"For Zion's sake I will not hold My peace, And for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, And her salvation as a lamp that burns." -Isaiah 62:1
Noam Schalit tells Israel Radio gov’t must pay the price to bring his son home, as he prepares to spend the Rosh Hashana Holiday in protest tent.
The Schalit family will spend the eve of the Jewish New Year in their Jerusalem protest tent, Noam, father of captive soldier Gilad Schalit told Israel Radio in an interview Wednesday.
“Another year has passed and Gilad is still not with us,” said Noam. “We are in the protest tent, maybe one of the last that remain in Israel, and we are still here. Committees of professors won’t help us, we need leaders to make hard decisions that involve taking risks.”
After the countless meetings held between the Schalits and the government, and their tireless efforts to raise awareness, Noam said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu must return Gilad, who has been held hostage by Hamas for five years.
“They sent him on a mission almost 2000 days ago, and they haven’t found a way to return him,” Noam said. “The price [of returning him] doesn’t change, the price isn’t going down. They have to pay the price to bring him home. READ MORE...
This week the Jewish people will be celebrating Rosh Hashana – the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashana begins Wednesday at sundown and is a two day holiday concluding Friday night at which time we inaugurate the first Sabbath of the New Year.
According to Jewish tradition God completed the creation of the world on Rosh Hashana. Every year on this day God takes inventory, an annual accounting. He sits in judgment over all mankind, reviewing the ‘file’ of every human being. He examines our past, our present, and our future. He weighs our actions, our behavior, and our relationships. He looks to see what direction we are going in. He evaluates what kind of year we are going to have. A true day of judgment. Our lives are in the scales.
The central feature of Rosh Hashana is the blowing of the shofar, the ram’s horn. We are taught that blowing a ram’s horn on Rosh Hashana will serve in our merit for a good year. This is because the shofar recalls the near sacrifice of Isaac. In order to test Abraham’s allegiance to God, God commanded him to take his son Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice upon the altar. Of course, Abraham, did as he was told, but seconds before the knife was to touch Isaac’s neck, an angel called out to Abraham commanding him not to do it. It was only a test. In place of his son, Abraham offered a ram as a sacrifice to God instead.
We are told that this all happened on Mt. Moriah – the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It took place on the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei – the future date of Rosh Hashana. Therefore, by blowing the ram’s horn God on Rosh Hashana God is reminded of the allegiance that our forefather Abraham displayed, and in that merit, God will seal us for a year of blessing.
The Rosh Hashana menu includes a large number of symbolic foods all representing our prayers for a sweet new year full of blessings. A short prayer is recited immediately before or immediately after partaking of these foods. The most prominent of these symbolic foods is the apple dipped in honey. Honey-based desserts are also popular on Rosh Hashana, again, symbolizing our wishes for a sweet year! The traditional challah bread that is eaten at Sabbath and Holiday meals is made round for Rosh Hashana, symbolizing the cycle of life and the cycle of the year.
In the spirit of Rosh Hashana, I want to wish each and every one of you, the United with Israel family, a Shana Tova – a happy and healthy New Year filled with God’s blessing and goodness.
The United States is expressing deep disappointment in Israel's plans to build 1,100 new housing units in occupied east Jerusalem.
Department spokesman Victoria Nuland also called the announcement counterproductive to efforts to restart direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
The criticism Tuesday was matched by the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton who called on Israel to reverse the decision.
EARLIER STORY:
Israel granted the go-ahead on Tuesday for construction of 1,100 new Jewish housing units in occupied east Jerusalem, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any freeze in settlement construction, raising already heightened tensions after last week's Palestinian move to seek U.N. membership.
Israel's Interior Ministry said the homes would be built in Gilo, a sprawling Jewish enclave in southeast Jerusalem. It said construction could begin after a mandatory 60-day period for public comment, a process that spokesman Roi Lachmanovich called a formality.
The announcement drew swift condemnation from the Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem as their future capital. The European Union's foreign policy chief in Brussels, Catherine Ashton, also said that the decision "should be reversed."
The Palestinians have demanded that Israel halt all settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the adjacent West Bank -- territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war -- as a condition for resuming peace talks.
Since capturing east Jerusalem, Israel has annexed the area and ringed it with about 10 Jewish enclaves which are meant to solidify its control. Gilo, which is close to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, is among the largest, with about 50,000 residents. Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem has not been internationally recognized.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the Israeli decision amounted to "1,100 no's to the resumption of peace talks."
