Netanyahu at the General Assembly: False Hope

Netanyahu at the General Assembly: False Hope Israel's Prime Minister addressed the General Assembly in ample form, clearly expressing what he felt a need to say.  Netanyahu's address is lengthy; I intended to post excerpts with commentary, but it is too target rich and interconnected.   I will therefore reproduce the entire transcript, highlighting the most important paragraphs and inserting superscripts linked to my comments, which follow the transcript in an enumerated list.  Click the superscripts to read the related comments, then press your Backspace key to return to your place in the transcript. 

Ladies and gentlemen, Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established 63 years ago. On behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, I extend that hand again today. I extend it to the people of Egypt and Jordan, with renewed friendship for neighbors with whom we have made peace. I extend it to the people of Turkey, with respect and good will. I extend it to the people of Libya and Tunisia, with admiration for those trying to build a democratic future. I extend it to the other peoples of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, with whom we want to forge a new beginning. I extend it to the people of Syria, Lebanon and Iran, with awe at the courage of those fighting brutal repression.

But most especially, I extend my hand to the Palestinian people¹, with whom we seek a just and lasting peace.

Ladies and gentlemen, in Israel our hope for peace never wanes. Our scientists, doctors, innovator apply their genius to improve the world of tomorrow. Our artists, our writers, enrich the heritage of humanity. Now, I know that this is not exactly the image of Israel that is often portrayed in this hall. After all, it was here in 1975 that the age-old yearning of my people to restore our national life in our ancient biblical homeland - it was then that this was branded shamefully, as racism. And it was here in 1980, right here, that the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt wasn't praised; it was denounced! And it's here, year after year that Israel is unjustly singled out for condemnation. It's singled out for condemnation more often than all the nations of the world combined. Twenty-one out of the 27 General Assembly resolutions condemn Israel - the one true democracy in the Middle East.

Well, this is an unfortunate part of the U.N. institution. It's the theater of the absurd. It doesn't only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles:  Gadhafi's Libya chaired the U.N. Commission on Human Rights; Saddam's Iraq headed the U.N. Committee on Disarmament.  You might say: That's the past. Well, here's what's happening now - right now, today,  Hizbullah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the U.N. Security Council. This means, in effect, that a terror organization presides over the body entrusted with guaranteeing the world's security.²

You couldn't make this thing up.

So here in the U.N., automatic majorities can decide anything.³ They can decide that the sun sets in the west or rises in the west. I think the first has already been pre-ordained. But they can also decide - they have decided - that the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism's holiest place, is occupied Palestinian territory.

And yet even here in the General Assembly, the truth can sometimes break through. In 1984 when I was appointed Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, I visited the great rabbi of Lubavich. He said to me - and ladies and gentlemen, I don't want any of you to be offended because from personal experience of serving here, I know there are many honorable men and women, many capable and decent people, serving their nations here. But here's what the rebbe said to me. He said to me, you'll be serving in a house of many lies. And then he said, remember that even in the darkest place, the light of a single candle can be seen far and wide.

Today I hope that the light of truth will shine, if only for a few minutes, in a hall that for too long has been a place of darkness for my country. So as Israel's prime minister, I didn't come here to win applause. I came here to speak the truth.  The truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security⁴. The truth is that we cannot achieve peace⁵ through U.N. resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. The truth is that so far the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace⁶. And the truth is you shouldn't let that happen.

Ladies and gentlemen, when I first came here 27 years ago, the world was divided between East and West. Since then the Cold War ended, great civilizations have risen from centuries of slumber, hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty, countless more are poised to follow, and the remarkable thing is that so far this monumental historic shift has largely occurred peacefully. Yet a malignancy is now growing between East and West that threatens the peace of all. It seeks not to liberate, but to enslave, not to build, but to destroy.

That malignancy is militant Islam⁷. It cloaks itself in the mantle of a great faith⁸, yet it murders Jews, Christians and Muslims alike with unforgiving impartiality. On September 11th it killed thousands of Americans, and it left the twin towers in smoldering ruins. Last night I laid a wreath on the 9/11 memorial. It was deeply moving. But as I was going there, one thing echoed in my mind: the outrageous words of the president of Iran on this podium yesterday. He implied that 9/11 was an American conspiracy. Some of you left this hall. All of you should have.

Since 9/11, militant Islamists⁹ slaughtered countless other innocents - in London and Madrid, in Baghdad and Mumbai, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in every part of Israel. I believe that the greatest danger facing our world is that this fanaticism will arm itself with nuclear weapons. And this is precisely what Iran is trying to do.

Can you imagine that man who ranted here yesterday - can you imagine him armed with nuclear weapons? The international community must stop Iran before it's too late. If Iran is not stopped, we will all face the specter of nuclear terrorism, and the Arab Spring could soon become an Iranian winter.

That would be a tragedy. Millions of Arabs have taken to the streets to replace tyranny with liberty¹⁰, and no one would benefit more than Israel if those committed to freedom and peace would prevail.

This is my fervent hope. But as the prime minister of Israel, I cannot risk the future of the Jewish state on wishful thinking¹¹. Leaders must see reality as it is, not as it ought to be. We must do our best to shape the future, but we cannot wish away the dangers of the present.

