Address Before the Knesset
(March 12, 1979)
Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Speaker, distinguished
members of the Knesset, and friends:
For the last 24 hours, I have been writing different
versions of this speech. I have discarded the speech of despair; I have
discarded the speech of glad tidings and celebration. I have decided
to deliver the speech of concern and caution and hope.
I'm honored to stand in this assembly of free men and
women, which represents a great and an ancient people, a young and a
courageous nation.
I bring with me the best wishes and the greetings of
the people of the United States of America, who share with the people
of Israel the love of liberty, of justice, and of peace. And I'm honored
to be in Jerusalem, this holy city described by Isaiah as a quiet habitation
in which for so many of the human race the cause of brotherhood and
peace are enshrined.
I am here in a cause of brotherhood and of peace. I've
come to Cairo and also here to Jerusalem to try to enhance the bold,
brave, and historic efforts of President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin
and to demonstrate that the United States of America is as determined
as these two leaders are to create lasting peace and friendship between
Egypt and Israel and to put an end to war and the threat of war throughout
the Middle East.
No people desire or deserve peace more than the Jewish
people. None have wanted it so long. None have spoken of it more eloquently.
None have suffered so much from the absence of peace. Pogrom after pogrom,
war after war, Israel has buried its sons and its daughters.
Yesterday morning, at Yad Vashem, I grieved in the
presence of terrible reminders of the agony and the horror of the Holocaust.
Modern Israel came into being in the wake of that historic
crime, the enormity of which is almost beyond human comprehension. I
know that Israel is committed and determined, above all, that nothing
like it must ever, ever be permitted to happen again on Earth.
Americans respect that determination, and we fully
share that determination with you. And Americans recognize that for
Jews over the centuries, as for Israel since its independence, caution
and wariness have been a practical and a moral necessity for survival.
And yet, in these past months, you've made enormous sacrifices and you've
taken great risks for peace.
This sacred dedication to peace, born and fostered
in Jerusalem and in Cairo, has given to men and women everywhere renewed
sense of hope that human reason, good will, and faith can succeed, can
break down barriers between peoples who, in our lifetimes, have only
known war.
As Prime Minister Begin said after the Camp David summit,
the agreements reached there proved that any problem can be solved if
there is some—and he repeated, just some wisdom. Those are truthful
and also reassuring words. I know from my intense, personal involvement
in these negotiations that President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin
have not wavered from their often-expressed commitment to peace.
President Sadat told me in Cairo that he will let nothing
stand in the way of our shared goal of finishing the treaty of peace
between Israel and Egypt and of making it a living testament of friendship
between the two neighboring peoples. I believe him, and I know in my
heart that Prime Minister Begin and the Government of Israel are no
less fervently committed to the same noble objective.
But we've not yet fully met our challenge. Despite
our unflagging determination, despite the extraordinary progress of
the past 6 months, we still fall short. It's now the somber responsibility
of us all to exert our energies and our imaginations once again to contemplate
the tragedy of failure and the legitimate exultation if we bring peace.
In this effort, the support of the members of the Knesset
will obviously be crucial. Our vision must be as great as our goal.
Wisdom and courage are required of us all, and so, too, are practicality
and realism. We must not lose this moment. We must pray as if everything
depended on God, and we must act as if everything depends on ourselves.
What kind of peace do we seek? Spinoza said that peace
is not an absence of war; it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition
for benevolence, for confidence, for justice. Americans share that vision
and will stand beside Israel to be sure that that vision is fulfilled.
In Egypt, I saw vivid evidence of this deep longing
for peace among the Egyptian people, millions of them. But like you,
they worry about the uncertainties of that first crucial stage in the
broad task of pounding Middle East swords into plowshares. Like you,
they hope to banish forever the enmity that has existed between the
neighbors, the permanent neighbors of Egypt and of Israel. Like you,
they want this peace, and like you, they want it to be real and not
just a sham peace.
My friends, from my own experience as President of
the United States, I understand all too well that historic decisions
are seldom easy, seldom without pain. Benjamin Franklin, who negotiated
the treaty of peace between England and America after our own War of
Independence, once said that he had never seen a peace made, even the
most advantageous, that was not censured as inadequate.
Throughout the peace process, both Israel and Egypt
have understood that no treaty can embody every aim of both nations.
What a treaty can do, what it can do far better than the fragile status
quo, and infinitely better than the insidious tensions that will build
if our efforts are further stalled or fail, is to protect the vital
interests of both Israel and Egypt and open up the possibility of peace
for all the states and all the peoples of this troubled region.
Doubts are the stuff of great decisions, but so are
dreams. We are now at the very edge of turning Israel's eternal dream
of peace into reality. I will not pretend that this reality will be
free from further challenges. It will not. And better than most, the
Jewish people know that life is seldom easy. But we must make this beginning.
We must seize this precious opportunity.
Fifty-seven years ago, the Congress of the United States
of America committed itself to a Jewish homeland. Twentysix years later,
President Harry Truman recognized the new State of Israel 11 minutes
after your nation was born. Seven Presidents have believed and demonstrated
that America's relationship with Israel is more than just a special
relationship. It has been and it is a unique relationship. And it's
a relationship which is indestructible, because it is rooted in the
consciousness and the morals and the religion and the beliefs of the
American people themselves.
Let me repeat what I said to Prime Minister Begin last
year on the lawn of the White House, on the anniversary of the founding
of the modern State of Israel, and I quote: "For 30 years we have
stood at the side of the proud and independent nation of Israel. I can
say without reservation, as President of the United States, that we
will continue to do so, not just for another 30 years but forever."