He urged the United States, Israel's closest and most important ally, to change its position and support the Palestinians in their quest for U.N. membership. The United States has repeatedly called on Israel to cease settlement construction on land that could constitute a Palestinian state, but says the U.N. is not the proper place to resolve the conflict.
With peace talks stalled for the past three years, the Palestinians last week asked the U.N. Security Council to recognize an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. Although the move won't change the situation on the ground, the Palestinians believe international support will boost their position in future peace negotiations.
The U.S. opposes the U.N. strategy and has vowed to veto the Palestinian request in the Security Council. Both Israel and the U.S. say a Palestinian state can only be established through negotiations.
But in an interview published Tuesday, Netanyahu ruled out any settlement freeze, arguing that a 10-month moratorium on new housing construction last year had failed to yield results.
The Palestinians, saying his limited freeze was insufficient, agreed to resume negotiations just weeks before the moratorium ended. Netanyahu then refused a U.S.-backed Palestinian demand to extend it, and the talks quickly collapsed.
Netanyahu has called for the resumption of peace talks without preconditions. He rejects calls to halt settlement construction and has dismissed demands that a Palestinian state be based on Israel's 1967 prewar lines -- pitting him odds with the Obama administration.
"The Palestinians, by coming back to the issue of the settlement freeze, indicate that they don't really want to negotiate," Netanyahu told the Jerusalem Post. "They use it again and again, but I think a lot of people see it as a ruse to avoid direct negotiations."
Meir Margalit, a Jerusalem city council member who opposes east Jerusalem construction, said city officials had given initial approval to the Gilo project more than a year ago.
He said he didn't expect the project to be "an obstacle of peace" since it is in an existing Jewish area that is widely expected to remain part of Israel in any peace deal. But he said Interior Minister Eli Yishai, leader of the hawkish Shas Party, appeared to have timed the approval as a response to the Palestinian statehood gambit. Yishai declined an interview request.
Seeking to break the deadlock, the international Quartet of Mideast mediators -- the U.S., EU, U.N. and Russia -- last week called on Israelis and Palestinians to resume negotiations. It called for a peace agreement to end the over 60 year-old conflict by the end of next year and urged both sides "to refrain from provocative actions."
Richard Miron, spokesman for U.N. Mideast envoy Robert Serry, said the Israeli decision was "very concerning" and ignored the Quartet's appeal. "This sends the wrong signal at this sensitive time," he said.
The fate of east Jerusalem is the most explosive issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The sector is home to Jerusalem's Old City, which houses sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites. Netanyahu says he will never relinquish east Jerusalem, which Israel considers an integral part of its capital. The Palestinian leadership has vowed it will not accept a state without key parts of east Jerusalem as its capital.
In all, about 200,000 Jews live in east Jerusalem, which Israel calls neighborhoods and the Palestinians call settlements. Squeezed between them are Arab neighborhoods that are home to some 250,000 Palestinians.
There was no immediate U.S. reaction to the Gilo project.
Location: United Nations Headquarters, New York City, New York
MR. : The assembly will now hear a statement by His Excellency Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel.
I have great pleasure in welcoming His Excellency Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel.
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Thank you. Thank you.
MR. : I invite him to address the General Assembly.
PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: Thank you, Mr. President.
Ladies and gentlemen, Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established 63 years ago. On behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, I extend that hand again today. I extend it to the people of Egypt and Jordan, with renewed friendship for neighbors with whom we have made peace. I extend it to the people of Turkey, with respect and good will. I extend it to the people of Libya and Tunisia, with admiration for those trying to build a democratic future. I extend it to the other peoples of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, with whom we want to forge a new beginning. I extend it to the people of Syria, Lebanon and Iran, with awe at the courage of those fighting brutal repression.
But most especially, I extend my hand to the Palestinian people, with whom we seek a just and lasting peace.
Ladies and gentlemen, in Israel our hope for peace never wanes. Our scientists, doctors, and innovators apply their genius to improve the world of tomorrow. Our artists, our writers, enrich the heritage of humanity. Now, I know that this is not exactly the image of Israel that is often portrayed in this hall. After all, it was here in 1975that the age-old yearning of my people to restore our national life in our ancient biblical homeland -- it was then that this was branded shamefully, as racism. And it was here in 1980, right here, that the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt wasn't praised; it was denounced! And it's here, year after year that Israel is unjustly singled out for condemnation. It's singled out for condemnation more often than all the nations of the world combined. Twenty-one out of the 27 General Assembly resolutions condemn Israel -- the one true democracy in the Middle East.
