Dear friends,
Bishop-elect Cahill, Monsignor Young, Principal Sears and of course -- you the
future builders and leaders of this wonderful community, city, state and, maybe,
all world.
First of all,
I want to use this opportunity to greet Bishop-elect Cahill for his nomination as
Bishop of Victoria by Pope Francis.
Today, I am
proud to open the photo exhibition of great man and great leader Pope Francis
and his visit to Israel. You will see the Pope meeting with our leaders, representatives
of different religions and all of this accompanied by the wonderful historic
sites of the Holy Land.
His visit to
Israel was an opportunity to show the world the true Israel; the advanced,
modern and tolerant Israel. In effect, the only country in the Middle East that
ensures complete freedom of worship to those of all faiths, guards the holy
places and ensures the rights of all – Jews, Muslims, Christians alike to live
in peace and equality in the only Jewish state.
As we live
together with Arabs of Israel, and yes, 20% of Israeli’s are Arabs from
different faiths; we are willing and want to make peace with our Palestinian neighbors.
I believe that if they will abandon the way of violence and will recognize our
right to exist, as did and still do, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan; this
would be enough to pave the way to peace and we together will bring peace in
the Holy Land.
As you maybe
now our region is in great turmoil – Arab Spring, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran
and others threatening the integrity of the Middle East. But, I must say that although
this is a big challenge to Israel, to our region and to all our western
civilization now after 67 years of independence (and we celebrated our 67
Independence Day just couple of weeks ago) we have a strong state, a vibrant
economy and a democratic, healthy society.
There is a
lot that we need to fix in Israel, but there is nothing, and I am really excited
to say it, there is nothing that can change our way of life. We will continue
to be the beacon of hope and example of democracy and coexistence to all.
I want to
use this opportunity to address you, kids, the real problem and the biggest threat
to the world as we know it, in my opinion, is indifference. What I see a lot in my work are people who are
not interested in anything; people that don’t care. I hope that you will never
be indifferent. I hope you will choose to be active in your life –in college,
in the work place, in your family and in your community. Be passionate about
things you believe in, not only when it is connected to Catholicism or Israel,
about anything and everything. Don’t be afraid people highly value activism and
activists.
On a
personal note, I want to mention that my work as an Israeli diplomat from the
beginning was connected to the Holy See. My first assignment was to assist with
the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Israel in 2009. I still have this pin as a
reminder. I'm very happy that now in a
way we are together as part of another great Pope - Pope Francis’ visit to Israel.
It looks
like there is a unique connection between Israel, The Holy See and Houston, not
only by me and this exhibition, but also our previous Consul General here in
Houston, Zion Evrony, who now is the Ambassador of Israel to the Holy See. So, in
a way, we now together continue this unique connection and I hope there will be
more opportunities in the future and the connection between Israel and the Holy
See and Israel and Houston, Texas will only become stronger and stronger.
May God
Bless you and Shabbat Shalom to you all!