Victory Speech by Prime Minister Elect
Ariel Sharon
February 7, 2001
Good evening, and a wonderful evening to all of you. My friends,
Silvan Shalom, chairman of my headquarters, and Reuven Rivlin,
chairman of the parliamentary faction, all members of Knesset, from
this large camp who are sitting here, people from the Likud and all
the other parties: MK Eli Yishai, MK Natan Sharansky, MK Avigdor
Lieberman, MK Yitzak Levy, Rabbi Menachem Porush and Rabbi Meir
Porush - two generations; Michael Kleiner, my friend for many years,
David Levy, and mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert. Together with you we
have reached this wonderful point, and made this marvelous
achievement.
I want to say that a few moments before I came into the hall, when I
was already in the building, the President of the United States,
President Bush, called me, and asked me to present his best wishes to
you. He told me that they want to cooperate very closely with the
government under my leadership.
He reminded me of the trip I took with him through Samaria and the
Jordan Valley. And he said to me, "No one believed then," he said,
"that I would be president and you would be prime minister. But as
things turned out, despite the fact that no one believed us, I have
been elected president, and you have been elected prime minister."
Citizens of Israel, my colleagues from various parties, today the
State of Israel has embarked on a new path, a path of domestic unity
and harmony, of striving for security and genuine peace.
I would like to thank each and every one of you for your support, for
your involvement, for your devotion, for your hard work. As a result
of this work and this great conviction that you and the thousands and
tens of thousands of individual activists throughout Israel have
demonstrated, we have achieved this great victory. We have arrived at
this moment, and to you goes my heartfelt thanks.
Tonight is a very moving and significant night for me. Since my
youth, I have devoted myself entirely to the country, to
consolidating and building its security. In all of my positions, at
all times, whether difficult or joyful, I was accompanied by my dear
late wife, Lily, who supported me wholeheartedly. At this moment,
when the Israeli people have expressed their confidence in me to lead
the country in the coming years, I miss her, and she is not standing
here by my side.
I would also like this evening to thank every single one of Israel's
citizens who have expressed their confidence in me. I shall do
everything in order to succeed in this mission that you have
entrusted to me. This country belongs to all of us, and all of us
have a joint future and a single destiny.
In the course of the years, divisions and rifts have deepened in our
people and society. We have had our fill of anger and baseless
hatred. Now is the time to find common ground, and to seek out as
broad a consensus as possible. There is a deepfelt desire among the
people to stand firmly together to meet the challenges of the
future.
Therefore, I call now for the establishment of as wide a government
of national unity as possible. I appeal to the Labor Party and call
upon it to join us on the basis of a true partnership in pursuing the
difficult path towards security and peace.
Citizens of Israel, today you have called upon me to lead you as
prime minister of Israel, and to succeed in the mission you have
conferred upon me. In order to do this, I shall need the confidence
of the Knesset, and the maximum support of its members. We live in a
parliamentary system in which the government functions on the basis
of a parliamentary majority. As prime minister, I will accord full
respect to the Knesset and its members, and my decisions will be
clear to all members of the house.
The government, under my leadership, will act to strengthen the rule
of law, and to protect the independence of the judicial system, which
is one of the guarantees of maintaining a democratic system.
Citizens of Israel, the government, under my leadership, will act to
restore security to the citizens of Israel, and to achieve genuine
peace and stability in the area. I know that peace requires painful
compromise on the part of both sides. Any diplomatic accord will be
founded upon security for all peoples of the region.
I call upon our Palestinian neighbors to cast off the path of
violence and to return to the path of dialogue and to resolve the
conflicts between us by peaceful means.
The government, under my leadership, will act to achieve realistic
political accords that will preserve the existential and historic
interests of Israel, and will be based on mutual respect and the
reciprocal fulfillment of obligations.
We shall act to deepen the special relationships with our great
friend and ally, the United States, and we shall strive to achieve
closer ties between the State of Israel and the countries of the
world.
Israeli society is plagued by many forms of distress, with which I am
familiar. We will do everything we can to eliminate these. A people
cannot exist if there is no social solidarity. We shall act to reduce
the social gaps and to achieve equal opportunity for everyone.
We will turn over a new leaf in our relationships with our Israeli
Arab citizens in order to achieve a genuine partnership and a feeling
of equality among all the country's citizens.
The government, under my leadership, will, alongside the banner of
peace and security, also raise the banner of social advancement -
first and foremost in the realm of education.
And above both banners, the flag of Zionism will be raised, the flag
of national honor, immigration and settlement.
The government which I shall establish will strive to strengthen and
consolidate united Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, and the eternal
capital of the Jewish people, to which we always proclaim our
loyalty, stating, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand
lose her cunning. May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I
remember thee not, if I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy."
The government under my leadership will act to achieve on-going
economic growth, and in this way, we will create new employment
opportunities and reduce unemployment. We will maintain price
stability and prevent the renewal of inflation.
We will implement a responsible national budget without any increase
in the deficit, while at the same time investing in infrastructure
and education. We will reduce the tax burden on Israeli citizens. We
will maintain the principles of a modern, open economy, based on
competition and integration in the world economy. To achieve these
goals, it is my intention to establish an economic cabinet, which I
shall head.
Citizens of Israel, we have a small country which is blessed with
talent and rich with achievement. Let us set out tonight, joining
forces as a single body, with a single heart, on a new path.
Together, we will be able to overcome all the challenges confronting
us. Together, we will be able to realize here all our hopes and our
dreams.
Thank you all.