Thank you, Madam President.
Every year, the United Nations adopts at least twenty resolutions specifically to condemn Israel. Not a single one of these resolutions or any GA resolution at all has ever included Hamas. These resolutions make a mockery of the Palestinians – the very people the UN claims to defend. They do not lead the Palestinians forward to the future but keep them locked in the past.
The annual resolutions put forth on this day will likely pass once more. No surprises. But the international community has an opportunity to take a moral stance and finally condemn Hamas.
Hamas is an internationally recognized terrorist organization. Hamas is guilty of launching thousands of rockets into Israel; endangering Israeli civilians and torching our land; stealing aid funding from civilians in Gaza to construct military infrastructure, including terror tunnels; using the people of Gaza as human shields; and holding hostage the bodies of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, who were abducted and murdered by Hamas in 2014; as well as Avram Mangistu and Hisham Al-Sayed two Israeli civilians.
If the international community does not condemn Hamas, it is enabling a terrorist organization.
Madam President,
Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, once said that in Israel, “to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.”
The historic homeland of the Jewish people, the land of Israel, was conquered, destroyed, rebuilt, and demolished again. For centuries, it remained a barren desert, as it passed from empire to empire: from the Canaanites, to the Ancient Egyptians, to the Babylonians, to the Ottoman Turks and the British – with countless other powers in between.
Our people were exiled from our land but continued to dream of it on every holiday; three times a day in prayer, and throughout the never-ending Antisemitism we could not escape.
But on this day, 71 years ago, our age-old dream became a real-life miracle. 33 of the member states in this room voted in favor of a plan that would designate only a small portion of the land of Israel toward the most liberating end: the self-determination of the Jewish people.
Immediately we said yes. We were grateful to get even a piece of our homeland.
From that dream-come-true moment, the Jewish State of Israel has never experienced true peace. We have faced wars, terrorism, threats, isolation, double standards, Antisemitism.
But we have never let that stop us from building something miraculous – creating an oasis in the desert with drip irrigation; forming the most successful knowledge-based economy in the world; or installing the one and only democracy for hundreds of miles. Look at the map!
Nothing has stood in our way.
The vote of November 29, 1947 did not give us everything we wanted. But we accepted what we were given with gratitude and turned it into something extraordinary.
But our Palestinian neighbors did not share this mindset. Rather than accepting reality and making something of it, the Palestinians rejected it entirely. They didn’t say but, or maybe. They said no.
As soon as the Partition Plan passed the Palestinians began teaching their children to hate ours. They cemented their hopes in an unrealistic past and refused to move forward. They have stayed there since.
It is about time the Palestinians hit the reset button. They must recalculate their route so that partnership, prosperity and peace will be possible.
Madam President,
Israel represents seven decades of miracles – a beacon of democratic freedoms and human rights that even our adversaries in this room cannot deny.
Israeli elections are free and fair.
Israel has full freedom of speech.
Israeli media outlets have full freedom to criticize our government. Such blatant criticism would be unheard of in any other country in the Middle East.
Israel champions equal rights for all of our people. Women make up 28% of the Knesset, our parliament, and our current Ministers of Justice, Social Equality and Culture, are women.
An entire sector of our start-up ecosystem is dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities.
One company that has expanded all over the world has invented an exoskeleton system that actually allows people with spinal cord damage to walk again.
Our freedom allows us to develop great ideas and send them around the whole world. From agricultural innovation that uses satellite technology to track environmental trends; to healthcare breakthroughs that can detect early-stage cancer tumors without using biopsies; to counterterrorism technologies keeping all of us safe using facial recognition services –
we are eager to share our knowledge and export our capabilities with our friends around the globe.
Israel believes in an ever-changing world. Even when we had nothing, we still built something remarkable.
It is part of our DNA.
But the Palestinians have shown no interest in improvement. Since the moment of the vote, the Palestinians have wasted decades spreading hatred and sponsoring terrorism.