And the world around Israelis definitely becoming more dangerous. Militant Islam has already taken over Lebanon and Gaza. It's determined to tear apart the peace treaties between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Jordan. It's poisoned many Arab minds against Jews and Israel, against America and the West. It opposes not the policies of Israel but the existence of Israel¹².

Now, some argue that the spread of militant Islam, especially in these turbulent times - if you want to slow it down, they argue, Israel must hurry to make concessions, to make territorial compromises. And this theory sounds simple. Basically it goes like this: Leave the territory, and peace will be advanced. The moderates will best rengthened, the radicals will be kept at bay. And don't worry about the pesky details of how Israel will actually defend itself; international troops will do the job.¹³

These people say to me constantly: Just make a sweeping offer, and everything will work out. You know, there's only one problem with that theory. We've tried it and it hasn't worked. In 2000 Israel made a sweeping peace offer that met virtually all of the Palestinian demands. Arafat rejected it. The Palestinians then launched a terror attack that claimed a thousand Israeli lives.

Prime Minister Olmert afterwards made an even more sweeping offer, in 2008. President Abbas didn't even respond to it.

But Israel did more than just make sweeping offers. We actually left territory. We withdrew from Lebanon in2000 and from every square inch of Gaza in 2005. That didn't calm the Islamic storm, the militant Islamic storm that threatens us. It only brought the storm closer and made it stronger.

Hizbullah and Hamas fired thousands of rockets against our cities from the very territories we vacated. See, when Israel left Lebanon and Gaza, the moderates didn't defeat the radicals, the moderates were devoured by the radicals. And I regret to say that international troops like UNIFIL in Lebanon and EUBAM in Gaza didn't stopthe radicals from attacking Israel.

We left Gaza hoping for peace.

We didn't freeze the settlements in Gaza, we uprooted them. We did exactly what the theory says: Get out, go back to the 1967 borders, dismantle the settlements.

And I don't think people remember how far we went to achieve this. We uprooted thousands of people from their homes. We pulled children out of their schools and their kindergartens. We bulldozed synagogues. We even moved loved ones from their graves. And then, having done all that, we gave the keys of Gaza to President Abbas.

Now the theory says it should all work out, and President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority now could build a peaceful state in Gaza. You can remember that the entire world applauded. They applauded our withdrawal as an act of great statesmanship. It was a bold act of peace.

But ladies and gentlemen, we didn't get peace. We got war. We got Iran, which through its proxy Hamas promptly kicked out the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority collapsed in a day - in one day.

President Abbas just said on this podium that the Palestinians are armed only with their hopes and dreams. Yeah, hopes, dreams and 10,000 missiles and Grad rockets supplied by Iran, not to mention the river of lethal weapons now flowing into Gaza from the Sinai, from Libya, and from elsewhere.

Thousands of missiles have already rained down on our cities. So you might understand that, given all this, Israelis rightly ask: What's to prevent this from happening again in the West Bank? See, most of our major cities in the south of the country are within a few dozen kilometers from Gaza. But in the center of the country, opposite the West Bank, our cities are a few hundred meters or at most a few kilometers away from the edge of the West Bank.

So I want to ask you. Would any of you bring danger so close to your cities, to your families? Would you act so recklessly with the lives of your citizens? Israelis prepared to have a Palestinian state in the West Bank, but we're not prepared to have another Gaza there. And that's why we need to have real security arrangements, which the Palestinians simply refuse to negotiate with us.

Israelis remember the bitter lessons of Gaza. Many of Israel's critics ignore them. They¹⁴ irresponsibly advise Israel to go down this same perilous path again. Your read what these people say and it's as if nothing happened - just repeating the same advice, the same formulas as though none of this happened.

And these critics continue to press Israel to make far-reaching concessions without first assuring Israel's security. They praise those who unwittingly feed the insatiable crocodile of militant Islam as bold statesmen. They cast as enemies of peace those of us who insist that we must first erect a sturdy barrier to keep the crocodile out, or at the very least jam an iron bar between its gaping jaws.

So in the face of the labels and the libels, Israel must heed better advice. Better a bad press than a good eulogy, and better still would be a fair press whose sense of history extends beyond breakfast, and which recognizes Israel's legitimate security concerns.¹⁵

I believe that in serious peace negotiations, these needs and concerns can be properly addressed¹⁶, but they will not be addressed without negotiations. And the needs are many, because Israel is such a tiny country. Without Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, Israel is all of 9 miles wide.

I want to put it for you in perspective, because you're all in the city. That's about two-thirds the length of Manhattan. It's the distance between Battery Park and Columbia University. And don't forget that the people who live in Brooklyn and New Jersey are considerably nicer than some of Israel's neighbors.

So how do you protect such a tiny country, surrounded by people sworn to its destruction and armed to the teeth by Iran? Obviously you can't defend it from within that narrow space alone. Israel needs greater strategic depth, and that's exactly why Security Council Resolution 242 didn't require Israel to leave all the territories it captured in the Six-Day War. It talked about withdrawal from territories, to secure and defensible boundaries. And to defend itself, Israel must therefore maintain a long-term Israeli military presence in critical strategic areas in the West Bank.

I explained this to President Abbas. He answered that if a Palestinian state was to be a sovereign country, it could never accept such arrangements. Why not? America has had troops in Japan, Germany and South Korea for more than a half a century. Britain has had an an air base in Cyprus. France has forces in three independent African nations. None of these states claim that they're not sovereign countries.

