Office of the Vice President
________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release May 5, 2009
Walter E. Washington Convention Center
Washington, DC
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.) Please. (Applause.) Larry, thank you for that introduction.
Ladies and gentlemen, there's an old -- there's an old Saxon
expression. And what it says is -- (applause) -- there's an old
expression. This is the man who introduced me to AIPAC. And there's
an old expression that says an institution is little more than the
lengthened shadow of a man. This is the man right here. This is the
man. (Applause.)
Ladies and gentlemen, I was backstage and the stage director, a lovely
young woman, was telling me that she was the stage director, and I told
her how well I take orders. (Laughter.) And Larry was speaking, and I
said, you see that man? I said, he's been my friend for 38 years. And
she looked at me like, that's not possible -- (laughter) -- not that I
don't look that old, but that she wasn't born, I don’t think -- when
she said it. (Laughter.)
But the truth is Larry, and his magnificent wife, have been just
wonderful, wonderful, wonderful supporters of Israel and AIPAC. And he
really did, along with one of my closest friends, period, not just in
politics, Michael Adler -- Michael Adler's dad in Miami and Larry
Weinberg on the West Coast are the two people who gave me my formal
education. And I thank them both. Thank you both. (Applause.)
I say to the board and all of you that are here, I'm delighted by your
warm welcome. And it's very good to be among friends. I'd like to
begin by congratulating your president, David Victor, for -- and the
incoming president, Lee Rosenberg. Rosy, we're all pulling for your
dad, Big Rosy, and we know how proud he must be right now as you're
about to take on your new responsibilities. (Applause.)
I'd like to also congratulate AIPAC's Executive Director, Howard Kohr,
and the rest of the staff for another successful conference.
(Applause.)
And I want to congratulate an old friend, who I think is probably the
most articulate and eloquent speechmaker in the world, Shimon Peres,
President of the State of Israel -- (applause) -- on the 61st
anniversary of Israel’s independence, which we're going to celebrate --
which we celebrated last week. And the President -- President Obama and
I look forward to visiting later today with the President. I'm anxious
to see him in the White House. (Applause.)
A little over a hundred days ago, our country started on a new path.
The citizens of this country made a very fundamental decision. And it
began with the historic inauguration of the 44th President, Barack
Obama, but it grew -- it grew out of the determination of millions of
Americans who desperately wanted to change not only the direction of
our country, but quite frankly, the trajectory that the world was on.
That’s what the Obama-Biden administration has set out to do, a lofty
goal but an absolutely minimum required task -- to change the direction
of this country and all the trajectory of the world. We not only want
to do it here at home; we believe our fate is inextricably tied to the
direction the world is moving in.
But in the midst of change, with all the change you will hear about,
there is one enduring, essential principle that will not change; and
that is our commitment to the peace and security of the state of
Israel. (Applause.) That is not negotiable. That is not a matter of
change. That is something to be reinforced and made clear.
(Applause.) It seems almost unnecessary to state it, but I want the
word to go forth in here that no one should mistake it.
That commitment began when the United States of America emerged from
World War II as the preeminent economic, political, and military power
in the world, and one of our great Presidents, Harry Truman, reached
out to a tiny, struggling state, emerging from the ashes of the
Holocaust, and recognized the state of Israel. It’s a commitment that
spans generations, and administrations of both political parties. And
our job -- obviously you know it's yours -- just so you know, we know
it's our job to ensure that that endures.
The bond between Israel and the United States was forged by a shared
interest in peace and security; by shared values and to respect all
faiths and for all faiths and for all people; by deep ties evidenced
here today among our citizens, both Christian and Jew; and a common,
unyielding commitment to democracy.
Indeed, we've both experienced recent elections and the peaceful
transition of power. I want to congratulate my friend, Prime Minister
Netanyahu -- and as they say in the Senate, he is my friend -- for his
victory. Bibi and I have been friends for a long, long time -- too
long to mention. And you know the old cliché -- imitation is the
sincerest form of flattery. Well, I looked at Likud’s website,
campaign website -- and on behalf of the Obama-Biden administration, I
must say I am flattered. (Laughter.) Take a look at the website. It
looked like we were running co-joint campaigns here. (Laughter.) And
we didn’t charge Bibi a thing for it. (Laughter.) All kidding aside,
a lot of you in the audience, and a lot of board members here, have
been my friends for a long, long time
My commitment, though, to Israel did not begin with the friendships
that I share on this stage. As the friends on this stage know, and
some of you have heard me say, my commitment began at my father’s
dinner table. My father was what you'd refer to as a righteous
Christian. My father -- we had dinner at my father and mother's home
as an occasion to sit down and have conversation and, incidentally,
eat, rather than eat and, incidentally, have conversation. And over
the years, my commitment was nurtured by many of the people in this
room, starting with Larry and many others that are here.
