In a joint press conference with PM Berlusconi of Italy today, PM Netanyahu said,
[..] I also had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of regional and international subjects with Prime Minister Berlusconi. We talked about Iran’s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons and we agreed that such weapons in the hands of Iran pose not merely a threat to Israel, but a threat to peace in our region and to the peace of the world.
Now there is today a great battle throughout the Middle East and North Africa between medievalism and modernity; between tyranny and freedom – and it’s not clear how this contest will be decided. [..]
I use this opportunity to thank you once again for your clear and consistent position against Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons and I also want to thank you, as I did in our meeting, for your clear position against the attempt to bypass peace negotiations. Peace will only come from negotiations. It will be a negotiated peace. It cannot be imposed from the outside – not by any power and certainly not by one-sided UN resolutions. Peace requires negotiations. It requires mutual compromise. Palestinians compromise; Israel compromises; we both compromise. We’re prepared to do so, but to do that, you need a negotiation. But a UN fiat, a UN declaration that is one-sided, would do several things. First it would violate the agreements between the Palestinians and Israel, but it would also harden the Palestinian positions, because if the UN General Assembly adopts the Palestinian positions in advance of negotiations, why should they negotiate? So such a resolution, if backed by an overwhelming majority including the leading countries of the world, that could actually push peace back by hardening Palestinian positions, by pushing negotiations further away. So I think anyone who is interested in advancing peace will opt for direct negotiations and will oppose the attempt to impose a peace from the outside.
We also discussed the unfolding events throughout the Middle East, and I mentioned the fact that you, Silvio, you had talked about the Marshall Plan for the Palestinians, and we are engaged all the time in trying to help their economy. It’s doing very well actually because of the lifting of roadblocks and the facilitation of free movements of goods and people, something that my government has done consistently. But I’d like to suggest that your idea, the Marshall Plan, be expanded to include those countries throughout the region that are struggling to establish real democracies because I think such economic and trade assistance can help strengthen security and development and stability and that would strengthen the forces of moderation and progress throughout the region.
So let me thank you for all these clear positions and your clear support and especially let me thank you for this warmest of welcomes you have shown me and my ministers. I look forward to working with you to advance peace and security and prosperity in the region but also the prosperity between our two countries. We have so much good will, so much talent and brilliance within our two peoples, and the sum of the parts will be much bigger. So on behalf of the people of Israel and the State of Israel, I want to thank you again for your unwavering support for the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
We have no better friend. Thank you, Silvio.
You assume too much. I know of no contemporary foreign leader that as a Jew and Israeli can be deemed to be considered a friend.
.
The world did not pressure Russia over the immense atrocities committed against Chechnya, or China over the Uighur’s. The world is not concerned about the Basques, Bretons, Red Indians, and scores of other oppressed minorities. But the entirely insignificant tribe of Palestinian Arabs reaps international attention. The same media provides no coverage of other suffering Arabs: Shiites in Saudi Arabia, Christians in Egypt, Palestinians in Kuwait, etc. The only conceivable reason for the world’s passion for the Palestinians is anti-Semitism. The screams in support of the Palestinian Arabs are not meant to support them, but rather to condemn Jews.
Christian nations pushed Israel into indefensible borders by carving Jordan and Palestine out of the land of Israel. Arabs might not fight a relatively large Israel in the borders of the Promised Land, but a beach-strip Israel is provocatively indefensible. The Christian state of America, rather than Muslim Egypt, forced Israel to give away the Sinai. Christian powers finance the Arabs’ wars with Israel by oil purchases, and enable those wars by selling Arabs advanced weapons. Israel can’t ever count on the Christian mainstream. Curious indifference is the best attitude among Christians the Jews could hope for.
The “self-hating Jew,” an idea bandied about especially by prominent Israelis of the so-called Right, is utterly misleading. Far more significant and revealing about that Jew is his fear or lack of courage: the courage to stand alone in a world hostile to Judaism.
And what applies to the fearful Jew applies the fearful State of Israel.