And there are many other vital security issues that also must be addressed. Take the issue of airspace. Again, Israel's small dimensions create huge security problems. America can be crossed by jet airplane in six hours. To fly across Israel, it takes three minutes. So is Israel's tiny airspace to be chopped in half and given to a Palestinian state not at peace with Israel?

Our major international airport is a few kilometers away from the West Bank. Without peace, will our planes become targets for antiaircraft missiles placed in the adjacent Palestinian state? And how will we stop the smuggling into the West Bank? It's not merely the West Bank, it's the West Bank mountains. It just dominates the coastal plain where most of Israel's population sits below. How could we prevent the smuggling into these mountains of those missiles that could be fired on our cities?¹⁷

I bring up these problems because they're not theoretical problems. They're very real. And for Israelis, they're life-and-death matters. All these potential cracks in Israel's security have to be sealed in a peace agreement before a Palestinian state is declared, not afterwards, because if you leave it afterwards, they won't be sealed. And these problems will explode in our face and explode the peace.¹⁸

The Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their state. But I also want to tell you this. After such a peace agreement is signed, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations. We will be the first¹⁹.

And there's one more thing. Hamas has been violating international law²⁰ by holding our soldier Gilad Shalit captive for five years.

They haven't given even one Red Cross visit. He's held in a dungeon, in darkness, against all international norms. Gilad Shalit is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit. He is the grandson of Zvi Shalit, who escaped the Holocaust by coming in the 1930s as a boy to the land of Israel. Gilad Shalit is the son of every Israeli family. Every nation represented here should demand his immediate release. If you want to pass a resolution about the Middle East today, that's the resolution you should pass²¹.

Ladies and gentlemen, last year in Israel in Bar-Ilan University, this year in the Knesset and in the U.S. Congress, I laid out my vision for peace in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state. Yes, the Jewish state. After all, this is the body that recognized the Jewish state 64 years ago. Now, don't you think it's about time that Palestinians did the same?²²

The Jewish state of Israel will always protect the rights of all its minorities, including the more than onw million Arab citizens of Israel. I wish I could say the same thing about a future Palestinian state, for as Palestinian officials made clear the other day - in fact, I think they made it right here in New York - they said the Palestinian state won't allow any Jews in it. They'll be Jew-free - Judenrein. That's ethnic cleansing. There are laws today in Ramallah that make the selling of land to Jews punishable by death. That's racism. And you know which laws this evokes.²³

Israel has no intention whatsoever to change the democratic character of our state. We just don't want the Palestinians to try to change the Jewish character of our state. We want to give up the fantasy of flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians.

President Abbas just stood here, and he said that the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the settlements. Well, that's odd. Our conflict was raging for nearly half a century before there was a single Israeli settlement in the West Bank. So if what President Abbas is saying was true, then the - I guess that the settlements he's talking about are Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa, Be'er Sheva. Maybe²⁴ that's what he meant the other day when he said that Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for 63 years. He didn't say from 1967; he said from1948. I hope somebody will bother to ask him this question because it illustrates a simple truth: The core of the conflict is not the settlements. The settlements are a result of the conflict.

The settlements have to be - it's an issue that has to be addressed and resolved in the course of negotiations. But the core of the conflict²⁵ has always been and unfortunately remains the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border.

I think it's time that the Palestinian leadership recognizes what every serious international leader has recognized, from Lord Balfour and Lloyd George in 1917, to President Truman in1948, to President Obama²⁶ just two days ago right here: Israel is the Jewish state.

President Abbas, stop walking around this issue. Recognize the Jewish state, and make peace with us. In such a genuine peace, Israel is prepared to make painful compromises. We believe that the Palestinians should be neither the citizens of Israel nor its subjects. They should live in a free state of their own²⁷. But they should be ready, like us, for compromise. And we will know that they're ready for compromise and for peace when they start taking Israel's security requirements seriously and when they stop denying our historical connection to our ancient homeland.

I often hear them accuse Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem. That's like accusing America of Americanizing Washington, or the British of Anglicizing London. You know why we're called "Jews"? Because we come from Judea.

In my office in Jerusalem, there's an ancient seal. It's a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall, and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there's a name of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu. That's my last name. My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin - Binyamin - the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Samaria 4,000 years ago, and there's been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since.

And for those Jews who were exiled from our land, they never stopped dreaming of coming back: Jews in Spain, on the eve of their expulsion; Jews in the Ukraine, fleeing the pogroms; Jews fighting the Warsaw Ghetto, as the Nazis were circling around it. They never stopped praying, they never stopped yearning. They whispered: Next year in Jerusalem. Next year in the promised land.

As the prime minister of Israel, I speak for a hundred generations of Jews who were dispersed throughout the lands, who suffered every evil under the Sun, but who never gave up hope of restoring their national life in the one and only Jewish state.

Ladies and gentlemen, I continue to hope that President Abbas will be my partner in peace. I've worked hard to advance that peace. The day I came into office, I called for direct negotiations without preconditions. President Abbas didn't respond. I outlined a vision of peace of two states for two peoples. He still didn't respond. I removed hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints, to ease freedom of movement in the Palestinian areas; this facilitated a fantastic growth in the Palestinian economy. But again - no response. I took the unprecedented step of freezing new buildings in the settlements for 10 months. No prime minister did that before, ever. Once again - you applaud, but there was no response. No response.

