PM Netanyahu's statement in response to US Secretary of State Kerry's speech

PM Netanyahu’s statement in response to US Secretary of State Kerry’s speech

Palestinian rejection of Israel and support for terror are what the nations
of the world should focus on if they truly want to advance peace, and I can
only express my regret and say that it’s a shame that Secretary Kerry does
not see this simple truth.

(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Wednesday, 28 December
2016), issued the following statement in response to US Secretary of State
John Kerry’s speech:

“Before why I explain why this speech was so disappointing to millions of
Israelis, I want to say that Israel is deeply grateful to the United States
of America, to successive American administrations, to the American
Congress, to the American people. We’re grateful for the support Israel has
received over many, many decades. Our alliance is based on shared values,
shared interests, a sense of shared destiny and a partnership that has
endured differences of opinions between our two governments over the best
way to advance peace and stability in the Middle East. I have no doubt that
our alliance will endure the profound disagreement we have had with the
Obama Administration and will become even stronger in the future.

But now I must express my deep disappointment with the speech today of John
Kerry – a speech that was almost as unbalanced as the anti-Israel resolution
passed at the UN last week. In a speech ostensibly about peace between
Israelis and Palestinians, Secretary Kerry paid lip service to the
unremitting campaign of terrorism that has been waged by the Palestinians
against the Jewish state for nearly a century.

What he did was to spend most of his speech blaming Israel for the lack of
peace by passionately condemning a policy of enabling Jews to live in their
historic homeland and in their eternal capital, Jerusalem.

Hundreds of suicide bombings, thousand, tens of thousands of rockets,
millions of Israelis in bomb shelters are not throwaway lines in a speech;
they’re the realities that the people of Israel had to endure because of
mistaken policies, policies that at the time won the thunderous applause of
the world. I don’t seek applause; I seek the security, and peace, an d
prosperity and the future of the Jewish state. The Jewish people have sought
their place under the sun for 3,000 years, and we’re not about to be swayed
by mistaken policies that have caused great, great damage.

Israelis do not need to be lectured about the importance of peace by foreign
leaders. Israel’s hand has been extended in peace to its neighbors from day
one, from its very first day. We’ve prayed for peace, we’ve worked for it
every day since then. And thousands of Israeli families have made the
ultimate sacrifice to defend our country and advance peace.

My family has been one of them; there are many, many others.

No one wants peace more than the people of Israel. Israel remains committed
to resolving the outstanding differences between us and the Palestinians
through direct negotiations. This is how we made peace with Egypt; this is
how we made peace with Jordan; it’s the only way we’ll make peace with the
Palestinians. T hat has always been Israel’s policy; that has always been
America’s policy.

Here’s what President Obama himself said at the UN in 2011. He said: ‘Peace
is hard work. Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the
United Nations. If it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by
now.’

That’s what President Obama said, and he was right. And until last week this
was repeated over and over again as American policy. Secretary Kerry said
that the United States cannot vote against its own policy. But that’s
exactly what it did at the UN, and that’s why Israel opposed last week’s
Security Council resolution, because it effectively calls the Western Wall
‘occupied Palestinian Territory,’ because it encourages boycotts and
sanctions against Israel – that’s what it effectively does, and because it
reflects a radical shift in US policy towards the Palestinians on final
status issues – those issues that we always agreed, the US and Israel, have
to be negotiated directly, face to face without preconditions.

That shift happened despite the Palestinians walking away from peace and
from peace offers time and time again, despite their refusal to even
negotiate peace for the past eight years, and despite the Palestinian
Authority inculcating a culture of hatred towards Israel in an entire
generation of young Palestinians.

Israel looks forward to working with President-elect Trump and with the
American Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, to mitigate the damage
that this resolution has done and ultimately, to repeal it.

Israel hopes that the outgoing Obama Administration will prevent any more
damage being done to Israel at the UN in its waning days. I wish I could be
comforted by the promise that the US says we will not bring any more
resolutions to the UN. That’s what they said about the previous resolution.
We have it on absolutely incontestable evidence that the United States
organized, advanced and brought this resolution to the United Nations
Security Council. We’ll share that information with the incoming
administration. Some of it is sensitive, it’s all true. You saw some of it
in the protocol released in an Egyptian paper. There’s plenty more; it’s the
tip of the iceberg.

So they say, but we didn’t bring it. And they could take John Kerry’s speech
with the six points. It could be raised in the French international
conference a few days from now and then brought to the UN. So France will
bring it, or Sweden – not a noted friend of Israel – could bring it. And the
United States could say, well, we can’t vote against our own policy, we’ve
just annunciated it.

I think the United States, if it’s true to its word, or at least if it’s now
true to its word, should now come out and say we will not allow any
resolutions, any more resolutions in the Security Council on Israel. Period.
Not we will bring or not bring – we will not allow any, and stop this game,
the charades.

I think that the decisions that are vital to Israel’s interests and the
future of its children, they won’t be made through speeches in Washington or
votes in the United Nations or conferences in Paris. They’ll be made by the
Government of Israel around the negotiating table, making them on behalf of
the one and only Jewish state – a sovereign nation that is the master of its
own fate.

And one final thought – I personally know the pain, the loss and the
suffering of war. That’s why I’m so committed to peace. Because for anyone
who’s experienced it, as I have, war and terror are horrible. I want young
Palestinian children to be educated like our children, for peace. But
they’re not educated for peace. The Palestinian Authority educates them to
lionize terrorists and to murder Israelis.

My vision is that Israelis and Palestinians both have a future of mutual
recognition, of dignity, mutual respect, co-existence. But the Palestinian
Authority tells them that they will never accept, should never accept the
existence of a Jewish state.

So, I ask you, how can you make peace with someone who rejects your very
existence?

See, this conflict is not about houses, or communities in the West Bank,
Judea and Samaria, the Gaza district or anywhere else. This conflict is and
has always been about Israel’s very right to exist. That’s why my hundreds
of calls to sit with President Abbas for peace talks have gone unanswered.
That’s why my invitation to him to come to the Knesset was never answered.
That’s why the Palestinian government continues to pay anyone who murders
Israelis a monthly salary.

The persistent Palestinian refusal to recognize a Jewish state remains the
core of the conflict and its removal is the key to peace.

Palestinian rejection of Israel and support for terror are what the nations
of the world should focus on if they truly want to advance peace, and I can
only express my regret and say that it’s a shame that Secretary Kerry does
not see this simple truth.

Thank you.”

Source: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=71973