[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 66 (Wednesday, May 24, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H3142-H3145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY EHUD OLMERT, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL

  Prime Minister OLMERT. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, distinguished 
Members of the U.S. Congress, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the 
people and the State of Israel, I wish to express my profound gratitude 
to you for the privilege of addressing this joint meeting of the U.S. 
Congress. This building, this Chamber, and all of you stand as a 
testament to the enduring principles of liberty and democracy.
  More than 30 years ago, I came to Washington as a young legislator 
thanks to a program sponsored by the State Department. I had a chance 
to tour this building, and I saw then what I believe today, that this 
institution, the United States Congress, is the greatest deliberative 
body in the world. I did not imagine then that a day would actually 
come when I would have the honor of addressing this forum as the Prime 
Minister of my nation, the State of Israel.
  The United States is a superpower whose influence reaches across 
oceans and beyond borders. Your continued support, which, I am happy to 
say, transcends partisan affiliations, is of paramount importance to 
us. We revere the principles and values represented by your great 
country and are grateful for the unwavering support and friendship we 
have received from the U.S. Congress, from President George W. Bush, 
and from the American people.
  Abraham Lincoln once said, ``I am a success today because I had a 
friend who believed in me, and I didn't have the heart to let him 
down.''
  Israel is grateful that America believes in us. Let me assure you 
that we will not let you down.
  The similarities in our economic, social and cultural identities are 
obvious, but there is something much deeper and everlasting. The 
unbreakable ties between our two nations extend far beyond mutual 
interests. They are based on our shared goals and values stemming from 
the very essence of our mutual foundations.
  This coming Monday, the 29th of May, you commemorate Memorial Day for 
America's fallen. The graves of brave American soldiers are scattered 
throughout the world: in Asia and in the Pacific, throughout Europe and 
Africa, in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. The pain of the 
families never heals, and the void they leave is never filled.
  It is impossible to think of a world in which America was not there 
in the honorable service of humanity. On Monday, when the Stars and 
Stripes are lowered to half-mast, we, the people of Israel, will bow 
our heads with you.
  Our two great nations share a profound belief in the importance of 
freedom and a common pioneering spirit deeply rooted in optimism. It 
was the energetic spirit of our pioneers that enabled our two countries 
to implement the impossible, to build cities where swamps once existed 
and to make the desert bloom.
  My parents, Bella and Mordechai Olmert, were lucky. They escaped the 
persecution in the Ukraine and Russia and found sanctuary in Harbin, 
China. They immigrated to Israel to fulfill their dream of building a 
Jewish and democratic state living in peace in the land of our 
ancestors.
  My parents came to the Holy Land following a verse in the Old 
Testament in the book of Second Samuel: ``I will appoint a place for my 
people Israel and I will plant them in their land and they will dwell 
in their own place and be disturbed no more.''
  Distinguished Members of Congress, I come here, to this home of 
liberty and democracy, to tell you that my parents' dream, our dream, 
has only been partly fulfilled. We have succeeded in building a Jewish 
democratic homeland. We have succeeded in creating an oasis of hope and 
opportunity in a troubled region. But there has not yet been one year, 
one week, even one day of peace in our tortured land.
  Our Israeli pioneers suffered, and their struggle was long and hard. 
Yet even today, almost 60 years after our independence, that struggle 
still endures. Since the birth of the State of Israel and until this 
very moment, we have been continually at war and amidst confrontation. 
The confrontation has become even more violent, the enemy turned even 
more inhumane due to the scourge of suicide terrorism. But we are not 
alone. Today, Israel, America, Europe, and democracies across the 
globe, unfortunately, face this enemy.
  Over the past 6 years, more than 20,000 attempted terrorist attacks 
have been initiated against the people of Israel. Most, thankfully, 
have been foiled by our security forces. But those which have succeeded 
have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians and the 
injury of thousands, many of them children guilty only of being in what 
proved to be the wrong place at the wrong time.
  These are not statistics. These are real people with beautiful souls 
that have left this Earth far too soon.

[[Page H3143]]

  In the decade I served as mayor of my beloved city, Jerusalem, we 
faced the lion's share of the seemingly endless wave of terrorism.
  I remember Galila, a 12-year-old Ethiopian immigrant, whose parents 
worked in the King David Hotel. On one particular morning, her parents, 
overwhelmed by the fear of riding a bus in the city of Jerusalem, told 
their daughter, ``Galila, perhaps this morning, just this morning, 
we'll take you in the family car to your school.''
  And Galila said to her parents, ``Oh, come on. Don't be silly. I know 
where to sit in the bus. I will be safe in the bus. Don't worry for 
me.'' It so happened that on that same day, the suicide attacker 
ascended that same bus and chose to sit just next to her.