While I have respect for Jabotinsky, my personal role models are Joshua “bin” Nun (binnun) and Yiftach (Jephthah) Ha Giladi (Judges 11)
Respect for a righteous gentile for their help to Jews does not pass down to their progeny each person is is judged by man and G-d as individuals. Italy is a prime supporter of Iran and the Palis. Both want Jews dead. While Berlusconi, is not directly responsible for the antisemitism In Italy I don’t see him attempting to condemn it either. That BB may or may not have a warm personal relationship with the Italian PM, in the end he will do what he believes is in his and Italy’s best interests. That I understand it’s BB that I don’t.
Fair enough, Ted! Thanks. Incidentally : Ted, Sultan Knish, Steven Plaut, Steven Shamrak, and others are members of my main pro-Israel group, I am proud of it. And they know that I’m not Jewish, BTW.
Fair enough, Ted! Thanks. Incidentally, Ted, Sultan Knish, Steven Plaut, Steven Shamrak, and others are members of my main pro-Israel group, I am proud of it. And they know that I’m not Jewish, BTW.
Ted, thanks for the heads up on Crystal.
In defense of Yamit I am sure he was not aware and I mentioned before the concern for characters who use multiple names and even several at a time.
No one wants to be the victim of this type of charade.
Anyway, glad to know Crystal is ok and a tireless worker for Israel.
I know Crystal very well. She is a tireless worker for israel. Zip it.
Yamit is aware of my feeling here.
As a practicing Catholic I disagree with Vatican in their support of the Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. If they want to take a position, they should side with Israel and their G-d given rights to the Holy Land.
The Palestinian issue is not one of religion but rather political and Muslim driven and their main objective is destroy and take Israel from the Jews. Like Obama, forget what they say, watch what they do.
If the religious sites generate income they should not only pay taxes but should not hinder the development of the area by the Israelis.
I am not the only Catholic who agrees with this
Yamit, Yamit… a man/a woman? a bogeyman or a witch ? I think I told you already, you should see your doctor more regularly,
or at least take his prescription pills! Also, you must be suffering from a green bile, spleen …that explains your bad mood and constant rage! Voyez donc un médecin ! Best wishes from Crystal 🙂
Yamit … a man/a woman? a bogeyman or a witch ? I think I told you already, you should see your specialist more regularly.., or at least take his prescription pills. Also, your bad mood and constant rage indicate that you’re suffering also from a green bile, spleen… voyez donc um médecin! Best wishes from Crystal 🙂
Must be the fault of the Jews that Christians are killed or kicked out of Palestinians areas, Iraq and other Muslim homeland!
Alain Soupe says:
At least you are honest as to your reasons for supporting us.
Christian self interest.
Why don’t you send the Pope a sharp note?
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon heads today (Monday) for the Vatican, leading an Israeli delegation taking part in a plenary session of the Bilateral Permanent Working Commission between Israel and the Vatican.
Vatican: Pro-PLO State – Despite International Resolutions
Earlier this month, Pope Benedict XVI reiterated his support for a Palestinian Authority state in Judea and Samaria, the Biblical homeland of the Jewish People. The Vatican announced that a Palestinian state must “soon” live side by side in peace and security with Israel, and that the Palestinians enjoy “legitimate” rights to a homeland.
Elliott says:
My idea of a PM X is one who is G-d fearing. He need not be observant but G-d fearing. That means he would fear G-d and no man.
Diplomatically, he should accept negotiations and go to where they are held, say NO!!! Then return HOME!
Hymie Vous avez raison, je suis désolé, je me rends!
… And I want to remind something toYamit and the radical critics whose parti pris is negativism,
the pessimistic view of any foreign leader -and not only- in relation to Israel, hardly
capable as they are of telling a friend from a foe…constantly inflicting their ‘nobody loves me’ syndrome on Jews, thus nurturing Jews’ absurd inferiority complex (while they are fully entitled to a superiority complex)… : their paranoïa should be directed to their own non-Jews Jews also called self-hating Jews, read the Jews democrats who’ll still vote for Obama, the hard left, most academia, intellectuals, prominent writers and the nearly entire Haaretz’ gang – just to name a few examples….
