Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Speech at the 40th Anniversary of Sadat's Visit to the Knesset

21/11/2017
Honorable Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein,
Members of the government,
Opposition leader MK Isaac Herzog,
Members of the Knesset,
Distinguished Guests,
"I have now met with the Egyptian ambassador to Israel, Hazem Khairat and his team.
He gave me greetings from Egyptian President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Shukri, and I congratulated him on this important occasion.The peace between Israel and Egypt is robust, it is a strategic peace benefitting both countries. And yet, I am sad to see the meager presence of ministers and Knesset members at such an important event. We'll have to fix it at the fiftieth anniversary event, but I think there will be opportunities earlier.



And maybe one of the reasons is that we've gotten used to it too fast. It has become routine, which is obvious but does not go without saying.
I remember the tremendous excitement that gripped me and all citizens of Israel and many in the world. Sadat's arrival, his landing in Israel and then his arrival in the Knesset, was like the excitement I had when I saw the first person landing on the moon. It was something of this initial breakthrough, the breaking of routine, the perception of the future. In those 40 minutes he spent on the plane, the distance between Egypt to Israel, he changed history. It was much shorter than the forty years of wandering of our people in the Sinai Desert, but no less dramatic. Two ancient nations whose paths intersected in ancient times; two neighboring nations, who had waged an all-out war for a generation, overcame the residue of hostility and offered each other a hand of peace.
Sadat's visit was a breakthrough in the history of the Middle East. It enabled direct contact between the Arab world and the Jewish state, leading to a historic reconciliation, the first of its kind. Time teaches us that this peace is a stable anchor in our swollen and bleeding region. Now it's true, maybe it's not a perfect peace - but it's a peace that definitely pays off. It pays both countries, and not only us, and despite the crises and shocks on the way – the peace is sustainable.
But there is a basic condition for peace, which has always been and will always be: the power of Israel. In the Middle East, alliances are made with the strong, not with the weak. Sadat said when he came here: "I came to make peace with a strong leader," - he said. Sadat, too, was convinced before his arrival in Jerusalem that Israel was a powerful country. That since the War of Independence - the IDF has resolutely pushed back on every attack, even surprise attacks, and has safeguarded the security of the State of Israel.
The importance of the 'Iron Wall' has been proven time after time. Not only to preserve our existence, but also to create the foundation for peace with our neighbors. Only when Israel is strong, we can reach non-combat, and from that to get to peace. A peace that brings to recognition in the State of Israel, and that prevents bloodshed in the future. Menachem Begin said it in a few sentences. "No more war, no more bloodshed". And Anwar Sadat, when he stood here at this podium, he said at this occasion that moved us very much: "I've declared more than once that Israel is an existing fact." Which means, first comes the recognition in the existing fact, and from that stems the recognition of the right to exist. That is why we have to always be strong enough so there will never be any undermining, doubts, about our everlasting existence.
That is how Sadat acted upon, unlike our Palestinian neighbors, who still refuse to recognize the State of Israel's right to exist. Unfortunately, I say, I have not yet to meet a Palestinian Sadat who will declare his desire for conflict to end, recognize the State of Israel with any borders and support our right to live in security and peace.
Today - four decades after Sadat's visit to Israel - large parts of the Arab world understand not only what happened here forty years ago, they understand very well what can happen here because of the changes taking place in the region. Many countries know that the threat to the Middle East does not stem from Israel, but rather the opposite: Israel is the moderate, responsible and tough factor that is struggling with this threat. The greatest threat in the region stems from radical Islam and violence, led by Iran on the one hand and by ISIS on the other, radical Islam that brutally tramples everything in its path.
President Sadat himself was a victim to this Islamist fanaticism. His murder in Cairo - 36 years ago - shocked the world. And yet, the peace remained steadfast. The peace with Egypt knew ups and downs, but it traversed all the pitfalls during the reign of President Mubarak and afterwards.
In the last few years, under the leadership of Egyptian President Al-Sisi, this peace, this relationship is rejuvenated. We maintain open channels of communication that are vital to Israel and Egypt's security. My recent visit to New York, where I met with the Egyptian president, greatly strengthened these relations. We are committed to expanding the circle of peace to other countries as well as to our Palestinian neighbors. I know that President Trump and his team are also committed to this goal.
The greatest obstacle to the expansion of peace today is not found in the leaders of the countries around us. The obstacle is public opinion on the Arab street, public opinion that has been brainwashed for years by a distorted and misleading presentation of the State of Israel. And after many decades - it is like geological layers - it is very difficult to reveal and present Israel in its true light, in its beautiful and true face, in the help we provide, both in the region and in Africa, also in Asia, in rescue missions, both in technology and assistance to the wounded from Syria. Thousands, thousands. It is very difficult to penetrate these geological layers to the rock of truth, and therefore the peace remains cold.
So I say, a cold peace is preferred over a hot war, but a warm peace is preferred over cold peace- and we all want that. That is why this perception of Israel must change. Otherwise it will be hard to break though the circle, the Palestinian one as well, because there is constant propaganda, not only in Judea and Samaria, but also in the Palestinian Authority - all the time, endless propaganda. You say, "How can they not know the truth? They live here".  The propaganda is so strong, their establishments, the layers, these sediments of the lie are so powerful, and that is what prevents the breakthrough. That must be changed.
I see changes, the budding of this change, in public opinion - I'm not talking about the leaders - in the Arab space. We see certain changes in certain parts of public opinion in the Middle East. I think that this is something that should be encouraged and developed in the region, because in the end it is something that will radiate inward. When I talk about peace from the outside, it is not primarily the ability to leverage our connections now with Arab states to break through the Palestinian barrier - it is more in the consciousness, in the drip of consciousness, that Israel is different, it is different and that the Palestinian narrative, as they call it, adapted to the truth.  To look differently, with an objective eye, with a real eye on the real Israel.
I would like to see the peace with Egypt adapted to this truth. To expand contacts, the live contact between the nations in economy, culture, tourism. To break the wall, the historic propaganda wall, and I hope we are at the beginning of such a process. At least according to our measures, we see it formulating in certain parts of the region. Naturally, not everything of this sort is in our hands- and the change, if happening, is expected to take time, but there is no doubt we are in a good time to expand cooperation and break stereotypes.
Peace is important to Israel, peace is important to Egypt, peace is important to the Arab nations, it is important to Egypt of course. Anwar Sadat's visit to Israel 40 years ago taught us that in our region, the unbelievable can become believable. That is why I believe with all my heart that this great event will not be a passing episode; It will remain the cornerstone of the peace building in the Middle East - in this generation and in future generations.

And in honor of this visit, I ask of you, Mr Speaker, to schedule a special meeting marking 41 years to Anwar Sadat's visit to Israel and to the Knesset. He deserves it, we deserve it.

