Israel, 2003

I would like to congratulate

His Excellency, the Foreign Minister of Saint Lucia,

upon his assumption of the Presidency of the General

Assembly, and wish him much success.

Until just one month ago, every person in this hall

and every Member of this Organization joined us in the

hope that the Middle East peace process might finally

be back on track, and that a resolution of the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict might be on the horizon. The

establishment of a new Palestinian Government

promised an end to terror and a new beginning.

This glimmer of hope was darkened on 19 August

by the extremists who blew up a bus full of Jewish

families on their way home from prayers at the Western

Wall, the holiest site in the Jewish religion. Twenty-

three people, young and old, mothers and babies in

their cradles, were slaughtered in that attack. That

attack was carried out by Hamas, a terrorist

organization, which, under the road map, should have

been dismantled by the Palestinian Authority. Failure

to dismantle Hamas and other extremist organizations

has brought our diplomatic efforts to a standstill.

Rather than acting to fulfil its obligation, the

Palestinian Authority has chosen the route of inaction,

and complicity in terror.

We cannot allow this to continue. We must restore

hope that we can build a better future for our children.

The infrastructure of terror must be dismantled so that

we can put our peace efforts back on track. There is no

time other than now. There is no other way.

For many years it was thought that terrorism in

the Middle East was Israel’s problem, not the world’s.

Today, the world knows otherwise. Today, it is not only

Israel that mourns the loss of its loved ones, including

women and children and babies, at the hands of the

terrorists. Sadly, we have been joined by peoples from

across the globe — from Mombassa to Casablanca and

from Moscow to Bali. Even the United Nations, which

for so many has been a symbol of peace and goodwill,

is not immune.

28

Gathered here today in New York, just two short

years after 11 September, the community of nations

knows that those who seek to advance their political

agendas through killing innocents are ready to strike at

anyone or anything that represents the values of

freedom and human life.

Terrorism has declared war on us all. Israel has

often stood alone in this battle. A country that has

suffered more than any other from terrorism, we have

always understood the danger it poses to democracy

and freedom everywhere, even when others refused to

see this, and condemned us for our actions. We have

always understood that terrorism, no matter what cause it

claims to serve, seeks only to destroy, rather than to build.

There can be no neutrality in the war against

terrorism and there can be no immunity for those who

engage in it. Abstaining is not an option. This is not a

war of choice. Terrorism will not be eliminated until

the world unites against it. Our only choice is to win.

Every member of the international community must

take concrete and proactive measures to cut off all

channels of financial, moral and political support to

this common enemy.

States Members of this institution that sponsor

terrorists and give them shelter are accomplices in the

acts of terror themselves. They must be held

accountable for their crimes. It is no coincidence that

States that sponsor terrorism, like Iran and Syria, are

also striving to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

Their hostility to freedom and the rule of law puts the

very future of humanity in jeopardy.

I know that many in this place see Yasser Arafat

as the symbol of the Palestinian struggle. Tragically,

for his people and for ours, he is one of the world’s

icons of terror. In the 10 years since Arafat made a

commitment to Israel and the world that he would no

longer use terror, 1,126 Israelis have been killed and

thousands wounded in 19,000 separate Palestinian

terrorist attacks. In relative numbers, this would be the

same as 11,000 French or 56,000 Americans dying

from terrorism in the same period of time.

This carnage must stop. Its impact on both

societies is devastating. Yasser Arafat bears direct

responsibility for this terrible suffering. He has led his

people along the path of terror — from hijackings to

suicide bombings — for more than 30 years, always

preferring Israeli pain over Palestinian gain. He has

been — and he remains — the greatest obstacle to

peace between our peoples. For as long as he controls

the levers of power, no moderate leadership can

emerge. To vote for Arafat, like we saw in this

Assembly just last week, is to vote against the

Palestinian people. When Arafat wins, terrorism wins,

and we all lose. Instead of rallying around Arafat, the

international community must rally around the genuine

interests of the Palestinian people. They must do so

now, before he leads them even further down the path

of terror and destruction.

When a responsible and empowered Palestinian

leadership finally emerges — a leadership ready to join

the war on terror — it will find us a willing partner for

peace. Israel is committed to the vision for Middle East

peace laid out by United States President George Bush

on 24 June 2002. Israel will not compromise on the

safety of its citizens, but we will go the extra mile, as

we have proven before, to bring peace and security to

both our peoples.

We are ready to work with the Palestinians and

with the international community to make this vision a

reality. For this to happen, the Palestinian leadership

must take the moral and strategic decision to abandon

terrorism once and for all, and make peacemaking

possible. They must guide their people to build their

own society, rather than seek to destroy ours. They,

too, must understand that it is not poverty that breeds

terror but terror that breeds poverty.

We cannot stop only at dismantling the

infrastructure of terror. We must also build an

infrastructure of peace. It is up to political and moral

leaders everywhere to foster an environment which

rejects extremism and empowers the peacemakers. This

is particularly so in the Arab and Muslim world, where

incitement against Israel closes hearts and minds to the

possibility of peace.