  When I visited her grieving parents, her mother came to me sobbing 
and she said, ``You are the mayor. You have so much influence in this 
city. Will you do us just one last favor. Please try to find out 
something, just one item of remembrance that we will be able to take 
with us for the rest of our lives. Maybe just a shoelace of Galila's.'' 
I did everything a mayor could do. I summoned the police. I summoned 
the security forces. I instructed the municipal workers. I told them, 
``Go look out wherever you can.'' And then they came back and they said 
to me, ``Mr. Mayor, nothing. Nothing. Not even a shoelace.''
  Among the victims of this brutal and unremitting terror, I am sorry 
to tell you, are also American citizens. Only last week, Daniel Cantor 
Wultz, a 16-year-old high school student from Weston, Florida, who came 
to spend the Passover holiday with his parents in Israel, succumbed to 
his severe injuries incurred in Israel's most recent suicide attack.
  I asked Daniel's parents and sister, Yekutiel, Sheryl and Amanda 
Wultz, who only finished the traditional period of mourning 2 days ago, 
to be with us here today. Daniel was a relative of Congressman Eric 
Cantor of Virginia, an honorable Member of this House. Our thoughts and 
prayers are with you.
  I bring Galila's memory, Daniel's memory, and the loss of so many 
others with me to my new post as Prime Minister. I also bring with me 
the horrific scenes I saw with my own eyes when I visited New York just 
a few days after the devastating attacks on September 11, a tragedy 
that transcends any other terrorist attack that has ever occurred.
  As I told my good friend, Rudy Giuliani, on that dreadful day, our 
hearts went out to you, not only because of the friendship between us 
but because, tragically and personally, we both know what it is to 
confront the evil of terrorism at home.
  Our countries do not just share the experience and pain of terrorism. 
We share the commitment and resolve to confront the brutal terrorists 
that took these innocent people from us. We share the commitment to 
extract from our grief a renewed dedication to providing our people 
with a better future.
  Let me state this as clearly as I can: We will not yield to terror. 
We will not surrender to terror. And we will win the war on terror and 
restore peace to our societies.
  The Palestinian Authority is ruled by Hamas, an organization 
committed to vehement anti-Semitism, the glorification of terror, and 
the total destruction of Israel. As long as these are their guiding 
principles, they can never be a partner.
  Therefore, while Israel works to ensure that the humanitarian needs 
of the Palestinian population are met, we can never capitulate to 
terrorists or terrorism. I pay tribute to the firmness and the clarity 
with which the President and this Congress uphold this crucial 
principle which we both firmly share.
  Israel commends this Congress for initiating the Palestinian Anti-
Terrorism Act which sends a firm, clear message that the United States 
of America will not tolerate terrorism in any form.
  Like America, Israel seeks to rid itself of the horrors of terrorism. 
Israel yearns for peace and security. Israel is determined to take 
responsibility for its own future and take concrete steps to turn its 
dreams into reality. The painful, but necessary, process of 
disengagement from the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria was an essential 
step.
  At this moment, my thoughts turn especially to the great leader, who, 
in normal circumstances, should have stood here. Ariel Sharon, the 
legendary statesman and visionary, my friend and colleague, could not 
be here with us, but I am emboldened by the promise of continuing his 
mission. I pray, as I am sure you all do, too, for his recovery.
  Ariel Sharon is a man of few words and great principles. His vision 
and dream of peace and security transcended time, philosophy, and 
politics. Israel must still meet the momentous challenge of 
guaranteeing the future of Israel as a democratic state with a Jewish 
majority, within permanent and defensible borders and a united 
Jerusalem as its capital that is open and accessible for the worship of 
all religions.
  This was the dream to which Ariel Sharon was loyally committed. This 
was the mission he began to fulfill. It is the goal and the purpose of 
the Kadima Party that he founded and which I was the first to join. And 
it is this legacy of liberty, identity, and security that I embrace. It 
is what I am working towards. It is what I am so passionately hoping 
for.
  Although our government has changed, Israel's goal remains the same. 
As Prime Minister Sharon clearly stated: ``The Palestinians will 
forever be our neighbors. They are an inseparable part of this land, as 
are we. Israel has no desire to rule over them, nor to oppress them. 
They too have a right for freedom and national inspirations.''
  With the vision of Ariel Sharon guiding my actions, from this podium 
today, I extend my hand in peace to Mahmoud Abbas, the elected 
President of the Palestinian Authority. On behalf of the State of 
Israel, we are willing to negotiate with a Palestinian Authority. This 
authority must renounce terrorism, dismantle the terrorist 
infrastructure, accept previous agreements and commitments, and 
recognize the right of Israel to exist.
  Let us be clear: peace, without security, will bring neither peace 
nor security.
  We will not, we cannot, compromise on these basic tests of 
partnership.
