    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
    [June 16, 1991]
    [Pages 677-680]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Dinner in Los Angeles, California
    June 16, 1991

        Thank you all very much. Let me first thank my dear friend, Jerry
    Weintraub, for that generous introduction. And thanks to Wilson Phillips
    for the anthem so beautifully done. My thanks to Tony Danza for being
    here. [Laughter] Had to go out and get a haircut so we would recognize
    him. [Laughter] But what a good man he is.
        And Barbara and I are just delighted to be here tonight. We wanted
    to specially be here to salute our--yours and our--guest of honor. As
    you may know, Arnold--Arnold Schwarzenegger--spent a day with us up at
    Camp David, and competing with Barbara in tobogganing, she broke her
    leg. [Laughter] Then, Arnold spent a day with us at the White House
    promoting fitness, and I ended up in the hospital with arterial
    fibrillation, or something like that. [Laughter] You'll never eat lunch
    in my town again, Arnold. [Laughter] But I'm delighted to see you. Come
    to think of it, you could be my special emissary to Congress. [Laughter]
    Talk about ``The Terminator.''
        Honestly, though, this guy is a wonderful choice, wonderful choice,
    for your National Leadership Award. He embodies the good, essential
    values of this world, values like caring and fairness and faith. He's
    simply a decent, nice human being. And congratulations, my friend. And
    thank you for honoring this wonderful American.
        I also want to pay a special tribute to Gayle Wilson. Sorry Pete
    couldn't be with us tonight; he's up wrestling with the budget problems.
    And to Senator John Seymour, our wonderful new Senator in the United
    States Senate; to David Dreier, who's with us tonight--down here--a fine
    Member of the United States Congress. I'm told Mayor Bradley was to be
    here. I haven't seen him. But anyway, I wanted to salute him. We're in
    his city and delighted to be here. Is he there? Well, Tom, I can't see
    you, but nice to see you.
        And all the friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center who are here tonight.
    The Counsel General of Israel is with us, Ron Ronen. And it's a
    particular pleasure to see our friend, the Bushes' friend, Rabbi Hier,
    again. Thank you, sir, for that honor, that beautiful cup. And let me
    just say that your vision, your conscience, and commitment set a
    challenge for us all. I will cherish this sacred gift of this Cup of
    Elijah. To you, ``I lift up the cup of redemption in thanks and
    gratitude.''
        Let me say that I've heard that at Seder this Cup of Elijah is
    filled, as he just said, with wine and with the promise of redemption. I
    know the verse that says Elijah ``shall turn the heart of the parents to
    the children, and the heart of the children to their parents.'' I really
    hope that this symbolic

    [[Page 678]]

    gift can challenge us to do the same, to reclaim our soul through the
    love of the human family, a love borne of remembrance.
        Let me just make a few comments, eating before the broccoli is
    served--[laughter]--and asking your forgiveness for pushing on. We have
    a big day tomorrow, off in Colorado and Wisconsin, before returning to
    Washington. So, please forgive us. But let me just say a word about this
    Center and for the man it's named for. The extraordinary hero that this
    center honors is our living embodiment of remembrance. The two pledges
    of Simon Wiesenthal's life inspire us all--``Never forget'' and ``Never
    again.''
        He reminds us that we as a people must study closely the lessons of
    the concentration camps. And, yes, like many here, Barbara and I have
    been to Auschwitz. We've seen the images of human evil. And literally,
    when I left, I left part of me. But I took something away in its place:
    the determination not just to remember but also to act.
        I say this to you as a World War II veteran, as an American, and now
    as President of the United States: The haunting images compel us to
    guard against tyranny and inhumanity. Remembering makes us strong.
    Remembering makes us act.
        But there's something else. We must also remember something more
    powerful than the horror: the triumph of the inextinguishable human
    spirit. Those who survived the Holocaust could have sunk into hate and
    revenge. Instead, they lifted themselves and all of humanity toward a
    greater goal. I believe that the ultimate lesson here is the
    transcendent glory of survival. Hope triumphed over horror. Life
    triumphed over death.
        And we must also remember the story of a single life. In this case,
    the story of a great man named Raoul Wallenberg, a story brought to the
    conscience of the world by another great man, the one whose name this
    center bears. When I was over with Barbara in Budapest we went to
    Raoul's memorial to pay tribute. His actions embodied the highest ideals
    of human decency and morality, a hero of our times. We owe him not only
    tribute, not only remembrance, but also commitment, to have a full and
    final accounting of his precious life.
        We all know Elie Wiesel. He dedicates his life to the Holocaust and
    its victims because ``anyone who does not remember betrays them again.''
    The freedom we enjoy carries a profound responsibility. Now the victims
    of other human rights abuses call to us daily from across the globe. In
    the memory of the millions who died, we must not forget. We must not
    close our hearts. We must not fail to act.
        We've been acting for years to promote freedom in the Soviet Union,
    including the freedoms of religion and emigration. That action has paid
    off. Jews in the Soviet Union can now study Hebrew. Jews who choose to
    leave can do so. Some delays, admittedly, but they can leave. Hundreds
    of thousands have made aliyah to Israel. This is freedom in action.
        In the Gulf, Simon Wiesenthal was among the first to speak out
    against Saddam Hussein's brutality. He said: ``Silence is admittance. We
    cannot tolerate silence.'' It was because of Saddam's aggression that we
    made our stand in the Persian Gulf. The world had ignored the brewing
    madness 50 years ago. We would not make the same mistake this time. It
    was a moral imperative to act.
        As I contemplated as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces what
    action to take against Saddam Hussein's aggression, I thought of the
    world's inaction those many years ago when first the army and then the
    SS marched into Poland. It was on my mind as I had to make this fateful
    decision to send our sons and daughters into combat in the Gulf.
        And then there's exciting and emotional freeing of the Ethiopian
    Jews that was referred to a minute ago. Rudy Boschwitz, a former United
    States Senator, a wonderful man, was our special emissary. Recently in
    the Rose Garden, I was privileged to honor him, Bob Frasure of the
    National Security Council, Irvin Hicks of the State Department, Robert
    Houdek there in our Embassy--embattled Embassy in Addis Ababa. For their
    extraordinary actions we honored them, helping in what turned out to be
    one of the most intensive humanitarian air- lifts
    in history. Thanks in considerable part to

