Israel, 2001

First of all, I would really like

to congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President

of the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly. I

know that you bring with you a wealth of experience, a

breadth of understanding and hope for many people. I

would also like to express my highest regard for

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Secretary-General Kofi Annan on his well-deserved

recognition as Nobel Prize Laureate for his fresh ideas

and great vision on how to meet a new world with an

open mind, a sense of unity and hope.

There is hidden light and needed hope in this

gathering to overturn the darkness that has descended

upon us. There is enough strength and resolve in the

midst of civilized nations to deflect evil.

Humanity woke up happy to welcome the twenty-

first century. We turned around and looked, and there

was brightness and freshness in the air. We had

departed from a traditional history that was written

with red ink — wars, skirmishes, conflicts and

murders — many of which arose because human

existence was dependent upon land and natural

resources. We have had to protect our own lands.

Modern science emerged to supersede land,

opening new horizons of limitless opportunities.

Science rendered borders marginal, and old prejudices

and distances began to dissipate from our minds.

Technology created a new interdependence. No longer

were our connections dependent upon land or sea —

upon distance. Air became the new means of

communication for nations, peoples, businesses and

development. High technology introduced new

promises and recalled the importance of old values.

The perception was that every person,

irrespective of location, race, religion or sex, could

reach new heights. And then we learned that high

technology is not just a technical matter. We cannot

separate technology from values; it is impossible.

For example, you cannot combine lies and

science. You cannot lie scientifically. To have a

science-based economy, you have to pursue peace

uncompromisingly and openness uninterruptedly.

Science requires an open society; it demands constant

dialogue. You cannot have new innovations without

unrestricted research. You cannot have unrestricted

research without being a free society. You cannot

develop a scientific economy without making

education a top priority, available and accessible to all

people. You cannot attract investment unless you have

transparency.

In a competitive world, to keep young scientists

your land and water should be free from pollution, your

financial system free from corruption, your government

without arbitrariness. Truth, freedom and openness

became conditions for science and high technology

and, consequently, for the advancement of any society.

It is true that the world is still divided between

the haves and the have nots. But for the have nots, a

new option is that of becoming connected to the new

age and the more developed aspects of our times.

There had been a new beginning, but like many

beginnings, one mixed with shadows and revolt. The

shadows were not yet heavy; at the beginning they

looked pale and distant. So we felt like one promised

world, like one assembly. The economy was no longer

national; it became global — open to every nation. And

since we could not form a global government, the

national Governments agreed that the global economy

would be managed by private enterprises — hence,

privatization. Globalization decreased the importance

of traditional States and increased the importance of

non-governmental organizations and worldwide

connections. It looked as if borderless progress was

evolving. And then ambushing clouds, global in nature,

moved in as a new horror.

The horrific events of 11 September — the

savage attack on innocent American people —

signalled a new warning to world history. On 11

September, we learned that the very same technology I

mentioned earlier — openness and a frontier-less,

connected world — could also spread viciousness. This

attack was brutal, because it was directed at everything

we stand for, against everything for which nations, and

the United Nations, have toiled.

The emerging terror, like the emerging economy,

is no longer national or delineated by boundaries.

Rather, it is borderless, and it contains unlimited,

awesome potential. It can begin with knives, and it may

wind up with germs. Terror does not have a visible

address, a merciful lord in heaven, a court or an elected

government. Nor does it need the approval of the many.

It is built on the fanaticism of a small group of

murderers, lacking the checks and balances of an

accountable society. It may arrive unexpectedly,

uninvited, spreading fear in every corner of the globe,

paralysing us at work and home, grounding flights,

impeding movement, disrupting commerce and

production. Eventually, it can endanger the freshness of

air, the purity of water.

Global economy arrived as an historic surprise;

global terrorism also arrived without prior warning.

But, whereas a solution was found to regulate the

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global economy, through privatization, there is no

private answer to meet global terrorism. Many nations

have armies, without necessarily having enemies. Yet,

for the time being, global dangers remain without

global answers or global armies.

The United States played the pivotal role in

introducing the new economy. Now again, it falls upon

the United States, as the first target of global terrorism,

to offer a strategy, to take the lead and to bring back

the promise of freedom and security to many of us.