Well, this is an unfortunate part of the UN institution. It's the theater of the absurd. It doesn't only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles: Gadhafi's Libya chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights; Saddam's Iraq headed the UN Committee on Disarmament. You might say: That's the past. Well, here's what's happening now -- right now, today, Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the UN Security Council. This means, in effect, that a terror organization presides over the body entrusted with guaranteeing the world's security.
You couldn't make this thing up.
So here in the UN, automatic majorities can decide anything. They can decide that the sun sets rises in the west. But they can also decide -- they have decided -- that the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism's holiest place, is occupied Palestinian territory.
And yet even here in the General Assembly, the truth can sometimes break through. In 1984 when I was appointed Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, I visited the great rabbi of Lubavich. He said to me -- and ladies and gentlemen, I don't want any of you to be offended because from personal experience of serving here, I know there are many honorable men and women, many capable and decent people, serving their nations here -- But here's what the rebbe said to me. He said to me, you'll be serving in a house of many lies. And then he said, remember that even in the darkest place, the light of a single candle can be seen far and wide.
Today I hope that the light of truth will shine, if only for a few minutes, in a hall that for too long has been a place of darkness for my country. So as Israel's prime minister, I didn't come here to win applause. I came here to speak the truth. The truth is -- the truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security. The truth is that we cannot achieve peace through UN resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. The truth is that so far the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. And the truth is you shouldn't let that happen.
Ladies and gentlemen, when I first came here 27 years ago, the world was divided between East and West. Since then the Cold War ended, great civilizations have risen from centuries of slumber, hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty, countless more are poised to follow, and the remarkable thing is that so far this monumental historic shift has largely occurred peacefully. Yet a malignancy is now growing between East and West that threatens the peace of all. It seeks not to liberate, but to enslave, not to build, but to destroy.
That malignancy is militant Islam. It cloaks itself in the mantle of a great faith, yet it murders Jews, Christians and Muslims alike with unforgiving impartiality. On September 11thit killed thousands of Americans, and it left the twin towers in smoldering ruins. Last night I laid a wreath on the 9/11 memorial. It was deeply moving. But as I was going there, one thing echoed in my mind: the outrageous words of the president of Iran on this podium yesterday. He implied that 9/11 was an American conspiracy. Some of you left this hall. All of you should have.
Since 9/11, militant Islamists slaughtered countless other innocents -- in London and Madrid, in Baghdad and Mumbai, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in every part of Israel. I believe that the greatest danger facing our world is that this fanaticism will arm itself with nuclear weapons. And this is precisely what Iran is trying to do.
Can you imagine that man who ranted here yesterday -- can you imagine him armed with nuclear weapons? The international community must stop Iran before it's too late. If Iran is not stopped, we will all face the specter of nuclear terrorism, and the Arab Spring could soon become an Iranian winter.
That would be a tragedy. Millions of Arabs have taken to the streets to replace tyranny with liberty, and no one would benefit more than Israel if those committed to freedom and peace would prevail.
This is my fervent hope. But as the prime minister of Israel, I cannot risk the future of the Jewish state on wishful thinking. Leaders must see reality as it is, not as it ought to be. We must do our best to shape the future, but we cannot wish away the dangers of the present.
And the world around Israelis definitely becoming more dangerous. Militant Islam has already taken over Lebanon and Gaza. It's determined to tear apart the peace treaties between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Jordan. It's poisoned many Arab minds against Jews and Israel, against America and the West. It opposes not the policies of Israel but the existence of Israel.
Now, some argue that the spread of militant Islam, especially in these turbulent times -- if you want to slow it down, they argue, Israel must hurry to make concessions, to make territorial compromises. And this theory sounds simple. Basically it goes like this: Leave the territory, and peace will be advanced. The moderates will be strengthened, the radicals will be kept at bay. And don't worry about the pesky details of how Israel will actually defend itself; international troops will do the job.
