37 Address by Prime Minister Netanyahu to the Council of Jewish Federations General Assembly- 15 November 1996

It usually is customary to say I would have wanted to be with you but couldnt, and I must tell you that, getting up at this God-awful hour, it is early morning here in Israel. I would have wanted to be with you, in an appropriate setting obviously and I know that you have an important gathering of leaders of the North American Jewish community and I think I respect that community, its contribution to Jewish life and coincidentally to American and Canadian societies. But I think that today we have such urgent business, all of us, that each of us has to do what he can and what she can at the appropriate venue.

I decided to stay in Israel because we are in the midst of very sensitive negotiations over the question of the redeployment in Hebron. It is something I thought that I should direct personally and seize every opportunity that we can to assure that we have a safe and secure agreement in Hebron. That is not obvious or automatic. Hebron is important to us. I think it is important to any Jew who recognizes his Jewishness. It is the oldest Jewish community on earth. It dates back to the time of Abraham. It dates back to Abraham, who in fact placed there the graves of the founding fathers and mothers of the Jewish nation. Perhaps some people see in Hebron 400 Jews who live there today. I see 4,000 years of Jewish history and that patrimony and that connection to our deepest roots, as Audrey Baker just spoke of, is something we all feel, I am sure.

And yet, we have a problem. We have a problem, in that we are committed to a program or to an agreement that defined redeployment within Hebron and we are concerned to achieve the security of the Jews who are there as well as our continued access and the free worship in one of the holy sites of Judaism. It is not so easy to achieve, given the record of firing by Palestinian police. Remember that those who are supposed to defend the hills that we are supposed to vacate are the very police who in fact use those rifles unfortunately against our own people. We have sought in the last few weeks to negotiate arrangements which would reduce the friction, which would reduce that risk which would give greater security not only for the Jews and Israelis in Hebron but, in my considered opinion, for Palestinians as well. If we have security in Hebron it will serve Israelis and Palestinians alike. It will serve the cause of peace. And this is what we are talking about. This is what we are trying to fashion. I have to say that when we achieve it, and I am sure that with good will on the other side, we can achieve agreement within a very short time. When we achieve it, we will go on to the remainder of the agreements.

Now again, it is true that we criticized Oslo and opposed it. We thought it was an agreement with many failings, but we are committed to the international undertakings of previous governments. There is something called in international affairs, the continuity of contracts and it is as important in the life of nations as it is in the life of individuals.

But continuity of contracts and the commitment to keep contracts is not a unilateral Israeli issue. It has to be bilateral. It has to be reciprocal. It has to be something that the Palestinian Authority does just as we do. It is not something that we are asked to do and they are not and in fact we are seeking from the Palestinian side, such things as amending the Palestinian charter that remains committed to our destruction. That has to change. We are seeking the extradition of terrorists who are wanted in Israel for the murder of Israelis. We are seeking the continued action against terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. That has not been done. We are seeking the disarmament of these groups as was promised. That has not been done. We are seeking the cessation of hostile propaganda, including the continuous calls for jihad by leaders of the Palestinian Authority. Unfortunately, that has not been done either.

When I raise all these things, it irritates people. It irritates people when Israel says, I dont want just to give, I also want to receive and I know that this flies in the face of the view of some of the Middle East of their idea of bargaining. Somebody said about the Arab view of bargaining with Israel, of negotiating with Israel as collective bargaining we bargain and they collect. That is no longer the principle, and I must tell you that only with reciprocity, only with reciprocity can we progress, only with reciprocity do agreements mean anything, only with reciprocity does the mutual commitment provide the confidence to continue towards other contracts, towards other stages of agreement, and this is something that we are again going to insist on.

I know that, in the short term, international popularity is received by forgoing these things, closing a blind eye, but here Id rather fall back on Golda Meir who said, Id rather be irritating and alive than pleasant and dead. We want to be alive, we want to live in peace, and we want to live in security with our Palestinian neighbors and with all our Arab neighbors. I am confident that we can achieve this goal. I am confident that we can go on from the redeployment in Hebron to the fulfillment of mutual obligations to the achievement of a final settlement with the Palestinians.

Let me say something about that because it obviously concerns every Israeli. I think it should concern every Jew and every friend of Israel who is not Jewish. I think these agreements are perhaps the most pivotal peace negotiations that Israel has ever negotiated. I dont think that in something as sensitive as this, we should negotiate in a very narrow spectrum. We each have our own views and perhaps our own deepest ideological desires. But I think that here we have to offer the broadest possible consensus in the Israeli public for the achievement of an agreement that would be more stable, more durable, I think ultimately of greater value, if it enjoys the broadest backing of the Israeli people.

