I thought it would be worthwhile to copy Netanyahu's speech before the Senate:
Former PM Binyamin Netanyahu's Speech
Before the US Senate
(IsraelNN.com) Following is the address delivered
to the US Senate by former Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. Mr.
Netanyahu is traveling in the US and Europe as an
official emissary of the Government of Israel,
working to sway public opinion in Israel’s favor.
Distinguished Senators,
I have come here to voice what I believe is an
urgently needed reminder: That the war on terror
can be won with clarity and courage or lost with
confusion and vacillation.
Seven months ago, on a clear day in the capital of
freedom, I was given the opportunity to address
you, the guardians of liberty.
I will never forget that day - a day when words
that will echo for ages pierced the conscience of
the free world: Words that lifted the spirits of an
American nation that had been savagely attacked
by evil. Words that looked that evil straight in the
eye and boldly declared that it would be utterly
destroyed. Most important, words that charted a
bold course for victory.
Those words were not mine. They were the words
of the President of the United States.
In an historic speech to the world last September
and with determined action in the crucial months
that followed, President Bush and his
administration outlined a vision that had the moral
and strategic clarity necessary to win the war on
terror.
The moral clarity emanated from an ironclad
definition of terror and an impregnable moral truth.
Terrorism was understood to be the deliberate
targeting of civilians in order to achieve political
ends. And it was always unjustifiable. With a few
powerful words, President Bush said all that
needed to be said: "Terrorism is never justified."
The strategic clarity emanated from the
recognition that international terrorism depends on
the support of sovereign states, and that fighting it
demands that these regimes be either deterred or
dismantled.
In one clear sentence, President Bush expressed
this principle: "No distinction will be made between
the terrorists and the regimes that harbor them."
This moral and strategic clarity was applied with
devastating effect to the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan that supported Al Qaeda terrorism.
No false moral equivalence was drawn between
the thousands of Afghan civilians who were the
unintentional casualties of America's just war and
the thousands of American civilians deliberately
targeted on September 11.
No strategic confusion lead America to pursue Al
Qaeda terrorists while leaving the Taliban regime
in place.
Soon after the war began, the American victory
over the forces of terror in Afghanistan brought to
light the third principle in the war on terror -
namely, that the best way to defeat terror is to
defeat it.
At first, this seemingly trite observation was not
fully understood. Contrary to popular belief, the
motivating force behind terror is neither
desperation nor destitution. It is hope - the hope of
terrorists systematically brainwashed by the
ideologues who manipulate them that their
savagery will break the will of their enemies and
help them achieve their objectives - political,
religious, or otherwise.
Defeat this hope and you defeat terrorism.
Convince terrorists, their sponsors, and potential
new recruits that terrorism will be thoroughly
uprooted and severely punished and you will stop it
cold in its tracks.
By adhering to these three principles - moral
clarity, strategic clarity and the imperative of
victory - the forces of freedom, led by America,
are well on their way to victory against terror from
Afghanistan.
But that is only the first step in dismantling the
global terrorist network. The other terrorist
regimes must now be rapidly dealt with in similar
fashion.
Yet today, just seven months into the war, it is far
from certain that this will be done.
Faced with the quintessential terrorist regime of
our time - a regime that both harbors and
perpetrates terror on an unimaginable scale - the
free world is muddling its principles, losing its
nerve, and thereby endangering the successful
prosecution of this war.
The question many in my country are now asking
is this: Will America apply its principles
consistently and win this war, or will it selectively
abandon those principles and thereby ultimately
lose the war?
My countrymen ask this question because they
believe that terrorism is an indivisible evil and that
the war against terror must be fought indivisibly.
They believe that if moral clarity is obfuscated, or
if you allow one part of the terror network to
survive, much less be rewarded for its crimes, then
the forces of terror will regroup and rise again.
Until last week, I was certain that the United
States would adhere to its principles and lead the
free world to a decisive victory. Today, I too have
my concerns.
I am concerned that when it comes to terror
directed against Israel, the moral and strategic
clarity that is so crucial for victory is being twisted
beyond recognition.
I am concerned that the imperative of defeating
terror everywhere is being ignored when the main
engine of Palestinian terror is allowed to remain
intact.
I am concerned that the State of Israel, that has
for decades bravely manned the front lines against
terror, is being pressed to back down just when it
is on the verge of uprooting Palestinian terror.
These concerns first surfaced with the appearance
of a reprehensible moral symmetry that equates
Israel, a democratic government that is defending
itself against terror, with the Palestinian
dictatorship that is perpetrating it.
The deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians is
shamefully equated with the unintentional loss of
Palestinian life that is the tragic but unavoidable
consequence of legitimate warfare.
Worse, since Palestinian terrorists both deliberately
target civilians and hide behind them, Israel is cast
as the guilty party because more Palestinians have
been killed in Arafat's terrorist war than Israelis.
No one, of course, would dare suggest that the
United States was the guilty party in World War II
because German casualties, which included
millions of civilians, were twenty times higher then
American casualties.
So too, only a twisted and corrupt logic would paint
America and Britain as the aggressors in the
current war because Afghan casualties are
reported to have well exceeded the death toll of
September 11.
My concern deepened when, incredibly, Israel was
asked to stop fighting terror and return to a
negotiating table with a regime that is committed to
the destruction of the Jewish State and openly
embraces terror.
Yasser Arafat brazenly pursues an ideology of
policide - the destruction of a state - and
meticulously promotes a cult of suicide.
With total control of the media, the schools, and
ghoulish kindergarten camps for children that
glorifies suicide martyrdom, Arafat's dictatorship
has indoctrinated a generation of Palestinians in a
culture of death, producing waves of human bombs
that massacre Jews in buses, discos, supermarkets,
pizza shops, café s - everywhere and anywhere.
Israel has not experienced a terrorist attack like
the one the world witnessed on that horrific day in
September. That unprecedented act of barbarism
will never be forgotten.
But in the last eighteen months, Israel's six million
citizens have buried over four hundred victims of
terror - a per capita toll equivalent to half a dozen
September 11ths. This daily, hourly carnage is also
unprecedented in terrorism's bloody history.
Yet at the very moment when support for Israel's
war against terror should be stronger than ever,
my nation is being asked to stop fighting.
Though we are assured by friends that we have
the right to defend ourselves, we are effectively
asked not to exercise that right.
But our friends should have no illusions. With or
without international support, the government of
Israel must fight not only to defend its people,
restore a dangerously eroded deterrence and
secure the Jewish State, but also to ensure that the
free world wins the war against terror in this
pivotal arena in the heart of the Middle East.
Israel must now do three things. First, it must
dismantle Arafat's terrorist regime and expel
Arafat from the region. As long as the engineer of
Palestinian terror remains in the territories, terror
will never stop and the promise of peace will never
be realized.
Second, Israel must clean out terrorists, weapons,
and explosives from all Palestinian controlled
areas. No place, whether it is a refugee camp in
Gaza or an office in Ramallah can be allowed to
remain a haven for terror.
Third, Israel must establish physical barriers
separating the main Palestinian population centers
from Israeli towns and cities. This will prevent any
residual terrorists from reaching Israel.
Done together, these three measures will
dramatically reduce terrorism, bring security to the
people of Israel and restore stability to the region.
Last week, the government of Israel began to take
the second of these vital steps. Rather than bomb
Palestinian populated cities and towns from the air
- an operation that would have claimed thousands
of civilian casualties - the Israeli army is taking on
greater risk by using ground forces that
painstakingly make their way through the hornet's
nests of Palestinian terror.
But instead of praising Israel for seeking to
minimize civilian casualties through careful and
deliberate action, most of the world's governments
shamelessly condemn it.
For seven months, many of these governments
have rightly supported the war against Afghan
terror. Yet after only seven days, their patience for
the war against Palestinian terror ran out.
The explanations that are offered for this double
standard are not convincing.
First it is said that war on Palestinian terror is
different because a political process exists that can
restore security and advance peace.
This is not so. There can never be a political
solution for terror. The grievance of terrorists can
never be redressed through diplomacy. That will
only encourage more terror.
Yasser Arafat's terrorist regime must be toppled,
not courted. The Oslo agreements are dead.
Yasser Arafat killed them.
He tore it to shreds and soaked it in Jewish blood
by violating every one of its provisions, including
the two core commitments he made at Oslo: to
recognize the State of Israel and to permanently
renounce terrorism. With such a regime and such
failure of leadership, no political process is
possible. In fact, a political process can only begin
when this terrorist regime is dismantled.
Second, it is said that waging war on Palestinian
terror today will destabilize the region and cripple
the imminent war against Sadaam Hussein.
This concern is also misplaced.
Clearly, the urgent need to topple Sadaam is
paramount. The commitment of America and
Britain to dismantle this terrorist dictatorship
before it obtains nuclear weapons deserves the
unconditional support of all sane governments.