WATCH: Netanyahu hails ‘a new age’ with Trump presidency

PM Netanyahu Holds Discussion Following Terrorist Attack in Jerusalem

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday morning 6 Marcheshvan, at his Jerusalem office, held a special discussion in the wake of last night’s terrorist attack in which Yehuda Glick was shot. Participating in the discussion were Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Public Defense Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich, ISA Director Yoram Cohen, Israel Police Chief Yochanan Danino, Jerusalem District Police Commander Moshe Edri, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and representatives from the Attorney General’s office, the Justice Ministry and the IDF.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting: “I would like to send my best wishes for a full and quick recovery to Yehuda Glick, who is now fighting for his life. I would also like to commend the ISA and the Israel Police for quickly solving this act of terrorism. A few days ago, I said that we were facing a wave of incitement by radical Islamic elements and by Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen who said that Jews must be prevented from going up to the Temple Mount by any means possible.

“I still have not heard from the international community so much as one word of condemnation for these inflammatory remarks. The international community needs to stop its hypocrisy and take action against inciters, against those who try to change the status quo. I have ordered significant reinforcements so that we can maintain both security in Jerusalem and the status quo in the holy places. This struggle might be long, and here, like in other struggles, we must first of all, lower the flames. No side should take the law into its own hands. We must be level-headed and act with determination and responsibility, and so we shall.”

Netanyahu Calls Obama’s View of Jerusalem ‘Un-American’ Does anyone remember Obama’s 20008 campaign speech that Jerusalem will remain “undivided?” By: Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu

Netanyahu is  "baffled" by Obama, but who isn't?
Netanyahu is "baffled" by Obama, but who isn't?
Photo Credit: Screenshot: CBS
The Obama administration’s harsh condemnation of Jews buying homes from Arabs in eastern Jerusalem is “against American values,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday.

He pointed out that in his meeting with President Barack Obama, the president did not talk about specifics when the president raised the issue of settlements.

“I said we should address the larger issues – are the Palestinians ready to recognize a nation state for the Jewish people the way we are ready to recognize the nation state of the Palestinians,” Netanyahu said.

The Prime Minister took the opportunity to spell out the facts concerning building homes in Jerusalem to support his reaction of being “baffled” by the American position.

He said the project being planned in what is called eastern Jerusalem, although in this case it actually is in the southern part of the capital, “There are 2,400 units. What they didn’t tell you is that 700 of those units are designated for Arab residents in Jerusalem.

“The whole line that Jews cannot buy homes in Jerusalem, or you can’t have mixed housing projects for Arabs and Jews, is wrong. I am baffled.

“If somewhere in America someone said Jews cannot buy apartments here, there would be an uproar. I do not accept this.”

Concerning the purchase of six buildings in the Silwan Valley, directly across the road form the Western Wall, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated, “Some Jewish residents of Jerusalem bought apartments legally from Arabs in a predominantly Arab neighborhood. This is seen as a terrible thing.. Arab in east Jerusalem buy apartments, thousands of them, in the Jewish neighborhood in west Jerusalem. No one says you can’t do it.

“If I said to you, in some place in the United States, “Jews cannot buy apartments here,’ there would be an uproar.

“It is against American values. The idea that we’d have this ethnic purification as a condition for peace? I think it’s anti-peace.”

Netanyahu did not address the principal reasoning of the Obama administration and its predecessors that dividing Jerusalem, and not declaring the city as the capital of Israel until it is divided, is in “the national security interests” of the United States.

He did not address the issue because no one has yet been able to solve the puzzle of how the American government, mainly the State Dept., links the two. It’s like starting to recite “A-B-C- and ending up with “Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday.”

Whoever can figure out why they are connected perhaps can also explain why Jews should not buy from Arabs but Arabs can buy from Jews.



About the Author: Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu is a graduate in journalism and economics from The George Washington University. He has worked as a cub reporter in rural Virginia and as senior copy editor for major Canadian metropolitan dailies. Tzvi wrote for Arutz Sheva for several years before joining the Jewish Press.

Israel is Obama’s Lesser of Two Evils The enemy that you know is a better friend than the enemy you don’t know. By: Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu

Obama needs Netanyahu more than he admits in public.
Photo Credit: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/FLASH90

The United States again described Israel on Thursday as “an important partner, a security partner, a friend and ally,” and that is the bottom line underneath the media madness to create a non-existent Obama-Netanyahu crisis over building for Jew in eastern Jerusalem.

A quick look at media establishment headlines would lead one to the seemingly unmistakable conclusion that President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu are at each other’s throats.

The White House and the U.S. State Dept. condemned in the strongest possible terms the latest advancement in the bureaucratic process to build more homes for Jews in Jerusalem. For the record, more than one-third of those homes actually are for Arabs, but frustrated journalists, who turn fact into fiction for the sake of their agenda, rarely want to notice the truth.

Netanyahu responded to the criticism from Washington with equally blunt terms, saying that the Obama administration “doesn’t have the facts.”

U.S. State Dept. Jen Psaki spat back Thursday, “I think we have our information clear, and we responded to the facts on the ground.

Her follow-up statement that Israel remains an ally and “that has not changed” is not just fluff.

The Palestinian Authority has thoroughly dismissed Washington as useless in its single-minded objective of finishing off Israel as a Jewish state. The Arab world never was interested in making the Palestinian Authority a new country. If it were, the Palestinian Authority could have been an independent state long ago.

The Arab world also is more concerned about wild Islamic terror and about Iran than it is about Mahmoud Abbas and a Palestinian state, which is becoming more of an expensive and untrusted baggage than a than a strategic ally.

Ever since the Saudi Arabia so-called Peace Initiative in 2002 that declared the Arab world would “normalize” relations with Israel in return for Israel’s agreeing to the well-known conditions for Zionist hari-kari, the Western world, led by the United States, has naively pursued the “two-state” solution.

Obama and his predecessors have managed to twist Israel’s weak arm to erase almost every red line to satisfy the Arab world’s insatiable appetite.

Israel in the past three years finally has found it muscle, as well as self-respect, and has stuck to a couple of red lines that are accepted by an overwhelming majority of Jews in Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas has milked the Obama Defense Minister for every concession it can wring out of Israel, where only a minute percentage would agree to the insane and impossible nightmare of expelling 300,000 Jews from neighborhoods such as Gilo, Ramot, Talpiot and French Hill in Jerusalem.

Only a minute percentage of Israelis would agree to allow mass immigration of foreign Arabs.

Abbas is finished with Obama, and the president knows it.

Abbas, his ministers, spokesmen and so-called negotiators have deposited he checks Israel has given them and now is ditching the United States in favor of the United Nations to empty out the bank.

It not only has demanded that the United Nations tell Israel to empty out the vault by 2016. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian Authority ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday, “If this additional door of peace is closed before us, then we will not only join the ICC [International Criminal Court to seek accountability. We will join other treaties and agencies” and show the world “that we exist as a nation, we exist as a state although the land of our state is under occupation.”

