Israel, 2014

I come here from

Jerusalem to speak on behalf of my people, the people

of Israel. I have come to speak about the dangers we

face and about the opportunities we seek. I have come

to expose the brazen lies spoken from this very rostrum

about my country and the brave soldiers who defend it.

The people of Israel pray for peace, but our hopes

for peace, and those of the world, are in danger, because

everywhere we look militant Islam is on the march. It

is not militants; it is not Islam; it is militant Islam, and

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 is rapidly spreading in every part of the world.

We 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 that cancer before it is too late. Last

week, many of the countries represented here rightly

applauded President Obama for leading the effort

to confront the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham

(ISIS); and yet weeks before, some of those same

countries — the same countries that now support

confronting ISIS — opposed Israel for confronting

Hamas. Evidently, they do not understand that ISIS and

Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree.

ISIS and Hamas share a fanatical creed that they

both seek to impose well beyond the territory under their

control. Let us listen to what ISIS’s self-declared Caliph,

Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, said two months ago. He said

that the day would soon come when the Muslim would

walk everywhere as a master, and that Muslims would

cause the world to hear and understand the meaning of

terrorism, and destroy the idol of democracy. Now let

us listen to Khaled Mashal, the leader of Hamas. He

proclaims a similar vision of the future. “We say this to

the West”, he says. “By Allah it will be defeated, and

tomorrow our nation will sit on the throne of the world”.

As its Charter makes clear, Hamas’s immediate

goal is to destroy Israel; but it has a broader objective.

It also wants a caliphate. Hamas shares the global

ambitions of its fellow militant Islamists, and that is

why its supporters cheered wildly in the streets of Gaza

when thousands of Americans were murdered on 9/11.

That is why its leaders condemned the United States

for killing Osama Bin Laden, whom they praised as a

holy warrior. When it comes to their ultimate goals,

therefore, Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas.

And what they share in common, all militant

Islamists share in common — Boko Haram in Nigeria,

Al-Shabaab in Somalia, Hizbullah in Lebanon, Al-Nusra

in Syria, the Al-Mahdi Army in Iraq and the Al-Qaida

branches in Yemen, Libya, the Philippines, India and

elsewhere. Some are radical Sunnis, some are radical

Shiites. Some want to restore a pre-medieval caliphate

from the seventh century. Others want to trigger the

apocalyptic return of an imam from the ninth century.

They operate in different lands. They target

different victims. They even kill each other in their

battle 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,

and sometimes given the stark choice: convert or die.

For them, anyone can be consider an infidel, including

fellow Muslims.

Militant Islam’s ambition to dominate the world

seems mad, but so too did the global ambitions of

another fanatic ideology that swept into power eight

decades ago. The Nazis believed in a master race. The

militant Islamists believe in a master faith. They just

disagree as to who among them will be the master of

the master faith. That is 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 that was set

forth by its founding ruler, Ayatollah Khomeini, with

the following 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”.

Ever since, the regime’s brutal enforcers, Iran’s

Revolutionary Guards, have done exactly that. Let us

listen to its current commander, General Mohammad

Ali Jafari, who clearly stated that goal:

“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, Mr. 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

does not practice terrorism is like saying Derek Jeter

never played shortstop for the New York Yankees. The

bemoaning by the Iranian President of the spread of

terrorism has got to be one of history’s greatest displays

of double talk.

Some argue that Iran’s global terror campaign — its

subversion of countries throughout the Middle East

and well beyond the Middle East — is the work of the

extremists. They say that things are changing. They

point to last year’s election in Iran. They claim that

Iran’s smooth-talking President and Foreign Minister

have changed not only the tone of Iran’s foreign policy

but also its substance. They believe that Rouhani and

Zarif generally want to reconcile with the West, that

they have abandoned the global mission of the Islamic

Revolution. Really?

Let us 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’être”.

A global mission which is tied to our very

reason for being? Then Zarif asks a question — an

interesting question, in my view. He says, “How come

Malaysia” — referring to an overwhelmingly Muslim

country — “does not have similar problems?” Then he

answers: “Because Malaysia is not trying to change the

international order”. That is our moderate.

Let us not be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm

offensive. It is designed for one purpose and one purpose

only — to have the sanctions lifted and the obstacles to

Iran’s path to the bomb removed. 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. That would effectively cement Iran’s place as

a threshold military nuclear Power. In the future, at the

time of its choosing, Iran, the world’s most dangerous

regime, 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 is one thing to confront militant Islamists on

pickup trucks armed with Kalashnikov rifles. It is

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. Well, that did

not happen, and President Obama deserves great

credit for leading the diplomatic effort to dismantle

virtually all of Syria’s chemical weapons capability.

We can only imagine how much more dangerous

the Islamic State — ISIS — would be if it possessed

chemical weapons. Now, let us imagine how much

more dangerous the Islamic State of Iran would be if it

possessed nuclear weapons.

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 would not. Then you must not let the Islamic

State of Iran do those things either, because if you do,

here is what will happen. Once Iran produces atomic

bombs, all the charm and all the smiles will suddenly

disappear — they will just vanish. It is 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.