  With a genuine Palestinian partner for peace, I believe we can reach 
an agreement on all the issues that divide us. Our past experience 
shows us it is possible to bridge the differences between our two 
peoples. I believe this, I know this, because we have done it before, 
in our peace treaties with Egypt and with Jordan. These treaties 
involved painful and difficult compromises. It required Israel to take 
real risks.
  But if there is to be a just, fair and lasting peace, we need a 
partner who rejects violence and who values life more than death. We 
need a partner that affirms in action, not just in words, the 
rejection, prevention, and elimination of terror.
  Peace with Egypt became possible only after President Anwar Sadat 
came to our Knesset and declared: ``No more war and no more 
bloodshed.'' And peace with Jordan became possible only after the late 
King Hussein, here in Washington, declared the end of the state of 
belligerency, signed a peace treaty with us, and wholeheartedly 
acknowledged Israel's right to exist.
  The lesson for the Palestinian people is clear. In a few years, they 
could be living in a Palestinian state, side by side in peace and 
security with Israel, a Palestinian state which Israel and the 
international community would help thrive.
  But no one can make this happen for them if they refuse to make it 
happen for themselves.
  For thousands of years, we Jews have been nourished and sustained by 
a yearning for our historic land. I, like many others, was raised with 
a deep conviction that the day would never come when we would have to 
relinquish parts of the land of our forefathers. I believed, and to 
this day still believe, in our people's eternal and historic right to 
this entire land.
  But I also believe that dreams alone will not quiet the guns that 
have fired unceasingly for nearly a hundred years. Dreams alone will 
not enable us to preserve a secure, democratic Jewish state.
  Jews all around the world read in this week's Torah portion: ``And 
you will dwell in your land safely and I will

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give you peace in the land, and there shall be no cause for fear. 
Neither shall the sword cross through the Promised Land.''
  Painfully, we the people of Israel have learned to change our 
perspective. We have to compromise in the name of peace, to give up 
parts of our promised land in which every hill and every valley is 
saturated with Jewish history and in which our heroes are buried. We 
have to relinquish part of our dream to leave room for the dream of 
others, so that all of us can enjoy a better future. For this painful, 
but necessary, task my government was elected. And to this I am fully 
committed.
  We hope and pray that our Palestinian neighbors will also awaken. We 
hope they will make the crucial distinction between implementing 
visions that can inspire us to build a better reality and mirages that 
will only lead us further into the darkness. We hope and pray for this, 
because no peace is more stable than one reached out of mutual 
understanding, not just for the past but for the future.
  We owe a quiet and normal life to ourselves, our children, and our 
grandchildren. After defending ourselves for almost 60 years against 
attacks, all our children should be allowed to live free of fear and 
terror.
  And so I ask of the Palestinians: How can a child growing up in a 
culture of hate dream of the possibility of peace? It is so important 
that all schools and all educational institutions in the region teach 
our children to be hate-free.
  The key to a true, lasting peace in the Middle East is in the 
education of the next generation.
  So let us today call out to all peoples of the Middle East: replace 
the culture of hate with an outlook of hope.
  It is 3 years since the Road Map for Peace was presented. The Road 
Map was and remains the right plan. A Palestinian leadership that 
fulfills its commitments and obligations will find us a willing partner 
in peace. But if they refuse, we will not give a terrorist regime a 
veto over progress, or allow it to take hope hostage.
  We cannot wait for the Palestinians forever. Our deepest wish is to 
build a better future for our region, hand in hand with a Palestinian 
partner; but, if not, we will move forward, but not alone.
  We could never have implemented the Disengagement plan without your 
firm support. The Disengagement could never have happened without the 
commitments set out by President Bush in his letter of April 14, 2004, 
endorsed by both Houses of Congress in unprecedented majorities. In the 
name of the people of Israel, I thank President Bush for this 
commitment and for his support and friendship.
  The next step is even more vital to our future and to the prospects 
of finally bringing peace to the Middle East. Success will only be 
possible with America as an active participant, leading the support of 
our friends in Europe and across the world.
  Should we realize that the bilateral track with the Palestinians is 
of no consequence, should the Palestinians ignore our outstretched hand 
for peace, Israel will seek other alternatives to promote our future 
and the prospects of hope in the Middle East. At that juncture, the 
time for realignment will occur.
  Realignment would be a process to allow Israel to build its future 
without being held hostage to Palestinian terrorist activities. 
Realignment would significantly reduce the friction between Israelis 
and Palestinians and prevent much of the conflict between our two 
battered nations.
  The goal is to break the chains that have tangled our two peoples in 
unrelenting violence for far too many generations. With our futures 
unbound, peace and stability might finally find its way to the 
doorsteps of this troubled region.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, allow me to turn to another dark and 
gathering storm casting its shadow over the world.
