Israel, 2004

I would like to congratulate

you, Sir, the Foreign Minister of Gabon, upon your

assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly

and to wish you much success.

The United Nations was established out of the

devastation of the Second World War in order to build

a world of unity and of peace. Today, 60 years after the

Organization came into being, we must ask ourselves:

What are we united for and what are we united against?

Are we united for peace and security? Are we united

for fairness and justice? Are we united against terror?

Are we united against tyranny?

Or are we, sadly, united only in cynical and

immoral majority votes that make a mockery of the

noble ideals on which this body was founded?

Tomorrow is Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish

calendar, when all Jews stand before God to account

for their actions. It is an appropriate time for all

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nations, separately and together, to engage in such an

accounting.

I sense a change in the world. In the face of the

global campaign of terror which has left no country

free of its devastating impact, the world is beginning to

realize what we in Israel have long known: that

terrorism is a challenge to humanity as a whole, not

just to individual countries; that the response to that

global threat must also be global if it is to be effective;

that the threat of terrorism anywhere is a threat to

freedom everywhere; that fighting terror is crucial to

our ability to bring peace.

There was a time when the problems of terror,

Islamic fundamentalism and Iranian nuclear ambition

were seen as local problems — Israel’s problems —

not challenges which threatened the community of

nations as a whole. Today, however, our community of

nations is more united than ever in the battle against

terrorism, whose sole objective is to undermine

everything that we seek to build: peace, stability,

prosperity and opportunity for all.

Today we are also more united than ever in

opposition to the proliferation of weapons of mass

destruction. The international community now realizes

that Iran — with missiles that can reach London, Paris,

Berlin and southern Russia — poses a threat not only

to the security of Israel, but to the security and stability

of the whole world. Indeed, Iran has replaced Saddam

Hussein as the world’s number-one exporter of terror,

hate and instability.

The international community now also realizes,

as reflected in Security Council resolution 1559

(2004), that Syria’s occupation of Lebanon and its

support for Palestinian terror must end if our collective

aspirations are to be fulfilled.

And the international community now realizes

that terror and tyranny are the twin enemies of the

individual freedoms and human rights — including the

right to life itself — which define our humanity.

Today, the community of nations knows that

securing freedom and democracy for all the peoples of the

world must be our collective goal. The pictures of human

flesh torn apart by the terrorists, from New York to

Beslan — and just yesterday, once again, in Jerusalem

— are waking us up to the challenge we face.

In that spirit of unity, and in the name of all those

in the world who suffer from terror and tyranny, I call

on the Assembly to refocus its aspirations and its

priorities. I call on the Assembly to end its obsession

with Israel and to ensure that United Nations resources

are allocated more equally and more effectively. Our

United Nations must provide solutions to the global

challenges of hunger and poverty, of disease and

weapons proliferation, of drug trafficking and

sustainable development. We must not let the

Palestinian desire to vilify Israel distract our global

community from the obligation to address the needs of

all peoples.

I call on the Assembly to address head-on the

active involvement of Iran and Syria in terrorism and

Syria’s continued occupation of Lebanon. There can be

no place in the community of nations for those who

promote the killing of children. I call on the Assembly

to promote practical measures to help nations cut off

all financial and political lifelines of terror.

I call on the Assembly to address the growth of

anti-Semitism and other forms of racism and

intolerance. I urge you, Mr. President, and the

Secretary-General, to convene a special session of the

Assembly on that crucial matter. We all share the

responsibility to educate our children to understanding

and tolerance rather than to hatred and incitement.

We must build a united and global coalition to

fight terrorism, racism and anti-Semitism. We must

build a united front against the cold-blooded murderers

of our children. In that battle, there is no middle

ground. There is no room for explanations or excuses.

There are no mitigating circumstances. Declarations

and condemnations are very important, but they are not

enough. Every nation, every Government, every leader

has the responsibility to act. Those who choose instead

to support and sponsor terror must be isolated and held

to account for their crimes.

When I speak of terror and its dangers to life and

freedom, I speak from bitter personal experience. My

own home town of Beersheva suffered a double suicide

bombing just three weeks ago. Sixteen innocent people

were killed when their commuter buses were blown up.