I am convinced that we can offer a vision of a final settlement that would give the Palestinians the freedom to conduct their lives and yet at the same time would give us the security necessary to conduct and maintain the life of the State of Israel and allow its future prosperity with security. I think that this balance can be achieved by appealing to the great and the widest consensus among the people of Israel. It is something that I will purposefully pursue and I am sure it would enjoy your support as well.

I think this is important because one of the things that prevents the achievement of agreements is the idea that we can be disunited. It is the view on the other side, on the negotiating teams that face us and in the Arab world, that we are split and divided and cannot make up our mind on a proposal for peace, and that ultimately encourages, of course, the more intractable, let met use the word intransigent, approaches on the Arab side. What we need to do is to seek consciously and to reach out to one another, and to seek a dialogue that we are engaged in right now between all parts of the Israeli political sphere in order to come to these pivotal negotiations from a united point of view.

When I say that, I also have to say that I think the unity of the Jewish people is an extension of this unity of the people of Israel, and we have to foster that as well. I know that many of you are concerned with rumors about a purported law that we would alter the state of conversions vis-a-vis Reform or Conservative conversions. Let me tell you that we are not going to change anything regarding the Reform or Conservative conversions that are done in the United States or elsewhere in the world. We are going to maintain the status quo scrupulously. We have an existing arrangement in Israel, as you know, which offers Orthodox conversion. That has not changed over the life of the nation, and we are not going to change it now. But we will adamantly refuse and I will personally stand in the breach if necessary, that anyone tries to tamper with the idea that youngsters who are Jews or Jews who have converted into Judaism in the United States with Reform or Conservative rabbis would not be recognized as Jews. They will be recognized as Jews. They are recognized as Jews, they can come to Israel and marry as Jews, and that will not change. I say this because I believe that we can spend our time on nonexistent issues, but we have so many issues, some of which I heard right now on the earpiece, as I was listening to the previous speakers. We have so many issues that are central to our future, to our common destiny.

We are celebrating this year 100 years of Zionism, one hundred years since Herzl wrote that small pamphlet, The Jewish State. Herzl was an extraordinary visionary and he saw in his minds eye what so many failed to see a century ago. He saw the tremendous danger to the Jewish people from the gathering storm of anti-Semitism in Europe. He saw the anomaly of a Jewish people who had no homeland and no sovereignty anywhere. He saw the fragility of Jewish life. He saw the threat of anti-Semitism and he sought to do something about it. And it must be said in all honesty that in the first half of the century of Zionism, anti-Semitism nearly beat Zionism because the Holocaust and the impending destruction of the Jews in Europe failed to stir Jewish hearts on that continent to effect the great escape and a great mass of our people. A third of all Jews in the world were destroyed because the message of Zionism did not penetrate fast enough, fast enough to thwart the danger of anti-Semitism.

It is often said that without the Holocaust, the State of Israel would not have taken place. I suppose it is true that the Holocaust created a great feeling, a great wellspring of sympathy of the Jewish people and in that respect it gave political support for the founding of the Jewish state. But equally, I am convinced that the Holocaust wiped out the great reservoir of people who were the natural candidates for aliya to this Jewish State and when Herzl envisioned the founding of the Jewish State, he didnt think of 600,000 Jews, the number of Jews we had when we began. He thought of 6 million or 8 million or 9 million. He didnt say that all Jews would come to the Jewish State, but he said that most Jews would, thereby changing the life of all Jews everywhere around the world. Now that nearly did not come to pass, and with a small bridgehead of only a half million Jews, we were able to somehow survive, protect ourselves, and build the Jewish State of today. And today I think we have removed the imminent threats to our survival.

We still face security threats, we still face terrorism, we still have not removed the scourge of the threat of war forever from our midst, but I am confident that we can work towards these goals. But in any case, it is clear that Israel today is far stronger than it was half a century ago when it was an embryonic fledgling entity that nearly lost its life in the War of Independence. We have a strong State; we have now a thriving economy.