Whether Obama’s foreign policy sages are even more dumb and blind than can be imagined, or whether they simply are smart enough to play charades and go through the emotions and stroke the Arab world’s skin of hate by criticizing Israel, Washington has given up on the idea that a two-state solution is going to protect Americans against Iran and worldwide Islamic terror.

The American-led war on ISIS has drawn many co-sponsors. One of the most important is not listed or recognized, and that country, of course, is not the Palestinian Authority.

It is Israel, which provides better intelligence on ISIS, Iran and just about anything else including Ebola, than any Arab or non-Arab country.

Obama may not love Netanyahu, but he needs him more than he needs Abbas.

PM Netanyahu Interviewed on Six International Media Networks

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday night the eve of 8 Tishrei was interviewed by National Public Radio’s Inskeep, Univision’s Jorge Ramos, and MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. Today he is due to be interviewed by Fox’s Greta Van Susteren and CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, as well as appear on CBS’s Face the Nation.
Following are excerpts from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s interview on Univision regarding reports on the construction in Jerusalem and the similarity between ISIS and Hamas:
“This isn’t a settlement. These are neighborhoods in Jerusalem. If you said to me that in some city in the United States or in Mexico, or anywhere else, Jews cannot buy apartments, there would be an uproar. You know, there’s not only the freedom of property, but the right of every individual to live where they want, as long as they purchase the apartment legally and don’t expropriate, don’t take over, which isn’t the case here. This was a free transaction. So I just want to understand this policy. It flies in the face of American values, and it flies in the face of common sense.” (In his MSNBC interview, the Prime Minister added that the criticism was levelled at a mixed neighborhood in which a large portion of the approved construction will be designated for Arab residents alongside Jewish residents.)
“I didn’t say that Hamas and ISIS are twins. I said that they’re brothers. They’re branches as I said in the UN of the same poison tree of militant Islam. They both share fanatic ideology of first getting these enclaves of militant Islam and then expanding them through terror ultimately to in their view, to dominate the world. Now, they also share the same fanatic methods. And they’re very similar, though not identical. I didn’t say that Hamas and ISIS are twins. I said that they’re brothers. They’re branches as I said in the UN of the same poison tree of militant Islam. They both share fanatic ideology of first getting these enclaves of militant Islam and then expanding them through terror ultimately to in their view, to dominate the world. Now, they also share the same fanatic methods. And they’re very similar, though not identical.”

Netanyahu Meets With Top Donors During US Visit

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is literally putting his (well, his donors’) money where his mouth is. While the visit to NY was supposed to be a diplomatic tour to refute the lies of the Palestinians and garner support for a tougher tone on Iran, Netanyahu-who announced he’ll be running for a fourth term as prime minister- found plenty of time in his calendar to cuddle with his top donors.

After addressing the threat of Hamas and ISIS in a blistering speech at the UN General Assembly on Monday, Prime Minister Netanyahu was spotted dining with Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson in Midtown at Fresco by Scotto, Page Six reported Monday night.

Netanyahu also met last night with top donors in Weehawken, New Jersey, a source told JP. The dinner was attended by some 20 close friends and donors, among them Mort Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report and the publisher of the New York Daily News;  Bob Rochnitz, founder of Bomel Companies and Bomel Israel, Ltd and chairman of the Iron dome tribute – a close confident of Prime Minister Netanyahu; and Professor Alan Dershowitz.

This morning Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet with guests of the Consulate General of Israel in New York and the Conference of Presidents at the Palace Hotel.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will also attend the reception.

No word yet if the Prime Minister would be meeting with NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, a staunch supporter of Israel and a defender of the Israeli operation in Gaza the past summer.

Remarks by President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel Before Bilateral Meeting

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, it’s good once again to welcome the Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu. Obviously, he’s no stranger to the White House. I think I’ve met with Bibi more than any world leader during my tenure as President.
We meet at a challenging time. Israel is obviously in a very turbulent neighborhood, and this gives us an opportunity once again to reaffirm the unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel, and our ironclad commitment to making sure that Israel is secure.
Throughout the summer, obviously all of us were deeply concerned about the situation in Gaza. I think the American people should be very proud of the contributions that we made to the Iron Dome program to protect the lives of Israelis at a time when rockets were pouring into Israel on a regular basis. I think we also recognize that we have to find ways to change the status quo so that both Israeli citizens are safe in their own homes and schoolchildren in their schools from the possibility of rocket fire, but also that we don’t have the tragedy of Palestinian children being killed as well.
And so we’ll discuss extensively both the situation of rebuilding Gaza but also how can we find a more sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Our agenda will be broader than that, obviously. I’ll debrief Bibi on the work that we’re doing to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL, and the broader agenda that I discussed at the United Nations, which is mobilizing a coalition not only for military action, but also to bring about a shift in Arab states and Muslim countries that isolate the cancer of violent extremism that is so pernicious and ultimately has killed more Muslims than anything else.
And we’ll also have an opportunity to discuss the progress that’s being made with respect to dealing with Iran’s nuclear program, which obviously has been a high priority for not only Israel, but also the United States and the world community.
So we have a lot to talk about, and I appreciate very much the Prime Minister coming. It’s challenging I think for an Israeli Prime Minister to have to work so hard during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but I know that the Prime Minister’s utmost priority is making sure that his country is safe during these difficult times. And we’re glad that the United States can be a partner in that process.
PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: Mr. President, first I want to thank you. I want to thank you for the unflinching support you gave Israel during our difficult days and difficult summer we had — expressed in so many ways, but also in an additional installment of support for Iron Dome, which has saved so many lives, saved many lives across the border. And I thank you for that, and for the continuous bond of friendship that is so strong between Israel and the United States.
I also want to thank you for this opportunity to meet with you and to discuss the enormous challenges facing the United States and Israel in the Middle East. There’s definitely a new Middle East. I think it poses new dangers, but it also presents new opportunities.
As for the dangers, Israel fully supports your effort and your leadership to defeat ISIS. We think everybody should support this. And even more critical is our shared goal of preventing Iran from becoming a military nuclear power.
As you know, Mr. President, Iran seeks a deal that would lift the tough sanctions that you’ve worked so hard to put in place, and leave it as a threshold nuclear power. I fervently hope that under your leadership that would not happen.
Equally, I think that there are opportunities. And the opportunities, as you just expressed, is something that is changing in the Middle East, because out of the new situation, there emerges a commonality of interests between Israel and leading Arab states. And I think that we should work very hard together to seize on those common interests and build a positive program to advance a more secure, more prosperous and a more peaceful Middle East.
I remain committed to a vision of peace of two states for two peoples based on mutual recognition and rock solid security arrangements on the ground. And I believe we should make use of the new opportunities, think outside the box, see how we can recruit the Arab countries to advance this very hopeful agenda. And I look forward to our discussions on these and many other matters.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you very much, everybody.

