(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, this evening (Tuesday, 2 July 2019), at the Jerusalem International Convention Center, attended an event to mark American Independence Day, hosted by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
Following are excerpts of the Prime Minister's remarks.
Prime Minister Netanyahu:
"A few days ago, David and Tammy and Jason Greenblatt and my wife Sara went to a place that is the wellspring of our existence. They went to a place that leads from the Siloam pool to Har Habayit [the Temple Mount] where our ancestors celebrated the various festivals of Jerusalem and where the last Jews fighting the Romans, fighting this greatest power on earth, submitted and where Jewish independence was extinguished.
Well we're back, and we're back standing for the truth, for our history, for our rights and it's wonderful to have the greatest power on earth not opposing the Jewish state but supporting the Jewish state. What a twist."
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"I also want to thank the government of Bahrain. I want to thank them for hosting an economic workshop in Bahrain last week in order to advance peace and prosperity. The foreign minister of Bahrain said Israel is part of the Middle East. 'I want the people of Israel, the citizens of Israel, to know that we welcome them.' That's a change that should be applauded.
It was encouraging to see numerous Arab governments participate in the workshop, despite Palestinian efforts to undermine it.
The worst thing you can do in a speech is repeat a cliché. I'm going to repeat a cliché. The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. They just did another one. Again, the Palestinian leadership held the prosperity of their own people hostage to their ideology against Israel.
I hope the Palestinian leadership chooses a different course. I hope that instead of rejecting President Trump's peace initiative, even before they've seen it, they should keep an open mind about it. That's certainly what I'm going to do. I look forward to working with President Trump and his administration to advance peace, prosperity and security. Security comes first but peace and prosperity can come too if there's a willingness finally on the Palestinian side to abandon the goal of destroying Israel and once and for all to recognize the Jewish state. That's the problem and that's the solution."