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Kerry Speaks on the Battle for Zionism at the UN

Photo of John Kerry at the UN

Secretary Kerry Delivers Remarks at U.N. Herzog Commemoration in New York

The Battle for Zionism at the UN: Marking 40 Years Since the Historic Speech of the Honorable Chaim Herzog

Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
United Nations
New York City
November 11, 2015

SECRETARY KERRY: Moran, thank you very, very much. Thank you for being here, and for lending your success and persona to this event. Mr. Secretary General, it is a privilege to be here with you always, and we thank you for your great work. Ambassador Danon, thank you for helping to sponsor this night. David Harris, good to see you, thank you for your leadership. Ambassador Power, always wonderful to be with you. I love your energy, enthusiasm, and your action. And I think everybody appreciates what you are doing here at the United Nations. (Applause.)

And it is a great privilege for me to be able to be here with all of you. I see many good friends out there, and many who have been laboring so hard in the vineyards. Particularly, I cite Stu Eizenstat over here, whose work I admire. And I thank him for his efforts. (Applause.) And most especially, I want to thank Bougie and Mike Herzog, and the entire Herzog family, for the chance to come here and share some thoughts. And I appreciate the special friendship with Bougie. I appreciate his leadership. I know what it’s like to run for leader of your country and actually come short. (Laughter.) He’s actually born a little shorter than me in that effort, but – and Mike and I have worked very closely together in our efforts the last few years. And all I can say is he is a great intellect, a patriot, and far too young looking to be a retired general, folks. I admire his work. (Applause.)Continue Reading …

A “Heads Up” for the Pro-Israel Community: Our Next Major Challenge after the Pending Nuclear Agreement

Dear Friends:

We all are aware of the grave dangers to the security of Israel and the world inherent in the ongoing negotiations toward a nuclear agreement with Iran.

However, there is another major challenge looming on the horizon which is not yet fully  understood by the pro-Israel community, but to which we must respond.

The use of the United Nations to damage Israel on the international scene is longstanding and well-known. However, there is a new undertaking that can do far more damage than has been done before, unless we take action to stop it.

…a proposal to engage the U.N. Security Council in an effort to impose a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

It is a proposal to engage the U.N. Security Council in an effort to impose a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. This agreement would be heavily slanted against Israel.

Moreover, it would be expressly designed to replace the United States as the principal mediator between the parties. In other words, the U.N. would be in charge of the peace process, minimizing the protection that the U.S. can offer Israel in the international arena.Continue Reading …

A Report on the UN from the Australia-Israel and Jewish Public Affairs Council

A draft resolution proposed for adoption by the UN Security Council that calls for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank to the pre-1967 lines “without swaps”  is now circulating at the UN. This would contravene the principle laid down in Security Council Resolution 242, which was adopted in November 1967, that the withdrawal should be to “secure and recognized borders.”  The issue here posed is well discussed in an article published by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Public Affairs Council.

Analysis of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council
(www.aijac.org.au)

When considering interpretations of a historical document like UNSC 242, a natural place to begin would be the stated intent of the drafters themselves. In 2007, The Committee for Accuracy in the Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) assembled a collection of footnoted quotes by the drafters of UNSC 242, starting with then-UK Ambassador to the UN Lord Caradon, then-US Ambassador to the UN Arthur J. Goldberg, then-US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Eugene Rostow, then-British Foreign Secretary Baron George-Brown and then- Senior Adviser on International Law to the United States Mission to the United Nations J. L. Hargrove.Continue Reading …

Letter: Parents of Israeli Child Daniel Tregerman to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon

Text of a letter sent by Gila and Doron Tregerman, parents of 4 year-old Daniel, who was murdered during a mortar attack on his home, to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

By Israel News Agency Staff

For UN Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon

Dear Sir,

My name is Gila, I am an Israeli citizen, and I am a resident of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, near the border with Gaza.A week ago, we lost our eldest son, Daniel 4.5 years old, when he was killed by a mortar shell fired from Gaza into Israel.I address you after your announcement to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to establish an international investigation Committee to investigate “Israel’s crime” in the recent fighting in Gaza.

About us: Doron and I were married five years ago and we have three amazing kids: Daniel 4.5 yrs, Yoval 3.5 yrs and Uri 4 months old. We were a happy family. We lived in Kibbutz Nahal Oz near Gaza, and found ourselves constantly debating whether not to abandon Nahal Oz and move to another location, quieter, safer, far from rocket fire from Gaza, and far away from the alarms.

Then came the threat of terrorist tunnels, which Hamas members dug from Gaza to Israel under our home to hurt us. At night we heard noises and voices digging beneath us. Thus, in the last six months our children slept with the window closed and locked. We were afraid that they will be kidnapped from us.

Can you imagine our life, Mr. Secretary-General? How do you live in constant fear of mortar shell and terrorists emerging from tunnels?

Lessons of the War in Gaza

by Daniel Pipes
National Review Online
August 9, 2014

As Israeli operations against Hamas wind down, here are seven insights into the month-long conflict:

Missile shield: The superb performance of Iron Dome, the protective system that shot down nearly every Hamas rocket threatening life or property, has major military implications for Israel and the world. Its success signals that “Star Wars” (as opponents maliciously dubbed it upon introduction in 1983) can indeed provide protection from short-range and also presumably from long-range rockets and missiles, potentially changing the future of warfare.

Tunnels: Tunneling behind enemy lines is hardly a new tactic; historically, it has had success, such as the 1917 Battle of Messines, when British mines killed 10,000 German soldiers. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) knew of Hamas’ tunnels before hostilities began on July 8 but failed to appreciate their numbers, length, depth, quality of construction, and electronic sophistication. Jerusalem quickly realized, as the Times of Israel wrote, that “Israel’s air, sea and land supremacy is not mirrored underground.” The IDF thus requires additional time to achieve subterranean dominance.

