Mr. President,
Mr. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Foreign Minister Lavrov, distinguished
ministers:
I would like to thank the Russian Government for initiating
this important debate on a topic which is deeply troubling to all peace-loving
countries and people.
The scourge of terror is not new to Israel. Since before our
establishment and throughout our existence, we have been contending with an
ongoing terror campaign.
The Middle East and Africa are witnessing a broad expansion
of terror throughout the region. Terror groups such as ISIS, Houti militants, Hamas and Hezbollah have a
territorial dimension, having set up terror quasi-states which pose a
particular challenge. Moreover, terror inspired by groups such as Al Qaeda or
ISIS has struck as far afield as Australia, Belgium, France and elsewhere.
If some thought at first that the so-called Arab Spring
would give rise to a newly democratic Middle East, the vast spread of terror
regimes throughout the region has been an alarming wake-up call.
Israel is flanked by terror groups on all of its frontiers:
Hezbollah and Jabhat al-Nusra in the north, ISIS-Sinai in the south and Hamas
in Gaza.
Last year we were starkly reminded of the magnitude of the
threat we face when Hamas launched thousands of missiles against Israeli
civilian targets, while tunneling under the border to strike at innocent
Israeli civilians.
Israel dealt with this huge security threat while
scrupulously abiding by international humanitarian law and in many cases going
well beyond its strict requirements. Perhaps this explains why many democracies
have expressed an interest in learning from our experience.
One of the greatest challenges is the fact that terror
groups often exploit and misuse the principles of international law in order to
advance their aims. Thus, we see non-state actors cynically inverting the
purpose of humanitarian legal principles in order to inflict maximal harm on
civilians on both sides of a conflict.
For example, in the 2014 Gaza war, Hamas turned the
principles of international humanitarian law on their head in its attack on
Israel, making massive use of human shields and launching indiscriminate attacks
at innocent civilians from UN facilities, playgrounds, hospitals, mosques and
schools.
In a further act of cynicism, Hamas is diverting
construction materials – desperately needed to reconstruct the homes of the
thousands of Palestinians it exploited last summer as human shields – for the
expansion of its terror tunnel network. Clearly, Hamas sees their plight as an
asset.
Since its last missile assault against Israel in 2006,
Hezbollah has similarly embedded massive armaments throughout hundreds of
villages in southern Lebanon. The time for the international community to act
against this looming danger is now, before this powder keg once again ignites.
Like a crime syndicate, Middle Eastern terrorism would be
nothing without its ‘godfather.’ Iran – emboldened and empowered in the wake of
its agreement with the P5+1 – has made no secret of its intention to use the
sanctions relief to expand its funding of its terror proxies in the region and
world, in particular Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza –- two groups which
make clear their goal of wiping Israel off the map.
To defeat Iranian-backed terror and the parallel threat of
Al Qaeda, ISIS and their many affiliates, the moderate states in the Middle
East must act together in confronting extremism and in addressing its real root
causes: poverty, absence of democracy and rule of law, absence of women’s
rights and the lack of education towards tolerance.
Palestinian society – where Hamas and other terror groups
maintain strong support – exemplifies the effects of a deeply entrenched
veneration of violence and extremism. Any society in which public squares are
named for mass-murderers and children are encouraged to become martyrs will be
fertile ground for extremism and terrorism.
Mr. President,
Terror has two main goals: to maim and kill; and to
dispirit.
Thus, of the many things needed to vanquish terror, one
thing in particular stands out: clarity. Clarity of purpose and clarity of
moral conviction.
United, the democratic world is capable of defeating the
tidal wave of terror sweeping the Middle East and threatening the international
community at large.
To do so effectively, international norms and law need to be
adapted to the changing nature of the 21st century battlefield and especially
to the unique challenges that arise in asymmetric conflicts against rivals that
deliberately blur the traditional distinction between military personnel and
non-combatants.
In this regard, Israel is eager to continue playing an
active role in the work of the UN bodies tasked with mounting a comprehensive
international counter-terror strategy.
It has long been said that the price of liberty is eternal
vigilance. We might similarly say that the price of victory in the fight
against terror is unapologetic clarity.
Mr. President,
The fight of democracies against terror will always involve a
balancing act between civil liberties and national security. Israel’s
commitment to the rule of law and to democracy means that our struggle to
combat terrorism is more difficult but as expressed by our Supreme Court - “…a
democracy must sometimes fight with one hand tied behind its back. Even so, the
democracy has the upper hand.”
Israel has been contending for decades with these dilemmas
and has succeeded in protecting its civilians from terrorism within the confines
of the rule of law. All countries facing the threat of terror today are dealing
with similar challenges.
Yet, terror groups have always underestimated democracies. They
tend to confuse the democratic commitment to human rights and rule of law with
weakness. They do not understand that these ‘weaknesses’ are actually
strengths. And they will ultimately fail because of this error.
As Israel has learned in its own prolonged campaign against terror,
the ultimate source of our ability to vanquish terror lies in our reverence for
the sanctity of human life and our fierce conviction to do battle with any and
all who strive to defile it, even when they cynically try to use our own
principles against us.
It is this conviction, ladies and gentlemen, will which ultimately
ensure that the democratic world will prevail.
Thank you.