Address by President of Israel, Mr. Chaim Herzog
How significant is this occasion, as I the Head of the State of an old people, and yet a young democracy, which was reborn following centuries of prayer and struggle, have the privilege to address this august assembly, an assembly representing so much that is great in the free world.
I am mindful during this the first State Visit of the President of Israel to a close friend - Canada, of the honour accorded my people by these two Houses with all that they signify in terms of human dreams, achievement and hope.
As a fellow democracy, we are proud of the fact that despite five wars, despite the defence and economic burden which it has borne since its inception, Israel has never compromised on the issue of its basic values. Like you, we have never known one minute without democracy. Our democracy faces the most involved challenges - a constant state of readiness, long military and reserve service and the complex problems arising out of the refusal of our neighbours to enter into negotiations for peace with us, and to understand that we do have the right to live in the area and in our country.
Mr. Speaker,
Too often are our problems viewed facilely out of the context of all that is happening around us in the Middle East. In this decade the longest war in this century has been waged in the Persian Gulf - a brutal bloody war motivated by fanatic religious fundamentalism on the one hand, and the ambitions of a megalomaniac dictatorship on the other hand. Tens of thousands of prisoners were shot on both sides out of hand. An unconventional weapon, poison gas, was introduced, and the world stood by in mute helplessness. The number of those killed and, wounded was in the millions.
How blind were the so-called experts in analysing the developments in our area. The obsessive fixation with every stone-throwing incident in the West Bank led to a situation whereby the real ominous developments in the Middle East and the real threats to Western interests were overlooked by most observers. Thus again and again the Western world was taken by surprise when the real focus of danger erupted. How can we forget how the free world was taken by surprise by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, by the Khomeiny revolution in Iran, by the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war?
It is against this background that we must view the sole bastion of democracy in our region - Israel. A glance at the map of the Middle East must surely emphasize the vital significance for the security of the free world of this solid island of stability, loyalty and friendship to the West.
We see as our major challenge the achievement of peace between us and our Arab neighbours, including the Palestinians. In our Declaration of Independence we held out our hand to our Arab neighbours in a quest for peace. It was rejected, and instead the armies of seven Arab states combined with the Palestinian Arabs in an effort to destroy the embryonic Jewish State before its birth and to drive us into the sea. We fought back desperately without adequate arms, outnumbered, outgunned, and embargoed by most of the countries of the free world. Thanks to our sacrifice of 1% of our population and the leadership of Ben-Gurion, we managed to survive.
From the moment of its birth Israel stretched out its hand in an offer of peace, but it was rejected. The Palestinians continued along the road of tragedy.
For 19 years, from 1948 to 1967, the West Bank was occupied by Jordan and the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt. But the Palestinians were not granted independence, nor was a State established, because then as today the last thing the Arab countries wanted, their protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, was a Palestinian State.
Ten days after the conclusion of the Six-Day War in 1967 the Israeli Cabinet offered to return to Egypt the Sinai Desert and to Syria the Golan Heights in return for demilitarization and peace. The Government prepared for negotiations with King Hussein. The Arab reply to this approach was the Khartoum Summit Conference with its three NO's - No to negotiations with Israel, No to recognition of Israel and No to peace with Israel.
In 1977 the program for full Autonomy for the Palestinians proposed by the then Prime Minister Menachem Begin was rejected out of hand. Had this proposal been accepted we might by now have been well on the road to a permanent settlement.
We are irrevocably committed to the inexorable process moving towards peace in the Middle East. I am convinced that we will achieve it. For I only have to look back to twelve years ago today when most of Israel's borders were hermetically sealed and there was no passage of people or trade across them. Who would have dreamt then that today the Israeli flag would fly over an Israeli Embassy in Egypt and an Egyptian flag over an Egyptian Embassy in Israel? Who would have dreamt that ten years after the signing of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, Egypt would be accepted back into the Arab League while remaining loyal to its commitments to Israel and would, indeed, reassume its position as leader of the Arab world?
Who would have dreamt that this year some 120,000 Israeli tourists would be thronging Egyptian resorts and tourist sites, and that joint Israel-Egypt agricultural projects would be taking place in the Nile Delta and in the Negev in Israel?
Who would have dreamt that over a million people would be crossing annually over the bridges of the River Jordan in both directions, and that daily hundreds of trucks would be carrying produce and exports in both directions? And who would have dreamt that thousands of Israeli Moslems would be making their way to and fro in performance of the Holy Pilgrimage to Mecca?
We have reached a new cross roads. We are experiencing a period of unrest in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. We deeply regret the bloodshed on both sides as we strive to maintain law and order. We have had to overcome repeated onslaughts in the past, and I have no doubt that we will overcome the present wave of violence which in our eyes poses a threat to the basis of our society and to the peaceful co-existence ' between Jews and Arabs in the Land of Israel. We dare not underestimate the feelings expressed in the unrest ' nor should we sanguinely expect it simply to fade away. Irrational and self-destroying persistence has tragically marked previous Arab attacks on Israel. Hatred and violence have led only to bereavement and disaster without solving any problem. Understanding has come too late in every case.