Paradigm Change for Solving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Editorial

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to many tried-and-true motifs in his speech Monday before the UN General Assembly in New York. He prioritized the Iranian nuclear weapon threat, arguing Islamic State’s pickup trucks and Kalashnikov rifles are not in the same league as a nuclear-armed Iran.

He quoted from Islamic State’s self-declared caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Hamas’s Khaled Mashaal and Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and showed how all shared the same goal of “expanding enclaves of militant Islam where there is no freedom and no tolerance – where women are treated as chattel, Christians are decimated, and minorities are subjugated, sometimes given the stark choice to convert or to die.”

He pointed to Hamas’s cult of death, noting how during Operation Protective Edge, Hamas purposely increased the number of civilian casualties by using Palestinian men, women and children as human shields.

But Netanyahu also broke new ground in his speech, speaking of a “historic opportunity.” Countries in the region that were antagonistic toward Israel – ostensibly because of its conflict with the Palestinians – increasingly realize that they share common interests with the Jewish state. Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates all see a nuclear Iran, an exultant Islamic State and a reactionary Muslim Brotherhood as direct threats to political stability.

Jews share with the Christians, Kurds and Yazidis of the region similar threats and interests as well. For all these groups, defeating militant Islamists is an existential imperative.

But the reasoning for cooperation with Israel should not be based solely on the axiom “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Israel has so much to offer its neighbors, not just as a military force in the region. Israel can help make potable water more accessible. Israel can share its unique technologies in the fields of agriculture, health and energy to help eradicate poverty and improve health. Where there is devastating and crippling malnutrition resulting at least in part from a religious fanaticism that eschews science and enlightenment, millions of children could be lifted out of their fate and given prospects for success.

Rapprochement with the Arab world could also radically transform the paradigm for reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. Instead of seeing the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a precondition for normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab nations, increasing cooperation between Israel and its neighbors can serve as a catalyst for a new, more creative solution to the conflict. As relations between Israel and its neighbors improve and as cooperation increases, decision- makers in Cairo, Amman, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh will be more inclined to come forward with initiatives that will enable Palestinians and Israelis to live together in peace.

Neighboring nations can have a critical influence on peace talks by encouraging a more moderate Palestinian leadership in Gaza, by helping to solve the Palestinian refugee problem, by funding regional projects that generate jobs.

The old two-state paradigm for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has failed despite repeated attempts over more than two decades. The time has come to think more creatively. One example of how a neighboring nation can radically transform the obsolete two-state paradigm was on display just a few weeks ago.

News media reported that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had offered Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas territory in the Sinai Peninsula adjacent to the Gaza Strip that would turn the area into a more viable future Palestinian state. Sisi later denied he made the offer. However, similar initiatives, based on shared interests, might in the future bring about a breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These multilateral initiatives will be put forward only in an atmosphere of cooperation and coexistence.

We Jews – like the Kurds, the Christians the Yazidis and other non-Muslim faith and ethnic groups – are an integral part of this region. Our roots go back over 3,000 years. We are a highly developed nation with the region’s strongest military force. We are also the region’s most innovative nation, possessing technologies that can radically improve the standard of living for others in the region, as we did for those Palestinians fortunate to have been born in Israel. It is only logical that a solution will be found to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that includes input and support from the entire region in an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation.

PM Netanyahu's meeting with Jewish federation leaders in New York

New York, NY - If Iran becomes a nuclear threshold state, the prospect of regime change inside the Islamic Republic will fade even further, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.

Netanyahu, speaking in New York to some 250 Jewish community leaders and activists, said that the nuclear threshold status would give the regime an aura of “immortality and inevitability,” as has happened in North Korea.

The prime minister’s comments came a day before he is scheduled to meet with US President Barack Obama in Washington, where Netanyahu said Iran will be a main focus of the discussion. Israel is increasingly concerned that the fight against Islamic State will lead some in the west to want to make concessions to Iran on the nuclear issue in order to mobilize Iran in the fight against the organization.

Netanyahu said that although one day there may indeed be regime change inside Iran, this is not something upon which Israel can base policy.

The Prime Minister, picking up on the Hamas-is-Islamic-State theme that he hit upon hard at the UN a day earlier, a theme not necessarily accepted in Washington, held up a picture that he did not use at the UN of an impending execution in Gaza of a man with a sack over his head in Gaza.

“This isn’t ISIS, this is Hamas,” he said.  “And during the recent fighting in Gaza, right around the time that ISIS was doing its grisly deeds, Hamas executed dozens of Palestinians just to impose fear and force the population of Gaza into submission. It’s true there are some differences between Hamas and ISIS – for example ISIS beheads people and Hamas puts a bullet in the back of their heads.”

But to the victims and to their families, he said, “the horror is the same.” He said that his point is that the radical Muslim organizations all share a fanatic ideology. “They all have not only unbridled ambitions but also savage methods. And the more they have the capability to realize their ambitions, the more they’ll unleash their pent-up aggression against our common civilizations.”

After elaborating a bit more on the themes he raised in his UN speech, Netanyahu spent the remainder of his 15-minute address dedicated to praising the soldiers who took part in Operation Protective Edge.

Referring to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s famous description of Israel as a spider’s web that will disappear when blown upon, Netanyahu said, “some spider web.”

“One of the great things that happened this summer was to see the courage and heroism of the soldiers of Israel,” he said to applause. “What strength, what valor—in the biblical sense. What a generation was born in Israel. What strength of the people expressed through the soldiers who fought a war so just, and who were willing to throw themselves into the maelstrom.”

Netanyahu said it was a source of great pride and hope “that the Jewish people can defend themselves with the sons and daughters of Israel that can stand up in comparison with any generation.”

The warm reception he received Tuesday, contrasted with the more tepid response he received at the UN. When he walked into the ballroom, where everyone was already on their feet applauding, he quipped, “this is a tough crowd.”

Among those in the audience were New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who visited Israel over the summer, and former senator Joe Lieberman.

Just as recently retired New York Yankee legend Derek Jeter received a shout-out in Netanyahu’s UN address, his shadow also loomed over Tuesday’s event as well with Malcolm Hoenlein, the head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, giving Netanyahu a pinstripe Jersey with Jeter’s name and number on the back.

Following the meeting with the Jewish leaders, Netanyahu was scheduled to meet in the afternoon with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.  He was then expected to hold a number of meetings with advisors in preparation for Wednesday’s meeting in Washington with US President Barack Obama. Netanyahu will fly to Washington in the morning for the meeting, and return to New York in the afternoon. He is scheduled to fly back to Israel on Thursday.

