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Israel's Friends Speak Out:
The Envy of All Times and Men It’s wonderful to be with you all again. Wonderful, not only because of the honor it gives me to spend time with so many good friends and patriots, but because of the hour at which we meet. We are told of late – by those with an interest in doing so – that these are dark days in the war on terror. We are told the United States’ arrogance has invited international disdain. We are told the abuse of enemy prisoners at Abu Ghraib has so undermined our credibility that the war on terror simply cannot be won. We are told Ariel Sharon, “the great Zionist land thief”, has co-opted the United States government in a belligerent scheme to destroy the Middle East peace process, and further antagonize the Arab world. We are told Israel’s decision to target leaders of those terrorist organizations that target her citizens only puts the Israeli people at greater risk. We are told the war on terror – whether waged by the United States and our coalition of the willing or by the people of Israel – was a mistake, is a quagmire, and will be a regret. Ladies and gentlemen, we are told...wrongly. The fact is these are not dark days, for the people of the United States, of Israel, or of any nation dedicated to the survival and success of liberty. For in a war against tyranny and terror, there are no dark days. Difficult days, to be sure. Harrowing, stern, and heart-wrenching. But heroic. For reasons beyond our knowing, we have been chosen for these noble days, and despite the horrors we witness – in bloodier detail than any generation before us – we should all thank our Creator for the privilege – for the honor – of living them. Though we weep for the lives lost to our coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan... Though we avert our eyes from the images of Abu Ghraib... Though we clench our teeth at the news of the executions of our countrymen Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg... And though we shudder to the bone on hearing of the murder last week of Tali Hatuel, eight months pregnant, and her four daughters – 11-year old Hila, 9-year old Hadar, 7-year old Roni, and 2-year old Merav – all shot in the head at point-blank range by Palestinian terrorists... We will never give up. We will never relent. We will never stop, not until the last terrorist on earth is in a cell or a cemetery. I would like nothing more, ladies and gentlemen, than to come before you today and tell you our victory in this war is not only assured, but imminent. It is not. There are still soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq in harm’s way, and some of them may not come home. There are Israelis at work today, or at home...or in school – who will one day soon be murdered in a blinding flash of explosives. And, much as we would like to deny it, there are innocent Americans now waking up, eating breakfast, or laughing with their friends, whose lives will end at the hands of terrorists. Ladies and gentlemen, we are at war. War is not fought on television. It is not an open-air video game. It is a bloody, hellish, terrifying nightmare. It cuts down each generation’s bravest and most loyal in their youth, and leaves friends and families asking unanswerable questions for the rest of their lives. It takes from us innocent victims who never held a gun, and never harmed a soul. We did not start this war, but until the enemies of freedom surrender, we will fight it, and we will win it. It is not a test of weapons as much as it is a test of will. And if you don’t believe me, just ask the citizens of Israel. For generations, they have stood in defiance of evil, a beacon of hope in a sea of despair – a voice of freedom crying out in the desert. That cry has been answered. Our enemies are intent on using their propaganda opportunities to somehow link the United States and Israel, as if Israel’s war on terror is the same as our war on terror, as if the interests of our two nations are so tightly woven that they are essentially identical. Well, thanks anyway, but we didn’t need their help. Of course the United States and Israel are linked! We are linked by the bonds of freedom. Our two nations are bound by our common determination to never again allow the cruelty of the few to subjugate the liberty of the many. Just as Americans have learned from Israel that battling terror is a long, arduous journey, so too have Israelis learned from America that only through steadfast friendship in good times and bad can two nations withstand the onslaught of inhuman murder that is modern terrorism. America’s interests are Israel’s interests – the interests of all free people – and no amount of violence or intimidation – let alone diplomatic pretenses of moral equivalence – will ever change that fact. And that is why the difficulties of the last several months have only brought our two nations closer together. Because our destinies as leaders of a free and civilized world hang in the balance of this war. For if Israel fails in its war against Palestinian terrorists, the United States will lose a critical ally in the war on terror, and give credence to the lie that democracy cannot succeed in the Middle East. And if the United States fails in our mission in Iraq, and that nation is allowed to disintegrate into a crucible of violence – a nation owned and operated by and for terrorists – the