In the last few weeks, American officials have put forward ideas to restart peace talks. There were things in those ideas about borders that I didn't like. There were things thereabout the Jewish state that I'm sure the Palestinians didn't like.

But with all my reservations, I was willing to move forward on these American ideas.

President Abbas, why don't you join me? We have to stop negotiating about the negotiations. Let's just get on with it. Let's negotiate peace.

I spent years defending Israel on the battlefield. I spent decades defending Israel in the court of public opinion. President Abbas, you've dedicated your life to advancing the Palestinian cause. Must this conflict continue for generations, or will we be able our children and our grandchildren to speak in years ahead of how we found a way to end it? That's what we should aim for, and that's what I believe we can achieve.

In two and a half years, we met in Jerusalem only once, even though my door has always been open to you. If you wish, I'll come to Ramallah. Actually, I have a better suggestion. We've both just flown thousands of miles to New York. Now we're in the same city. We're in the same building. So let's meet here today in the United Nations. Who's there to stop us? What is there to stop us? If we genuinely want peace²⁸, what is there to stop us from meeting today and beginning peace negotiations?

And I suggest we talk openly and honestly. Let's listen to one another. Let's do as we say in the Middle East: Let's talk "doogri". That means straightforward. I'll tell you my needs and concerns. You'll tell me yours. And with God's help, we'll find the common ground of peace²⁹.

There's an old Arab saying that you cannot applaud with one hand. Well, the same is true of peace. I cannot make peace alone. I cannot make peace without you³⁰. President Abbas, I extend my hand - the hand of Israel - in peace. I hope that you will grasp that hand. We are both the sons of Abraham. My people call him Avraham. Your people call him Ibrahim. We share the same patriarch. We dwell in the same land. Our destinies are intertwined.

Let us realize the vision of Isaiah:

"העם ההולכים בחושך ראו אור גדול"

"The people who walk in darkness will see a great light."³¹

Let that light be the light of peace.

"העם ההולכים בחושך ראו אור גדול"

"The people who walk in darkness will see a great light."

Let that light be the light of peace.

 

---

1. I urge Netanyahu and his allies to quit telling that lie. "Palestine" is Israel and the "Palestinian people" are Jews.  The blood thirsty rabble referred to by the world as Palestinians are no more than undifferentiated Arabs, asserting a false and malignant narrative of lost civilization.  Follow these links to the facts:  We have all been had!   Palestinian people do not exist   The most vital quotes are included with more background information in this blog post: Peace: in a Pig’s …    They will not grasp the proffered  hand of friendship because their hands are full of weapons, ready to attack you.
2. The cat presides over a meeting of mice as they decide who will put a bell on the cat's collar.
3. Since Islam conquered vast territories, the combination of Islamic satrapies and their allies forms a majority in the General Assembly. 
4. Security will be a mirage beckoning just over the horizon so long as Israel is outnumbered and out gunned by vast populations thirsting for Jewish blood. No treaties, no borders, no institution, no forces; nothing can secure Israel while her neighbors continue to be enslaved by a blood thirsty demon who demands genocide as the price of admission to his celestial bordello. Islamic eschatology says plainly that Muslims must kill the last Jew before the gates of Paradise will swing open.  
5. You can not achieve peace so long as there are Islamic believers living upon the surface of the earth.  Muslims are taught and believe that Jews: earned Allah's wrath, are the worst of living creatures, are cursed by Allah and are strongest in enmity to Muslims.  Muslims are commanded to wage war against Jews.  Allah has promised them that he will constantly send someone to humiliate & torment the Jews until the last day.  Muslims are promised eternity in the celestial bordello if they wage jihad and threatened with eternal torment if they sit at home. These facts must be fatal to the fabulistic maundery that peace is possible. Only a damned fool believes it; only a liar says it. Both are worthy of condemnation
6. They want neither; their tactical objective is the genocidal destruction of Israel.  Their strategic objective is the restoration of the caliphate and global conquest.
7. Netanyahu swerves so close to yet far from the truth. The malignancy is Islam. Not "militant", "radical" or "extremist"  Islam; its just plain Islam, as Moe preached and exemplified it. You should read the entire Qur'an & at least one hadith collection but most people won't do that. At minimum, these two ayat, one hadith which confirms them  and the Islamic law that codifies them should be sufficient to disabuse any sentient person of the idiotic bigotry which declares peace possible. 8:39, 9:29, Sahih Bukhari 1.8.387 and Reliance of the Traveller, O9.  Read them and curse Islam if you have a soul. 
8. Islam is not a great faith, it is a great evil disguised as a faith; its "original religion" is jihad, whose legal definition is "war against non-Muslims".
9. The correct word is believers, defined as having sold their lives to Allah so that they fight in his cause, killing and being killed in return for guaranteed admission to the celestial bordello. 
10. They replaced one tyrant with another, liberty has no part in "Arab spring".
11. But that is exactly what you do by pretending that peace is possible with Muslims.
12. Islam can never tolerate the existence of Israel because the loss of conquered land stands as evidence of the fact that Allah is an impotent idol. Allah promised victory. He also commanded Muslims to drive out those who drove them out.  So long as Israel exists, faith in Allah is at risk to rationality because of the evidence of his impotence. 
13. Netanyahu sets up what appears to be a straw man; unfortunately, it is not a fallacy, it is reality, as he demonstrates in the succeeding paragraphs.
14. They refers to Barack Hussein Obama & the Quartet who sing the siren song of surrender.
15. Meditate on this wisdom for it is true. Israel absolutely must reject the disingenuous demands for surrender; she has no choice because any other course of action is suicidal.
16. Which provisions of the Oslo Accords did Arafat implement and maintain?  Only a damn fool believes that Abbas and his successors will perform any better than Arafat.
17. Prevent it by eradicating Islam from the region. There is no other possibility. If you want peace, get rid of Islam; make it extinct.
18. That is the understatement of the week. Get a clue, for Chrissakes.
19. On the 34^th day of the month of Never. It ain't going to happen. Muslims make war, they do not make peace; its what Islam is; what Muslims do.
20. The attack in which Shalit was seized and others were murdered was sufficient violation of international law. Holding him hostage is exacerbates the violation. A self-respecting nation would make that act the last of its kind by wiping the offenders from the face of the earth.
21. They should; they won't because the institution has been subverted by the predatory aggressor: Islam. 
22. The resolution they are about to pass will effectively revoke that recognition retroactively. Muslims will never recognize Israel as the Jewish state, for reasons explained in # 12.
23.  ICERD, ICCPR & CPPCG. But who gives a damn? Nobody will enforce them against Islam.
24. Only damned fools doubt it. "From the river to the sea!" should be your first clue to full comprehension of the fatal fact.
25. The core of the conflict is the existence of one unconverted Jew. Your answer is Muslim or dead; that is the only answer you will ever get from them. Conversely, your response must be secular or dead.  You have no acceptable alternative to the extinction of Islam.  If Islam is not extinct, Jews will be.
26.  Mulims are liars. Obama is a Muslim. Obama is not sincere when he claims to recognize Israel as the Jewish state. If he was, he would not disrespectfully demand that you commit national suicide. 
27. Jordan.
28. They don't want peace, they want genocidal conquest. Get a clue already.
29. The cemetery.
30. Peace is only possible without Islam; get a clue.
31. The last thing you will see: the blinding flash of a nuclear detonation.

