(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this morning (Thursday, 3 September 2015), at the Foreign Ministry, attended a toast ahead of the Jewish New Year. He met with Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold and the heads of the ministry, and afterwards joined the toast and greetings with ministry employees.

PM and FM Netanyahu meets with heads of the Foreign Ministry
Copyright: GPO/Amos Ben Gershom


PM and FM Netanyahu addresses staff of the Foreign Ministry
Copyright: GPO/Amos Ben Gershom

 
Prime Minister Netanyahu told the Foreign Ministry employees:
 
"First of all, I wish all of you, your families and the Jewish people a happy New Year.
 
I would like to express my appreciation for the important work you are doing. I want you to know that I very much appreciate your efforts regarding our great tasks in a changing world, in the face of the major upheavals taking place in our region and in the world in general, and our need to act on many fronts.
 
One front, first of all, certainly touches on the Foreign Ministry directly and this is the great opportunities that are opening up before us, especially in Asia but also in Africa and Latin America. We see a great potential for new alliances, new networks of relations regarding major interests based - first of all - on Israeli technology and innovation which are breaking through numerous attempts at boycotts in other parts of the world.
 
Second, of course, we must constantly refute the terrible denigrations of the state of the Jews, something which is in our power to do, in contrast to the thousands of years of our history in which we could not and when we did not have the ability to refute the terrible denigrations of the Jews. What was true for the Jews themselves is true for the state of the Jews, with one difference: Today we have a state, an army and a foreign ministry. We and you are frequently engaged in refuting the lies and rebuffing the boycotts and this requires a great intellectual and emotional effort. I would like to commend you and express my gratitude for your participation and your important role in this effort.
 
Third, of course, is maintaining our close ties with the traditional countries, especially the US, even in the face of differences of opinion and there are those, even though I must say that the overwhelming majority of the American public sees eye to eye with us on the danger from Iran, and it is important to reach out to American public opinion with the fact that Iran is the enemy of the US, it declares this openly, and Israel is the ally of the US. This understanding has important ramifications for our future security."