Corky Goodman and before him Charles Bronfman talked about coming to Israel. Id like to see you come to Israel not only to visit. Id like to see you come here to invest, to invest not only in your Jewish roots but in your bank accounts. I think you can make money in Israel. I think Israel is going to be one of the great success stories of the twenty-first century, indeed of the twentieth century. We have the highest concentration of knowledgeable workers of any economy in the world. We have more scientists per capita than any country, almost twice the number of Japan and the United States. We have a tremendous explosion of talent and ingenuity and technical manpower and womanpower that is giving us the ability to compete in the information marketplace of tomorrow. And I think that if we open up our economy, if we make Israel a free market economy as we are committed to do, I think Israel will be a magnet for Jewish and non-Jewish investment and indeed for immigration.

I look forward if I can divulge to you a small dream I look forward to the day when Jews emigrate to Israel not from the East but from the West in order to improve their economic condition. Now, that may sound to you like a distant dream, but at the rate that our economy is growing, at the rate that our enterprises are flourishing, at the rate that technology is assuming a central role in every aspect of our life, I think that is not a complete fantasy. And I think that as we increase our economy, we will also increase the number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. I expect the remainder of that community, less than a million, to immigrate to Israel in the coming decade and I would like to place a target of having for the first time in thousands of years, the majority of the Jewish people living in the State of Israel in the next decade. This is something that we can achieve and with your help we will achieve it.

And yet I have a concern that I also want to share with you. It is true that we have beaten the threat of anti-Semitism in the first half of the century, but if the first and greatest threat to our life, our renewed life as a Jewish people and the greatest threat to Zionism, was anti-Semitism, in the second half of this century, the greatest threat to our continued life is assimilation. Assimilation is fraying the Jewish communities throughout the world. I dont need to tell you that. I think you know that very well. I think each of you can point to relatives or friends who have ceased to be Jews or their children have ceased to be Jews and that is something that must concern you as much as it concerns me.

I know that in the life of Israeli governments and the life of Israeli Prime Ministers it has been very difficult to devote any time or any resources to this critical issue, but we must recognized how critical it is. At the end of the Holocaust we had in the world after losing 6 million Jews, 12 million Jews, and some 50 years later, we should have had 24 million Jews, and yet we still have 12 million Jews. This means that we have lost twice the number of people that were lost in the Holocaust to assimilation. It is a silent Holocaust, a silent falling off of our numbers that threatens the very fabric of our people and our future. All Israeli governments were preoccupied with securing the State, building the social fabric, building the economy, absorbing the immigrants. You know how much energy, how much attention that consumes, and yet I think that as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the Jewish State, it is time that we rededicate ourselves to the original conception of Herzl that Israel is the Jewish State. It is the State of the entire Jewish people and as such, it must devote time and resources and energy and intellectual resources to stemming this tide of assimilation. We can only do this with you as a partnership and I would like to see the State of Israel invest with you in Jewish education, in a human airlift of young Jews to Israel.

You have just heard that wonderful testimony by Audrey Baker and you can hear it from many many others. I urge you to invest in the Israel experience. I would like to see a tenfold multiplication of the number of young Jews who come to Israel over the next five years. These people will never be the same again. They will be the ambassadors of faith, they will be the ambassadors of unity, they will be forever changed and forever effective in their ability to induce others to change and to recognize their Jewish identity.

I would like to do all that with you because I believe that our destiny is not given, Herzl said that. He said we can will it. This is something that we can will together, and I would like to meet with you next year on the fiftieth anniversary of the Jewish State and work together and conceive together and implement together programs that will enhance our Jewish identity, our Jewish unity. Among those programs I would like to see as many of you come here, to live, to invest, to bring your children and those of you who do not make that fateful move, I want you to become proud Jews. I know you are anyway, but I want you to become prouder Jews and I want you to reach out to your neighbors and tell them of the truth about Israel which is so often maligned. Tell them about what is going on here. Tell them what we fashion, what we intend to do. We can, I believe, achieve a majority of the Jewish people living in Israel over the coming decade. We can do all that and with your help and with G-ds help, we will do all that.

Thank you.

Conrad Giles: Mr. Prime Minister, are you still with us?

Prime Minister Netanyahu: I am still here.

Conrad Giles: I am Conrad Giles, President of the Council of Jewish Federations and on behalf of a grateful Council, we thank you, first of all, for taking time out from what is an incredible schedule to join us this evening. Secondly, I think it is important for us to know that, in this point in time, that some of your remarks merged a couple of concepts. One, the Bronfman family, and two, the State of Israel and the Council of Jewish Federations. You should know, I think you do, but it bears further emphasis, that we will indeed hold this General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations, chaired by Charles R. Bronfman, in the State of Israel in 1998. I would submit, that it isnt enough that we send our children to Israel, but it is important that we as well follow our children and in their footsteps as well dwell in the land of Israel as often as possible. Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much.

