68 Address by Prime Minister Rabin at Lunch Hosted by Prime Minister Suchoka of Poland- Warsaw- 19 April 1993

(...) We have come today from Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the State of Israel and of the Jewish People, in order to shake hands in friendship, to tighten cooperation and to turn a new leaf in a book closed for many years. But we have also come today from Jerusalem in order to remember and remind [others], to search our past - to cry over Jewish history buried here by the Nazis, under mounds of dirt and burnt in the crematoria.

Madame [prime minister], many Israelis are of Polish birth and they have told me that, when they come to Warsaw, Krakow and other cities - even for the first time - they sense that they have already been here. The views, the smells, the voices and the sounds are familiar to many Israelis and every city, village and street here can tell of the large Jewish community which was and is no more. A thousand threads connect many Israelis with Poland and the 1,000 years of Jewish history here.

Madame, with great admiration, we have followed your struggle to put an end to totalitarian rule and create a new Poland which respects human freedoms and rights. We have sympathized with the pains of transition and its difficulties. The new face of Poland has also enabled the renewal of our diplomatic relations, and since their resumption, the relations between the two countries and the two peoples have developed - and continue to develop. We are open to cooperation with Poland in all areas; we are happy to learn from you, and will be glad to teach you. We will always be willing to share with Poland the experience and knowledge we have acquired in every area of our lives. We-follow, with great interest and admiration, the entrenchment of the rule of law in Poland. With your permission, Madame, I would also add that phenomena of intolerance and anti-Semitism - which are, by nature, the enemies of democracy - have not passed before our eyes without notice. We are sad about this. [Still,] we greatly admire your war against these anti-democratic and anti-Semitic phenomena in Poland and we support you in this war.

Madame Prime Minister, 1,000 years of Jewish-Polish history imposes-upon all of us - the right and obligation to investigate and understand the events of our common past, positive and negative. All these must serve as a lesson, for you and us, toward the improvement and development of our relations in the future. Thus, we believe that the academic and physical preservation of Jewish heritage in Poland will serve as a vital bridge for the building of a joint present and future. We hope that the Polish government will assist in the effort involved in the preservation and commemoration of Jewish sites here. Many youth delegations from Israel visit Poland. Poland was the first Eastern European country with which we signed a youth exchange agreement. Our youth studies much of its past here and has recently begun to hold numerous meetings with Polish youth. The future is the legacy of the youth. We believe that holding more of these meetings [here and in Israel] will contribute to understanding and closeness - in the present - between the two nations, in order to create a better future.

Madame prime minister, our visit to Poland is being conducted during a period replete with great hopes in the Middle East. The revolutions in Europe go handin-hand with our aspirations for peace in the Middle East, and our hope and prayer is that the peace negotiations we are now holding with our neighbors will bear fruit. We see you as loyal partners to the route we have chosen to travel, the route of peace.

In my name, and in the name of my comrades, I thank you for seeing fit to invite us on this journey to our past and for the meetings with ministers of your government - which bode a better future for Poland and Israel - and I am honored to invite you to visit us in Israel. I want to raise a glass to you, Madame, to the prosperity of the Polish people and to friendly relations between Poland and Israel.