Back to Ambassadorial Speeches - Ambassador Zalman Shoval

Telephone Message by Prime Minister Shamir and Remarks by Ambassador Shoval at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Conference Washington, D.C. - March 5, 1991

SHOSHANA CARDIN (Conference Chair): At this time I would like to introduce to you, because we have asked him to bring us greetings and help introduce what will be a phone call from the Prime Minister, a man who has become a household name and a very familiar face due to his outstanding public performances, his need to stand up and respond during the difficult times of the Scud attacks, our new and brilliant Ambassador Zalman Shoval, Ambassador from Israel to the United States. (Applause.)

In a very short period of time, he has earned tremendous respect and admiration. He has earned affection of those of us who've had the privilege of working with him. We have a special relationship now. We know that the years -- actually, the months ahead will prove to be even more difficult than those behind us. We are indeed fortunate that Ambassador Shoval will be here to speak with us, to counsel us, and to speak for the State of Israel.

It is my pleasure to present to you Ambassador Shoval. (Applause.)

AMB. SHOVAL: Thank you, Shoshana, and hello to everyone. The Prime Minister is on the line -- was on the line -- he is on the line, and we don't want to keep him waiting. So I suggest we first hear the Prime Minister and then if you will still have the patience to bear with me, I'll say a few words later on. So first, I would like to introduce the gentleman who doesn't need any introduction, the Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Shamir. (Applause.)

PRIME MINISTER SHAMIR: Shalom, dear friends, ladies and gentlemen. I greet you from Yerushalayim and take this opportunity to pay tribute on behalf of the government and people of Israel to the President of the United States, the administration, the Congress, and the people of the United States for the great victory you have achieved. As in days of old, it was the victory of the forces of justice over the forces of evil, of light over darkness.

I express our deep admiration and respect for the display of military capacity under the brilliant generalship of General Schwarzkopf, and extend our sympathy to the families of those who fell in action or were injured.

We appreciate your gathering today in Washington to express your justified pride in the American achievement, your solidarity with Israel, and your devotion to the deepening alliance between the two countries. We should note that, difficult as it was, Israel's specific role in the conflict contributed to the achievement of the desired goal. We hope that the convincing defeat of Saddam Hussein means that Iraq will cease to be a threat to our security for many years, and that any others in the region who follow a similar direction will have learned a necessary lesson.

This war was another opportunity to convince the Arabs of the Middle East that it is impossible to destroy Israel. It will always be impossible to destroy Israel. We have returned to our ancient land, and they have to get used to the presence of Israel. Together, we must seek peace and coexistence for all the people in the region.

During the war and even after, we were shocked to discover the depth of the animosity towards Israel. Nevertheless, we are ready to talk to any and every other country about peace without any preconditions. I believe that the events of the past six months have given even greater validity to our peace plan of May 1989. With its increased stature as the leading superpower, the United States could certainly influence the Arab members of the coalition to take a new approach to the problems of the Middle East.

But, my friends, we have other things on our agenda to which we must apply ourselves now that this war is over. We have confidence that the tempo of the Aliyah will be renewed, and that our brethren will stream home to Eretz Israel from the Soviet Union, Ethiopia and other countries, by their thousands. We believe that we shall reach the figure of one million olim within a few years. This is an unprecedented undertaking. I must repeat again that the arrival of one million immigrants in Israel is the equivalent of the United States receiving 60 million immigrants within three or four years.

I am not sure that all of us in Israel and you outside of Israel fully appreciate the magnitude of the challenge and the extraordinary task that lies ahead of us. We cannot continue as if this was a normal operation. We are making extraordinary efforts in Israel, and I call upon you, the Jewish community of the United States, to set new goals, new targets, and to work with even greater energy to produce the results that will help us ensure a growing flow of Aliyah and the successful absorption of the olim.

We welcome the prospect of discussing this and other subjects with Secretary of State Baker when he pays his first visit to us next week. We hope there will be a very full and close exchange of ideas. We are vitally interested in peace and shall explore all avenues in order to open a new page. The United States and Israel, working together, have a chance of achieving greater stability and of moving towards peace.

Thank you. (Applause.)

MS. CARDIN: Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER SHAMIR: Thank you.

MS. CARDIN: We wish you all of the best in the deliberations ahead. We wish you the strength and the courage, and please note that we support your major, major efforts to turn to that new page and start a new beginning to bring about the reality of peace and coexistence. Thank you very, very much.