  Every generation is confronted with a moment of truth and trial. From 
the savagery of slavery, to the horrors of World War II, to the gulags 
of the Communist bloc, that which is right and good in this world has 
always been at war with the horrific evil permitted by human 
indifference.
  Iran, the world's leading sponsor of terror, and a notorious violator 
of fundamental human rights, stands on the verge of acquiring nuclear 
weapons. With these weapons, the security of the entire world is put in 
jeopardy.
  We deeply appreciate America's leadership on this issue and the 
strong bipartisan conviction that a nuclear-armed Iran is an 
intolerable threat to the peace and security of the world. It cannot be 
permitted to materialize. This Congress has proven its conviction by 
initiating the Iran Freedom and Support Act. We applaud these efforts.
  A nuclear Iran means a terrorist state could achieve the primary 
mission for which terrorists live and die: the mass destruction of 
innocent human life. This challenge, which I believe is the test of our 
time, is one the West cannot afford to fail.
  The radical Iranian regime has declared the United States its enemy. 
Its President believes it is his religious duty and his destiny to lead 
his country in a violent conflict against the infidels. With pride he 
denies the Jewish Holocaust and speaks brazenly, calling to wipe Israel 
off the map.
  For us, this is an existential threat, a threat to which we cannot 
consent. But it is not Israel's threat alone. It is a threat to all 
those committed to stability in the Middle East and the well-being of 
the world at large.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, our moment is now. History will 
judge our generation by the actions we take now, by our willingness to 
stand up for peace and security and freedom, and by our courage to do 
what is right.
  The international community will be measured not by its intentions, 
but by its results. The international community will be judged by its 
ability to convince nations and peoples to turn their backs on hatred 
and zealotry.
  If we don't take Iran's bellicose rhetoric seriously now, we will be 
forced to take its nuclear aggression seriously later.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, the true Israel is not one you can 
understand through the tragic experiences of the complex geopolitical 
realities. Israel has impressive credentials in the realms of science, 
technology, high tech and the arts, and many Israelis are Nobel Prize 
laureates in various fields.
  A land with limited resources, eager to facilitate cooperation with 
the United States, Israel devotes its best and brightest scientists to 
research and development for new generations of safe, reliable, 
efficient and environmentally friendly sources of energy. Both our 
countries share a desire for energy security and prevention of global 
warming. Therefore, through the United States-Israel Energy Cooperation 
Act and other joint frameworks, in collaboration with our U.S. 
counterparts, Israel will increase its efforts to find advanced 
scientific and technological solutions designed to develop new energy 
sources and encourage conservation.
  Just one example of Israel's remarkable achievements is the recent $4 
billion purchase by an American company of Israel's industrial giant 
Iscar. This is an important endorsement of the Israeli economy, which 
has more companies listed on NASDAQ than any country other than the 
United States and Canada. It is also a vote of confidence in Israel's 
strategic initiative to enhance the economic and social development of 
our Negev and Galilee regions.
  But above all, it is recognition that what unites us, Israel and 
America, is a commitment to tap the greatest resource of all, the human 
mind and the human spirit.
  Ladies and gentlemen, we believe in the moral principles shared by 
our two nations, and they guide our political decisions.
  We believe that life is sacred and fanaticism is not.
  We believe that every democracy has the right and the duty to defend 
its citizens and its values against all enemies.
  We believe that terrorism not only leads to war but that terrorism is 
war, a war that must be won every day, a war in which all men and women 
of good will must be allies.
  We believe that peace among nations remains not just the noblest 
ideal but a genuine reality.
  We believe that peace, based on mutual respect, must be and is 
attainable in the near future.
  We, as Jews and citizens of Israel, believe that our Palestinian 
neighbors

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want to live in peace. We believe that they have the desire, and 
hopefully the courage, to reject violence and hatred as means to attain 
national independence.
  The Bible tells us that as Joshua stood on the verge of the Promised 
Land, he was given one exhortation: ``Chazak Ve'ematz.'' ``Be strong 
and of good courage.''
  Strength, without courage, will lead only to brutality. Courage, 
without strength, will lead only to futility. Only genuine courage and 
commitment to our values, backed by the will and the power to defend 
them, will lead us forward in the service of humanity.
  To the Congress of the United States and to the great people of 
America, on behalf of the people of Israel, I want to say today: chazak 
ve'ematz, be strong and of good courage; and we, and all peoples who 
cherish freedom, will be with you.
  God bless you.
  And God bless America.
  Thank you.
  [Applause, the Members rising.]
  At noon, His Excellency Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel, 
accompanied by the committee of escort, retired from the Hall of the 
House of Representatives.
  The Deputy Sergeant at Arms escorted the invited guests from the 
Chamber in the following order:
  The Members of the President's Cabinet;
  The Acting Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.

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