Leaders must guide their people away from the

culture of hate, and replace it with a culture of

tolerance. Concrete expressions of cooperation and

exchange must be built in media and government,

education, science and business, to reinforce the

message of tolerance and acceptance.

For the sake of our collective future, voices of

moderation must be heard. For the sake of our

collective future, Israel and the Arab nations must learn

to live together side by side, to overcome our conflicts

just as the nations of Europe have learned to overcome

theirs. Israel is living among its Arab neighbours. We

29

believe in a common future of peace and prosperity

with them. My many meetings with Arab leaders over

the last few days have encouraged me to believe that

together we can make our region a better place.

This culture of peace must permeate not only the

borders of the Middle East, it must permeate the walls

of the United Nations as well. In the past, the United

Nations has shown us that it can play a positive role.

This Assembly was key to the founding of the State of

Israel, 55 years ago. Security Council resolutions 242

(1967) and 338 (1973) are our guideposts to

negotiations and peace.

To play such a constructive role in the future, the

United Nations must reform. It must move away from

the partisan hostility that has taken over its Middle East

agenda. For more than three decades, this Assembly

has passed every year a litany of resolutions designed

to discredit Israel, challenge its interests, and promote

the will of its greatest enemies.

In my hand I am holding a collection of the

decisions of the fifty-seventh General Assembly on the

Middle East — 175 pages filled not with hope, but with

the negative agendas of the past. No other country has

suffered such unjustified attack and consistent

discrimination within the United Nations system. The

time has come to end this campaign of diplomatic

incitement. For the sake of Israelis and Palestinians —

for the sake of the United Nations and peace itself — I

call on this body to rise above the tired politics of

yesterday, and adopt a new, courageous agenda for

tomorrow.

I call on the General Assembly to abandon the

automatic adoption of anti-Israel resolutions and to

find ways of making itself relevant once again to the

interests of the people it claims to serve. I call on this

Assembly to fulfil its historic mission and help

promote what unites us, not what divides us.

On the morning of 1 February of this year, Israel

lost its first astronaut in the Space Shuttle Columbia

disaster — a skilled and courageous pilot whom I knew

personally, a child of Holocaust survivors, a national

hero. Colonel Ilan Ramon embodied the spirit of our

nation. He was a man of courage and action, dedicated

to the well-being of his people. Just as he sought to

contribute to the advancement of his fellow man, he

met his death, together with colleagues from the United

States and India, on a scientific mission in the name of

humanity as a whole.

Israel’s place in such endeavours of international

cooperation and accomplishment is no coincidence. In

the 55 years since the State of Israel was established,

recognized and welcomed into the family of nations,

our achievements in the fields of science and

technology, the arts and literature and agriculture and

medicine have come to rank with the best in the world.

Our international cooperation programme is celebrated

in over a hundred countries around the globe, sharing

skills, experience and knowledge for the benefit of

millions of people. We extend this hand of friendship

to all the nations of the world. We welcome our

improving relations with Europe, just as we remain

committed to promoting closer ties with the nations of

Africa, Asia and the Americas.

The Zionist vision of Israel’s founders was to

bring into the world a State in our ancient homeland to

serve as a haven from persecution for our people, a

place where the Jewish people could fulfil its right to

self-determination in the modern era and a bastion of

democracy and opportunity for all its citizens. Our

founders also made a promise not just to the people of

Israel, but also to the people of the Middle East as a

whole — to pursue peace and to work for the common

advancement of our region.

I know personally the profound meaning of this

historic undertaking. I came to Israel as a young

refugee from Tunisia. I serve as one of hundreds of

thousands of immigrants to whom Israel has granted

promise and protection, freedom and opportunity,

through the values and institutions of democracy.

I stand here today to reaffirm, before the nations

of the world, the commitment of my country to peace.

Peace for the people of Israel is both a moral and

historic imperative. “Shalom” — the word for peace in

Hebrew — is central to our language and our heritage.

It is how we say “hello” and it is how we say

“goodbye”. It is a name we give to our children. It is

my own family name.

It was our prophet Isaiah, who brought this

message of peace to the world centuries ago, when he

said: “And they shall beat their swords into

ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation, neither

shall they learn war any more”.

Israel’s historic record is clear. Whenever a true

partner for peace has emerged, he has been met with

Israel’s extended hand. This was true when President

30

Anwar Sadat of Egypt came to Jerusalem in 1977 and it

was true when King Hussein of Jordan signed the

Peace Treaty with us in 1994. The same is true today.

Israel stands ready to complete the circle of peace with

all its neighbours — real peace, not just peace for the

headlines, but peace which brings an end to violence

and hostility and positive change for the citizens of our

region.

From this great rostrum — a rostrum shared by

all humanity — I call on the leaders of Syria and

Lebanon, of Iran and of the Palestinian people to

abandon once and for all their hostility towards us and

to join us in building a better future for our children.

This evening, I shall return to Jerusalem, the

eternal capital of the Jewish people, to join with them

in celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

According to our tradition, this is a time when God

determines the fate of each and every individual for the

coming year. These are days of reflection and prayer.

May all our prayers for peace and for life be answered,

and may the actions and deeds of all the States and

peoples represented here in this Hall bring to mankind

peace and all the blessings that life can offer.