Israeli PM Says it like it is

[Guest guest]

Speech of the Israeli Prime Minister

July 31, 2006

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's time you understood: the Jewish state will

no longer be trampled upon. We will no longer allow anyone to exploit

population centers in order to bomb our citizens. No one will be able to

hide anymore behind women and children in order to kill our women and

children. This anarchy is over. You can condemn us, you can boycott

us, you can stop visiting us and, if necessary, we will stop visiting you."

 

 

Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. I, the Prime Minister of

Israel,

am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures

from Kfar

Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the

sight of

such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the

enormity of

this tragedy. Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you

that

the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon.

 

The Israel Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which

missiles

and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and

kindergartens in

Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to

hunt

for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages

are

bombarding the State of Israel.

 

 

We will not hesitate, we will not apologize and we will not back off If they

continue to launch missiles into Israel from Kfar Kana, we will continue

to bomb

Kfar Kana. Today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Here, there and

everywhere. The children of Kfar Kana could now be sleeping peacefully

in their

homes, unmolested, had the agents of the devil not taken over their land

and

turned the lives of our children into hell.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time you understood: the Jewish state will no

longer

be trampled upon. We will no longer allow anyone to exploit population

centers

in order to bomb our citizens. No one will be able to hide anymore

behind women

and children in order to kill our women and children. This anarchy is

over. You

can condemn us, you can boycott us, you can stop visiting us and, if

necessary,

we will stop visiting you.

 

A voice for six million citizens

Today I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens

who

serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down

to dust and

ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these

evil acts

were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves

one simple

goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler

said,

or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinjad

proclaims.

 

And you - just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are

ignoring

them again now. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world,

will not

happen again. Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit

the gas

chambers. Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives. Now

we have

our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to

those who

seek their destruction - those people will no longer be able to hide

behind

women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their

responsibility.

 

Every place from which a Katyusha is fired into the State of Israel will be

a

legitimate target for us to attack. This must be stated clearly and

publicly,

once and for all. You are welcome to judge us, to ostracize us, to

boycott us

and to vilify us. But to kill us? Absolutely not.

 

Four months ago I was elected by hundreds of thousands of citizens to

the

office of Prime Minister of the government of Israel, on the basis of my

plan

for unilaterally withdrawing from 90 percent of the areas of Judea and

Samaria,

the birth place and cradle of the Jewish people; to end most of the

occupation

and to enable the Palestinian people to turn over a new leaf and to calm

things

down until conditions are ripe for attaining a permanent settlement

between us.

 

The Prime Minister who preceded me, Ariel Sharon, made a full

withdrawal from

the Gaza Strip back to the international border, and gave the

Palestinians there

a chance to build a new reality for themselves. The Prime Minister who

preceded

him, Ehud Barak, ended the lengthy Israel presence in Lebanon and

pulled the IDF

back to the international border, leaving the land of the cedars to flourish,

develop and establish its democracy and its economy.

 

What did the State of Israel get in exchange for all of this? Did we win

even

one minute of quiet? Was our hand, outstretched in peace, met with a

handshake

of encouragement? Ehud Barak's peace initiative at Camp David let

loose on us a

wave of suicide bombers who smashed and blew to pieces over1,000

citizens, men

,women and children. I don't remember you being so enraged then.

Maybe that

happened because we did not allow TV close-ups of the dismembered

body parts of

the Israeli youngsters at the Dolphinarium? Or of the shattered lives of

the

people butchered while celebrating the Passover seder at the Park Hotel

in

Netanya? What can you do - that's the way we are. We don't wave body

parts at

the camera. We grieve quietly.

 

We do not dance on the roofs at the sight of the bodies of our enemy's

children

- we express genuine sorrow and regret. That is the monstrous behavior

of our

enemies. Now they have risen up against us. Tomorrow they will rise up

against

you. You are already familiar with the murderous taste of this terror. And

you

will taste more. In a loud and clear voice

 

And Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. What did it get us? A barrage

of

Kassem missiles fired at peaceful settlements and the kidnapping of

soldiers.

Then too, I don't recall you reacting with such alarm. And for six years,

the

withdrawal from Lebanon has drawn the vituperation and crimes of a

dangerous,

extremist Iranian agent, who took over an entire country in the name of

religious fanaticism and is trying to take Israel hostage on his way to

Jerusalem - and from there to Paris and London.

 

An enormous terrorist infrastructure has been established by Iran on our

border, threatening our citizens, growing stronger before our very eyes,

awaiting the moment when the land of the Ayatollahs becomes a

nuclear power in

order to bring us to our knees. And make no mistake - we won't go

down alone.

You, the leaders of the free and enlightened world, will go down along

with us.

 

So today, here and now, I am putting an end to this parade of

hypocrisy. I

don't recall such a wave of reaction in the face of the 100 citizens killed

every single day in Iraq. Sunnis kill Shiites who kill Sunnis, and all of

them

kill Americans - and the world remains silent. And I am hard pressed to

recall a

similar reaction when the Russians destroyed entire villages and burned

down

large cities in order to repress the revolt in Chechnya. And when NATO

bombed

Kosovo for almost three months and crushed the civilian population -

then you

also kept silent. What is it about us, the Jews ,the minority, the

persecuted,

that arouses this cosmic sense of justice in you? What do we have that

all the

others don't?

 

In a loud clear voice, looking you straight in the eye, I stand before you

openly and I will not apologize. I will not capitulate. I will not whine. This

is a battle for our freedom. For our humanity. For the right to lead normal

lives within our recognized, legitimate borders. It is also your battle. I

pray

and I believe that now you will understand that. Because if you don't,

you may

regret it later, when it's too late.