In 1973, as a 29-year-old or just 30 -- just turned 30 years old,
elected United States senator from the state of Delaware -- I made my
first overseas trip to Israel. It was on the eve at the time unknown
of the Yom Kippur War. I had just come from Cairo, and visited the
Suez Canal. And I then went to visit the Prime Minister, Golda Meir,
which was one of the great honors. I was asked not long ago, what are
the two most meaningful meetings I ever had as a senator. And they
were with the freed later president of South Africa, and Golda Meir.
(Applause.) They both embodied everything I had been taught --
different races, different religions, different regions -- the same
tenacity and the same open heart.
I sat across the desk from the Prime Minister. And she, as many of you
know, is a chain smoker. She continually smoked. And she had a set of
maps behind her, the old maps that were on rollers. There was a whole
big slew of them, like eight maps in one set. And she was describing
to me the Six-Day War and reading letters from the front, from young
Israelis, most of whom had died defending their country. It was very
moving. She kept flipping the maps up and down and pointing to
different battles. I'm sure many of you had the experience. I'm sure
you had the experience, Larry.
And there was a young man sitting next to me who didn't say a lot. His
name was Rabin. And we had a conversation that lasted -- I won't put a
time on it, but I'm quite confident it was over an hour. It was a long
time. It was a great moment for a young man like me. It was
meaningful. I learned a lot. But it also gave me a sense of the
degree of -- how do I say it -- the pain, the history, the hope, the
pragmatism, the grit of an entire nation. And almost it seemed in
mid-sentence, she looked at me -- and my good friend, Michael Adler,
heard me say this before, it was -- kind of startled me -- she said,
Senator, would you like a photo? It was, like, by the way, do you want
to go to the ball game?
And I said, well, of course, Madam Prime Minister. And the office in
those days that she had, there were double doors that opened up onto a
hallway. And we walked out, and there were photographers arrayed. And
we stood next to one another, looking straight at the camera, at the
photographers and the cameras. But she was talking to me without
looking at me. She said the following. She said, Senator -- looking
straight ahead, but talking -- she said, Senator, you seem worried.
You look like you're worried. And I turned to her, and I said, well,
Madam Prime Minister, I am. The picture you just painted -- in those
days 60 million Arabs, 2 million Jews, et cetera.
And she put her hand out -- still looking at the camera -- on my arm.
She said, Senator, don't worry. We Jews have a secret weapon in our
struggle here. We have no place else to go. (Applause.)
And, for me, I thought at the time -- some of you know, she was so
engaging -- I thought at the time, I'm probably the only person in the
world she ever said that to. (Laughter.) And it was for me, at that
moment, her comments crystallized for me everything I'd learned at my
father's table, and everything about the basic responsibility of the
United States to be a partner in ensuring that there will always,
always be a place for Jews of the world to go -- (applause) -- and that
place always must be Israel. (Applause.) It's real. It's serious.
It's compelling. It's the only certainty, the only certainty.
(Applause.)
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here today to tell you something you already
know, and I assure you this -- President Barack Obama shares that same
commitment. (Applause.) His support is rooted in his personal
connection to the Zionist idea to which he spoke about last year at
this conference. He said last year that when he was a child, and I
quote, "I was drawn to the belief that you could sustain a spiritual,
emotional and cultural identity, and I deeply understood the Zionist
idea that there is always a homeland at the center of our story."
Ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama's commitment was reinforced -- not
that it need to have been -- by his two relatively recent trips to
Israel, when he met with Israeli leaders from across the spectrum --
and you all know it's a very wide spectrum in Israel; by the powerful,
searing experience that he had visiting maybe in a sense the holiest of
all places, commemorating the Holocaust; by seeing, first-hand,
Israel's unique security dilemmas from a helicopter with top generals
-- the sort of experience I had in '73 when I stood on the Golan
Heights and realized if you had a really good arm you could literally
throw a grenade down in the territory that could do damage to Israelis.
He also had it reinforced by traveling to the northern border, and met
with families whose homes had been destroyed by rockets fired by
Hezbollah and Hamas into their villages. But the President and I both
know that ultimately we'll be judged not by our commitment and our
verbal assurances to you or to anyone else or to the state of Israel,
but by the results of the commitment we have made. (Applause.)