The fight against militant Islam is indivisible. When

militant Islam succeeds anywhere, it is emboldened

everywhere. When it suffers a blow in one place, it is set

back in every place. That is why Israel’s fight against

Hamas is not just our fight; it is everyone’s fight. Israel is

fighting a fanaticism today that other 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 members to think about

what their countries would do if thousands of rockets

were fired at their cities. Let them imagine millions

of their citizens having seconds at most to scramble to

bomb shelters, day after day. Members would not let

terrorists fire rockets at their cities with impunity, nor

would they let terrorists dig dozens of terror tunnels

under their borders to infiltrate their towns in order to

murder and kidnap their citizens. Israel justly defended

itself against both rocket attacks and terror tunnels.

Yet Israel 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,

United Nations schools — private homes, mosques

and 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 fuelled libellous charges that

Israel was deliberately targeting civilians. We were not.

We deeply regret every single civilian casualty.

And the truth is, 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 — all

this to enable Palestinian civilians to evaluate 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.

Such concern for Palestinian life was all the more

remarkable given that Israeli civilians were being

bombarded by rockets, day after day, night after

night. And as their families were being rocketed by

Hamas, Israel’s citizen army, the brave soldiers of

the Israel Defense Forces, our young boys and girls,

upheld the highest moral values of any army in the

world. Israel’s soldiers deserve not condemnation

but admiration — admiration from decent people

everywhere.

Here is 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 did not get the message, they

executed Palestinian civilians in Gaza who dared to

protest. And, no less reprehensible, Hamas deliberately

placed its rockets where Palestinian children live and

play.

Let me show the Assembly 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. Three children can be seen playing next to

them. Hamas deliberately put its rockets in hundreds

of residential areas like this — hundreds of them. That

is a war crime. I say to President Abbas, these are the

crimes — the war crimes — committed by his Hamas

partners in the national unity Government which he

heads and for which he is responsible. These are the

real war crimes he should have investigated or spoken

out against from this rostrum last week.

As Israel’s children huddle in bomb shelters and

Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence knocked Hamas

rockets out of the sky, the profound moral difference

between Israel and Hamas could not 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 United Nations Human Rights Council has

betrayed its noble mission to protect the innocent. In

fact, what it is doing is to turn the laws of war upside

down. Israel, which took unprecedented steps to

minimize civilian casualties, is condemned; Hamas,

which both targeted and hid behind civilians — that is a

double war crime — is given a pass. The Human Rights

Council is thus sending a clear message to terrorists

everywhere: “Use civilians as a human shield. Use

them again and again and again.” And you know why?

Because, sadly, it works. By granting international

legitimacy to the use of human shields, the Human

Rights Council has become a terrorist rights council,

and it will have repercussions — it probably already

has — in terms of the use of civilians as human shields.

It is not just our interests and values that are under

attack: it is the interests and values of all of us.

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 of

the 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 biased treatment of Israel by the Human Rights

Council — that is a misnomer, but I will use it just the

same — is only one manifestation of the return of one

of the world’s oldest prejudices. We hear mobs today in

Europe calling 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 is a function of

diseased minds, and that disease has a name. It is 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.

In what moral universe does genocide include

warning the enemy civilian population to get out

of harm’s way or ensuring that they receive tons of

humanitarian aid each day, even as thousands of rockets

are being fired at us, or setting up a field hospital

to aid their wounded? I suppose it is the same moral

universe in which 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 rostrum

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 and we will expose

their lies against us in the court of public opinion. Israel

will continue to stand proud and unbowed.

Despite the enormous challenges facing Israel, I

believe we have a 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, that means

a nuclear-armed Iran and militant Islamist movements

gaining ground in the Sunni world. Our challenge is to

transform those common interests in order to create a

productive partnership that would build a more secure,

peaceful and prosperous Middle East. Together we can

strengthen regional security. We can advance projects

in water, agriculture, transportation, health care, energy

and so many other fields.

I believe that 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 I believe that,

these days, 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. Therefore, to achieve that peace, we must look

not only to Jerusalem and Ramallah but also to Cairo,

Amman, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and elsewhere. I believe

that peace could be realized with the active involvement

of Arab countries that are willing to provide political,

material and other indispensable support.

I am ready to make a historic compromise, and not

because Israel occupies a foreign land. The people of

Israel are not occupiers in the land of Israel. History,

archaeology 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. Israel’s withdrawal

from Lebanon and Gaza created two militant Islamic

enclaves on our borders from which tens of thousands

of rockets have been fired at Israel. Those sobering

experiences heighten Israel’s security concerns

regarding potential territorial concessions in the future.

Those security concerns are even greater today. Let

us just look around. The Middle East is in chaos. States

are disintegrating, and 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 per cent of our population. Think about that. The

distance between the 1967 lines and the suburbs of

Tel Aviv is similar to the distance between United

Nations Headquarters and Times Square. Israel is a tiny

country. That is 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 everything that has happened, some still

do not take Israel’s security concerns seriously, but I do

and I always will. That is 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. No matter what pressure is

brought to bear, I will never waver in fulfilling that

responsibility.

I believe that with a fresh approach on the part

of our neighbours, we can advance peace despite the

difficulties we face. In Israel, we have a record of making

the impossible possible. We have 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 centre of technology and innovation. Peace

would enable Israel to realize its full potential and to

bring a promising future not only to our people and not

only to the Palestinian people, but to 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 neighbours.

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 that may fly in the face of conventional wisdom, but

it is the truth. And the truth must always be spoken,

especially in the United Nations. Isaiah, a great prophet

of peace, taught us nearly 3,000 years ago in Jerusalem

to speak truth to power. He said:

“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”.

Let us light a torch of truth and justice to safeguard

our common future.