Last week, after the adoption of UN Resolution 1701, both Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Knesset. Olmert’s speech is here. Netanyahu’s speech is here.
Here are some excerpts from Netanyahu’s address:
[100 years ago] [o]ne leader, Herzl, saw the burning coals of anti-Semitism and understood that they would kindle a great conflagration that would first consume European Jewry and then all Jewry. . . . He understood that if the Jews would gather in their ancestral homeland, they would be able to reestablish their sovereignty and thus thwart the threats to their survival and future.
Today I say: we stand before a grave danger, a new conflagration that threatens to consume our people. This is a threat not only to our soldiers, our citizens and our economy. It is a threat to our very existence.
Our sages taught us that in each generation new enemies rise who seek our destruction. But not since Hitler has there risen such an arch enemy of our people like
Iran’s president, Ahmadinejad, who openly declares his intention to annihilate us, and who is developing nuclear weapons for this evil purpose. . . . This is an existential danger that must be recognized now, while there is still time to act. I wish to emphasize three points that I believe are crucial for ensuring our security and our future. My first point: The concept of unilateral withdrawals has collapsed. This is not only my personal view but a growing realization that has trickled down to almost every part of this house. . . .
My second point: The root cause of the conflict has been finally exposed. This is not a conflict about a particular piece of land. We withdrew from every inch of
Lebanon, yet we were attacked. We withdrew from every inch of Gaza, yet we were attacked. . . . But our enemies wish to destroy not only us. And this brings me to my third point: The need for alliances . . . . We can establish alliances today precisely because the threat of militant Islam is not directed at
Israel alone but is also directed at many other nations. . . This war caught many of us sleeping, and we received a wakeup call. . . .
Our public duty includes telling the truth, and I tell it here: Regrettably, there will be another round of confrontation. . . . What we have today is a respite between the battle ended and the battle ahead. We will use this respite to rebuild our strength, but we must understand that our enemies will do the same. They too will rearm and refortify their positions, because frankly there is nothing to prevent them from doing so — not any political agreement nor any UN resolution. . . .
I believe that the day will come when a new Cyrus will emerge in
Persia to replace the genocidal Haman of our day. But . . . even if more challenges and struggles lie ahead, with God’s help, "Judea will rest assured" and the people of Israel shall dwell in their land for eternity.
Ralph Peters, writing yesterday in the New York Post (“Moment of Truth”), sets forth a dismayingly long list of bad news “in the wake of
Israel’s recent defeat, for one thing. Yes, you read that right. The truth is that
Israel got a relatively cheap, if embarrassing, wake-up call. And Israel’s a part of Western civilization, not of the Middle East’s decaying cultures. What means that Israel doesn’t just wallow in blame — like Americans, Israelis figure out what went wrong and then fix it. After the post-war soul-searching and investigations are finished, failed leaders will be replaced and Israel will re-emerge with a renewed sense of mission, a stronger government and a powerfully reformed military — the next time the IDF goes to war, watch the way it devastates its enemies.
In his speech, Netanyahu said the war “summons us to return to reality and to return to ourselves, to those values and principles that guaranteed our survival in the past and will guarantee it in the future.” The long attempt to create peace by retreat is over.