These people say to me constantly: Just make a sweeping offer, and everything will work out. You know, there's only one problem with that theory. We've tried it and it hasn't worked. In 2000 Israel made a sweeping peace offer that met virtually all of the Palestinian demands. Arafat rejected it. The Palestinians then launched a terror attack that claimed a thousand Israeli lives.
Prime Minister Olmert afterwards made an even more sweeping offer, in 2008. President Abbas didn't even respond to it.
But Israel did more than just make sweeping offers. We actually left territory. We withdrew from Lebanon in2000 and from every square inch of Gaza in 2005. That didn't calm the Islamic storm, the militant Islamic storm that threatens us. It only brought the storm closer and made it stronger.
Hezbollah and Hamas fired thousands of rockets against our cities from the very territories we vacated. See, when Israel left Lebanon and Gaza, the moderates didn't defeat the radicals, the moderates were devoured by the radicals. And I regret to say that international troops like UNIFIL in Lebanon and EUBAM in Gaza didn't stop the radicals from attacking Israel.
We left Gaza hoping for peace.
We didn't freeze the settlements in Gaza, we uprooted them. We did exactly what the theory says: Get out, go back to the 1967 borders, dismantle the settlements.
And I don't think people remember how far we went to achieve this. We uprooted thousands of people from their homes. We pulled children out of their schools and their kindergartens. We bulldozed synagogues. We even -- we even moved loved ones from their graves. And then, having done all that, we gave the keys of Gaza to President Abbas.
Now the theory says it should all work out, and President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority now could build a peaceful state in Gaza. You can remember that the entire world applauded. They applauded our withdrawal as an act of great statesmanship. It was a bold act of peace.
But ladies and gentlemen, we didn't get peace. We got war. We got Iran, which through its proxy Hamas promptly kicked out the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority collapsed in a day -- in one day
. President Abbas just said on this podium that the Palestinians are armed only with their hopes and dreams. Yeah, hopes, dreams and 10,000 missiles and Grad rockets supplied by Iran, not to mention the river of lethal weapons now flowing into Gaza from the Sinai, from Libya, and from elsewhere.
Thousands of missiles have already rained down on our cities. So you might understand that, given all this, Israelis rightly ask: What's to prevent this from happening again in the West Bank? See, most of our major cities in the south of the country are within a few dozen kilometers from Gaza. But in the center of the country, opposite the West Bank, our cities are a few hundred meters or at most a few kilometers away from the edge of the West Bank.
So I want to ask you. Would any of you -- would any of you bring danger so close to your cities, to your families? Would you act so recklessly with the lives of your citizens? Israelis are prepared to have a Palestinian state in the West Bank, but we're not prepared to have another Gaza there. And that's why we need to have rea l security arrangements, which the Palestinians simply refuse to negotiate with us.
Israelis remember the bitter lessons of Gaza. Many of Israel's critics ignore them. They irresponsibly advise Israel to go down this same perilous path again. Your read what these people say and it's as if nothing happened -- just repeating the same advice, the same formulas as though none of this happened.
And these critics continue to press Israel to make far-reaching concessions without first assuring Israel's security. They praise those who unwittingly feed the insatiable crocodile of militant Islam as bold statesmen. They cast as enemies of peace those of us who insist that we must first erect a sturdy barrier to keep the crocodile out, or at the very least jam an iron bar between its gaping jaws.
So in the face of the labels and the libels, Israel must heed better advice. Better a bad press than a good eulogy, and better still would be a fair press whose sense of history extends beyond breakfast, and which recognizes Israel's legitimate security concerns.
I believe that in serious peace negotiations, these needs and concerns can be properly addressed, but they will not be addressed without negotiations. And the needs are many, because Israel is such a tiny country. Without Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, Israel is all of 9 miles wide.
I want to put it for you in perspective, because you're all in the city. That's about two-thirds the length of Manhattan. It's the distance between Battery Park and Columbia University. And don't forget that the people who live in Brooklyn and New Jersey are considerably nicer than some of Israel's neighbors.
So how do you -- how do you protect such a tiny country, surrounded by people sworn to its destruction and armed to the teeth by Iran? Obviously you can't defend it from within that narrow space alone. Israel needs greater strategic depth, and that's exactly why Security Council Resolution 242 didn't require Israel to leave all the territories it captured in the Six-Day War. It talked about withdrawal from territories, to secure and defensible boundaries. And to defend itself, Israel must therefore maintain a long-term Israeli military presence in critical strategic areas in the West Bank.