We pay tribute to the United States, a nation that

had the capacity to welcome new modes of creativity,

planning, production and innovation at home and

abroad. And while becoming mighty, it did not stop

caring for the rest of the world. The United States has

helped nations in Europe and Asia and elsewhere

regain freedom and security in times of danger.

American boys fought, and many of them lost

their lives, in European and Asian wars. They won

wars and gained land, but they did not keep those

assets for themselves. They returned to Japan an

improved Japan. They returned to Germany an

improved Germany. The Marshall Plan helped to

rebuild Europe. Needy countries were offered food and

assistance, industries were restored, economies were

rehabilitated. There was generosity in their victory.

Indeed, America has emerged as the “indispensable

nation”.

Now America has become a target for reasons

which are not necessarily its own. Terrorism was

directed at America to frustrate its democracy, weaken

its respect for human rights, reduce its enterprise and

threaten its individualism so that it would not be able

to help others. This was an assault on the very

existence of humanity.

The bin Laden group are afraid of progress. They

are proponents of backwardness. They want us to

return to living in caves. They represent the darkest

ages in the annals of human history. They are self-

appointed killers of any persons who think differently

from them. They are not just evil — they are an agency

of death.

America is not just a new world or continent — it

is a great constitution, a shining city on the hill of

freedom. It is not just a concrete structure — it is a

solid idea. You can attack America, hurt it, but

America cannot be destroyed.

America’s war on terrorism is the war of all of us.

By “us”, I mean every country in this Assembly and

every human being on this planet. Bin Laden claims

that he fights crusaders, who no longer exist. Bin

Laden claims that he wants to help the Palestinians, but

in the eyes of the Palestinians, he is an obstacle, not an

aid.

Israel made peace with Egypt and returned all the

land and water without bin Ladens, without terror. We

did likewise with the Jordanians — not because of

terror, but because terror came to an end. At Camp

David in July 2000, we offered the Palestinians

practically all the land without bin Ladens, without

terror. And if there remained a difference of 1 or 2 per

cent, that does not justify the killing of thousands of

men and women in America. Political differences do

not justify murdering even a single child, no matter of

which nation.

Bin Laden and his abhorrent ideas can never

contribute to peace. They offer no solution and no hope

to any nation, religion or person. They spread hatred,

disseminate fear and plant mines. They are a

catastrophe at large.

The new world economy enabled two of the most

populous countries — China and India — to move

forward and offer new life and opportunity to hundreds

of millions of people. It has changed the face of

Europe. It has reversed the fortunes of Latin America.

It has extended an open invitation to every country to

acquire computers, widen education, open its gates and

join a new age without giving up its old values and

traditions. The new world economy called for an

assembly of responsible nations to build a dam against

terror, knowing perfectly well that the fight against

terror cannot be postponed, cannot be forgiven, cannot

be compromised. It is a matter of life and death for

humanity in the new chapter of our existence.

All of us, nations and individuals, will either

contribute to safety and freedom or become targets of

death and backwardness. Every country must choose its

place in the new world, either in the realm of science

and technology or in the wastebasket of the old land

economy, dependent on the whims of nature,

condemned to the poverty of hopelessness. It is the

responsibility of affluent nations to share the wealth of

knowledge so that others can join them. Rich countries

should become a locomotive for the deprived, not a

luxury liner for the privileged.

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We pray wholeheartedly from the great and united

city of Jerusalem, as we did in the early days of our

existence, that we shall know again how to distinguish

between good and evil, between tohu va’vo-hu —

chaos — and a new tomorrow. Our region gave birth to

the greatest prophets, their moral dictums setting the

moral fabric of our society. They have guided us to

trust and follow reason and realism. But we were

forced to follow funerals more than reason. This has

exacted a heavy price from Jews, Muslims, Christians,

Druze. It is time that we rediscovered the Ten

Commandments, holy to all of us.

Right now it looks as if we are again sinking into

the past. The emotional conflict is greater than the

territorial gap. It is more difficult to muster the strength

and summon the spirit than to divide the land. In spite

of these difficulties, I daresay there is a hidden

opportunity in the vast divide. I feel strongly that while

we cannot recover lost time, we can introduce a new

vista in the Middle East.