On Tuesday he met with top US columnists, editors and publishers, and was also scheduled to meet later in the afternoon with the editorial board of The New York Times, a newspaper which has been extremely critical of his policies. On Wednesday he is scheduled to meet as well with the editorial board of The Washington Post, which has taken an editorial position more sympathetic to Netanyahu.

Netanyahu—according to The New York Post—dined Monday evening after his UN speech with Sheldon Adelson, his friend and the owner of Yisrael Hayom and Makor Rishon. Adelson was a major contributor to Mitt Romney’s unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign to unseat Obama.

Analysis of the PM's Speech: Vintage Netanyahu Netanyahu always places the focus first and foremost on security; He sees his historic role as leader of Israel not necessarily as being the one who will bring peace

UNITED NATIONS – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stood on the world’s grandest stage on Monday and delivered three key messages: Israel’s fight is your fight, the time has come to retire the 20-year-old template of direct negotiations with the Palestinians as the path to peace, and that his main historic role is to defend the Jewish state.

The speech was vintage Netanyahu. It had passion, it had soaring rhetorical flourishes, it had sarcasm. It even had a contemporary reference to retiring New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter.

And, finally, it had an appraisal of how Netanyahu views his role as a leader.

Toward the end of the speech, Netanyahu said that some in the world do not take Israel’s security concerns seriously.

“But I do, and I always will,” he said. “Because as prime minister of Israel I am entrusted with the awesome responsibility of ensuring the future of the Jewish people and the future of the Jewish state. And no matter what pressure is brought to bear, I will never waiver in fulfilling that responsibility.”

That theme has been woven more than anything else through all of Netanyahu’s major addresses. Some leaders, like Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Olmert, saw their ultimate role as being a peacemaker, and emphasized that in their keynote addresses.

Not Netanyahu. He always places the focus first and foremost on security. He sees his historic role as leader of Israel not necessarily as being the one who will bring peace, but rather the one who will ensure the country’s security, even if it means taking positions unpopular around the world to do so. One such position may be his signal Monday that he now prefers partnership with the Arab world as a way to reach some kind of accommodation with the Palestinians, rather than negotiations and peace with the Palestinians as the ticket to rapprochement with the Arab world.

In the role he envisions for himself as the defender of the Jewish people and the Jewish state, Netanyahu sees it as his responsibility to sound the warning loudly and clearly about the incoming storms.

He did that in his addresses to the UN in 2012 and 2013, focusing on Iran, and he did it again Monday.

This time the storm had two names: Iran and militant Islamic radicalism.

Knowing full well the world in which he lives, Netanyahu tried to draw parallels between Islamic State, which has the world up in arms, with the Islamic state of Iran, which he fears the world is willing to give a pass. Though there might be differences in their theological approach, he stressed, the aim is the same: world domination.

Netanyahu sees it as his role to shout from the mountain tops about the incoming storms. And he artfully shouted about them Monday at the UN. And if the world does not heed his warnings, he had another message as well – one that also always props up in his keynote addresses: Israel will always defend itself, by itself, against any threat.

PM Netanyahu's UN speech Bleak Netanyahu warns of militant Islam’s global ambition In a UN address largely bereft of hope, PM says Iran-led radicalism must be stopped, decries Abbas’s ‘genocide’ libel, but suggests moderate Arab states could help pave path to Israeli-Palestinian peace "...his critics at home and abroad, he knew, would immediately seize upon as defensive, stubborn and bleak. In Netanyahu’s worldview, however, he was merely being realistic, firm and clear-headed."

There were no gimmicks. Few excruciating one-liners. Just a single visual aid: a photograph of three children in Gaza at play right next to a rocket launcher.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a no-nonsense address to the United National General Assembly on Monday — presenting himself as the leader of a “proud and unbowed” nation, charged with the “awesome responsibility” of ensuring his much-threatened people’s future in a brutal, unstable region.

It was not a speech entirely bereft of hope. He reached out to “Cairo, Amman, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and elsewhere” and asserted that a rapprochement with Israel by such Arab players could in turn yield a peace agreement with the Palestinians, which, he also said, “will obviously necessitate a territorial compromise.”

But the outlook he presented was immensely grim, nonetheless. His bitter overview, he said toward the end of his remarks, “may fly in the face of conventional wisdom, but it is the truth. And the truth must always be spoken, especially here at the United Nations.”

As spoken by Netanyahu, the truth is that “militant Islam is on the march,” that its ambitions are global, and that all its many, sometimes competing factions are “branches of the same poisonous tree.” Thus it is ridiculous and self-defeating for countries to support the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State but criticize Israel for tackling Hamas. If not stopped in its tracks, he indicated, Islamic extremism would come for everyone.

The truth, as further set out by the prime minister, is that the most potent such example of globally ambitious militant Islam is what he took pains to call “the Islamic state of Iran,” which has been seeking to export its revolution for 35 years and must be denied the nuclear weapons to further its radical cause. Just as world powers would not let IS enrich uranium, run a heavy water plant or develop increasingly sophisticated ballistic missiles, so Iran must not be allowed to do any of those things either, he insisted. “To defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war,” he declared — a point he considered so fundamental that he repeated the sentence.

The truth, Netanyahu asserted too, is that Israel has faced “libelous charges” of deliberately killing civilians in its war against Hamas terrorism this summer, when in fact “no other country and no other army in history” has gone to greater lengths to avoid casualties among the civilian population of their enemy. The IDF, he declared, “upheld the highest moral values of any army in the world… Israel’s soldiers deserve not condemnation but admiration from decent people everywhere.”

It is Hamas, said Netanyahu, that committed war crimes. It is Hamas, not Israel, that the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas should have singled out for castigation from the same UN podium last Friday, and it is Hamas that the UN should be investigating. Indeed, by focusing its bias on Israel, he charged, the UN’s Human Rights Council was “sending a clear message to terrorists everywhere” — to use civilians as human shields. The UN Human Rights Council “has thus become a terrorists’ rights council,” he lamented.

For Netanyahu, that UN bias was just one dire manifestation of another awful truth — the revival of the disease of anti-Semitism, as reflected in calls from some extremists in Europe for the gassing of Jews, and foul comparisons of Israel to the Nazis. Anti-Semitism, he warned, was now “spreading in polite society.”

Having fumed since Friday at Abbas’s accusation that Israel committed “genocide” in Gaza this summer, Netanyahu batted the charge away here in just a few angry sentences. The Jewish state was being demonized with “the apartheid libel” and allegations of genocide, he said in horror. “In what moral universe,” he asked, did warning the enemy’s civilian population to get out of the way, ensuring humanitarian aid, and setting up a field hospital to aid the enemy’s wounded, constitute genocide? “The same moral universe,” he answered, in which Abbas could level his accusations from the UN podium. The genocide charge, he also noted, had been made by the selfsame Palestinian leader who, as a student, produced a dissertation of lies about the Holocaust and who now insists upon “a Palestine without Jews — Judenrein.”