I explained this to President Abbas. He answered that if a Palestinian state was to be a sovereign country, it could never accept such arrangements. Why not? America has had troops in Japan, Germany and South Korea for more than a half a century. Britain has had an air base in Cyprus. France has forces in three independent African nations. None of these states claim that they're not sovereign countries.
And there are many other vital security issues that also must be addressed. Take the issue of air space. Again, Israel's small dimensions create huge security problems. America can be crossed by jet airplane in six hours. To fly across Israel, it takes three minutes. So is Israel's tiny airspace to be chopped in half and given to a Palestinian state not at peace with Israel?
Our major international airport is a few kilometers away from the West Bank. Without peace, will our planes become targets for antiaircraft missiles placed in the adjacent Palestinian state? And how will we stop the smuggling into the West Bank? It's not merely the West Bank, it's the West Bank mountains. It just dominates the coastal plain where most of Israel's population sits below. How could we prevent the smuggling into these mountains of those missiles that could be fired on our cities?
I bring up these problems because they're not theoretical problems. They're very real. And for Israelis, they're life-and- death matters. All these potential cracks in Israel's security have to be sealed in a peace agreement before a Palestinian state is declared, not afterwards, because if you leave it afterwards, they won't be sealed. And these problems will explode in our face and explode the peace.
The Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their state. But I also want to tell you this. After such a peace agreement is signed, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations. We will be the first.
And there's one more thing. Hamas has been violating international law by holding our soldier Gilad Shalit captive for five years.
They haven't given even one Red Cross visit. He's held in a dungeon, in darkness, against all international norms. Gilad Shalit is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit. He is the grandson of Zvi Shalit, who escaped the Holocaust by coming in the 1930's as a boy to the land of Israel. Gilad Shalit is the son of every Israeli family. Every nation represented here should demand his immediate release. If you want to pass a resolution about the Middle East today, that's the resolution you should pass.
Ladies and gentlemen, last year in Israel in Bar-Ilan University, this year in the Knesset and in the U.S. Congress, I laid out my vision for peace in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state. Yes, the Jewish state. After all, this is the body that recognized the Jewish state 64 years ago. Now, don't you think it's about time that Palestinians did the same?
The Jewish state of Israel will always protect the rights of all its minorities, including the more than 1million Arab citizens of Israel. I wish I could say the same thing about a future Palestinian state, for as Palestinian officials made clear the other day-- in fact, I think they made it right here in New York -- they said the Palestinian state won't allow any Jews in it. They'll be Jew-free -- Judenrein. That's ethnic cleansing. There are laws today in Ramallah that make the selling of land to Jews punishable by death. That's racism. And you know which laws this evokes.
Israel has no intention whatsoever to change the democratic character of our state. We just don't want the Palestinians to try to change the Jewish character of our state. We want to give up -- we want them to give up the fantasy of flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians.
President Abbas just stood here, and he said that the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the settlements. Well, that's odd. Our conflict has been raging for -- was raging for nearly half a century before there was a single Israeli settlement in the West Bank. So if what President Abbas is saying was true, then the -- I guess that the settlements he's talking about are Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa, Be'er Sheva. Maybe that's what he meant the other day when he said that Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for 63 years. He didn't say from 1967; he said from1948. I hope somebody will bother to ask him this question because it illustrates a simple truth: The core of the conflict is not the settlements.
The settlements are a result of the conflict.. The settlements have to be --it's an issue that has to be addressed and resolved in the course of negotiations. But the core of the conflict has always been and unfortunately remains the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border.
I think it's time that the Palestinian leadership recognizes what every serious international leader has recognized, from Lord Balfour and Lloyd George in 1917, to President Truman in1948, to President Obama just two days ago right here: Israel is the Jewish state.
President Abbas, stop walking around this issue. Recognize the Jewish state, and make peace with us. In such a genuine peace, Israel is prepared to make painful compromises. We believe that the Palestinians should be neither the citizens of Israel nor its subjects. They should live in a free state of their own. But they should be ready, like us, for compromise. And we will know that they're ready for compromise and for peace when they start taking Israel's security requirements seriously and when they stop denying our historical connection to our ancient homeland.