Realpolitik? In this specific case, consider that Berlusconi, with his remarks on Ahmeadinejad, is exposing Italy to the consequences of one of his country’s most important commercial partners’ wrath, as it happened already in similar circumstances on the eve of his official visit to Israel, if I remember well,
with the same Ah… nut cancelling contracts as a protest to Berlusconi’s comments on him.
Berlusconi knows it but he’s a typical Italian, at best with our defects: we take immense pleasure, at specific moments, to speak up – even though in a kind of self-lesionism – when blood speaks louder
than mind. (Try and find that old M. Monicelli’s movie ‘La grande guerra’ )
What a better exemple than Berlusconi’s 8 months’ pregnant mother?!
(He must have drunk from her a lot of milk and honey, and BTW, we overly know how much he got
to love women since)
Please take the time to read the episode referred by Netanyahu in his speech,not entirely reproduced here by Israpundit …Read and learn, if there’s still room for something different in your brain :
Quote: ” …I was asked about our relations by one of your television channels. So I
said something I said in the Knesset when you came on a formal visit. I
spoke about this young mother, actually a pregnant mother, in her eighth
month of pregnancy, who on a train confronted.I think it was a Gestapo
officer who wanted to take out a Jew, and she said: you will not take that
person, and he said: of course I’ll take that person, and she said: you will
not take that person because you will not come out of here alive, and all
the people who were afraid drew courage.
So we don’t forget Rosa Berlusconi, we don’t forget the mother and we don’t
forget the son. We know how deep and enduring your friendship is to Israel
and the Jewish people, and this meeting today has given us another
opportunity to strengthen ….etc
When you go through Rome – we took a late night trip, a drive, this is what
they allowed me, they got me out of my cage, they allowed us to drive and
even get off the car, out of the car, at Piazza Navona, right next to
Bernini – but when you go through the splendor of Rome, you see once again a
reaffirmation of the fact that in the ancient world, Rome and Jerusalem were
the two wellsprings of Western civilizations. Rome was the center of
extraordinary progress in antiquity, in law, in engineering, in architecture
and so many other fields, and Jerusalem was the center of our spiritual
progress, the belief in One God, in the equality of man, in universal peace
and justice. But as you go through Rome, you also see that in modern times
our two peoples have been remarkable engines of modernity. We visited
Bernini and Michelangelo, Raffaello, right here. I mean, the Italian
renaissance paved the way to the modern world, and my own people, the Jewish
people, helped pave the way in science, in medicine, in technology, in
culture. So we are contributing to one another and to humanity throughout
the ages but many people don’t know that the unification or the
establishment of modern Italy 150 years ago also deeply influenced the
founding fathers of Zionism. In fact, the story of Mazzini and Garibaldi had
a deep impact on Theodor Herzl and all the other founders of the modern
Jewish national movement.
I happen to belong to a movement, political movement, that was founded by
Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and he was a great admirer of the Italian national
movement. He was called “the Jewish Garibaldi” and he very much liked that
too, that appellation. So our remarkable heritage of our two peoples has
formed this partnership, the foundation for this partnership, and it is
expressed today by the meeting, the second meeting between our two
governments. The agreements that you’ve described.Prime Minister Berlusconi
outlined these agreements, they are not merely technical agreements, they
are a bond, a growing bond in modern times, in the beginning of the 21st
century between the people of Italy and the people of Israel….) Etc..
(Press Conference between PM Netanyahu and the PM of Italy, Mr. Silvio Berlusconi)
GPO 13/06/2011
http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/EventsDiary/eventberlusconi130611.htm
To my Jewish friends and to PM Netanyahu ,the world does not seem to understand that Israel was given to the Jews 4,000 years ago and not one piece of that land should be given to pagan islamists terrorists.On the contrary you should retake gaza and the west bank and send all those who cannot leave in peace with should be expelled back to Jordan,which is the original palestinian land as per the Balfour agreement.The poor Christians of Bethleem will disappear within ten years if the islamic plo/fatah continue to rule and if they ever have East Jerusalem the Christians Holy sites will disappear as well.ISRAELITES keep the spirit of MASSADA.No more land for peace because we cannot trust islam.I will keep praying for you.GOD BLESS and PROTECT you all.Alain
Bibi should tell the world in many different languages and “ad nauseam” that at the end of the negotiations Israel wants a 2 states solution while the Palestinians want the elimination of Israel.