If Abbas’s speech left little prospect of future dealings with Netanyahu, the prime minister made clear in those few sentences that he will not be inclined to interact any further with Abbas.

The next truth as delivered by Netanyahu was that, like it or not, the Middle East has changed for the worse in recent years, that Islamic militant groups had filled the vacuum when Israel left Gaza and South Lebanon, and thus that Israel had “heightened concerns” about territorial concessions in the future. Israel simply could not tolerate IS within mortar range — the situation that would prevail if Islamic militants took control of the West Bank. And thus, under any peace agreement, he said, repeating a theme he had returned to several times during the summer, “I will always insist that Israel will be able to defend itself, by itself, against any threat.”

There were some, he said — choosing to name no names, after months of friction with the US over West Bank security proposals — who “still don’t take Israel’s security concerns seriously. But I do,” said Netanyahu, “and I always will, because as the prime minister of Israel I am entrusted with the awesome responsibility of ensuring the future of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.” And, he pledged, “I will never waver in that responsibility.”

In those phrases, Netanyahu vouchsafed his deepest truth of all — highlighting the sheer weight of the burden he feels he carries, albeit one he considers himself uniquely well-equipped to shoulder.

This passage came at the end of a speech that his critics at home and abroad, he knew, would immediately seize upon as defensive, stubborn and bleak. In Netanyahu’s worldview, however, he was merely being realistic, firm and clear-headed.

