Ezer Weizman was re-elected by the Knesset for a second five-year term as Israel's president on 4 March 1998. The President interpreted his role as Head of State in a broad, positive and contributory aspect. He admitted that relations with the Arab countries and Palestinian neighbors were now at their lowest ebb, and the overall peace process was in need of help. He intended to invest much effort to rescue the process. Text:
Mr. Speaker, Members of the Knesset, Prime Minister, Ministers, the Chief Rabbis, Supreme Court Judges, former Presidents Ephraim Katzir and Yitzhak Navon, members of the Diplomatic Corps, Heads of the Religious Communities, members of my family, dear guests,
This is the second time that I am standing in front of you in this house on the occasion of being sworn in as President of the State of Israel. I know the place, and most of those present, very well, but my emotions and feelings of obligation are not less, but, on the contrary, are deeper and stronger.
Apart from those present here this evening, I see before me thousands of Israeli citizens, old and young, men and women, members of all the ethnic communities, groups and peoples. I have made their close acquaintance during my first period of office as President, and I shall continue to meet them during the next five years.
You, Members of the Knesset, have elected me to serve as President of the State of Israel, but they, the citizens, have given meaning to my position. They have given my official title real significance, and I believe and hope I will fulfill their trust.
This, Members of the Knesset, is the source of my emotions, and this is the spring from which I draw my strength, and this is the cause of the President's involvement in everything taking place in Israel. The law states that the President is "the Head of the State". The law obligates the President to live in Jerusalem. However, apart from these definitions, the President himself must determine the nature of his involvement in the life of the society and the State. Like other Presidents who preceded me, and whose efforts I admire and honor, I also chose to be involved in matters which I hold to be important, mainly those requiring constant, deep contact with citizens of the country and affording them help. This I see as the real nature of the role of the presidency in Israel.
During the last five years, my wife, Re'uma, and I have traveled extensively throughout the country. We have got to know the country and its people, both at wonderful and difficult moments. We have met people of all communities and origins and of all levels of society, and have tried to help as much as possible. This help has taken the form of our activities using the President's Fund which aids private people in difficulties, and also our painful meetings with bereaved parents and with injured and disabled persons, whom we did our best to comfort and support.
The political organization is not always able to speak in such a way with citizens. I therefore felt an obligation to act in this manner, and I intend to continue to do so with all my strength in my second period of office.
I have made an effort, and shall continue to do so, to contribute to the subject of peace. For most of my life, I wore a uniform: from the day I enlisted in the British Royal Air Force in 1942, during the Second World War and until I became the Commander of the Israeli Air Force and Director of Operations in the IDF, I was fated to participate in almost every Israeli war. Now, the most important thing for me is to achieve peace.
Unfortunately, this aim of achieving peace also demands sacrifices, which result from extremism and fanaticism which have not yet been uprooted.
Amongst those falling in this war for peace are men and women, young and old, Jews and Arabs, civilians and combatants - victims of terror and protracted war. Two leaders, each the leader of peace in his country, have been murdered: the president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, and the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, may their souls rest in peace.
The relations with Arab countries and our Palestinian neighbors are now at their lowest ebb, and the overall peace process is in need of help. This is one of the cases in which the President must review the definition of his role and interpret the words "the Head of State" from a positive, active and contributory aspect.
That is how I was brought up, that is how I have acted all my life and that is how I shall act in the future. I have always believed in making a real contribution to society and to the State. Peace is a sublime and lofty idea, but without action and momentum it will fall to the ground. An effort must be made to achieve it; it must be initiated and fought for. As King David said in the Psalms, "Abandon evil and do good, ask for peace and pursue it."
We are standing before important challenges. Israel is stronger than ever before. The IDF soldiers and their commanders from all three branches - air, sea and land - are the guarantee of the desired peace and security. We can be proud of our sons and daughters. We must also remember the heavy price paid by the thousands who defended the country with their bodies and fell in the wars of Israel and in hostile acts.
I shall do everything I can to aid the government in the peace process. I shall help it to consolidate and improve the relations between Israel and its neighbors and between Jews and Arabs inside its borders. I believe that this is the only way to ensure a better future for all of us, a future of prosperity and hope.
Amongst ourselves, also, conciliation and unity do not yet exist. The internal controversies in Israel are increasing. The split between religious and secular has increased dangerously. Difficult developments may take place, and have already done so on this background. Not everyone in Israel understands the need for tolerance and bridging the gap. And for this purpose there is a need for thought and deliberation, which are not always available.
On both sides there are people of Torah and work, intellectuals and good fighters, but there are others also. I wish to remind the secular people, that religion is not only extremism, coalition considerations and religion coercion. I wish to remind the religious people that secularism does not necessarily mean vacuity and crime.
Above all, I should like to say that the various groups in our people are entitled to live in their own way and according to their beliefs, and each must honor the other and allow others to live their own lives. These problems must be solved at all levels of society. The term "tolerance" must be restored to its proper place in our scale of values.
In contrast to the religious-secular split, the ethnic gap in Israel is fast disappearing. Inter-community tensions occasionally resurface, but they are frequently caused by interested parties for irrelevant reasons. I should like to remind you that the vast majority of the citizens of the country are immigrants who came after the establishment of the State. Many of the marriages taking place in our country are between ethnic groups. In this building, in the government and in the IDF General Staff there is complete ethnic balance, to everyone's satisfaction.
