Washington, D.C.
December 12, 1995
Mr. Speaker,
Mr. President,
Members of Congress,
My very dear friends,
I stand before you stunned and humbled.
It was but a year ago that on this very podium there stood before you -- in a partnership of hope -- King Hussein and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
And Rabin is no more.
It was only two years ago that President Bill Clinton hosted Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and we all witnessed a historic handshake.
And Yitzhak has gone.
Two weeks and twenty years ago, Lyndon Baines Johnson stood on this very spot and said: "All I have, I would have given gladly not to be standing here today."
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker,
All I have, I would have given gladly not to be standing here today.
My senior partner is gone. He belongs to the ages.
He will enter them as a great leader, as a great soldier, a captain of peace who was assassinated because he was right. That was the reason.
I shared with him days of worry and grief. I shared with him hours of reflection and decision. We complemented each other in a determined pursuit of the only objective worthy of the trust bestowed upon us by the people of Israel: to carve a new era of security in peace; to build bridges across the Arab-Israeli divide -- an impossible divide.
And he, the captain, is no more.
You, dear friends, have honored him in life with an intimate, bipartisan friendship -- to the man, to the land, to the cause he represented. You have honored him in death -- with your unprecedented presence which moved our hearts. May I tell you that the fact the president, two former presidents, the secretary of state, two former secretary of states, the leaders of the Senate and the House and many of the members came on this very sad day to stand on our side is an unforgettable experience in our life. We really thank you. It was great on your part. It will be unforgettable in our history.
Hence, I stand before you with one assignment: In the shadowy light of those candles, in the tearful eyes of our young generation, I heard the appeal -- nay, the order, "Carry on!"
I stand before you with one overriding commitment; to yield to no threat, to stop at no obstacle in negotiating the hurdles ahead and in seeking security for our people, peace for our land, tranquility for our region.
In so doing I ask you, ladies and gentlemen, for your support -- and first and foremost, your moral support. That's what counts most. Nothing but your own conscience is your guide, your faith in the Almighty, and the moral imperative that guides you.
Yitzhak and I were always firm believers in the greatness of America, in the ethics and generosity inherent in your history, in your people. For us, the United States of America is a commitment to values before an expression of might. For us, the vast discovery of America is its Constitution even more than its continent -- the Constitution, enriched by its biblical foundation.
From our school days we remembered the proposal of John Adams that the imagery of ancient Israel captivated the Constitutional Congress in 1776.
We recalled Benjamin Franklin's idea to incorporate into the Great Seal of the new Confederation the image of Moses raising his staff dividing the Red Sea.
We remembered Thomas Jefferson suggesting that the image of the children of Israel struggling through the wilderness, led by a pillar of cloud by day, by a pillar of fire by night -- that this image be the symbol of the young republic, to become the great republic.
History did not stop there. The cloud and the fire have accompanied the human experience in this, the most difficult century in the annals of mankind.
As the end of this 20th century is nearing, it can verily be described as the American century, the century of America. America now charts a way of life that has made competitive creativeness the engine of economic development in practically every corner of the world. The United States has built strength and used it to save the globe from three of its greatest menaces: Nazi tyranny, Japanese militarism and the Communist challenge. You did it. You brought freedom. You defended it.
Even this very day, as Bosnia reeled in agony, you offered a compass and a lamp to a confused situation like in the Middle East. Nobody else was able or was ready to do it.
You enabled many nations to save their democracies, as you strive now to assist nations to free themselves from their non-democratic past. Your sons and daughters fought many wars. Your great armies won many victories. Yet wars did not cause you to lose heart, just as triumphs did not corrupt your system. America remained unspoiled because she has rejected the spoils of victory.
You have a great Constitution, a vast land and a pluralistic civilization. Israel is a small land, 47 years old, 4,000 years deep.
Thanks to the support you have given and to the aid you have rendered, we have been able to overcome wars and tragedies thrust upon us and feel sufficiently strong to take measured risks to wage a campaign for peace together with you.
Let me assure you that never shall we ask your sons and daughters to fight instead of ours, just as we have never asked you to do so in the past. We shall do our task; we shall enjoy your support.
Indeed, even as I speak before you now, Israeli troops are parting from Palestinian towns and villages in an historic departure, intending never to return there as occupiers. We don't want to occupy anybody.
This for us is a victory of moral commitment, and for the Palestinians a victory of self-respect.
For the first time in their history, they are governing themselves -- and we are governing ourselves. Nobody forced us to take these measures. Israel is neither weak nor afraid. Our choice was freely made.
In what we have accomplished, resonant of your own tradition, we have given, like you, preference to a biblical ethic. We are true to the old pages. Like you, we have rejected the temptation to rule over another people even though we possess the force to do so.
Before coming here, I visited King Hussein, a real friend of the United States. We discussed the possibilities of transforming the Jordan Rift Valley, which is in fact an elongated extended desert, into a Tennessee Valley. We learned from you again. In a single bold sweep, we are and remain resolved to turn back the desert, to stop the war, to end the hatred once and forever.
I then met with President Mubarak in a highly congenial atmosphere. We agreed to put aside certain bitter memories and to postpone certain disputed issues for a future date. We have time in the future to disagree; now we have to agree.
