement above all other considerations. This is the real message of our history. We would like to build a nation which will justify the suffering of our forefathers, which will answer the call of the young generation. It is a worthwhile purpose to work together. Let us continue, and never give up, until we shall make our country a light for ourselves and a light for other nations."