 

Obamination: Spewing Feces in the General Assembly

Obamination: Spewing Feces in the General Assembly President Barack Hussein Obama converted the General Assembly of the United Nations into another re-election campaign atump with a spew of snake excrement designed to appeal to his base of electoral support: Communists, both national and international. 

    Due to the target rich nature of this spew, I will place my comments in an enumerated list, linking them to superscripts in the spew. Click a superscript to read the associated comment, then tap your Backspace key to return to your place in the spew.

Remarks by President Obama in Address to the United Nations General Assembly

United Nations
New York, New York

10:12 A.M. EDT

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen: It is a great honor¹ for me to be here today. I would like to talk to you about a subject that is at the heart of the United Nations -- the pursuit of peace² in an imperfect world.
 
War and conflict have been with us since the beginning of civilizations. But in the first part of the 20th century, the advance of modern weaponry led to death on a staggering scale. It was this killing that compelled the founders of this body to build an institution that was focused not just on ending one war, but on averting others; a union of sovereign states that would seek to prevent conflict³, while also addressing its causes⁴.
 
No American did more to pursue this objective than President Franklin Roosevelt. He knew that a victory in war was not enough. As he said at one of the very first meetings on the founding of the United Nations, “We have got to make, not merely peace, but a peace that will last⁵.”
 
The men and women who built this institution understood that peace is more than just the absence of war⁶. A lasting peace -- for nations and for individuals -- depends on a sense of justice and opportunity, of dignity and freedom. It depends on struggle and sacrifice, on compromise, and on a sense of common humanity.
 
One delegate to the San Francisco Conference that led to the creation of the United Nations put it well: “Many people,” she said, “have talked as if all that has to be done to get peace was to say loudly and frequently that we loved peace and we hated war. Now we have learned that no matter how much we love peace and hate war, we cannot avoid having war brought upon us if there are convulsions in other parts of the world.”
 
The fact is peace is hard⁷. But our people demand it⁸. Over nearly seven decades, even as the United Nations helped avert a third world war, we still live in a world scarred by conflict and plagued by poverty⁹. Even as we proclaim our love for peace and our hatred of war, there are still convulsions in our world that endanger us all.
 
I took office at a time of two wars for the United States. Moreover, the violent extremists who drew us into war¹⁰in the first place -- Osama bin Laden, and his al Qaeda organization -- remained at large. Today, we've set a new direction.
 
At the end of this year, America’s military operation in Iraq will be over. We will have a normal relationship with a sovereign nation that is a member of the community of nations. That equal partnership¹¹ will be strengthened by our support for Iraq -- for its government and for its security forces, for its people and for their aspirations.
 
As we end the war in Iraq, the United States and our coalition partners have begun a transition in Afghanistan. Between now and 2014, an increasingly capable Afghan government¹² and security forces will step forward to take responsibility for the future of their country. As they do, we are drawing down our own forces, while building an enduring partnership with the Afghan people.
 
So let there be no doubt: The tide of war is receding. When I took office, roughly 180,000 Americans were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. By the end of this year, that number will be cut in half, and it will continue to decline. This is critical for the sovereignty of Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s also critical to the strength of the United States as we build our nation¹³ at home.