What does the world suggests?
The simpler the message, the lesser the chance to duck the issue.
He needs to point the FINGER towards the rejectionists.
So, Yamit, what exactly should your idea of a PM of Israel do?
Seriously, is there any diplomatic stance that your ideal PM “X” could take?
With all of the talk, Israel has been taken in by the talkers. The boundaries of discussion are only terms of Israel’s “piecemeal surrender for false peace”.
If war is the only way to reset the dialogue, then what strategy would you endorse? It’s like finding oneself on a dark street with a gang of thugs coming to kill you.
They taunt and threaten. Strategy A – Go for the biggest thug or the leader of the wolfpack and utterly destroy him.(would that be Iran or Obama?) The followers will back down.
Strategy B Take out the closest perps (Hamas &Hezbollah), so that those farther away will keep their distance. Strategy C ait long enough and let them to attack one another
Strategy D – repent and call upon the Lord of Hosts? Praying Psalm 83 for Israel. With Bibi’s entertaining the babblers they’ll never see it coming! Like David among the Philistines 1 Samuel 21? I am not sure how and when we’ll get there, but Micah 4:13 will happen in our day!
“Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the L-RD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.”
Weakness incites the sons of Amalek. Weakness is lacking the means to destroy them, OR having the means lacking the will!
Beware, that Obama has been consistently inciting Israel’s neighbors to expect land and ultimately all of a united Palestine sans Israel. It is a sad day for America when it falls into the hands of a wrathful G-d.
Because he is fraudulent. He uses language appropriate to his character. No man or woman can escape their fate. And character as much as circumstance dictates fate.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
These people are not interested in imposing a “peace” but of throwing Israel to the wolves to appease muslims. Why does Bibi use this fraudulent language?
I feel like vomiting over BB the groveling ass kisser.
Italy as we have learned is the largest violator of sanctions against Iran, except Germany.
Not a word about the rise of antisemitism and anti Israel boycotts in Italy. No mention of Shalit and Pollard
release as a precondition to even sit in the same room with the maggots.
In this difficult time for Israel we have the worst PM possible. Livni would essentially do no differently just the form and rhetoric is different. With Livni the right would unite against her, with BB the right becomes impotent.
The 1967 lines: Obama lied
Two weeks ago, Obama publicly retracted his statement that Israel should return to the 1948 armistice lines. This week, an NSC advisor told ‘Jewish leaders’ on a conference call that the White Houses awaits Netanyahu’s confirmation of Israel’s acceptance of just those lines. It was implied that such acceptance was a precondition for US help against the Palestinian bid for independence in the UNGA.
Considering America’s sour relations with the rest of the world, Netanyahu would be a fool to count on Obama in the UNGA
Ahmadinejad joins Khamenei: no negotiations over nukes
Ahmadinejad joins Khamenei: no negotiations over nukesSecret talks over Iran’s nuclear program were sacked after a stream of reports by international watchdogs which publicly accused Iran of running its nuclear program at a much faster pace than previously believed.
Iran sent submarines to the Red Sea and Ahmadinejad delivered a militant speech promising “no brakes” on the Iranian nuclear program. Most importantly, Iran confirmed reports that it had removed IAEA seals from the Natanz storehouse of enriched uranium. The uranium will be transported to Qom, the underground plant that Iran claims does not exist, for further enrichment.
The Qom site can only be attacked with an exceptionally large commando raid or with tactical nuclear weapons. Lacking the guts to inflict major damage on Iran elsewhere to force ayatollahs to abandon their nuclear aspirations, Israel is unlikely to stop the bomb with a mission-impossible operation in Qom.