Full text of Prime Minister Netanyahu's UN speech

Thank you, Mr. President, Distinguished delegates, I come here from Jerusalem to speak on behalf of my people, the people of Israel. I've come here to speak about the dangers we face and about the opportunities we see. I've come here to expose the brazen lies spoken from this very podium against my country and against the brave soldiers who defend it.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The people of Israel pray for peace.
But our hopes and the world's hope for peace are in danger. Because everywhere we look, militant Islam is on the march.
It's not militants. It's not Islam. It's militant Islam. Typically, its first victims are other Muslims, but it spares no one. Christians, Jews, Yazidis, Kurds – no creed, no faith, no ethnic group is beyond its sights. And it's rapidly spreading in every part of the world. You know the famous American saying: "All politics is local"? For the militant Islamists, "All politics is global." Because their ultimate goal is to dominate the world.
Now, that threat might seem exaggerated to some, since it starts out small, like a cancer that attacks a particular part of the body. But left unchecked, the cancer grows, metastasizing over wider and wider areas. To protect the peace and security of the world, we must remove this cancer before it's too late. Last week, many of the countries represented here rightly applauded President Obama for leading the effort to confront ISIS. And yet weeks before, some of these same countries, the same countries that now support confronting ISIS, opposed Israel for confronting Hamas. They evidently don’t understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree.
ISIS and Hamas share a fanatical creed, which they both seek to impose well beyond the territory under their control.
Listen to ISIS’s self-declared caliph,Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. This is what he said two months ago: A day will soon come when the Muslim will walk everywhere as a master… The Muslims will cause the world to hear and understand the meaning of terrorism… and destroy the idol of democracy. Now listen to Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas. He proclaims a similar vision of the future: We say this to the West… By Allah you will be defeated. Tomorrow our nation will sit on the throne of the world.
As Hamas's charter makes clear, Hamas’s immediate goal is to destroy Israel. But Hamas has a broader objective. They also want a caliphate. Hamas shares the global ambitions of its fellow militant Islamists. That’s why its supporters wildly cheered in the streets of Gaza as thousands of Americans were murdered on 9/11. And that's why its leaders condemned the United States for killing Osama Bin Laden, whom they praised as a holy warrior.
So when it comes to their ultimate goals, Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas.
And what they share in common, all militant Islamists share in common: • Boko Haram in Nigeria; • Ash-Shabab in Somalia; • Hezbollah in Lebanon; • An-Nusrah in Syria; • The Mahdi Army in Iraq; • And the Al-Qaeda branches in Yemen, Libya, the Philippines, India and elsewhere.
Some are radical Sunnis, some are radical Shi'ites. Some want to restore a pre-medieval caliphate from the 7th century. Others want to trigger the apocalyptic return of an imam from the 9th century. They operate in different lands, they target different victims and they even kill each other in their quest for supremacy. But they all share a fanatic ideology. They all seek to create ever expanding enclaves of militant Islam where there is no freedom and no tolerance – Where women are treated as chattel, Christians are decimated, and minorities are subjugated, sometimes given the stark choice: convert or die. For them, anyone can be an infidel, including fellow Muslims.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Militant Islam's ambition to dominate the world seems mad. But so too did the global ambitions of another fanatic ideology that swept to power eight decades ago.
The Nazis believed in a master race. The militant Islamists believe in a master faith. They just disagree about who among them will be the master… of the master faith. That’s what they truly disagree about. Therefore, the question before us is whether militant Islam will have the power to realize its unbridled ambitions.
There is one place where that could soon happen: The Islamic State of Iran. For 35 years, Iran has relentlessly pursued the global mission which was set forth by its founding ruler, Ayatollah Khomeini, in these words: We will export our revolution to the entire world.
Until the cry "There is no God but Allah" will echo throughout the world over… And ever since, the regime’s brutal enforcers, Iran's Revolutionary Guards, have done exactly that.
Listen to its current commander, General Muhammad Ali Ja'afari. And he clearly stated this goal. He said: Our Imam did not limit the Islamic Revolution to this country… Our duty is to prepare the way for an Islamic world government… Iran's President Rouhani stood here last week, and shed crocodile tears over what he called "the globalization of terrorism." Maybe he should spare us those phony tears and have a word instead with the commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. He could ask them to call off Iran's global terror campaign, which has included attacks in two dozen countries on five continents since 2011 alone. To say that Iran doesn't practice terrorism is like saying Derek Jeter never played shortstop for the New York Yankees.
This bemoaning of the Iranian president of the spread of terrorism has got to be one of history’s greatest displays of doubletalk.
Now, Some still argue that Iran's global terror campaign, its subversion of countries throughout the Middle East and well beyond the Middle East, some argue that this is the work of the extremists. They say things are changing. They point to last year's elections in Iran. They claim that Iran’s smooth talking President and Foreign Minister, they’ve changed not only the tone of Iran's foreign policy but also its substance. They believe Rouhani and Zarif genuinely want to reconcile with the West, that they’ve abandoned the global mission of the Islamic Revolution.
Really? So let's look at what Foreign Minister Zarif wrote in his book just a few years ago: We have a fundamental problem with the West, and especially with America. This is because we are heirs to a global mission, which is tied to our raison d'etre… A global mission which is tied to our very reason of being.
And then Zarif asks a question, I think an interesting one. He says: How come Malaysia [he’s referring to an overwhelmingly Muslim country] – how come Malaysia doesn't have similar problems? And he answers: Because Malaysia is not trying to change the international order.
That's your moderate. So don’t be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm offensive. It’s designed for one purpose, and for one purpose only: To lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles to Iran's path to the bomb. The Islamic Republic is now trying to bamboozle its way to an agreement that will remove the sanctions it still faces, and leave it with the capacity of thousands of centrifuges to enrich uranium. This would effectively cement Iran's place as a threshold military nuclear power. In the future, at a time of its choosing, Iran, the world’s most dangerous state in the world's most dangerous region, would obtain the world’s most dangerous weapons.
Allowing that to happen would pose the gravest threat to us all. It’s one thing to confront militant Islamists on pick-up trucks, armed with Kalashnikov rifles. It’s another thing to confront militant Islamists armed with weapons of mass destruction. I remember that last year, everyone here was rightly concerned about the chemical weapons in Syria, including the possibility that they would fall into the hands of terrorists. That didn't happen. And President Obama deserves great credit for leading the diplomatic effort to dismantle virtually all of Syria's chemical weapons capability. Imagine how much more dangerous the Islamic State, ISIS, would be if it possessed chemical weapons. Now imagine how much more dangerous the Islamic state of Iran would be if it possessed nuclear weapons. Ladies and Gentlemen, Would you let ISIS enrich uranium? Would you let ISIS build a heavy water reactor? Would you let ISIS develop intercontinental ballistic missiles? Of course you wouldn’t. Then you mustn't let the Islamic State of Iran do those things either.
Because here’s what will happen: Once Iran produces atomic bombs, all the charm and all the smiles will suddenly disappear. They’ll just vanish. It's then that the ayatollahs will show their true face and unleash their aggressive fanaticism on the entire world. There is only one responsible course of action to address this threat: Iran's nuclear military capabilities must be fully dismantled. Make no mistake – ISIS must be defeated. But to defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war.
To defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The fight against militant Islam is indivisible. When militant Islam succeeds anywhere, it’s emboldened everywhere. When it suffers a blow in one place, it's set back in every place. That’s why Israel’s fight against Hamas is not just our fight. It’s your fight. Israel is fighting a fanaticism today that your countries may be forced to fight tomorrow.
For 50 days this past summer, Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israel, many of them supplied by Iran. I want you to think about what your countries would do if thousands of rockets were fired at your cities. Imagine millions of your citizens having seconds at most to scramble to bomb shelters, day after day. You wouldn't let terrorists fire rockets at your cities with impunity. Nor would you let terrorists dig dozens of terror tunnels under your borders to infiltrate your towns in order to murder and kidnap your citizens. Israel justly defended itself against both rocket attacks and terror tunnels. Yet Israel also faced another challenge. We faced a propaganda war. Because, in an attempt to win the world’s sympathy, Hamas cynically used Palestinian civilians as human shields. It used schools, not just schools - UN schools, private homes, mosques, even hospitals to store and fire rockets at Israel.
As Israel surgically struck at the rocket launchers and at the tunnels, Palestinian civilians were tragically but unintentionally killed. There are heartrending images that resulted, and these fueled libelous charges that Israel was deliberately targeting civilians.
We were not. We deeply regret every single civilian casualty. And the truth is this: Israel was doing everything to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties. Hamas was doing everything to maximize Israeli civilian casualties and Palestinian civilian casualties. Israel dropped flyers, made phone calls, sent text messages, broadcast warnings in Arabic on Palestinian television, always to enable Palestinian civilians to evacuate targeted areas.
No other country and no other army in history have gone to greater lengths to avoid casualties among the civilian population of their enemies. This concern for Palestinian life was all the more remarkable, given that Israeli civilians were being bombarded by rockets day after day, night after night. As their families were being rocketed by Hamas, Israel's citizen army – the brave soldiers of the IDF, our young boys and girls – they upheld the highest moral values of any army in the world. Israel's soldiers deserve not condemnation, but admiration. Admiration from decent people everywhere.
Now here’s what Hamas did: Hamas embedded its missile batteries in residential areas and told Palestinians to ignore Israel’s warnings to leave. And just in case people didn’t get the message, they executed Palestinian civilians in Gaza who dared to protest.
No less reprehensible, Hamas deliberately placed its rockets where Palestinian children live and play. Let me show you a photograph. It was taken by a France 24 crew during the recent conflict. It shows two Hamas rocket launchers, which were used to attack us. You see three children playing next to them. Hamas deliberately put its rockets in hundreds of residential areas like this. Hundreds of them.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a war crime. And I say to President Abbas, these are the war crimes committed by your Hamas partners in the national unity government which you head and you are responsible for. And these are the real war crimes you should have investigated, or spoken out against from this podium last week.
Ladies and Gentlemen, As Israeli children huddled in bomb shelters and Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system knocked Hamas rockets out of the sky, the profound moral difference between Israel and Hamas couldn’t have been clearer: Israel was using its missiles to protect its children. Hamas was using its children to protect its missiles.
By investigating Israel rather than Hamas for war crimes, the UN Human Rights Council has betrayed its noble mission to protect the innocent. In fact, what it’s doing is to turn the laws of war upside-down. Israel, which took unprecedented steps to minimize civilian casualties, Israel is condemned. Hamas, which both targeted and hid behind civilians – that a double war crime - Hamas is given a pass.
The Human Rights Council is thus sending a clear message to terrorists everywhere: Use civilians as human shields. Use them again and again and again. You know why? Because sadly, it works.
By granting international legitimacy to the use of human shields, the UN’s Human Rights Council has thus become a Terrorist Rights Council, and it will have repercussions. It probably already has, about the use of civilians as human shields.
It’s not just our interest. It’s not just our values that are under attack. It’s your interests and your values.
Ladies and Gentlemen, We live in a world steeped in tyranny and terror, where gays are hanged from cranes in Tehran, political prisoners are executed in Gaza, young girls are abducted en masse in Nigeria and hundreds of thousands are butchered in Syria, Libya and Iraq. Yet nearly half, nearly half of the UN Human Rights Council's resolutions focusing on a single country have been directed against Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East – Israel. where issues are openly debated in a boisterous parliament, where human rights are protected by independent courts and where women, gays and minorities live in a genuinely free society.
The Human Rights… (that’s an oxymoron, the UN Human Rights Council, but I’ll use it just the same), the Council’s biased treatment of Israel is only one manifestation of the return of the world’s oldest prejudices. We hear mobs today in Europe call for the gassing of Jews. We hear some national leaders compare Israel to the Nazis. This is not a function of Israel’s policies. It's a function of diseased minds. And that disease has a name. It’s called anti-Semitism.
It is now spreading in polite society, where it masquerades as legitimate criticism of Israel. For centuries the Jewish people have been demonized with blood libels and charges of deicide. Today, the Jewish state is demonized with the apartheid libel and charges of genocide. Genocide? In what moral universe does genocide include warning the enemy's civilian population to get out of harm's way? Or ensuring that they receive tons, tons of humanitarian aid each day, even as thousands of rockets are being fired at us? Or setting up a field hospital to aid for their wounded? Well, I suppose it's the same moral universe where a man who wrote a dissertation of lies about the Holocaust, and who insists on a Palestine free of Jews, Judenrein, can stand at this podium and shamelessly accuse Israel of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
In the past, outrageous lies against the Jews were the precursors to the wholesale slaughter of our people.
But no more.
Today we, the Jewish people, have the power to defend ourselves. We will defend ourselves against our enemies on the battlefield. We will expose their lies against us in the court of public opinion. Israel will continue to stand proud and unbowed.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Despite the enormous challenges facing Israel, I believe we have an historic opportunity.
After decades of seeing Israel as their enemy, leading states in the Arab world increasingly recognize that together we and they face many of the same dangers: principally this means a nuclear-armed Iran and militant Islamist movements gaining ground in the Sunni world.
Our challenge is to transform these common interests to create a productive partnership. One that would build a more secure, peaceful and prosperous Middle East.
Together we can strengthen regional security. We can advance projects in water, agriculture, in transportation, in health, in energy, in so many fields.
I believe the partnership between us can also help facilitate peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Many have long assumed that an Israeli-Palestinian peace can help facilitate a broader rapprochement between Israel and the Arab World. But these days I think it may work the other way around: Namely that a broader rapprochement between Israel and the Arab world may help facilitate an Israeli-Palestinian peace.
And therefore, to achieve that peace, we must look not only to Jerusalem and Ramallah, but also to Cairo, to Amman, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and elsewhere. I believe peace can be realized with the active involvement of Arab countries, those that are willing to provide political, material and other indispensable support. I’m ready to make a historic compromise, not because Israel is occupying a foreign land. The people of Israel are not occupiers in the Land of Israel. History, archeology and common sense all make clear that we have had a singular attachment to this land for over 3,000 years.
I want peace because I want to create a better future for my people. But it must be a genuine peace, one that is anchored in mutual recognition and enduring security arrangements, rock solid security arrangements on the ground. Because you see, Israel's withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza created two militant Islamic enclaves on our borders from which tens of thousands of rockets have been fired at Israel.
These sobering experiences heighten Israel's security concerns regarding potential territorial concessions in the future. Those security concerns are even greater today. Just look around you.
The Middle East is in chaos. States are disintegrating. Militant Islamists are filling the void.
Israel cannot have territories from which it withdraws taken over by Islamic militants yet again, as happened in Gaza and Lebanon. That would place the likes of ISIS within mortar range – a few miles – of 80% of our population.
Think about that. The distance between the 1967 lines and the suburbs of Tel Aviv is like the distance between the UN building here and Times Square. Israel’s a tiny country. That’s why in any peace agreement, which will obviously necessitate a territorial compromise, I will always insist that Israel be able to defend itself by itself against any threat. Yet despite all that has happened, some still don't take Israel’s security concerns seriously. But I do, and I always will. Because, as Prime Minister of Israel, I am entrusted with the awesome responsibility of ensuring the future of the Jewish people and the future of the Jewish state.
And no matter what pressure is brought to bear, I will never waver in fulfilling that responsibility.
I believe that with a fresh approach from our neighbors, we can advance peace despite the difficulties we face.
In Israel, we have a record of making the impossible possible. We’ve made a desolate land flourish. And with very few natural resources, we have used the fertile minds of our people to turn Israel into a global center of technology and innovation.
Peace, of course, would enable Israel to realize its full potential and to bring a promising future not only for our people, not only for the Palestinian people, but for many, many others in our region.
But the old template for peace must be updated. It must take into account new realities and new roles and responsibilities for our Arab neighbors. Ladies and Gentlemen, There is a new Middle East. It presents new dangers, but also new opportunities. Israel is prepared to work with Arab partners and the international community to confront those dangers and to seize those opportunities. Together we must recognize the global threat of militant Islam, the primacy of dismantling Iran’s nuclear weapons capability and the indispensable role of Arab states in advancing peace with the Palestinians.
All this may fly in the face of conventional wisdom, but it’s the truth. And the truth must always be spoken, especially here, in the United Nations.
Isaiah, our great prophet of peace, taught us nearly 3,000 years ago in Jerusalem to speak truth to power. לְמַעַן צִיּוֹן לֹא אֶחֱשֶׁה וּלְמַעַן יְרוּשָׁלִַם לֹא אֶשְׁקוֹט עַד-יֵצֵא כַּנֹּגַהּ צִדְקָהּ וִישׁוּעָתָהּ כְּלַפִּיד יִבְעָר.
For the sake of Zion, I will not be silent.
For the sake of Jerusalem, I will not be still.
Until her justice shines bright, And her salvation glows like a flaming torch.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Let's light a torch of truth and justice to safeguard our common future.
Thank you.

