It is no secret that we have many differences over many years
with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. He has been a recurring
opponent of religion, despite his political maneuvering around
election time when ho goes to speak to rabbonim. Nonetheless,
credit is due for his remarks at the withdrawal of Israel from
the Durban conference which eloquently summarized the issues
and expressed the Israeli dismay at the results of the
conference whose principles and ideals are so high but whose
practice turned out to be so low. Following are his
remarks.
We have instructed our delegation in Durban to come back home.
We regret very much the very bizarre show in Durban. An
important convention that was supposed to defend human rights
became a source of hatred, a show of unfounded accusation, the
reverse of every responsibility in the international arena.
We don't feel defeated. We feel peace was defeated. We don't
feel as though Israel was accused. I think the accusers are
the ones to be blamed.
In the 53 years since the establishment of Israel, we were
attacked five times in attempts to overpower us and to bring
an end to the State of Israel. We stood alone, outnumbered,
outgunned, and we defended our lives. We won all the wars, we
won a lot of territories. We gave back the territories, the
water, the oil to Egypt. We gave back the land, the water to
Jordan. We have withdrawn unilaterally from Lebanon in
accordance with UN Resolution 425. We offered the Syrians an
exchange of land for peace.
We have offered the Palestinians something that no Arab
country did before us even suggested when the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip were under Arab control. We offered them an
independent state. We offered to withdraw from most of the
territories. We offered them a position in Jerusalem. They
rejected it. Instead, there was the intifadah, and even today
there were four bombs in Jerusalem, the capital city of
Israel.
I want to thank the United States of America that took an
extremely courageous position to make the world look more
responsible, more balanced, more truthful. I think the United
States has saved the honor of our world, the honor of our
time. I want to express my thanks to the President of the U.S.
and to the Secretary of State Mr. Colin Powell, for their
unhesitating leadership for a better world. I want also to
express my thanks to 43 countries that took a clear position
against this unbelievable attempt to smear Israel with false
colors -- among them, in addition to the United States, the
Republic of Russia, India, the members of the European Union,
the countries of Eastern Europe, most of the countries in
Latin America and many countries in Africa.
We know there are two leagues which began as leagues of hatred
to Israel: the Arab League, which calls for belligerency, for
boycott, for severing relations, for bringing an end to the
peaceful efforts; and the Moslem League. We know that we don't
stand a chance to explain our position and to express our
hopes to them.
But I believe that one bloc that usually voted against us, the
bloc of nonaligned nations, was this time was broken into
pieces. Many of its most important members voted against the
Arab proposals, though I am not surprised that some of them
remained as old-fashioned and as prejudiced as they used to be
in the past.
We shall be in the camp of freedom, we shall remain in the
camp of peace. We have not lost heart, in spite of all the
difficulties, and we believe that the future is with a world
that is responsible, truthful and free, and looks for
relationships without hatred, without prejudice and without
killing.
