Excerpts from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Speech

Saban Forum
November 15, 2009

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/1499/excerpts-from-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahus

The second challenge to peace is the threat to Israel of missile and rocket attacks on Israel.

All it takes is one crude rocket hurtling through the air to sow fear in an entire city. Israelis have braved this intolerable threat for years, first in Kiryat Shmona and Sderot, later in Acre, Nahariah, Haifa, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Beer Sheva.

After Israel withdrew unilaterally from South Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza in 2005, both areas were turned into Iranian backed terrorist bases from which thousands of rockets were fired into Israel's towns and cities.

Peace requires that any future peace agreement have effective demilitarization measures that can neutralize the missile threat.

There has been much talk about the precise demarcation of the future border separating Israel and the Palestinians. Undoubtedly, that is an important question that can only be resolved through negotiations between the two sides.

The framework of these negotiations is determined in United Nations Resolution 242 clearly, which clearly states that negotiations must provide Israel with secure and recognized borders.

But we must also understand that because of the threat posed by short-range rockets and mortars – which is the vast majority of missiles and rockets – launched from contiguous territory, Israel's security is not merely a question of the future borders of the Jewish state. No less important, our security depends on ensuring that dangerous weapons do not pass through the borders of a future Palestinian state.

We have seen how a neighbor's porous borders can endanger our security. Look at the Lebanese example: despite Security Council Resolution 1701, Lebanon's border with Syria remains porous, and through them Iran and Syria continue to send weapons directly to Hezbollah. Today, Hezbollah has at least three times the number of rockets it had at the end of the Second Lebanon War. It is not only rockets and missiles, but also a wider range of warheads in greater numbers.

So far, the only thing that has proven effective at reducing the flow of these weapons is direct Israeli action. Just last week, we interdicted a ship sent from Iran bound for Hezbollah with 500 tons of weapons on board. This is part of an ongoing broader Israeli effort to prevent weapons smuggling to areas controlled by Hezbollah and Hamas.

And with regard to Gaza: when Israel controlled the Philadelphi Corridor, we stopped most, though not all, of the smuggling from Sinai into Gaza. But after we left, hundreds of tunnels were dug – there are nearly one thousand today, and the flow of rockets into Palestinian territory became a flood.

The lessons of Lebanon and Gaza cannot be ignored. Any peace agreement with the Palestinians must ensure effective security arrangements to prevent the flow of missiles and other weapons into the West Bank.

This cannot be left to paper agreements alone, however strongly worded or well intentioned. It must be backed by powerful concrete security measures on the ground. That is a prerequisite to an enduring peace.

In addition, we are working closely with the United States to develop missile defenses that may in time largely neutralize this threat. I appreciate the Obama Administration's continued support of these joint efforts, as well as the support of the Administrations that preceded this one. I spoke of this with the President when in Washington and expressed the appreciation of Israel's citizens.

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