One on One with Benjamin Netanyahu • Hannity • 8/07/14

Israeli PM Netanyahu on CNN - FULL INTERVIEW 7/27/2014

(CNN) Today on CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Crowley about the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Following the interview with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Crowley spoke with Mohammed Shtayyeh, senior adviser to President Abbas, to hear the Palestinian response.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mohammed Stayyeh offer insights on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu on ceasefires: “Israel has accepted five cease-fires since this conflict began, five. We accepted them and we implemented them, including two humanitarian cease-fires in the last 24 hours which Hamas rejected, as they rejected all the other cease-fires. And they violated them.”

“So, you say Israel resumed its offensive. No, we didn't resume our offensive. We had a cease-fire. They violated it. And now they are violating their own cease-fire. And, obviously, we will take whatever action is necessary to protect our people, including against the terror tunnels that they are trying to dig against us.”

Shtayyeh on ceasefires: “Well, my reaction is that, since this morning, while Israel is claiming that it is abiding by a cease-fire, six Palestinians have been killed, including a Christian nurse in one of the clinics in Gaza.”

“So, by all means, we are very much entrusted to see an end to the Israeli aggression. And, as I understand, the efforts of Secretary Kerry is yielding some fruits. There will be a Palestinian delegation formed by President Mahmoud Abbas going to Cairo to negotiate the terms of cease-fire.”

“But, by all means, if the Israeli army is going to be stationed where it is and continue shelling, obviously, Israel is very much endangering. Whether it's a humanitarian cease-fire, whether it's a timing cease-fire, whether it is a long-lasting cease-fire, the Israeli army should not stay where it is now, because the Israeli army now is nearly occupying 50 percent of the total area of the Gaza Strip, which is no less than - which is more than 370 square kilometers, with 1.9 million Palestinians living in that very small territory.”