Until now, the world related to the Middle East.

Now the Middle East has to relate to the new world.

Our neighbours — Palestinians and Arabs — know that

Israel is committed to contribute whatever it can to

renew a real peace process — not by force, not by

imposition, not by unilateral action, but through a

negotiated agreement, an agreed peace. There is no

peace but an agreed peace. Just as one cannot applaud

with one hand, there cannot be a one-handed peace.

Problems, naturally, have a date of birth.

Solutions must reach their maturity. It may not happen

at once, but it will happen. Yesterday, you would

hardly find, for example, support for a Palestinian State

and, although this is not yet a formal policy of the

Government of Israel, there is now support for

Palestinian independence and for a Palestinian State.

We do not want to dominate the Palestinians; we want

them to breathe freedom, to create a new economy, to

maintain their traditions, to enjoy the highest level of

education and to provide real security to all parties.

As far as Israel is concerned, we are convinced

that good neighbours are better than good guns. In

modern times, you cannot have real security dependent

only on fences, walls, fortifications or trenches; not

even on tanks and guns and missiles. All these

measures have already become anti-measures, making

them incomplete and temporary. The only strategy that

cannot be ignored is neighbourly relations, such as the

common market in Europe, the Rio Group in Latin

America, the North American Free Trade Agreement in

North America, the Association of South-East Asian

Nations in Asia and the New Partnership for African

Development in Africa. All these frameworks have

shown that answers to old historical, military and

political conflicts may reside in the economic domain.

What endangers the new solution is terror. Terror

is again endangering the world. The division is no

longer between East and West, North and South, but

between the union to stop terror and those who refuse

to recognize its menace. The assembly against terror

comprises most of humanity: the United States,

Europe, China, Russia, India, South America, many

countries in Africa and many countries in the Muslim

world.

Democracies must have a non-democratic

institution to defend themselves. Armies are non-

democratic, but without them democracy would not

prevail. You may have many views in a democratic

society, but only one authority that controls the military

and its arms. Armies must be subordinate to the elected

political body, but if you have one political authority

and several armed groups, you can have neither

democracy nor security.

The Palestinian Authority, which is a State in

being, must establish one authority over all arms, all

armies and all use of arms, not for the sake of Israel,

but for the sake of peace and for the sake of its own

destiny, so that bullets will not negate ballots.

As long as terror persists, Israel has no choice but

to defend its people. The word “terror” does not

describe an abstract dilemma for us. It refers to a

reality of between 30 to 40 violent incidents every

day — shootings, bombings, ambushes and killings. It

is perpetrated by suicide bombers who have no respect

for life, either their own or that of others. The only

place they can be intercepted is at the point from which

they depart.

Israel is, by definition, an experienced member of

the anti-terror camp. We know that terror can never win

if people protect and preserve their fundamental

security. Terror is strong as long as anti-terror is weak

and terror is frightening as long as people are afraid of

it. Terror basically represents cowardliness and does

not serve any real purpose. Terror neither follows

justice nor serves goals. It is not a remedy; it is a

malady.

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We are at a juncture. The world is pursuing new

opportunities and frontiers. No longer will it be a world

divided between developed and underdeveloped

nations, black and white or men and women. It will

become a world where every person will have access to

knowledge and opportunity to participate in the new

genesis. States have become weaker economically and

strategically because economy and strategy have

themselves become global. Yet we do not have

organized world institutions to secure the globe and

distribute wealth more justly.

Two courses are open to every State: either to

join the new economy or to submit to old terror; the

creation of wealth or the threat of death. Each must

make its own choice between the promise of economy

or protest by terror. The Global Compact initiated by

the Secretary-General offers us a road map to the

former. It defines the functions and contributions of the

United Nations and imposes responsibilities on all of

us — nation States, the private sector and civil society.

It provides us with hope that, even as crises exist,

obscuring the opportunities just visible from the corner

of our eyes, the path to progress is clear to all with the

courage to embrace it.

We woke up to the twenty-first century with such

optimism. We must overcome the dangers so that our

children will again be raised in a world of almost

limitless opportunities. It can be done. We have learned

in Jerusalem that we can make a promised land into a

land of promise for all of us.