Remarks at
White House Reception for 30th Anniversary of the State of Israel
(May 30, 1978)
THE PRESIDENT. It's a great pleasure for me and for
Rosalynn to hold this reception for my friends, Prime Minister and Mrs.
Begin, and for the distinguished Americans who have joined us today
in honor of the 30th anniversary of the State of Israel.
We've just come to the close of the Passover holidays, an annual reminder
of the exodus and dispersal of the Jewish people. Since the destruction
of the Second Temple led to the Diaspora nearly 2,000 years ago, Jews
have said a prayer ending with "Next year in Jerusalem."
Through all these years we shared hope of a homeland. The shared hope
of a homeland held together in spirit a people who were scattered all
over the world. During those 2,000 years, Jews often suffered religious
discrimination, inquisitions, pogroms, and death. Jews were too frequently
treated as strangers, even after living for generations as inhabitants
of countries.
After I visited Israel in 1973, I read Arthur Morris' book "While
Six Million Died," the tragic account of the ultimate in man's
inhumanity to man, the Holocaust. Six million people were killed, most
of European Jewry. They died not only because of Nazi brutality but
also because the entire world turned its back on them during their years
of suffering. No country was willing to give the Jews of Europe a home
where they could escape from their torment.
Out of the ashes of the Holocaust was born the State of Israel, a promise
of refuge and security and of return, at last, to the Biblical land
from which the Jews were driven so many hundreds of years ago.
It will always be a proud chapter in the history of our own country
that the United States was the first nation to recognize the legal existence
of Israel in 1948—30 long, fruitful, sometimes seemingly short
years in history.
George Santayana wrote that, and I quote, "Those who cannot remember
the past are condemned to repeat it." The past brutality against
the Jewish people throughout the world and the ultimate tragedy of the
Holocaust are events that Jews will always remember, but they are also
lessons which this country and all the civilized world should never
forget.
Through the indomitable will and character of its own people and with
the unshakable commitment of the United States to its security, the
existence of the State of Israel will ensure for all times that the
Jewish people will not be condemned to repeat the Holocaust.
The policies of the United States Government have been influenced by
these indelible memories of the past. We continue to provide substantial
economic and military assistance to Israel. We have obtained, this past
year, tough antiboycott legislation to protect from discrimination American
Jews and American companies doing business with Israel. We champion
the human rights of Jews in the Soviet Union and in other nations and
encourage their right of emigration.
We do these things because they are right and because they are necessary
and because they are true to the traditions of our country.
Many nations have memorials to the Holocaust victims. There is no such
formal memorial in the United States. To ensure that we in the United
States never forget, I will appoint immediately a Presidential commission
to report to me within 6 months on an appropriate memorial in this country
to the 6 million who were killed in the Holocaust.
We may from time to time have our transient differences with the leaders
of Israel— [laughter] —as we do with leaders of other countries
who are our close friends and allies. But we will never waver from our
deep friendship and partnership with Israel and our total, absolute
commitment to Israel's security.
The establishment of the nation of Israel is a fulfillment of Biblical
prophecy and the very essence of its fulfillment. In the Jewish tradition,
30 stands for the age of strength, and Israel, thank God, is strong.
There is a Jewish saying, "From strength to strength." And
I trust that Israel will indeed evolve from a strength rooted in determination
and vigilance to a strength that is reinforced and maintained by a just
and lasting peace with its neighbors.
That prospect is coming closer to reality today than at any time since
the creation of a State of Israel. We remain deeply committed to help
in any possible way to bring the day closer when Israel will live in
security and in peace. For 30 years we have stood at the side of the
proud and independent nation of Israel. I can say without reservation,
as the President of the United States of America, that we will continue
to do so, not just for another 30 years but forever.
Thank you very much.
THE PRIME MINISTER. Mr. President, our dear friends, may I humbly tell
you that today we heard from the President of the United States one
of the greatest moral statements ever.
We have always believed in the moral greatness of America. We appeal
to it in difficult times. We never lost hope that it will win, because
we have always remembered the famous moral precept of your predecessor,
Mr. President, Abraham Lincoln, "Right makes might."
On behalf of right, we fought for our country and for our liberty.
In the thirties, our people looked for a haven and didn't find it. In
the forties, they cried out for help and didn't get it. And then we
reached the conclusion that if we don't fight and conquer our liberty,
nobody will give it to us. So, in the tradition of the American people,
we rose to fight. There were the great sacrifices, the suffering, but
today is a day of rejoicing. Vesamachta bechagecha!
Although in the life of her people for many generations, sadness and
joy are intermingled, yesterday we remembered the fallen heroes of the
ghettos, the helpless left alone to fight not even for their lives,
not even for their liberty, but for human dignity and for the dignity
of their people, because those lone fighters indeed fought for all humanity.
But today is a day of rejoicing. Thirty years ago, a little flag, blue
and white, was hoisted before the eyes of all the nations to see, namely,
Judea rose again, Israel will live.
And when we remember what happened until that day—their people,
what persecution and humiliation they went through and, ultimately,
mass physical destruction, then we can appreciate what an effort was
necessary and was made in order to achieve that day of our national
renaissance.
Let us rejoice. The blessing of freedom is incomparable to any other.
Only he who lost it can appreciate it. And we had lost it; we regained
it with the efforts and the self-sacrifice of our best men.
So today, let us remember our heroes who made our victory possible
and our independence assured.
Today also, my dear friends, is from another point of view, a day
of rejoicing. The President and I just finished a discussion and a private
talk, and earlier we had a talk with the Secretary of State.
May I tell you, bringing you good tidings with all my heart, thank
God-baruch hashem—these discussions and talks are characterized
with friendship, with understanding. There is that feeling that America
and Israel are inseparable, friends and allies.
Mr. President, we too, as you, hope that there will come a day when
our brethren in the Soviet Union will be free to go to the historic
homeland of our people. The Jewish people will never give up a fight
for liberty and for justice. Never.
Now, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, as we rejoice in the achievement
of Israel's independence, a holiday not only for the Jewish people but
for all free nations, for all women and men of good will, let us rededicate
ourselves to the great concepts of our prophets—of human freedom
and dignity and justice and the great vision of peace.
Mr. President, we shall go on working for peace with all our heart
and all our soul, because we yearn for it and want it. And let us hope
that the road for peace will be reopened with your help, Mr. President,
as we said to each other just a while ago.
And now, Mr. President, having heard your most moving words, which
we shall never forget, I would like to conclude my remarks with the
following short, simple statement: For freedom, for justice, for human
progress, and for human dignity, let there be everlasting friendship
between the great United States of America and the renewed State of
Israel.
Sources: Public Papers of the President |