I often hear them accuse Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem. That's like accusing America of Americanizing Washington, or the British of Anglicizing London. You know why we're called "Jews"? Because we come from Judea.
In my office in Jerusalem, there's a -- there's an ancient seal. It's a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall, and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there's a name of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu. That's my last name. My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin -- Binyamin -- the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Samaria 4,000 years ago, and there's been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since.
And for those Jews who were exiled from our land, they never stopped dreaming of coming back: Jews in Spain, on the eve of their expulsion; Jews in the Ukraine, fleeing the pogroms; Jews fighting the Warsaw Ghetto, as the Nazis were circling around it. They never stopped praying, they never stopped yearning. They whispered: Next year in Jerusalem. Next year in the promised land.
As the prime minister of Israel, I speak for a hundred generations of Jews who were dispersed throughout the lands, who suffered every evil under the Sun, but who never gave up hope of restoring their national life in the one and only Jewish state.
Ladies and gentlemen, I continue to hope that President Abbas will be my partner in peace. I've worked hard to advance that peace. The day I came into office, I called for direct negotiations without preconditions. President Abbas didn't respond. I outlined a vision of peace of two states for two peoples. He still didn't respond. I removed hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints, to ease freedom of movement in the Palestinian areas; this facilitated a fantastic growth in the Palestinian economy. But again -- no response. I took the unprecedented step of freezing new buildings in the settlements for 10 months. No prime minister did that before, ever. Once again -- you applaud, but there was no response. No response.
In the last few weeks, American officials have put forward ideas to restart peace talks. There were things in those ideas about borders that I didn't like. There were things thereabout the Jewish state that I'm sure the Palestinians didn't like.
But with all my reservations, I was willing to move forward on these American ideas.
President Abbas, why don't you join me? We have to stop negotiating about the negotiations. Let's just get on with it. Let's negotiate peace.
I spent years defending Israel on the battlefield. I spent decades defending Israel in the court of public opinion. President Abbas, you've dedicated your life to advancing the Palestinian cause. Must this conflict continue for generations, or will we be able our children and our grandchildren to speak in years ahead of how we found a way to end it? That's what we should aim for, and that's what I believe we can achieve.
In two and a half years, we met in Jerusalem only once, even though my door has always been open to you. If you wish, I'll come to Ramallah. Actually, I have a better suggestion. We've both just flown thousands of miles to New York. Now we're in the same city. We're in the same building. So let's meet here today in the United Nations. Who's there to stop us? What is there to stop us? If we genuinely want peace, what is there to stop us from meeting today and beginning peace negotiations?
And I suggest we talk openly and honestly. Let's listen to one another. Let's do as we say in the Middle East: Let's talk "doogri". That means straightforward. I'll tell you my needs and concerns. You'll tell me yours. And with God's help, we'll find the common ground of peace.
There's an old Arab saying that you cannot applaud with one hand. Well, the same is true of peace. I can not make peace alone. I cannot make peace without you. President Abbas, I extend my hand -- the hand of Israel -- in peace. I hope that you will grasp that hand. We are both the sons of Abraham. My people call him Avraham. Your people call him Ibrahim. We share the same patriarch. We dwell in the same land. Our destinies are intertwined. Let us realize the vision of Isaiah --(Isaiah 9:1in Hebrew) -- "The people who walk in darkness will see a great light." Let that light be the light of peace.
by: THRILL I, Thrill, put together The Israel Thrill as a source the American people can use to be kept up to date with the events currently happening with the Nation of Israel.
As citizens to America, we must understand that the God we fall under to has ordained Israel as His favored Nation.
Let us remember the Abrahamic Covenant: a covenant is a decision involving two individuals or groups stating that they will keep a promise or fulfill an agreement between them.
The Book of Genesis records the story of God making a covenant with Abraham. The basis of that covenant was that if Abraham would follow God, obeying His laws and commandments, God would bless Abraham with generations of children that would outnumber the stars in the heavens (Genesis 15:5). Abraham believed God, obeyed his Word, and God rewarded him with many descendants, a nation of people now know as Israel.
Sure, corruption lies in the hearts of all man, including the heart and soul of Israel and America. It is important that we all repent from our wicked ways, and lead those who are lost, towards Righteousness.
