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The
following are extracts of remarks
by Jose María Aznar, at the US launch of the Friends of Israel Initiative on September 14, 2010 in
Washington, D.C. Nobody has summarized the international attack against
Israel better, and nobody has made a more eloquent case foe Israel.
These remarks deserve the widest possible publicity [A.I.]
..., Israel is under a new kind of attack. Not conventional war as in
1948, 56, 67 or 73. Not terrorism as we saw in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
But a new kind of attack – an attack on Israel legitimacy, on her
right to exist. A "soft-war", where many of its adversaries
are employing legal tricks, multinational bodies, and an army of dubious
NGO's to present internationally Israel as an illegitimate state, as
a barbarian state, a state that should be isolated and converted into
a pariah state.
We think this is intolerable. It is unjust, morally wrong, and a strategic
risk -- not only for Israel and its people -- but for all of us.
Israel is an integral part of the West, and the weaker it is, the weaker
the entire West will be perceived to be.
Even if we want to turn away from the traumas of 9/11, we simply do
not have the luxury to choose our enemies. As Senators Baker, Dole,
Daschle and Mitchell made clear in their latest report, published 5
days ago. by the Bipartisan Policy Center, the threat to our way of
life from radical Islamists is real, and it has not yet been eliminated.
Let me be clear. We don't want in any case to defend any particular
Israeli government or any particular set of policies or any particular
party. Israelis' institutions are mature enough to defend their choices.
We want to stand up for the right of Israel to exist. Judaeo-Christian
values form the roots of our civilization. Delegitimizing Israel undermines
our identity, warps our values and put at risk what we are and who we
are.
So, dear friends, it is not only the threat that if Israel goes down,
which, make no mistake, many of its enemies would like to see happen,
we all go down. It is that letting Israel be demonized will lead to
the deligitimation of our own cherished values. If Israel were to disappear
by the force of its enemies, I sincerely doubt the West could remain
as we know it.
So, I conclude: Is it craziness for a group, as I said before, of mostly
Europeans and non-Jews, to say: "Enough. Stop this nonsense of
making Israel responsible for all the problems in the region, if not
beyond? Enough of the short-sightedness which refuses to see Israel
as a cornerstone of our Western civilization?"
We do believe that [it is crazy]. Far from it. It is vital. For America,
for the West, for Israel. And for our children and grandchildren and
the world they will inherit. Because there is still right and wrong
in this complicated world. And if we allow those fundamentals to be
blurred and eroded and confused, we will all be dangerously adrift.
Defending Israel today means strengthening the West, standing up for
our values, and their right to exist as a normal country, a fellow democracy
and a celebrated ally in our great western alliance.
I hope that you will share our vision, and will help us in bringing
reason and decency back to the discussion concerning Israel.
Thank you very much
Jose María Aznar
Original content is
Copyright by the author 2010. Posted at ZioNation-Zionism
and Israel Web Log, http://www.zionism-israel.com/
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