Moreover, we are poised to end these wars from a position of strength¹⁴. Ten years ago, there was an open wound and twisted steel, a broken heart in the center of this city. Today, as a new tower is rising at Ground Zero, it symbolizes New York’s renewal, even as al Qaeda is under more pressure¹⁵ than ever before. Its leadership has been degraded. And Osama bin¹⁶ Laden, a man who murdered thousands of people from dozens of countries, will never endanger the peace of the world again.
 
So, yes, this has been a difficult decade. But today, we stand at a crossroads of history with the chance to move decisively in the direction of peace¹⁷. To do so, we must return to the wisdom of those who created this institution. The United Nations’ Founding Charter calls upon us, “to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security.” And Article 1 of this General Assembly’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights reminds us that, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and in rights¹⁸.” Those bedrock beliefs -- in the responsibility of states, and the rights of men and women -- must be our guide¹⁹.
 
And in that effort, we have reason to hope. This year has been a time of extraordinary transformation. More nations have stepped forward to maintain²⁰ international peace and security. And more individuals are claiming their universal right to live in freedom and dignity²¹.
 
Think about it: One year ago, when we met here in New York, the prospect of a successful referendum in South Sudan was in doubt. But the international community overcame old divisions to support the agreement that had been negotiated to give South Sudan self-determination. And last summer, as a new flag went up in Juba, former soldiers laid down their arms, men and women wept with joy, and children finally knew the promise of looking to a future that they will shape.
 
One year ago, the people of Côte D’Ivoire approached a landmark election. And when the incumbent lost, and refused to respect the results, the world refused to look the other way. U.N. peacekeepers were harassed, but they did not leave their posts. The Security Council, led by the United States and Nigeria and France, came together to support the will of the people. And Côte D’Ivoire is now governed by the man who was elected to lead²².

One year ago, the hopes of the people of Tunisia were suppressed. But they chose the dignity of peaceful protest over the rule of an iron fist. A vendor lit a spark that took his own life, but he ignited a movement. In a face of a crackdown, students spelled out the word, "freedom." The balance of fear shifted from the ruler to those that he ruled. And now the people of Tunisia are preparing for elections that will move them one step closer to the democracy that they deserve²³.
 
One year ago, Egypt had known one President for nearly 30 years. But for 18 days, the eyes of the world were glued to Tahrir Square, where Egyptians from all walks of life -- men and women, young and old, Muslim and Christian -- demanded their universal rights²⁴. We saw in those protesters the moral force of non-violence that has lit the world from Delhi to Warsaw, from Selma to South Africa -- and we knew that change had come to Egypt and to the Arab world.

One year ago, the people of Libya were ruled by the world’s longest-serving dictator. But faced with bullets and bombs and a dictator who threatened to hunt them down like rats, they showed relentless bravery. We will never forget the words of the Libyan who stood up in those early days of the revolution and said, “Our words are free now.” It’s a feeling you can’t explain. Day after day, in the face of bullets and bombs, the Libyan people refused to give back that freedom²⁵. And when they were threatened by the kind of mass atrocity that often went unchallenged in the last century, the United Nations lived up to its charter. The Security Council authorized all necessary measures to prevent a massacre. The Arab League called for this effort; Arab nations joined a NATO-led coalition that halted Qaddafi’s forces in their tracks.

In the months that followed, the will of the coalition proved unbreakable, and the will of the Libyan people could not be denied. Forty-two years of tyranny was ended in six months. From Tripoli to Misurata to Benghazi -- today, Libya is free. Yesterday, the leaders of a new Libya took their rightful place beside us, and this week, the United States is reopening our embassy in Tripoli.

This is how the international community is supposed to work -- nations standing together for the sake of peace and security, and individuals claiming their rights. Now, all of us have a responsibility to support the new Libya -- the new Libyan government as they confront the challenge of turning this moment of promise into a just and lasting peace for all Libyans.
 
So this has been a remarkable year. The Qaddafi regime is over. Gbagbo, Ben Ali, Mubarak are no longer in power. Osama bin Laden is gone, and the idea that change could only come through violence has been buried with him. ²⁶Something is happening in our world. The way things have been is not the way that they will be. The humiliating grip of corruption and tyranny is being pried open. Dictators are on notice. Technology is putting power into the hands of the people. The youth are delivering a powerful rebuke to dictatorship, and rejecting the lie that some races, some peoples, some religions, some ethnicities do not desire democracy²⁷. The promise written down on paper -- “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” -- is closer at hand.
 
But let us remember: Peace is hard. Peace is hard. Progress can be reversed. Prosperity comes slowly. Societies can split apart. The measure of our success must be whether people can live in sustained freedom, dignity, and security²⁸. And the United Nations and its member states must do their part to support those basic aspirations. And we have more work to do.
 
In Iran, we've seen a government that refuses to recognize the rights of its own people²⁹. As we meet here today, men and women and children are being tortured, detained and murdered by the Syrian regime. Thousands have been killed, many during the holy time of Ramadan. Thousands more have poured across Syria’s borders. The Syrian people have shown dignity and courage in their pursuit of justice -- protesting peacefully, standing silently in the streets, dying for the same values that this institution is supposed to stand for. And the question for us is clear: Will we stand with the Syrian people, or with their oppressors?
 