Prime Minister Netanyahu: Thank you.

Conrad Giles: Did you want some questions?

Prime Minister Netanyahu: How can we do without them?

Conrad Giles: These were obtained during your remarks and I must tell you that we received several questions. You answered most of them before the end of your remarks; however, there are a couple that you can deal with. In the aftermath of the United States elections, how do you see the future of U.S.-Israel relations and the strategic and moral bonds that unite these two great democracies?

Prime Minister Netanyahu: I think it is a solid rock. I said before the elections that those who expected a great change in policy following the U.S. elections and the re-election of President Clinton would be disappointed, I suppose. Some of our interlocutors are being disappointed because we see a continuity of American policy. America and Israel have shared values and shared interests and they do not change materially with changing administrations. We are committed to the pursuit of peace. The United States has been a tremendous help. None of our peace treaties from Camp David, through the peace with Jordan, through the implementation of the Oslo agreements, could have been achieved without a great investment of American effort and the same is true now. We are working together with the United States for the achievement of peace and the United States recognizes, I think, two cardinal principles about Israel. First, that all decisions must be taken by the parties here and cannot be imposed from the outside and the United States doesnt even think in those terms of imposing anything. And the second thing that the United States recognizes is that Israel is a democracy, so far, to my chagrin, the only democracy in the Middle East, and as such the people of Israel should decide what policies should lead them and what should of course guide their future. And I think these twin recognitions of the bilateral nature of negotiations and the democratic nature of Israeli society are such solid foundations of American policy that I am sanguine that this will be understood and is being understood by our Arab partners. It will help pave the way for peace and the United States is doing exactly that. It is helping to pave the way for a broader peace.

Conrad Giles: Thank you. How do you see the next steps in the peace process after an agreement is reached in Hebron?

Prime Minister Netanyahu: Well, I spoke about that. I think the first thing that we have to do is clear the table of outstanding obligations. We have violations on the Palestinian Authority that we would clear up. They have certain things that they would like to see implemented on the Israeli side things that by the way were not implemented by the previous government because of failures to keep the security agreements on the part of the Palestinians. But with the assumption that there is mutual fulfillment of these outstanding issues, we shall then begin to negotiate the final settlement.

I said that I think we can achieve a broad consensus among the Israeli people. Let me tell you why I am saying that. I think that the majority would like to see an arrangement where the Palestinian Arabs run their lives, conduct their lives with minimal or no interference from us. We dont seek to govern the Palestinians or to run their lives or to run their administration. They can be elected to their own institutions, have their own leaders and run their own lives. This is pretty much a view shared, I think, by the overwhelming majority of Israelis. But equally Israelis know that in this small stretch of land, between the Jordan River and the sea, this fifty miles of land that incorporates the heart of the Jewish homeland Judea, where the word Jew comes from, where Jerusalem sits and the terraces of our ancestors and the places where all our identity was forged, where the prophets and kings walked, here every stone speaks of Jewish history that we have an abiding interest, to put it mildly, in this place, even if we didnt we have abiding security considerations because those hills happen to be the protective wall for the remainder of Israel which would be all of ten miles wide without it.

So, for both historical and security reasons, we need to fashion the movement towards self-government on the part of the Palestinians. We need therefore a final settlement that balances the needs of the Palestinians for greater freedom and our need for greater security. And I think such an arrangement is possible. It is possible to define which functions would be in the hands of the Palestinian Authority, which would be in our hands and of course security is the foremost issue that concerns us. But there are others, issues of water, who controls the airspace, who controls the border crossings, would it be possible to flood the suburbs of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem with millions of refugees or not. Obviously, most Israelis would agree on these questions. They would like again an arrangement which would give maximum freedom to the Palestinians, but maximum security to Israel, and I think that is first necessary and possible to achieve that consensus among the Israeli people and only when that is achieved, I think that we will be able to negotiate with the other side which looks back at us. It looks and it sees our position. Are we united or divided? if they see a united Israeli position, it makes the achievement of an agreement that much more likely, that much more hopeful, and I am very hopeful on this issue.

Conrad Giles: Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. We understand that you are on a very tight schedule and appreciate your extended time with us. We look forward to greeting you in person next year in Indianapolis and the following year in Jerusalem. Thank you, sir.

Prime Minister Netanyahu: Thank you very much.