    [[Page 679]]

    the efforts of the United States--a lot of people in the United States--
    the Ethiopian Jews were delivered from harm's way within 30 hours,
    reunited with loved ones, and given the opportunity to begin new lives
    in Israel. What a joyous, wonderful homecoming.
        These events remind us that Israel was created as a refuge for Jews
    who face or flee persecution. So, our challenge is to make Israel truly
    secure. We learned the hard lesson that geography alone cannot guarantee
    security for Israel. We've learned that military power alone cannot
    guarantee her security. Israel and her neighbors will enjoy true and
    lasting security only when they achieve genuine reconciliation. And
    that's the goal behind the peace initiative that I launched 3 months
    ago.
        Our Secretary of State has worked tirelessly to follow up, and
    direct negotiations between Israel and her neighbors no longer seem such
    a distant dream. The process we have designed can promote peace, but
    only if the parties in the region muster the political will to make it
    happen. If they do, the issues that divide them will fall away, and the
    Middle East at last can begin the journey toward lasting peace.
        We're here tonight in honor of a place that drives us to use the
    pain of our past literally to forge a better future. The Simon
    Wiesenthal Center is not just a museum, although its vivid images will
    never let the past fade. It's also an activist organization of more than
    one million members, one million separate voices bound together in
    single purpose: the call for all lives to have meaning, dignity, and
    hope.
        I must say that was running through my mind when the Holocaust
    survivors brought in the Mauthausen flag. What a story, those men and
    women creating out of scraps this symbol of the values that gave them
    hope. Just think, those values were the ones upon which this country was
    founded, ones we too often take for granted, I'm afraid, in our busy
    lives. I just wish that every American could hear their story. I wish
    every American could see this flag and feel the same emotion that I felt
    when these survivors brought it to this stage.
        The values those courageous Jewish victims saw symbolized in our
    flag became the ones on which they founded their new homeland. These
    shared values unite our country and Israel in an extraordinary, special
    kinship--values like freedom, democracy, morality, respect, deeply
    rooted traditions of tolerance, individual rights, and liberties. Our
    countries have forged an unprecedented bond, a bond of shared ideals,
    shared struggles, shared commitments.
        Tonight, I want to return to those essential, basic values and
    pledge America's eternal vigilance for justice, peace, and human rights
    throughout the world. As your President, I say there is no room in
    America for indifference. The Holocaust must never be dehumanized or
    dismissed. We pledge it will also never be forgotten.
        There is no room in this country for hate crimes. We must raise our
    voices and the full force of our law against every hate group,
    desecrater and demagog, brown shirt or white sheet. We will not be
    fooled by a change in disguise if corruption and inhumanity still lie
    buried in their hearts.
        There is no room--no room at all--in America for bigotry. And we
    will stand firm against intolerance, racism, and discrimination in any
    form or any place: in our cities, in our media, in our minds, in our
    hearts. And we pledge to expose the corrosive hatred of bigotry wherever
    it festers and to rid our land of it for our children's sake.
        There is no room in our America, in our world, for anti-Semitism.
    The insidious ugliness of this cancer destroys the human spirit. We must
    root it out and conquer it wherever it may start to grow.
        There is no room in our world for persecution of a people. We must
    be committed to the security, opportunity, and identity for all peoples
    of the world.
        There's no room in our world for persecution of a nation. Israel's
    survival will be guaranteed. And the best way to do that is through a
    just and lasting peace.
        And above all, we must, each of us, embody in our lives the lesson
    of this wonderful center so brilliantly expressed by its hero, Simon
    Wiesenthal, who reminds us: ``Freedom is not a gift from Heaven. One
    must fight for it every day.'' And that, my friends, is our final and
    most important pledge.

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        Thank you very much for the privilege of sharing this evening with
    you and for the warmth of your friendship, for the dedication of your
    purpose. And may God bless the United States, the greatest country on
    the face of the Earth. Thank you very much.

                        Note: The President spoke at 7:20 p.m. in the Los
                            Angeles Ballroom at the Century Plaza Hotel. In
                            his remarks, he referred to Jerry Weintraub and
                            Rabbi Marvin Hier, board member and dean of the
                            Simon Wiesenthal Center; the singing group
                            Wilson Phillips; actor Tony Danza, master of
                            ceremonies for the dinner; Arnold
                            Schwarzenegger, Chairman of the President's
                            Counsel on Physical Fitness and Sports; Gayle
                            Wilson, wife of Gov. Pete Wilson of California;
                            Senator John Seymour; Representative David
                            Dreier; Thomas Bradley, mayor of Los Angeles;
                            Ron Ronen, Counsel General of Israel;
                            humanitarians Simon Wiesenthal and Elie Wiesel;
                            Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg; President
                            Saddam Hussein of Iraq; former Senator Rudy
                            Boschwitz; Robert C. Frasure, National Security
                            Council Director for African Affairs; Irvin
                            Hicks, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for
                            African Affairs; Robert G. Houdek, Charge
                            d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia; and
                            Secretary of State James A. Baker III.