We believe that the results we seek, including a secure Israel at
peace, can be best achieved by taking a new direction in our foreign
policy; by, first and foremost, reestablish America's preeminent
leadership in the world. (Applause.) The nation who asserts it leads,
but has no one following, is not leading. We must reassert the
confidence that we once had, and the confidence the world once had in
us to lead the world.
When America has confidence -- the confidence of our allies and our
friends, and the broad support we need in the world -- not only is
America stronger but Israel will be stronger, because America is able
to be a more efficient partner and effective partner, and our
adversaries and Israel's adversaries know that as well.
In the Middle East, we stand for the premise that the status quo of the
last decade has not served the interests of the United States or Israel
very well. It has not enhanced the peace and security of the region,
no matter how good the intention. I went to a Catholic grade school.
When you got in trouble, the nuns would make you -- I'd say, but,
sister -- and they'd make you write on the board a hundred times after
school: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. All the good
intentions of the last decade have not resulted in a more secure, more
stable Middle East; a more secure, more stable Israel; a more secure,
more stable United States.
So we are working to change that by responsibly ending the war in Iraq,
by refocusing our efforts on Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat al
Qaeda, by engaging all countries in the region, including those with
whom we have overwhelming disagreements, in order to advance our
national security interests.
We are intensely focused on avoiding the grave danger, as Larry spoke
about and others have, as well, including my good friend, John, of a
nuclear armed Iran. (Applause.) A nuclear-armed Iran risks an arms
race in the region that would make every country less secure; presents
an existential threat. What we have tried with Iran in recent years
has obviously not worked. What will work remains to be seen.
Since 2000, Iran has installed thousands of centrifuges and produced
over a thousand kilograms of low-enriched uranium; not capable of use
in a nuclear weapon -- low-enriched -- but nonetheless, they have
produced that. Instead of arresting the danger; in the last six years,
the danger has grown. It has not been arrested. We're determined to
change that. That's why we will pursue direct, principled diplomacy
with Iran with the overriding goal of preventing them from acquiring
nuclear weapons.
The United States will approach Iran initially in the spirit of mutual
respect. We want Iran to take its rightful place in the community of
nations, politically and economically. That's a path that the Islamic
Republic can take if it so chooses. Or that government can choose a
different future: one of international pressure, isolation; and one
which nothing is taken off the table.
If our efforts to address this problem through engagement are not
successful, we have greater international support to consider other
options. And ladies and gentlemen, don't kid yourselves --
international support matters, as we've learned over the last eight
years. (Applause.) We must sometimes act alone, but it's always
stronger when we act in unison.
Given the situation we inherited, we know we don't have unlimited time
to make this assessment. Iran also has played a dangerous role in the
region supporting terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah and
undermining many of our friends and those who claim to be our friends.
Indeed, these proxies are the tools in my view, our view, that Iran
uses to exploit conflicts like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- use
it to their advantage.
In this way the continuation of Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab --
Arab-Israeli conflicts, strengthen Iran's strategic position. They
give Iran a playing field upon which to extend its influence, sponsor
extremist elements, inflame public opinion -- all which are
counterintuitive. It's counterintuitive if you think about it, that
Iran's Shia influence in a Sunni Arab world would be able to be
extended.
There are many reasons to pursue an end to these conflicts. It gives
Israelis peace and security they deserve; to help the Palestinians
fulfill their aspirations of an independent and better life; to ease
tension in the regions -- in this region.
Today, one of the most pressing reasons may be to deprive Iran of the
ability to extend its destabilizing influence. Again, it's
counterintuitive if you think about its ability to extend its influence
in the region.
That's why from day one of this administration we began to make a
strong, sustained effort on behalf of peace. The President decided
that we must be engaged; we must take risk on behalf of peace for
Israel. The President appointed one of our most tenacious diplomats to
lead that effort, George Mitchell, and the President is strongly and
personally committed to achieving what all have basically said is
needed -- a two-state solution, with a secure Jewish state of Israel
living side by side in peace and security with a viable and independent
Palestinian state. (Applause.)
He and I both believe that it's absolutely necessary to ensure Israel's
survival as a Jewish democratic state that this occur. (Applause.)
That is also the solution that Israel and the Palestinians committed to
in the road map and reaffirmed in Annapolis. It can be achieved. It
must be achieved.
There's an old expression, which Larry will get a kick out of, and it
relates to Christianity. G.K. Chesterton once said, "It's not that
Christianity has been tried and found wanting; it's been found
difficult and left untried." Well, the truth of the matter is, the
fact that peace has not occurred does not mean peace cannot occur.