There is no desire in Israel to rule another people and to direct its life. Let us however not forget that this issue. is the subject of a major political debate in Israel. Israel has to face fateful decisions, and I am only too aware of the agonizing reappraisals taking place today both in our free society, and amongst the Palestinians who live with us in Israel and in the territories.
Mr. Speaker,
It is easy to discuss our problems at a distance, to pass judgement, to make speeches, write articles and offer solutions. It is, to say the least, less easy for those who together with their children will have to bear the consequences should they err. Remember, what for others is a matter of foreign policy, is for us a matter of existence. In the current outbreak of civil unrest in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, the choice facing us is unfortunately not between law and order on the one hand, and negotiations on the other hand. The choice is between maintaining law and order as a basis for bilateral negotiations, or allowing the situation to deteriorate into a new edition of Beirut or Teheran. That is the cruel choice which faces us today.
There is criticism at times of Israel's handling of the maintenance of law and order, and nowhere more pointedly than in Israel, in the Knesset or in the media. However, I have yet to see other countries facing similar situations without the use of force. What more effective methods should we use? Those used by our neighbours including, for instance, the killing of 30,000 in the Syrian town of Hama, the killing of 500 demonstrators in two days in Algeria last summer? Or should we adopt the methods used during the riots in the inner cities of Britain, or in Northern Ireland, or in the streets of Western Europe, or those that were used in Watts or Detroit or Kent State?
What other armed forces in the world than ours would exercise more restraint in coping with a society that cynically and cruelly sends its children to carry out acts of violence endangering life on both sides. Remember, a woman burnt alive together with her three children in a civilian bus are no less tragically dead because the perpetrators who threw the molotov cocktail were youngsters. A society's strength is tested by its ability to face crises. I believe that given all the difficulties and with all our short-comings our society has shown as much maturity and humanity as any other society in similar circumstances. As Golda Meir once said she cannot forgive the Arabs not so much because they kill our children but because they force our children to kill theirs.
Looking around us how can we in ore the thunderous silence of the world as the city of Beirut has been, and is being, pounded mercilessly by Syrian artillery day in day out, night in night out, as the Christian refugees trying in small boats to reach ferries offshore to take them to safety in Cyprus, are shelled indiscriminately, as the Lebanese nation is slowly destroyed, as the Christian community of Lebanon largely ignored by the rest of the Christian world, is slowly being decimated and is in dire danger for its very existence. How can we ignore the apathy of the world in the face of this cruel destruction of a nation? Surely the lesson for us must be obvious.
Already 25,000 refugees from Beirut - Christians and Moslems - have crowded into the security zone adjacent to our Northern border, instinctively coming to Israel for protection and security.
My friends, all of this is going on at the moment, and has aroused little reaction in the civilized world. In the cruel distorted prejudiced coverage by the media of events in the Middle East, the slaughter in Beirut does not warrant the coverage given to children throwing stones in some West Bank village.
We are a free society facing a dilemma. Is it not understandable that Israeli society is torn by doubts and hesitations, and that there is no small degree of skepticism coupled with a legitimate debate in our society on the PLO's real intentions?
Mr. Speaker,
Last month the Government of Israel formulated a plan for a movement forward in the peace process in the Middle East. The plan consists of four parts:
1) Reaffirming the Camp David Agreement;
2) A call for the Arab countries to join in the peace process and recognize Israel;
3) That an international effort be mounted to solve the festering problem of the Arab refugees in Gaza and Judea;
4) Elections in the Judea and Samaria Districts of the West Bank and in Gaza, whereby the Palestinian Arab residents of these areas will elect in secret ballot their own representatives. These representatives will be thereby empowered to enter into negotiations with Israel in order to establish self rule for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Under this self rule, which is envisaged for a five-year period, the Palestinian Arabs in the territories will rule themselves and will be responsible for everything but foreign affairs and defence.
After a period of three years, negotiations will open with the Palestinians who have been elected, in order to achieve a final settlement.
Unfortunately the situation on the Arab side is not at all clear. Their protestations to the contrary, a large proportion of the Palestinians living in the territories administered by us would accept the Government of Israel's proposal. But since the official PLO line so far has been to set out conditions which in effect negate the spirit and the essence of the Israeli proposals, no Palestinian in the Judea and Samaria district of the West Bank and Gaza will dare risk being lynched or a bullet in his head in order to express his views and support the proposal. In the course of the current year some fifty percent of all the Palestinian casualties have been inflicted by Palestinians. In the past few months, some 50 Palestinians suspected of views different to those of the PLO have been cruelly and summarily executed. When a Palestinian Mayor suggested a truce for Christmas he was publicly threatened by Arafat that he would end up with ten bullets in his chest.