This principle of the Abrahamic covenant states that if a person or a nation obeys God, observing the moral truths found in the Bible, that person or nation will be blessed. If they disobey, they will bring punishment upon themselves. For most of our nation's history, Americans have accepted the belief that good deeds produce good results and that people who were "God-fearing" in language and in lifestyle would be blessed by Him. That belief has been proven to be true time and again. The writer of Proverbs tells it plainly, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people" (14:34).
"Now the LORD had said to Abram: 'Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'" - Genesis 12:1-3
This is why it is vital that we, the American People, stand and support the Nation of Israel.
by: Craig Andresen on September 23, 2011 at 4:06 pm
At last, a voice of sanity has echoed through the chamber of the United Nation’s General Assembly. Following the addresses of Abbas and a ranting Ahmeninejad and a couple of days after a lack luster address from Obama, the voice of reason took the podium.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke just minutes ago to the assembled nations. The Prime Minister spoke to those who stand with Israel, to those who stand against Israel – and to those whose stance, because of their personal and party ideology, cannot be counted upon to defend the principles nor the people of our most important friend.
It was just a few months ago, while in Washington, Prime Minister Netanyahu had to take our President to school over the disastrous and dangerous idea of rolling Israel’s borders back to pre-1967 lines.
After that meeting, Obama backed away from his insistence of pre-1967 borders – and in recent days, he also backed away from his pronouncement last year of having an independent Palestine by this year.
From the U.N. podium, Netanyahu spoke about how Israel has been singled out, unjustly, more than any other nation, for condemnation by the United Nations.
He spoke of the absurd theater which IS the United Nations having made Lebanon the leader of the Security Council.
Netanyahu spoke quietly about becoming the Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. back in 1984 and being told by his Prime Minister that he would be serving in a house of many lies.
It was at that point in his address that Prime Minister said something which should have shaken the halls of the U.N. to their core.
“I did not come here to win applause…I came here to speak the truth.”
For nearly 40 minutes at the podium, that is precisely what Prime Minister Netanyahu did – and if indeed those words should have shaken the halls, his next words should have echoed through them for all time.
“Israel wants peace.”
Mr. Netanyahu spoke the truth about a rising malignancy called militant Islam and the danger it poses not only to Israel but to the world.
He spoke of being at the 9-11 Memorial yesterday and laying a wreath there while “thinking of the outrageous words of the President of Iran, that 9-11 was a conspiracy. Some of you left the room. All of you should have.”
Netanyahu spoke the truth regarding the numerous sweeping offers of concessions through the years which Israel has made to those controlling the Palestinian Authority and of how those offers, one by one, were either ignored by Arafat and Abbas or were met with terrorist attacks.
Netanyahu again spoke of the size of his nation and how close would be the danger should they go back to those pre-1967 borders. He said it takes 6 hours in a jet airplane to fly across the United States but it would only take 3 minutes in the same plane to traverse Israel.
“Would any of you bring danger so close to your cities…to your people?”
Near the end of his address, Netanyau stated that Palestinians should never be residents of Israel nor should they be Israeli subjects. Palestinians, said the Prime Minister, should be independent.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, while rational thought would be on his side to do so, has never been against an independent Palestinian state. In fact, he understands the need for it and has advocated for it since the day he took office.
He outlined all the steps he has taken to meet with Palestinian leaders and all the concessions which he has made. He spoke about receiving not a single response from Abbas. Each offer, each step, every concession…no response, no response, no response.
If even the enemies of Israel had their doubts, what came next, from that podium and from Netanyahu, should have ended all doubt once and for all.
“President Abbas, let’s stop negotiating about the negotiations. Let’s get on with it. Let’s negotiate peace!” He spoke about flying, both of them, he and Abbas, all the way to New York. He spoke about them being in the same city now. In the same building.
“Let’s meet here, today, in the U.N. What is there to stop us?”
When the leader of the most often, unjustly, condemned nation in the United Nations ends his address with such words as these;
“With God’s help, we’ll find the common grounds for peace.”
How can there be any other conclusion that in the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, exists the greatest statesman in the world today?
When Netanyahu address congress a few months ago, he said, “America has no better friend than Israel.”
Mr. Prime Minister, with respect, sir…
The World Has No Better Friend Than Israel.
The Israel Thrill Source: http://www.thenationalpatriot.com/?p=1896
Noam Schalit tells Israel Radio gov’t must pay the price to bring his son home, as he prepares to spend the Rosh Hashana Holiday in protest tent. 