PRIME MINISTER SHAMIR: Thank you, and all the best. (Applause.)

AMB. SHOVAL: Well, I wasn't really -- I didn't really intend to make a speech, and I will just make a few remarks perhaps.

I am going to Israel this afternoon. As a matter of fact, I will go straight from here back to the embassy. I won't say I'm packing my bags, my wife did that, but I'm more or less on the way, in order to be there when Secretary Baker arrives on his Middle East trip and on his very welcome first visit to the state of Israel.

I think no Israeli emissary can make any sort of public appearance these days without saying and expressing from the bottom of his heart the very deep appreciation we have for what America did in our region over the last few months, for the very determined stand President Bush's administration has taken vis-ˆ-vis Iraqi aggression, which was not just aggression against Kuwait, a lot more was involved, and the way this war was conducted until the end. And although I'm not a military expert, most Israelis are, of course, but -- (laughter) -- I would say -- I would say just by hearing and listening and reading that the American defense establishment all the way from Secretary Cheney down through the chief of the general staff and the commander in the field, and the commanders and soldiers in the field did really a magnificent job. (Applause.)

I also believe that military victory in the field may bring about a better situation in the Middle East, better prospects for stability and peace in the Middle East than there were before this war. There's going to be a reshuffling, and everybody is going to hold in his hand some different cards than he did before this war. I'm just repeating conventional wisdom if I say it's not going to be the same Middle East as it was before the war. It's not going to be the same Arab world.

I doubt if there will be any single Arab country which will be able to assume the leadership of the Arab world after this war is over -- has been over, has ended. Certainly, not Iraq. Syria may want to take upon itself the mantle of leadership. I'm not sure whether the Arab world, including the Palestinians, have enough trust in the Syrians, let alone other countries, to assume the leadership of the Arab world. The Arab North African countries have too many problems of their own. Jordan never aspired to a leadership role in the Arab world, and I'll say a word about Jordan later on. I don't think Saudi Arabia wants or could be the leader, the uncontested leader of the Arab world. Egypt, of course, through the wisdom of President Mubarak's policy, could have a claim, but then again Egypt has many, many internal problems, economic problems and others, which will make it more difficult to put all her stress on an inter-Arab role in the future.

So we will probably see an Arab world, which though united on some issues, will still, each country on its own, pursue its own agenda. If we follow that on, the PLO, although it is already trying to make a comeback politically, certainly, we'll not be able to say with any degree of conviction that it is an acceptable partner in the future peace process in the Middle East, and from Israel's point of view I think there have been many important improvements.

First of all, the mere fact or the very fact that Iraq, which, after all, did constitute not the only -- not the only -- but one of the major threats, military threats to Israel, has now been -- perhaps not eliminated, but reduce so very severely it is a big gain for Israel. Number two, many of the things which we said in the past and were not always listened to have now been accepted to a certain degree, first of all, that the PLO, as I mentioned, is not a partner -- cannot be a partner -- in the peace process.

Number two, although not everybody has digested that yet, that had Israel in the past followed the advice of handing over the territories lock, stock, and barrel, either to the Palestinians or even to King Hussein of Jordan, we would have seen in this war Iraq by proxy or by extension not just in the Eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula and in the Persian Gulf area, but in the Eastern Mediterranean. And, not even mentioning the threats or the dangers to Israel, America would have had to make a major military effort, not just on one front, but on two fronts.

There are other things. I think there is a better understanding today between Israel and America, although I never thought, even before this crisis, even before the war, that the actual relationship between the two countries was as bad as perception sometimes was. I think the underlying relationship was strong, even in times of so-called lacking chemistry. And I do believe that now, after this war, whatever debates and arguments and discussions and controversies we will have -- and we will -- our relationship will now be or continue on a higher level than they were before the crisis. And perhaps the most important point, from Israel's point of view, is that it has become absolutely clear that the Israel-Arab conflict, the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the Palestinian problem, is certainly not the sole, perhaps not even the main factor of instability in the Middle East.

