“First let me say that I spoke this morning to Shimon Peres. He sounded terrific. I sent him my own best wishes, my wife’s and the people of Israel, and I’m sure all of you, for a speedy recovery.
Last week the Knesset commemorated 40 years since the infamous Zionism-racism resolution. Now, that resolution was repealed, but unfortunately, systematic bias against Israel at the UN wasn’t repealed, still lives on.
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| Photos: Amos Ben Gershom, GPO |
There are 20 resolutions every year at the UN General Assembly against Israel, one on Iran. The majority of country resolutions that the United Nations Human Rights Council are directed against Israel, more than all the other countries combined, in the world. Syria, Iran, North Korea, you name it…
That unfortunately has not changed. What also hasn’t changed in the last 40 years is the endemic Palestinian rejection of the Jewish state and the incitement to violence. Palestinians rejected a Jewish state in 1937, and then in 1947, even though the UN resolution allowed them and called for them having their own state.
The Jews accepted the partition resolution, the Palestinian rejected it. They again rejected their own state at Camp David at 2000, and then in 2008, and since then, they have deigned to negotiate with me in seven years six hours, basically refusing to negotiate something that they claim they want, which is a political resolution of this conflict.
The real core of the conflict is the rejection of a Jewish state, a nation state for the Jewish people, in any borders. That has unfortunately remained with us.
I think that we all understand that this must change and I hope it does. Israel has faced many fronts. Those fronts are now confronting many other countries. They challenge our security and our future.
The primary threats that we face today are from militant Islam, from the Sunni branch led by ISIS and from the Shi’ite branch led by Iran. They both, they all perpetrate terror of one sort or another. And terror is always evil whether it’s in Jakarta or Istanbul or anywhere else.
So this is obviously something that brings the negativity, shall I say, in the Middle East and in the world to the fore. But there have been positive changes in the last 40 years.
Here are some numbers: First of all in demography, we were three and a half million people in Israel in 1975, today we’re over eight million. We enjoyed the waves of immigration from the former Soviet Union and from Ethiopia of course. Today Jews are coming to Israel from France and the Ukraine and other countries.
In the economy, we created a high-tech revolution here, which has changed the face of Israel globally. Our GDP was, here’s a number – 12.3 billion dollars in 1975; today, it’s over 300 billion dollars. The GDP per capita was 3,500 dollars.
Today, it’s ten times that. Our GDP per capita grew ten times in 40 years. That’s a tremendous achievement.
But the one I want to concentrate on is this. It’s diplomacy. In 1975 Israel basically had diplomatic relations with two sets of countries – the countries of North America, the United States and Canada of course, that was the anchor of our relationship and still is. Our relationship with the United States is tremendously important. And of course the countries of Western Europe.
Today, we have relations with the countries of Asia, of Africa, of Central and Eastern Europe, and there is something very big that’s taken place. I described to you the negative trends at the UN. That’s true. That’s mirrored also in a negative trend in certain other institutions which I’ll touch upon later, in global institutions or in multi-nation institutions.
But when you look at our relations with individual nations, that is changing dramatically. We have now very close relations with some small countries in the world, like China, India, Japan, Russia, just about every country, just about every country in Africa, countries in Latin America, well, except one. That too. And increasingly with the Arab countries. We have of course the two great peace treaties that we have with Egypt and Jordan. But we have growing and expanding relations with many of the Arab countries in the Middle East.
And the question is why is this happening? When you look at it over the perspective of time, you see this vast change.
Why is that happening. It’s happening for two big reasons. The first is what I mentioned earlier – the rise of militant Islam. And the accompanying terror that afflicts just about every country on earth.
And when those countries look around and they say who can help us with that? Who’s got the intelligence? I don’t mean this, I mean military intelligence, or anti-terror intelligence, and the experience of fighting these militants and the experience of fighting terror. They naturally come to Israel.
And the other reason that they’re coming is not merely to fight the forces that want to take humanity to a terrible past of religious wars and early Medievalism. It’s because they also want to seize the benefits of the future. And when they look at Israel they see the growth of our technology. And the three reasons they come here are technology, technology, technology. And Israel’s technological prowess, whether it’s in recycling water, or in agriculture, or in health, or in IT, or in cyber, in any area, in making sensors for cars, or in making surgeon helmets for micro-surgery, in anything.
Those countries come here because they want to partake the promise of the future.
So when countries look around, big countries, small-sized countries and anything in between and they ask, whose feet are planted one foot in fighting terror and militant Islam that is now a global affliction, and the other is how do we get our hand on the capabilities of innovation, and how do we translate what has happened in Israel to our own benefit? And each country differs in what they want, but they all want, virtually every one of them, every one of them wants these two things.
And they look around and they see here’s a country who is solidly placed to meet these two challenges, the challenges of those who want to take us to the past, the challenge of those who want to go into the future. And Israel is uniquely placed. So there’s a tremendous revolution taking place here. It is often obfuscated by BDS, and often obfuscated by the international forums, but many countries have reached that conclusion.
And since I’m the foreign minister, I can tell you, those people who talk about isolation, how about giving us a minute of isolation. Because I’m flooded with requests for visits, either ministers or leaders who want to come here, or the request that we go there. This is what is happening in the world. It’s a big change, and it’s one that I think augurs great promise for Israel.
So despite the threats facing us, we’ve achieved much over the last 40 years, and I have every confidence that we’ll continue to succeed over the next 40 years. Now, I don’t know if I’ll be here in the next 40 years, but you’re all welcome to come here again and we’ll trust that assumption. But I think that we’ve achieved a lot and we intend to achieve a lot more. Thank you very much."
Source: The Prime Minister of Israel