Then I met Chairman Arafat, and his expression of condolence had the ring of a sincere desire for peace. May I tell you that nothing convinced the Israeli people about the sincerity of the Arabs seeking peace more than the sympathy and condolence they expressed when they learned about the assassination of Rabin. A sad event, a revealing sentiment.
Arafat is engaged in the new realities of his people and he has conveyed to me the solemn promise to intensify his fight against terror which is, today, as much a danger to him as it is to the peace we are committed together to achieve. I, on my part, have promised to release prisoners in our custody, as we agreed, so as to enable them to participate in the free elections scheduled for the first time in history to take place on January 20th, 1996.
As far as we are concerned, democracy, and that includes Palestinian democracy, is the best and probably the only guarantee for a real and durable peace.
I believe in the prospect. Three years ago, such a prospect would have been considered a fantasy. That was part of the accusation against me. Now, reality is on our side. All this would hardly have been attainable were it not for the American involvement and the support of those efforts.
President Clinton and this Administration, the leadership and members of Congress, practically all of them, and the American people at large have made possible the dawn of peace to rise again over the ancient horizon, over the ancient skies of the Promised Land, and bring promise, again, to the land. By so doing, we have removed the terrifying prospect of evil hands grabbing hold of unconventional weaponry.
Mr. Speaker, members of Congress, international terrorism is a threat to us all. Fundamentalism with a nuclear bomb is the nightmare of our age. We have to stop it.
We understood that in order to ready ourselves to confront the new dangers we would have to put a stop to the enmity with our neighbors. In our time, more than there are new enemies, there are new dangers. The dangers of our days are not confined to borders; they are common to us all -- Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike.
Therefore, we have to try to achieve a comprehensive peace.
Peace with Syria and Lebanon, the two remaining adversaries on our borders, may well prove to be the greatest contribution to the construction of a new Middle East, of a new era in the Middle East.
I must admit that the hurdles are many. We have to negotiate a mountain of suspicion. We have to traverse a chasm of prejudice. We have to find solutions to an array of genuinely conflicting interests -- they are not artificial.
Israel, for its part, is ready.
In October next year Israel will go to elections. I here declare that whatever the outcome, the decision to strive for peace shall be pursued regardless of it. To win peace is more important than to win elections.
We shall try wholeheartedly. We shall try to forge the peace with Syria and Lebanon expeditiously so that, before the curtain of the 20th century shall fall, we shall see, all of us, the emergence of a Middle East of peace.
Mr. Speaker, with your permission, I would like to use this podium to turn to President Assad of Syria and say to him:
Without forgetting the past, let us not look back. Let fingertips touch a new untested hope. Let each party yield to the other, each giving consideration to the respective needs of the other -- mutually so, he to us, we to him. Without illusion but with resolve, we stand ready to make demanding decisions, if you are -- if Assad is. We shall negotiate relentlessly until all gaps are bridged, if you shall -- if Assad shall.
I believe we face an historic opportunity, perhaps of a galloping nature. If we shall find the language of peace between us, we can bring peace to all of us.
Surely, nothing would capture the imagination of young people everywhere more than a gathering of all of us standing together -- when I say all of us, I mean all the leaders of the Middle East, all twenty of them, not one by one, but together -- and declaring the end of the war, the end of the conflict , carrying the message to our forefathers and to our grandchildren that we are again, all of us, the sons and daughters of Abraham, living in a tent of peace.
We shall tell them that together, as partners, we are going to build a new Middle East, a prosperous economy; that we are going to raise the standard of living, not the standard of violence; that we are going to introduce light and hope to our peoples, to their destinies.
Mr. Speaker, permit me a personal word. In my country, I have shouldered almost every responsibility. I have tasted almost every title. I have served in almost every position. Today I wish only one thing: to bear the burden of peacemaking.
In the last moment of his life -- we stood together till the very last moment, his happiest moments of life -- Yitzhak Rabin stood in the Tel Aviv square, I by his side, and singing. He was singing the "Song of Peace". The singer, alas, is not with us; the song remains. The cannot kill the song of peace.
Now, distinguished members of the Congress, I say it sincerely: I have come here for your advice and consent. I hazard the thought that the world cannot permit itself to be without American leadership in these trying times -- not only in the Middle East, but in all other places as well. America, in my judgment, cannot escape what history has laid on your shoulders, on the shoulders of each of you. You cannot escape that which America alone can do -- America alone can keep the world free and assist nations to assume the responsibility for their own fate. Please continue. Go ahead and do it, as you have for the whole century. The next century is awaiting your leadership, as well.
In this spirit, I can do no better than to quote what Yitzhak Rabin said to you when he stood on this rostrum a year ago. He said:
"No words can express our gratitude to you for the years of your generous support, understanding and cooperation, which are all but beyond compare in modern history."
And then he said, "Thank you, America."
I, too, say, thank you, America -- for what you are, for what you have been, for what you shall be.
And in so doing, I shall conclude with a prayer:
May the Almighty spread His wings of loving kindness and His tabernacle of peace over the Land of Israel. May He grant His light and truth to all the leaders of our region -- to all the leaders of America, to the leaders of our time.
[In Hebrew:] He shall bestow peace on the land, and everlasting joy to its residents.
Mr. Speaker, thank you very much.