But contrary to conventional wisdom, what has
destabilized the region is not Israeli action against
Palestinian terror, but rather, the constant pressure
exerted on Israel to show restraint.
It is precisely the exceptional restraint shown by
Israel for over a year and a half that has
unwittingly emboldened its enemies and
inadvertently increased the threat of a wider
conflict.
If Israeli restraint were to continue, the thousands
that are now clamoring for war in Arab capitals
will turn into millions, and an avoidable war will
become inevitable.
Half-measures against terrorists will leave their
grievances intact, fueled by the hope of future
victory. Full- measures will not redress those
grievances, but it will convince them that pursuing
terror is a prescription for certain defeat.
America must show that it will not heed the
international call to stop Israel from exercising its
right to defend itself. If America compromises its
principles and joins in the chorus of those who
demand that Israel disengage, the war on terror
will be undermined.
For if the world begins to believe that America
may deviate from its principles, then terrorist
regimes that might have otherwise been deterred
will not be deterred. Those that might have
crumbled under the weight of American resolve
will not crumble. As a result, winning the war will
prove far more difficult, perhaps impossible.
But my friends, I must also tell you that the charge
that Israel, of all countries, is hindering the war
against Sadaam is woefully unjust.
For my country has done more than any other to
make victory over Sadaam possible.
Twenty-one years ago, Prime Minister Menachem
Begin sent the Israeli air force on a predawn raid
hundreds of miles away on one of the most
dangerous military missions in our nation's history.
When our pilots returned, we had successfully
destroyed Sadaam's atomic bomb factory and
crippled his capacity to build nuclear weapons.
Israel was safer - and so was the world.
But rather than thanking us for safeguarding
freedom, the entire world condemned us.
Ten years later, when American troops expelled
Iraqi forces in the Gulf War, then secretary of
Defense Richard Cheney, expressed a debt of
gratitude to Israel for the bold and determined
action a decade earlier that had made victory
possible.
Indeed, I am confident that in time those who
would condemn Israel now will understand that
rooting out Palestinian terror today will also make
both Israel and the world safer tomorrow.
For if we do not immediately shut down the terror
factories where Arafat is producing human bombs,
it is only a matter of time before suicide bombers
will terrorize your cities.
If not destroyed, this madness will strike in your
buses, in your supermarkets, in your pizza parlors,
in your cafes. Eventually, these human bombs will
supplement their murderous force with suitcases
equipped with devices of mass death that could
make the horrors of September 11 pale by
comparison.
That is why there is no alternative to winning this
war without delay. No part of the terrorist network
can be left intact. For if not fully eradicated, like
the most malignant cancer, it will regroup and
attack again with even greater ferocity. Only by
dismantling the entire network will we be assured
of victory.
But to assure that this evil does not reemerge a
decade or two from now, we must not merely
uproot terror, but also plant the seeds of freedom
Because only under tyranny can a diseased
totalitarian mindset be widely cultivated. This
totalitarian mindset, which is essential for terrorists
to suspend the normal rules that govern a man's
conscience and prevents him from committing
these grisly acts, does not breed in a climate of
democracy and freedom.
The open debate and plurality of ideas that buttress
all genuine democracies and the respect for human
rights and the sanctity of life that are the shared
values of all free societies are a permanent
antidote to the poison that the sponsors of terror
seek to inject into the minds of their recruits.
That is why it is also imperative that once the
terrorist regimes in the Middle East are swept
away, the free world, led by America, must begin
to build democracy in their place.
We simply can no longer afford to allow this region
to remain cloistered by a fanatic militancy. We
must let the winds of freedom and independence
finally penetrate the one region in the world that
clings to unreformed tyranny.
That in exercising our basic right to defend
ourselves Israel is condemned by Arab
dictatorships is predictable.
That today a Europe which sixty years ago refused
to lift a finger to save millions of Jews has turned
its collective back on the Jewish State is downright
shameful.
But my friends, I must admit. I expected no better
from them.
Yet the America I know has always been
different.
History has entrusted this nation with carrying the
torch of freedom. And time and time again,
through both war and peace, America has carried
that torch with courage and with honor, combining
a might the world has never known with a sense of
justice that no power in history has possessed.
I have come before you today to ask you to
continue to courageously and honorably carry that
torch by standing by an outpost of freedom that is
resisting an unprecedented terrorist assault. I ask
you to stand by Israel's side in its fight against
Arafat's tyranny of terror, and thereby help defeat
an evil that threatens all of mankind. |