 

Muravchik Explains How Hatred of the West Twisted the UN’s Mission

The UN and Israel: A History of Discrimination

By Joshua Muravchik

“Unfortunately . . . Israel [has] suffered from bias—and sometimes even discrimination” at the United Nations, said none other than the UN’s highest official, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, speaking in Jerusalem in August. Back at headquarters a week later, Ban withdrew the substance of the comment without denying he had made it. The retraction was less surprising than the original assertion, which was remarkable because of the identity of the speaker, not for what was said, the reality of which is about as well concealed as the sun on a cloudless noon.

Major Anti-Israel U.N. Effort May Be Coming

by Richard Schifter

Published in the Washington Jewish Week, January 2, 2014

As the year 2014 begins, the Israeli/Palestinian peace negotiations sponsored by the United States have been underway for five months. Under the current schedule they are to conclude at the end of April. It is clear that Israel is prepared to agree to a two-state solution. The Palestinians, by contrast, continue to insist on their claim of a so-called “right of return”, the migration to Israel of more than 5,000,000 persons of Palestinian descent, 1% of whom are refugees of the 1948 war and 99% of whom are the descendants of refugees. That wave of migrants would end the existence of Israel as a majority Jewish state and is thus clearly unacceptable to Israel. Peace can be brought about only if that demand is dropped, as President Clinton proposed at the end of the Camp David talks of 2000.

If no agreement is reached, the Palestinians are expected to step up their anti-Israel campaign at the United Nations. Statements made on behalf of Fatah suggest that consideration is being given to proposing a resolution similar to the one adopted by the General Assembly in 1981 against South Africa, calling “upon all States … to impose comprehensive mandatory sanctions … [and] … strongly urging all States… to cease forthwith, individually and collectively, all dealings with [South Africa] in order to isolate it politically, economically, militarily, and culturally.”Continue Reading …

Question of Palestine: Telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act

Address to the United Nations General Assembly, Agenda Item 18

By Ambassador Ron Prosor, Israel’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations

November 25, 2013

Ambassador Ron Prosor

Photo By Public1london, via Wikimedia Commons

Thank you Mr. President,

John Fitzgerald Kennedy said, “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie… but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”

This is the third year that I am standing before this Assembly to address this agenda item and once again, I experience a sense of déjà vu as I listen to a distortion of history. The greatest legends of Greek mythology cannot rival the fables and fabrications that have come to be associated with this debate.

This debate may take place only once a year, but anti-Israel bias pervades the UN system all year round. In 2012, this Assembly found the time to pass 22 resolutions condemning Israel – compared with only four that single out other nations.Continue Reading …

Remarks by the Vice President to the AIPAC Policy Conference | The White House

Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. 10:35 A.M. EST

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, Mr. President.  (Applause.)  It’s great to be here.  It’s great to be here.  (Applause.)  Hey, Debbie.

Ladies and gentlemen, oh, what a difference 40 years makes.  (Laughter.)  I look out there and see an old friend, Annette Lantos.  Annette, how are you?  Her husband, Tom Lantos, a survivor, was my assistant, was my foreign policy advisor for years.  And Tom used to say all the time, Joe — he talked with that Hungarian accent — he’d say, Joe, we must do another fundraiser for AIPAC.  (Laughter.)  I did more fundraisers for AIPAC in the ‘70s and early ‘80s than — just about as many as anybody.  Thank God you weren’t putting on shows like this, we would have never made it.  (Laughter.)  We would have never made it.

My Lord, it’s so great to be with you all and great to see — Mr. President, thank you so much for that kind introduction.  And President-elect Bob Cohen, the entire AIPAC Board of Directors, I’m delighted to be with you today.  But I’m particularly delighted to be with an old friend — and he is an old friend; we use that phrase lightly in Washington, but it’s real, and I think he’d even tell you — Ehud Barak, it’s great to be with you, Mr. Minister.  Great to be with you.  (Applause.)

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor at the AIPAC Policy Conference

AS DELIVERED

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all very, very much. It is a real honor to be here at AIPAC’s Policy Conference. It’s a particular honor to be here with my good friend and one of Congress’s strongest pro-Israel allies that you will hear from in just a minute, Steny Hoyer.

Tonight we celebrate a friendship between two countries, simple in concept but mighty in force. This friendship is centered on commitment to community and dedication to faith. It values education, human progress, and the guarantee of opportunity for all. With this friendship the world is a better place.

The alliance between the United States and Israel is often tested but never shaken. We’ve helped protect each other. We’ve helped protect our friends, and we’ve helped protect humanity. If there is a tsunami, our military and aid ships are the first to set sail. If disease is ravaging a nation, whereas is the case of AIDS in Africa, an entire continent, we send help, and we save lives. Israel shares our moral compass. When massive earthquakes struck Haiti and Turkey, Israel was among the first to offer assistance, and hundreds of Israeli rescue workers responded. They responded to the deadly terrorist attacks in East Africa, saving the lives of Africans injured in the attacks on our America’s embassies.

For those of us who visited Israel, you know what a special place it is. You’ve walked down the Tayelet in Tel Aviv on Thursday afternoon, and you’ve seen the people leisurely lingering in cafes as the waves of the Mediterranean crash in the background. But for many Americans the only images of Israel that they see are blown out clubs and cafes, missiles firing, death, and tragedy. That in itself is a tragedy. These news stories often miss the beauty and the human element of why our nations care so much for one another. But these stories do serve as a constant reminder of the threat Israel faces and why Israel needs our friendship and needs it now.

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