We recognize the advantages to the United States of
this partnership. You know that America deeply desires peace between
Israel and Egypt, and that we will do everything we can to make peace
possible.
The people of the two nations are ready now for peace.
The people of the two nations are ready now for peace. The leaders have
not yet proven that we are also ready for peace, enough to take a chance.
We must persevere. But with or without a peace treaty, the United States
will always be at Israel's side.
Meeting in this hall of liberty reminds us that we
are bound more than in any other way by instinctive, common ideals and
common commitments and beliefs. This Knesset itself is a temple to the
principle and the practice of open debate. Democracy is an essential
element to the very nationhood of Israel, as it is to the United States.
You've proven that democracy can be a stable form of
government in a nation of great diversity and in a time and a place
of danger and instability. But Israel and the United States were shaped
by pioneers-my nation is also a nation of immigrants and refugees—by
peoples gathered in both nations from many lands, by dreamers who, and
I quote, "by the work of their hands and the sweat of their brows"
transformed their dreams into the reality of nationhood.
We share the heritage of the Bible, the worship of
God, of individual freedom, and we share a belief in cooperative endeavor,
even in the face of apparently insurmountable obstacles.
In nations around the world where governments deny
these values, millions look to us to uphold the right to freedom of
speech, freedom of the press, the right to emigrate, the right to express
one's political views, the right to move from one place to another,
the right for families to be reunited, the right to a decent standard
of material life.
These are the kinds of unbreakable ties that bind Israel
and the United States together. These are the values that we offer to
the whole world. Our mutual dedication to these ideals is an indispensable
resource in our search for peace.
The treaty between Egypt and Israel that we hope may
be placed before you for approval promises to be the cornerstone of
a comprehensive structure of peace for this entire region.
We all recognize that this structure will be incomplete
until the peace can be extended to include all the people who have been
involved in the conflict. I know and I understand the concerns you feel
as you consider the magnitude of the choices that will remain to be
faced even after a peace treaty is concluded between Israel and Egypt.
And as the time for these choices approaches, remember this pledge that
I make to you again today: The United States will never support any
agreement or any action that places Israel's security in jeopardy.
We must proceed with due caution. I understand that.
But we must proceed.
As recently as 2 years ago, after all, these present
steps that have already been taken seemed absolutely unthinkable. We
know that confrontation magnifies differences. But the process of negotiation
circumscribes differences, defines the differences, isolates them from
the larger regions of common interests, and so makes the gaps which
do exist more bridgeable. We've seen the proof of that in the last 16
months.
At Camp David, Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat
forged two frameworks for the building of that comprehensive peace.
The genius of that accomplishment is that negotiations under these frameworks
can go forward independently of each other, without destroying the obvious
relationship between them.
They are designed to be mutually reinforcing, with
the intrinsic flexibility necessary to promote the comprehensive peace
that we all desire. Both will be fulfilled only when others of your
Arab neighbors follow the visionary example of President Sadat, when
they put ancient animosities behind them and agree to negotiate, as
you desire, as you've already done with President Sadat, an honorable
solution to the differences between you.
It's important that the door be kept open to all the
parties to the conflict, including the Palestinians, with whom, above
all, Israel shares a common interest in living in peace and living with
mutual respect.
Peace in the Middle East, always important to the security
of the entire region, in recent weeks has become an even more urgent
concern.
Israel's security will rest not only on how the negotiations
affect the situation on your own borders but also on how it affects
the forces of stability and moderation beyond your borders.
I'm convinced that nothing can do more to create a
hospitable atmosphere for those more distant forces in the long run
than an equitable peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
The risks of peace between you and your Egyptian neighbors
are real. But America is ready to reduce any risks and to balance them
within the bounds of our strength and our influence.
I came to Israel representing the most powerful country
on Earth. And I can assure you that the United States intends to use
that power in the pursuit of a stable and a peaceful Middle East.
We've been centrally involved in this region, and we
will stay involved politically, economically, and militarily. We will
stand by our friends. We are ready to place our strength at Israel's
side when you want it to ensure Israel's security and well-being.
We know Israel's concern about many issues. We know
your concern for an adequate oil supply. In the context of peace, we
are ready to guarantee that supply. I've recommitted our Nation publicly
to this commitment, as you know, only in recent days in my own country.
We know Israel's concern that the price of peace with
Egypt will exacerbate an already difficult economic situation and make
it more difficult to meet your country's essential security requirements.
In the context of peace, we are prepared to see Israel's economic and
military relationship with the United States take on new and strong
and more meaningful dimensions, even than already exist.
We will work not only to attain peace but to maintain
peace, recognizing that it's a permanent challenge of our time.
We will rededicate ourselves to the ideals that our
peoples share. These ideals are the course not only of our strength
but of our self-respect as nations, as leaders, and as individuals.
I'm here today to reaffirm that the United States will
always recognize, appreciate, and honor the mutual advantages of the
strength and security of Israel. And I'm here to express my most heartfelt
and passionate hope that we may work together successfully to make this
peace.
The Midrash tells us that, and I quote, "Peace
is the wisp of straw that binds together the sheaf of blessings."
But the wisp of straw, we know, is fragile and easily broken.
Let us pray God to guide our hand. Millions of men,
women, and children, in Israel and Egypt and beyond, in this generation
and in generations to come, are relying on our skill and relying on
our faith.
In the words of a Sabbath prayer, "May He who
causes peace to reign in the high heavens let peace descend on us, on
all Israel, and on all the world."
Sources: Public Papers of the President |