The new Israeli order is not a prophecy of the end of times,
it is the reality. A reality that we see in front of our eyes even today
since the formation of the first grade in the Israeli educational system.
During the nineties as you can see behind me, the Israeli society
is a society that is built with a substantial majority
with minorities besides him. A national Zionist majority
and next to it three minorities, a national religions minority,
an Arab minority and a ultra-orthodox minority.
This picture might have frozen in the mind of most of the Israeli public,
of the media, and yes for the political system as well.
But the reality in the meantime has changed completely.
First grades today consist of 38% national seculars,
15% national religious, national religious, quarter Arabs,
and close to a quarter Ultra-Orthodox Jews.
In contrary to these rifts, this division to the four main fractions
which formulate the Israeli society reveals its own basic structure,
a structure which we will never be able to blur or erase.
A structure that for many of us is perceived as a threat on Israel’s
liberal secular nature on the one hand,
and on the Zionist establishment on the other hand.
My grandfather arrived to Jaffa in 1920, following a few months
Arabs burnt the office for Jewish immigration, to which he went.
They murdered there a few Jews, among them,
the famous author Brenner. I commemorate this year,
the beginning of the armed struggle against Zionism, as we are
nearing 100 years. The course of action
was always accompanied by terror, as well as direct military
confrontations against us, and we have numerous military
threats against us, but the threat of terror is unchanging.
The threat of terror comes in waves, and we repelled it time after time,
and now we are in another wave (of terror).
You (the IDF) are the spear-end in our battle against this wave of terror.
The circle of suicide bombers has frozen, the circle of attackers
has substantially increased. The ability to reach, to catch,
to charge, to take, if there is a need of course to neutralize or kill.
This capability is our cardinal ability in defending ourselves.
We cannot defend ourselves from evil if we cannot fight it.
We are in need of more cooperation in a troubled area, with terrorism,
economic cooperation, and cooperation even in the fields
of security and the military. And here the situation is clear
that this matter (terrorism) requires from all of us a comprehensive
strategy to face it, because it is a matter that not only threatens
the countries that terrorism within them now, it threatens
the Middle East, it threatens the Mediterranean,
it threatens Europe and it threatens the world.
The lack of stability that is present - if a country of 90 million was unstable,
what would have happened in the whole region - we are talking about
hundreds of thousands of refugees who are struggling to find security
and safety in Europe - imagine what would have happened,
if God forbid there was no stability in Egypt, how many of the
90 million would also go? So our philosophy and our
understanding as countries of the Mediterranean, who began
not only in the present age, but from thousands of years ago,
is truly a bridge. We understand the Greek
philosophy and they understand ours, the Egyptian philosophy,
and therefore we are capable of understanding each other
and communicating with each other where it is required.
Of course there is a role for Greece, Cyprus and Italy, along with
our other European friends which is of utmost importance
because we cannot do everything.
Two countries with an important geopolitical role, in a fragile
and destabilized region where three continents meet,
are joining forces targeting peace and prosperity.