In the middle of an important meeting with visiting

officials, I rushed to call my mother and brother to

check that they were alive. Hamas, which operates

freely from Palestinian territory and receives support

and safe haven from the regimes in Damascus and

Tehran, proudly claimed responsibility for that horrific

attack.

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Again yesterday, as I was meeting with the

Secretary-General to discuss peace in the Middle East,

I was passed a note informing me of a suicide atrocity,

in which two more Israelis were blown to pieces by a

Palestinian terrorist. And this morning, once again, yet

more Palestinian murderers took the lives of three

young Israelis in an attack on Morag.

In the last year alone, 150 Israelis have been

killed and thousands more injured in more than 40

separate suicide bombings and other cold-blooded

attacks. More than 200 additional suicide-bombing

attempts were blocked by our defensive measures.

No Israeli mother is free of the fear that her child

may be lost. No Israeli child is immune to the

terrorists’ plans. In the name of God above and all

humanity here on Earth, this killing must stop.

Palestinian terrorism is the key reason that the

dream of peace in the Middle East has not yet become

a reality. Combating this terror is crucial to the

prospects for peace in our region. No peace initiative

can survive if terrorists continue to enjoy a free hand to

undermine it.

The road map recognizes this, calling, in phase

one, for sustained Palestinian action against terror, the

dismantling of terrorist organizations and the end of

incitement in schools and the media. Sadly, the current

Palestinian leadership has refused to fulfil those

fundamental obligations, preferring to blame Israel for

all its failures. The Palestinian side spends more energy

fighting Israel here at the United Nations than it does

fighting the terrorists in its own territory.

In the post-11-September world, this is not

acceptable. The Palestinians are not exempt from the

imperatives of the global war on terror. On the

contrary, it is in their clear interest to join it. To stand

up against Hamas and Islamic Jihad is to stand up for

Palestinian rights, not against them.

We urge the international community to recognize

this reality and help the voices of reform and

moderation within Palestinian society to emerge. The

future of the Palestinian people will be determined by

the choices that the Palestinians and their leadership

make on the ground. The solutions — for the

Palestinians and Israelis as one — lie in Gaza and

Ramallah, not in The Hague or New York.

Israel is acting in both the diplomatic and the

security arenas to deal with the consequences of this

chronic failure of the Palestinian leadership. On the

diplomatic front, Israel accepted the road map in May

2003, and we remain committed to its realization. At

this time, however, we have no responsible Palestinian

partner ready to join us in this effort. Israel is now

planning to implement the disengagement plan as a

means of enhancing security and establishing a new,

more promising platform for a return to negotiations.

We are in constant contact with the donor community

and the World Bank in a joint effort to rebuild Gaza in

the wake of Israel’s withdrawal.

On the security front, Israel is building a security

fence to stop the unchecked wave of Palestinian

attacks. After 20,000 terrorist attacks, we deserve to

protect our people. No other country would act

otherwise after 20, let alone 20,000, terrorist attacks.

The fence does not take lives. It saves them. Where

there is a fence, there is no terror. Where there is no

fence, there is terror. The modified route of the fence

reflects the necessary balance between the security of

our citizens and the welfare of the Palestinian

population, as called for by Israel’s Supreme Court.

Most important, the fence is reversible. The lives taken

by terror are irreversible. By helping take terrorism out

of the equation, the fence contributes to the prospect of

a return to negotiations and the realization of the road

map’s vision of peace.

I call on the Assembly to acknowledge this truth

and to reject the continued Palestinian effort to have

delegations address Israel’s response to terrorism,

instead of addressing the terrorism itself.

Ultimately, we need real contact and dialogue,

based on mutual respect for the humanity of the other

if we are to resolve the conflict in the Middle East. The

Government of Israel is ready for such contact. We are

ready to talk to any leadership — from Syria, Lebanon

or the Palestinians — that comes to the table without

terror and with the genuine intention of finding

mutually acceptable solutions to our differences.

Tomorrow, Yom Kippur, is a day of prayer,

fasting and soul-searching for the Jews. In Beersheva,

in a synagogue named after my father, I will be praying

together with those who have recently buried their

murdered children. I will pray that our collective

aspiration for life and freedom will prevail over the

terrorists and those who sponsor them. I will pray that

God will deliver peace on earth, for all humanity. And

I will pray that mankind can unite — through the

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United Nations — to help make this dream become a

reality.

And I would like to say in Hebrew, Happy New

Year.