cost in lives will not ultimately be measured in thousands, but millions. Our enemies understand this, to be sure. Those nations and organizations bent on destroying Israel are now bent on beating back America’s advances in the war on terror. They know, implicitly, that the success of the one assures the success of the other. The survival of Israel is essential to America’s victory in the war on terror, and America’s victory in the war on terror is essential to Israel’s survival. We will never leave their side. The only true weapon against terrorism – whether that terrorism emanates from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, or anywhere in the world – is freedom. And the surest means of securing freedom... is democracy. Never in history has a people been given the opportunity to control its own destiny and not taken it. If the people of Afghanistan truly wanted to serve their Taliban masters, then why were American troops greeted with cheers when their nation was liberated? If the people of Iraq enjoyed their enslavement under Saddam Hussein, why are they so eager to vote in free elections? If the people of Iran wish to be dominated by the Ayatollahs, then why were more than 4,000 of them arrested the night before the largest planned student protests in their nation’s history? And frankly, if the Palestinian people truly wanted to remain living in the violent misery imposed on them by their corrupt, terrorist leaders, why were they never more hopeful than when Prime Minister Abu Mazen first came into office riding a wave of public opposition to Yassir Arafat’s thug-ocracy? The answer is simple: they didn’t. They didn’t want to live under tyranny because nobody does. The only people who like tyranny are tyrants. And like the men who once ruled the Third Reich, the Soviet Union, Taliban Afghanistan, and Baathist Iraq, the world’s remaining despots will live to see their brutal regimes destroyed and replaced by free and prosperous democracies. They know – from Havana to Tehran to Ramallah – that their days are numbered, and so the forces of international terror have joined sides, in common cause against freedom. They have come to Iraq to make their war. They know that a free and democratic Iraq will lead, eventually, to a free and democratic Syria, a free and democratic Iran... a free and democratic Middle East. They know that if our coalition is successful in Iraq, Israel will no longer be the only free nation in the region. And they know that once democracy is secured in Iraq, we will turn our attention elsewhere. For not only is America not backing down. We’re not stopping. We’re not going to be satisfied with a few democracies sprinkled among terrorist client states; 9/11 changed all that. Never again can the United States sit idly by and pretend the festering, anti-American violence around the world has no impact on our national interest. No, the same policy which mandated action in Afghanistan and Iraq, which demands our constant and absolute support for the people of Israel, compels us to advance the cause of freedom and democracy to every corner of the world. That policy – the Bush Doctrine – which is even now in the process of changing the world forever, takes its name from the greatest friend of Israel in the world today, President George W. Bush. It was President Bush who realized on 9/11 that the days of terrorism as a law enforcement problem were over: we were at war. It was President Bush who realized Yassir Arafat had no intention of seeking peace, and therefore cut him off from any further negotiations, isolating him as the terrorist he is. It was President Bush who understood that the war America was waging against terrorism was the same war Israel had been fighting for decades. It was President Bush who just last week imposed the first round of sanctions against Syria, in accordance with the Syrian Accountability Act of 2003. And, finally it was President Bush who, just last month, reaffirmed the principles of a realistic and honest Middle East policy, making clear:
The president has shown bold action and vision, and we in Congress have a responsibility to follow his lead. As such, I can announce today that I have already begun working with Democrat Congressman Steny Hoyer to look for ways affirm Congress’s absolute support for these principles. I say again, these may be difficult days – furious, relentless days of pain and struggle. But they are not dark. For these days we live are lighted by the torch of human freedom, which no darkness can overcome. These days of action – of courage and strife – are the envy of all times and men. Past generations of warriors for freedom would have given all the glory of their times for the chance to fight with us now. And generations hence, in days un-scarred by conflict, will honor those of us who stood athwart enemies and appeasers alike, who held aloft the torch of freedom. They will come like pilgrims, those future generations – Gentile, Jew, and Moslem – to monuments to these days of struggle we now endure. They will come to Kabul, to Baghdad, to Jerusalem, and to lower Manhattan, run their fingers along the names of fallen heroes etched into the marble, and remember ... Here freedom stood. Thank you all very much for everything you do. May God bless you all, may God bless the state of Israel, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.
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