In place of inventions, they choose incitement.
Instead of ventures, they choose violence.
And in lieu of progress, they choose the past.
From the moment the UN voted to recognize a Jewish state and an Arab state, all we have heard is “no.”
No to peace.
No to negotiations.
No to dialogue.
Every time we reach out, we open our hand; we are met with not just a clenched fist, but an armed one.
We face a Palestinian leadership so problematic that only 29% of Palestinians trust it
to hold free and fair elections.
Mahmoud Abbas – he was elected in 2005. Those were the last PA elections held. Abbas is in year thirteen of his four-year term.
We see a Palestinian media industry that is more often found in prison or dead than on the ground reporting. In the words of one journalist detained by the Palestinian Authority, and I quote, “I live in a country where it is forbidden to express my opinion.”
And we watch, disturbed, as nearly 50% of married Palestinian women in Gaza have experienced
domestic violence.
It is no secret that the Palestinian leadership sponsors terrorism. This past year – 2018 – Mahmoud Abbas allocated $355 million toward terrorist salaries. Let me repeat it: $355 million. That number is over 45% of the foreign aid that the Palestinians are receiving this year, from all of the member states here.
The current Palestinian leadership is not capable of leading. It is not interested in the responsibilities of governing: making hard choices; delivering on promises to its people; investing in its own institutions.
The Palestinians could surge ahead into the future. But instead they choose to incite violence
and terrorism and deny the connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.
If they were truly interested in creating a better life for their people, they would devote their energy to making peace.
Madam President,
Israel is sprinting into the future. We want the Palestinian people to sprint with us; to build their economy; and to make progress for peace.
But the Palestinians have not shown interest in accepting reality and making something of it.
In 2005, for example, Israel completely pulled out of the Gaza Strip. We have no presence there. Nothing there. We removed all of the Jewish communities. We sent our soldiers home. We even uprooted our cemeteries. You cannot find one Jew today in Gaza.
The Palestinians had the opportunity to turn Gaza into the new Pearl of the Mediterranean. But they elected Hamas and Gaza became a terminal for terror.
There is high potential for a successful Palestinian economy, especially one centered on high-tech and start-up culture. But the roadblock to its success is the corrupt Palestinian leadership. With 65% of Palestinians pessimistic about the Palestinian future, it is high time the Palestinians make three drastic measures of change.
I would like to share them with the Palestinians:
First – you must reject your rejectionism. Israel is here to stay. The idea that if you ignore us, we will go away, is false and a waste of energy. Instead, focus on building a better future for your children and leave hatred behind.
Second – you must stop teaching hatred and paying terrorists. Teach tolerance and pay teachers instead.
And third – if you are frustrated with the status quo change it. Replace your current, corrupt leadership, and elect a leader who cares about you.
Only when these three measures are met will peace be possible.
Madam President,
The world cannot expect different results using the same equation. If it expects to see change
for Palestinians and Israelis, it must change the equation.
Do not cooperate with the Palestinians as they bring empty resolutions and symbolic gestures
to the UN.
Do not fuel that fire of delusion.
Instead, take responsibility for ensuring that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish State; end their campaign of incitement; and finally elect responsible leadership.
Madam President,
What the world has seen from Israel over the past 71 years is only the beginning. We are committed to infinite prosperity in partnership with our neighbors.
But if the Palestinians choose not to join us, we will not let their hostility hold us back.
The Jewish people will continue to flourish, regardless of the obstacles that come our way.
We will continue to be courageous in our aspirations, prosperity, and quest for peace.
As it is said in the book of Psalms – Tehilim:
יְהוָה--עֹז, לְעַמּוֹ יִתֵּן; יְהוָה, יְבָרֵךְ אֶת-עַמּוֹ בַשָּׁלוֹם.
May God give strength to his people, and may He bless his people with peace.
Amen.
Thank you.