This message was sent to my chopper group. It very well may be worth reading. It is from the new prime minister of Israel
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, its 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.
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 Israeli 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 over
1,000 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.
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.
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, its 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.
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 Israeli 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 over
1,000 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.
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.