Personal and social tensions may still develop, but we, the elected representatives and leaders of the people, must not rekindle the flame of ethnic strife that has already almost gone out. We must not use it to achieve unsuitable aims. No one should suffer because his parents immigrated from one country or another. No one needs to apologize because his parents were born here.
My father, Yehiel Weizman, of blessed memory, emigrated from Russia during the period of the Second Aliyah. My mother, Yehudit Kritchevsky, of blessed memory, was born here, in Rishon Le'Zion. In their home, I acquired a love for the country and the people, the Bible and the Hebrew language, and the knowledge that all these things belong to everyone and that every one of us, even if he lives in this country, is part of a dispersed people, not every one of which has returned home.
In recent years, we have absorbed great waves of immigrants, mainly from the former Soviet Union and from Ethiopia, as well as from other countries. It is not easy to absorb immigrants, neither for the country nor for those coming here, but in the final analysis, we can see that despite all the difficulties, the country is strengthened and improved by each wave of immigrants. This is a good opportunity to remind world Jewry that Israel welcomes its sons and invites them to return home. This is also an opportunity to remind ourselves that we must be more attractive and be more ready to absorb immigrants.
We should like to see here a society that is a magnet, a society to which people would want to belong. Unfortunately, I have to admit that despite the great potential possibilities existing in Israel and its people, the dream has not yet been completely realized. On the contrary, during the 50th Jubilee year of the State, it is experiencing strong self criticism and feelings of apathy and fatigue. I hope that the citizens of Israel, and, first of all, their leaders, will be able to extricate themselves from this situation.
I should like to make it clear to the Arab citizens of Israel, whether Christian, Moslem, Druze, Bedouin or Circassian, that the Presidential Residence is open to you all. The Presidential Residence is the home of all citizens. I intend to continue to visit all the Arab settlements throughout the country in order to obtain first-hand knowledge of their achievements and also to hear about their special problems and to help in the struggle for equality between all citizens of Israel and the integration in all facets of the country.
We must live together in this country and this region. We were intended to do so. Peace and fraternity depend on us.
Despite the fact that I am older than the State, I still regard it as if I were a son: with love, with confidence, even if sometimes also with anxiety.
In the fifty years of the State's existence, we have reached many achievements in the fields of production, science, agriculture, economics, settlement, defense and absorption of immigration. However, we have not yet reached peace and tranquility. I do not mean only from the economic aspect but mainly from the spiritual aspect. The leaders and citizens of Israel must never forget that real peace and tranquility do not mean sitting in the shade of vines and fig trees, but reaching a state of quiet, security and well-being in order to devote ourselves to our real nature: to education, study, learning and research and to maintain a reasonable standard of living for all citizens of the State. I await the day when we can permit ourselves the luxury of an education budget greater than the defense budget.
From the very first, these subjects were the first priority of our people, but sometimes, when I look around, I get the impression that this is no longer the case. Here and there we see ignorance and vulgarity. Signs of violence are appearing in society, in schools, in the sheet, amongst the family, and in particular violence against women. The despicable murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, of blessed memory, revealed moral standards that we were not familiar with in the past and which are trying to control our lives. Worst of all is that here and there is a kind of unspoken agreement to these serious happenings. This is not only sad, but even dangerous. However, education, culture and learning, in all their aspects, will determine our future and our fate.
In the world approaching the 21st century, the level of education and learning will determine where we will be, amongst the foxes or the lions. What is not less important: education and learning will open our hearts and help us to live peacefully with ourselves.
It is very sad that while celebrating 50 years to the tremendous enterprise of establishing the State, we are witnesses to significant and worrying increase in the magnitude of unemployment and poverty in the State. We must pay great regard to this. There are in this country more than 150,000 people without work, who live between hope and despair. I have no doubt that during the period of development of the country, we placed emphasis on immigration, defense and education. But now we have a serious unemployment crisis. It is very important that all the parties concerned see as a first, urgent priority finding an immediate solution to this problem.
I have the great honor of standing before you and taking an oath of loyalty for the position of President of the State of Israel in its 50th year. This year, for all its difficulties, fills us with joy. However, it also obligates every one of us to look inwards and scrutinize his soul. Every citizen, veteran or youngster, Israeli born or immigrant, man or woman, must search his own soul, but as a public, as a society and as a State, we must also take public stock of our actions. Have we achieved all that we wanted? Have we exploited all our capabilities? Have we corrected our errors?
All of us, whether simple citizens or leaders, must think about these things. We must all look far backwards, to the days of our ancestors, and look far forwards, to generations that we shall not know, but who depend on us. If there is even one weak link, the chain will break. It is enough to make one fateful mistake, to shake the foundations of the future. One day we shall also be history for future generations.
What will be written in this remembrance book? We have the ability to be remembered as a glorious past, as the firm foundations of the revival of the nation. We can also write new pages in the history of the State of Israel.
As I have already said, this is the second time that I stand before you in this prestigious ceremony. It is also the last time, because at the end of my second term of office I shall leave you and my role of president and go home. I shall leave you, gentlemen, but not the citizens of Israel, to whom today I give thanks and blessings and to whom I give my oath of loyalty.
Thank you.