What is more, the recent Arab Summit Conference in Casablanca, reaffirmed the negative position adopted by the PLO. The PLO policy from a practical point of view - must be irrelevant as long as they are not prepared officially to amend the Palestinian Covenant which calls for the destruction of Israel.
We are by now immune to the double-talk which characterizes many of the statements issued by the PLO - each statement adapted to the audience to which it is delivered, immediately to be followed by another statement issued to another audience saying just the opposite.
Thus Arafat publicly foreswore the use of terror. However, acts of terror continue unabated. How can we tamely acquiesce in his declaration that the burning of a Jewish family on an outing in a car is a "military operation" and not an act of terror. The fact is that he does not in effect control his organization. Indeed, in addition to the break-away Abu Mussa group in Syria, components of the PLO such as Talaat Yakub, Habash's Popular Front, Khawatma, Gibril, refuse to go along with him. What validity can one give to the statements made by an individual who obviously does not control constituents of the organisation which he purports to lead, and represent?
I emphasize again, that the people of Israel want nothing more than peace. I know of no way to achieve peace without negotiation with the other side. One day a great man came forward in the Middle East, the late President Anwar Sadat, made his demands to the Knesset, entered into negotiations and today buses leave Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv daily for Cairo and vice versa.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, we are moving inexorably towards peace and that is the major goal of our people, reflecting as it does the prayers of millions who cannot express themselves freely in our area, torn by fundamentalist religious fanaticism. That peace will be achieved because we want it and because the people of the Middle East want it and need it. In the meantime, as we pursue our struggle in the ongoing search for peace, we continue to develop as a free vibrant society, which stretches out its hand seeking co-operation with all.
In the period of 41 years we have created an open, democratic society in Israel in which the dignity of man is enshrined as a supreme value. We have a free and independent judiciary, a democratically elected parliament, a free press and a system of universal education. We have created a highly developed system of agriculture, and an industry which is capable of producing some of the more sophisticated high technology and bio-technological engineering, supersonic planes and some of the better medical scanning equipment existing today. Israeli manufactured items are in space ships, and in more advanced planes produced in the United States. We are one of the three more advanced countries in the world - the other two are the United States and Japan - in the development and use of solar energy. We are among the leaders in the world in the field of irrigation, desalination of sea water and cloud seeding. We are one of eight countries of the world which has been represented in space by its own satellite.
We know our shortcomings, we know our failings, but as a free, vibrant multiethnic society, we are conscious of a continuous effort to overcome them. No society is without its weaknesses but every society must be judged by the freedom of its population to deal with these inadequacies, by the consciousness of its people of its duty to moral imperatives and by its willingness to accept the vote of the majority in support of the Rule of Law and of the dignity of man which must be the supreme value in any modern society. Because as Thomas Jefferson pointed out, "nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and inalienable right of man." By this criterion we, a small country beset by problems from within and without, constantly maligned in the Community of Nations, are proud of our record in forging a free, open, democratic society.
Mr Speaker,
I salute Canada and its people on behalf of the people of Israel, conscious as we are of the leading role which this country has played over the years in the cause of human freedom, and conscious of the common values which are the basis of your society and ours. We are aware of the enormous importance of Canada in this continent and in the NATO family of nations. We are aware of the growing importance of the voice of Canada in the councils of the world. The ties between Canada and Israel, which have grown up over the years, are based on common basic interests and a deep friendship which has developed between our two countries.
For a country such as Israel you are an example and an inspiration. You have opened your gates of freedom and absorbed immigration from many countries. You are a model of co-existence between those of different backgrounds who live in this great country in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance and respect for the respective cultures.
You have been endowed with the great gifts of nature and have demonstrated how to be worthy of the blessings of Providence by a national concern for a healthy environment which you preserve with fervour and devotion.
In the words of the Sour Dough:
"There's a land where the
mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God
knows where..."
or,
Wild and wide are my borders,
stern as death is my sway,
From my ruthless throne I
have ruled alone for a million
years and a day;
Hugging my mighty treasure,
waiting for man to come.
At the same time you have succeeded in meeting the challenge of nature and in harnessing it in the cause of the march of progress, science, technology and agriculture for the benefit of mankind.
Your society is distinguished by a special emphasis on aesthetic beauty, cultural advance, and cultural innovativeness in literature, on the stage, on the screen, in the arts. We share with you pride in the impressive Jewish contribution to your cultural life.
Mr. Speaker,
I thank you and the distinguished members of both Houses again for your most kind welcome. I trust and pray that my visit will serve to strengthen the relations between our two peoples sharing our common values in the ongoing struggle for peace and the advance of man.