Already, the United States has imposed strong sanctions on Syria’s leaders. We supported a transfer of power that is responsive to the Syrian people. And many of our allies have joined in this effort. But for the sake of Syria -- and the peace and security of the world -- we must speak with one voice. There's no excuse for inaction. Now is the time for the United Nations Security Council to sanction the Syrian regime, and to stand with the Syrian people.
 
Throughout the region, we will have to respond to the calls for change. In Yemen, men, women and children gather by the thousands in towns and city squares every day with the hope that their determination and spilled blood will prevail over a corrupt system. America supports those aspirations. We must work with Yemen’s neighbors and our partners around the world to seek a path that allows for a peaceful transition of power³⁰ from President Saleh, and a movement to free and fair elections as soon as possible.

In Bahrain, steps have been taken toward reform and accountability. We’re pleased with that, but more is required. America is a close friend of Bahrain, and we will continue to call on the government and the main opposition bloc -- the Wifaq -- to pursue a meaningful dialogue that brings peaceful change that is responsive to the people. We believe the patriotism that binds Bahrainis together must be more powerful than the sectarian forces that would tear them apart. It will be hard, but it is possible.
 
We believe that each nation must chart its own course to fulfill the aspirations of its people, and America does not expect to agree with every party or person who expresses themselves politically. But we will always stand up for the universal rights that were embraced by this Assembly. Those rights depend on elections that are free and fair³¹; on governance that is transparent and accountable; respect for the rights of women and minorities³²; justice that is equal and fair³³. That is what our people deserve. Those are the elements of peace³⁴ that can last.
 
Moreover, the United States will continue to support those nations that transition to democracy -- with greater trade and investment -- so that freedom is followed by opportunity. We will pursue a deeper engagement with governments, but also with civil society -- students and entrepreneurs, political parties and the press. We have banned those who abuse human rights from traveling to our country. And we’ve sanctioned those who trample on human rights abroad. And we will always serve as a voice for those who've been silenced.

Now, I know, particularly this week, that for many in this hall, there's one issue that stands as a test for these principles and a test for American foreign policy, and that is the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians³⁵.

One year ago, I stood at this podium and I called for an independent Palestine³⁶. I believed then, and I believe now, that the Palestinian people³⁷ deserve a state of their own. But what I also said is that a genuine peace can only be realized between the Israelis and the Palestinians themselves. One year later, despite extensive efforts by America and others, the parties have not bridged their differences³⁸. Faced with this stalemate, I put forward a new basis for negotiations in May of this year. That basis is clear. It’s well known to all of us here. Israelis must know that any agreement provides assurances for their security. Palestinians deserve to know the territorial basis of their state.
 
Now, I know that many are frustrated by the lack of progress. I assure you, so am I. But the question isn’t the goal³⁹ that we seek -- the question is how do we reach that goal⁴⁰. And I am convinced that there is no short cut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades. Peace is hard work. Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations -- if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now. Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians who must live side by side. Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians -- not us –- who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them: on borders and on security, on refugees and Jerusalem⁴¹.
 
Ultimately, peace depends upon compromise⁴² among people who must live together long after our speeches are over, long after our votes have been tallied. That’s the lesson of Northern Ireland, where ancient antagonists bridged their differences. That’s the lesson of Sudan, where a negotiated settlement led to an independent state. And that is and will be the path to a Palestinian state -- negotiations between the parties.
 
We seek a future where Palestinians live in a sovereign state of their own, with no limit to what they can achieve⁴³. There’s no question that the Palestinians have seen that vision delayed for too long. It is precisely because we believe so strongly in the aspirations⁴⁴ of the Palestinian people that America has invested so much time and so much effort in the building of a Palestinian state, and the negotiations that can deliver a Palestinian state.
 
But understand this as well: America’s commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable. Our friendship with Israel is deep and enduring. And so we believe that any lasting peace must acknowledge the very real security concerns that Israel faces every single day.

Let us be honest with ourselves: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. Israel’s citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. Israel’s children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them⁴⁵. Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, look out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile and persecution, and fresh memories of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they are. Those are facts. They cannot be denied.

The Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland. Israel deserves recognition. It deserves normal relations with its neighbors. And friends of the Palestinians do them no favors by ignoring this truth, just as friends of Israel must recognize the need to pursue a two-state solution⁴⁶ with a secure Israel next to an independent Palestine.
 
That is the truth -- each side has legitimate aspirations -- and that’s part of what makes peace so hard. And the deadlock will only be broken when each side learns to stand in the other’s shoes; each side can see the world through the other’s eyes. That’s what we should be encouraging. That’s what we should be promoting.

This body -- founded, as it was, out of the ashes of war and genocide, dedicated, as it is, to the dignity of every single person -- must recognize the reality that is lived by both the Palestinians and the Israelis. The measure of our actions must always be whether they advance the right of Israeli and Palestinian children to live lives of peace⁴⁷ and security and dignity and opportunity. And we will only succeed in that effort if we can encourage the parties to sit down, to listen to each other, and to understand each other’s hopes and each other’s fears. That is the project to which America is committed. There are no shortcuts. And that is what the United Nations should be focused on in the weeks and months to come.

Now, even as we confront these challenges of conflict and revolution, we must also recognize -- we must also remind ourselves -- that peace is not just the absence of war.⁴⁸ True peace depends on creating the opportunity that makes life worth living. And to do that, we must confront the common enemies of humanity: nuclear weapons and poverty, ignorance and disease. These forces corrode the possibility of lasting peace and together we're called upon to confront them.