By the way, never forget, because it's very often, you know, disregarded, that most wars in the Middle East over the last 40, 50 years have broken out between Arabs and Arabs, between Moslems and Moslems, not between Arabs and Jews. So how can the Palestinian conflict or problem be the main destabilizing factor in the area? But, certainly, now this is beyond any necessary proof. [TEXT OMITTED FROM SOURCE] and the Palestinians were once again misled by their leaders, like they were since the '20s and the '30s and the '40s and after Camp David and after the Lebanese war. Once again, the Palestinians were cynically misled by Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat, who aligned themselves with Saddam Hussein. And the Palestinians who have always said no to any sort of compromise, ever since the days of the pre- Israel, pre-state situation, when the Zionist movement brought up all sorts of compromise proposals, since the Weizmann-Faisal agreement of 1920, I think, and the '30s and so on and so forth -- why? Because the Palestinian Arabs were told by their leaders, "Hold out. You will get everything." And they got nothing. And they still got nothing.

Maybe the Palestinians will now understand that they can achieve something only with Israel and not against Israel. And now, America and even some of the Western Europeans have adopted, at least partially, our view that there has to be peace between Israel and the Arab countries first. And only once those Arab countries in the coalition, all of which are still in a state of war with Israel since 1948-49, only after they undertake some very clear steps towards peace with Israel, like ending the state of belligerency, and why not abolish the Arab boycott or at least the secondary boycott, and undertake some other steps -- that would create the right sort of climate for Israel to approach the Palestinian problem perhaps with less misgivings than we had in the past. We all have our views about Judea and Samaria and Gaza, whatever name you're going to call it -- doesn't make much difference. But I think there is a very central factor in all our views respectively, and that's the security angle, whether we are left, right, or center, whatever way we may describe this, ideologically or pragmatically. And this war has just proven once again that with all the technology and with all the missiles, wars are decided on the ground.

And had we been less fortunate in 1967, we would have been Kuwait. No, we wouldn't have been Kuwait, because Kuwait had a chance to come back. We would never have had the chance to come back if the Arabs had succeeded in 1967. And one often hears that slogan of, there shouldn't be double standards. No, there shouldn't be double standards. Just as Iraq was not rewarded for her aggression on Kuwait, nobody should be rewarded for their aggression on Israel. That's the way it is. We are in the territories because we were attacked. There was aggression. We could have been destroyed; we were not. But, after having said that, after taking all these considerations to heart, I'm sure that Israelis, present and in the future, whose concern about the territories is mainly or very centrally a security concern, may look at this question in a different light or somewhat different light after we have peace with the Arab states, the Arab countries.

Therefore, there is a very major role for American statesmanship at the present time, not to let things go back to the status quo ante before this crisis, status quo ante from the point of view of an Arab world, perhaps friendly to the United States, but living in enmity towards Israel, the other ally of the United States and I think the major ally of the United States. And we will listen to what Secretary Baker will have to tell us after coming to Israel from Riyadh, from some other Arab capitals, whether those countries have begun to understand where their real interests lie.

Their real interests lie in finding common denominators with Israel. We can tackle the problems of all of us -- economic problems, water problems, ecological problems -- only if we treat them regionally, not if we continue to remain in a state of war.

So far, all these Arab countries, except for Egypt, except for Sadat, but all these other Arab countries have disregarded their own interests, their own existential interests in order to continue to pay lip service to the Palestinians and bankroll the PLO and so on. Maybe they will now understand where their real interests lie. And maybe all these things, which my colleague the Saudi Ambassador in Washington has told all of you secretly during this war he will now say publicly. All he has to do is invite me to the Saudi Embassy, or I'll invite him to the Israeli Embassy, or we'll meet on neutral ground. It's so easy if the will is there.

In concluding, I would like to say I think the relationship between our two countries will be enhanced after this war. I do believe that coalitions notwithstanding -- and I'm all for coalitions -- America realizes that the long-lasting alliance or relationship can only exist between two democratic countries where public opinion and public will supports that alliance, where there is no danger that by some overnight coup a regime may change, a policy may change. We're speaking about long-lasting alliances and relationships, and nobody can replace Israel from that point of view. And I believe, therefore, that the relationship between the two countries will grow stronger in the future.

And hopefully all of us, as the Prime Minister said -- Israeli Jews, American Jews -- will be able to turn back to the most important thing, much more important than anything else, and that is absorbing Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union, which if I were a religious man I would say is no less a miracle than any of the miracles we read about in the Bible or in the megillah. Just God forbid if we should fail. Who knows what's going to happen to the Soviet Union one day. We must get them out and into Israel as quickly as possible. All other things are secondary. This will change not only the future of the Jewish people, it will change the future of Israel, it will change our demography, it will change our security, it will change our economy -- everything. That's the most important historic task we have, and let's concentrate on that. Thank you very much. (Applause.)