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(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, this evening (Monday, 16 April 2018), at the Jerusalem International Convention Center, attended the Keren Hayesod-UIA Annual World Conference. The Prime Minister received the Isaiah Award which is given annually to leaders, artists and donors whose actions prove great commitment to the State of Israel.
 
Prime Minister Netanyahu:
 
"This is an opportunity, for Sara and me, to say on behalf of the people of Israel, and the Jewish people everywhere – thank you to Modi Sandberg, Modi – thank you for everything that you did for the State of Israel and our people. Toda Raba Modi. And some nachat to you and Einat. You have free time, not much.
 
I have followed the work of Keren Hayesod in my years in government, but every citizen of Israel should know that Keren Hayesod has been working on behalf of Zionism and the Jewish state for decades, decades and decades, achieving enormous successes in so many areas, beginning in Aliyah, and moving on to every major realm of endeavor that defines the future of our society and our people. And I want to thank all of you for participating in this. It’s a bond that connects us to Jewish communities everywhere and to strengthening the Jewish state.
 
We live in momentous times. The founders of modern Zionism did not say that the attacks on the Jewish people would seize once we establish a Jewish state. They said that we could defend ourselves against those attacks. And that’s exactly what the State of Israel has done. It’s restored the capacity of the Jewish people to defend ourselves, by ourselves, against any threat. And we are as powerful as we’ve never been before. We’re economically successful as we’ve never been before, and we take our economic power and our military might and we weld them together to have unprecedented diplomatic flourishing of Israel’s relations around the world. This covers all the continents.
 
There was one year, a year ago, that I visited six continents, if you make North and South America two continents. And every leader that I meet, every leader, is transfixed by the miracle of Israel, what we’ve accomplished. Our technology, our know-how, our intelligence, I mean military intelligence, our many full capacities. They’re impressed with it, and they always ask me, they ask me: what is your secret? What is the secret of this small state? They’re always amazed at the number, when I tell them that there are less than 9 million people in Israel they say, no, it can’t be, of course. And then I show them the number and they say, no, it’s at least 100 million, we know that, tell us the truth. And I did. But then they said, what is your secret? What is it that makes this small state such a huge success? And I tell them our secret is the fact that we have old traditions, we have deep roots in our land, but we have this immense creativity and curiosity, we send branches to the sky.
 
And it’s this unique combination of tradition and innovation that makes our people so powerful. We have a brain, we have a heart, we have a country, we have a state, we have an army, we have a future. And you are a part of that future. You’re all building that future.
 
I want to thank you for this exceptional honor, Isaiah is a great name, and it’s a great privilege to receive this prize from you. I thank you and I will cherish it always."