Same time, we'll pursue a secure and lasting and comprehensive
Arab-Israeli peace. The Israelis and its Arab neighbors have
sufficient common interest to bring this goal within reach. Progress
towards peace has only been possible when people -- when people were
willing to think differently; to take risks; to make a principled
compromise. That's why we have to pursue every opportunity for
progress while standing up for one core principle: First, Israel's
security is non-negotiable. (Applause.) Period. Period. Our
commitment is unshakeable. We will continue to provide Israel with the
assistance that it needs. We will continue to defend Israel's right to
defend itself and make its own judgments about what it needs to do to
defend itself. (Applause.)
Secondly, all of us have obligations to meet, including commitments
Israel and the Palestinians made in the road map. The Palestinian
Authority must combat terror and incitement against Israel. The United
States and its partners have provided funding and training for a
reformed Palestinian security force, which has impressed everyone,
including the Israeli security officers with its recent demonstrations
of professionalism and effectiveness. We are right now seeking funds
from Congress to expand this program. But Israel has to work towards a
two-state solution. You're not going to like my saying this, but not
build more settlements, dismantle existing outposts, and allow the
Palestinians freedom of movement based on their first actions --
(applause) -- its access to economic opportunity and increased security
responsibility. This is a "show me" deal -- not based on faith -- show
me. Prime Minister Netanyahu has important ideas about how to achieve
some of these objectives and we look forward to working with him to
help develop them when he comes to visit.
The Quartet and the Arab states also have clear responsibilities. One
of the most important is to support the Palestinian Authority with the
tools and funds it needs to govern on the West Bank, develop and reform
its institutions, help the people of Gaza work toward returning to
Gaza. We are doing our part with major assistance packages currently
before the Congress. We expect others to do theirs.
The Arab states should act now, not later, to build upon -- (applause)
-- to build upon the Arab Peace Initiative -- a constructive
combination that contains the promise of a cooperative and
comprehensive peace, but now is the time. Now is the time for Arab
states to make meaningful gestures to show the Israeli leadership and
the people that the promise of ending Israel's isolation in the region
is real and genuine. They must take action now -- show me. (Applause.)
Ladies and gentlemen, finally, the world must continue to make clear to
Hamas that the legitimacy it seeks will only come when it renounces
violence, recognizes Israel, and abides by past agreements -- period.
(Applause.) These are not -- some say, when I repeat that and the
President says it, that these are unreasonable. These are not
unreasonable demands -- they're basic standards of international
conduct.
We're working hard to provide assistance to Palestinians in Gaza that
does not benefit Hamas, and to coordinate with our allies to end the
smuggling of weapons in the Gaza, which continue. And we demand -- we
demand the immediate and unconditional release -- unconditional release
of Gilad Shalit -- (applause) -- after nearly three years -- three
years of captivity. It is not acceptable. (Applause.) And we remain
committed -- we remain committed to seeing him returned safely to his
family.
We will also explore opportunities, as the Israelis are, for progress
between Israel and Syria. Peace between Israel and Syria could reshape
the region. We will ensure that it does not come if it comes at the
expense of Israel's security or Lebanon's sovereignty and independence.
The search for a secure and just and lasting peace in the Middle East
has frustrated many and all who have come before us. We understand the
immensity of the challenge. We recognize the hard choices that must be
made. But we also know this: The path we have been on in recent yeas
will not result in security and prosperity for Israel or the
Palestinians, nor will it produce the stability and progress that's
needed in the region to ultimately guarantee Israel's security.
Look, we know there are different views in this room. We know there
are different views in this town about how to move forward. Nowhere
are these issues debated more openly and vividly than in the streets of
Israel and in the Knesset, which is an overwhelming tribute to its
democracy. But I believe the critical question is not where we stand
today, but how we see tomorrow, and what we're prepared to do to get
there. This administration sees and seeks a future of lasting peace
and security in which Israeli children can leave behind the tyranny of
rockets and terror; when Israeli mothers, as they send their children
off to school, do not have to worry about whether or not they will come
home; or Palestinian children have full opportunities to live out their
dreams, and the entire Middle East does not have to live under the
dread of a nuclear cloud.
Delaying the pursuit of these goals is not an option. It's easier, but
it is not an option. And the longer we wait, the harder it will be.
Now is the time to work together for the promise of a better day, and
for the success and strength and security of our most-treasured ally,
Israel.
Thank you very much. God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. (Applause.)
END
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