To lift the specter of mass destruction, we must come together to pursue the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. Over the last two years, we've begun to walk down that path. Since our Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, nearly 50 nations have taken steps to secure nuclear materials from terrorists and smugglers. Next March, a summit in Seoul will advance our efforts to lock down all of them. The New START Treaty between the United States and Russia will cut our deployed arsenals to the lowest level in half a century, and our nations are pursuing talks on how to achieve even deeper reductions. America will continue to work for a ban on the testing of nuclear weapons and the production of fissile material needed to make them.⁴⁹

And so we have begun to move in the right direction. And the United States is committed to meeting our obligations. But even as we meet our obligations, we’ve strengthened the treaties and institutions that help stop the spread of these weapons. And to do so, we must continue to hold accountable those nations that flout them.

The Iranian government cannot demonstrate that its program is peaceful. It has not met its obligations and it rejects offers that would provide it with peaceful nuclear power. North Korea has yet to take concrete steps towards abandoning its weapons and continues belligerent action against the South. There's a future of greater opportunity for the people of these nations if their governments meet their international obligations. But if they continue down a path that is outside international law, they must be met with greater pressure and isolation. That is what our commitment to peace and security demands.

To bring prosperity to our people, we must promote the growth that creates opportunity. In this effort, let us not forget that we’ve made enormous progress over the last several decades. Closed societies gave way to open markets. Innovation and entrepreneurship has transformed the way we live and the things that we do. Emerging economies from Asia to the Americas have lifted hundreds of millions of people from poverty. It’s an extraordinary achievement. And yet, three years ago, we were confronted with the worst financial crisis in eight decades. And that crisis proved a fact that has become clearer with each passing year -- our fates are interconnected. In a global economy, nations will rise, or fall, together.

And today, we confront the challenges that have followed on the heels of that crisis. Around the world recovery is still fragile. Markets remain volatile. Too many people are out of work. Too many others are struggling just to get by. We acted together to avert a depression in 2009. We must take urgent and coordinated action once more. Here in the United States, I've announced a plan to put Americans back to work and jumpstart our economy, at the same time as I’m committed to substantially reducing our deficits over time.

We stand with our European allies as they reshape their institutions and address their own fiscal challenges. For other countries, leaders face a different challenge as they shift their economy towards more self-reliance, boosting domestic demand while slowing inflation. So we will work with emerging economies that have rebounded strongly, so that rising standards of living create new markets that promote global growth. That’s what our commitment to prosperity demands.

To combat the poverty that punishes our children, we must act on the belief that freedom from want is a basic human right.⁵⁰ The United States has made it a focus of our engagement abroad to help people to feed themselves. And today, as drought and conflict have brought famine to the Horn of Africa, our conscience calls on us to act. Together, we must continue to provide assistance, and support organizations that can reach those in need. And together, we must insist on unrestricted humanitarian access so that we can save the lives of thousands of men and women and children. Our common humanity is at stake. Let us show that the life of a child in Somalia is as precious as any other. That is what our commitment to our fellow human beings demand.

To stop disease that spreads across borders, we must strengthen our system of public health. We will continue the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. We will focus on the health of mothers and of children. And we must come together to prevent, and detect, and fight every kind of biological danger -- whether it’s a pandemic like H1N1, or a terrorist threat, or a treatable disease.

This week, America signed an agreement with the World Health Organization to affirm our commitment to meet this challenge. And today, I urge all nations to join us in meeting the HWO’s [sic] goal of making sure all nations have core capacities to address public health emergencies in place by 2012. That is what our commitment to the health of our people demands.

To preserve our planet, we must not put off action that climate change demands⁵¹. We have to tap the power of science to save those resources that are scarce. And together, we must continue our work to build on the progress made in Copenhagen and Cancun, so that all the major economies here today follow through on the commitments that were made. Together, we must work to transform the energy that powers our economies, and support others as they move down that path. That is what our commitment to the next generation demands.

And to make sure our societies reach their potential, we must allow our citizens to reach theirs. No country can afford the corruption that plagues the world like a cancer. Together, we must harness the power of open societies and open economies. That’s why we’ve partnered with countries from across the globe to launch a new partnership on open government that helps ensure accountability and helps to empower citizens. No country should deny people their rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion,⁵² but also no country should deny people their rights because of who they love⁵³, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere.

And no country can realize its potential if half its population cannot reach theirs⁵⁴. This week, the United States signed a new Declaration on Women’s Participation. Next year, we should each announce the steps we are taking to break down the economic and political barriers that stand in the way of women and girls. This is what our commitment to human progress demands.
 
I know there’s no straight line to that progress, no single path to success. We come from different cultures, and carry with us different histories. But let us never forget that even as we gather here as heads of different governments, we represent citizens who share the same basic aspirations -- to live with dignity and freedom; to get an education and pursue opportunity; to love our families, and love and worship our God; to live in the kind of peace that makes life worth living.

It is the nature of our imperfect world that we are forced to learn these lessons over and over again. Conflict and repression will endure so long as some people refuse to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Yet that is precisely why we have built institutions like this -- to bind our fates together, to help us recognize ourselves in each other -- because those who came before us believed that peace is preferable to war, and freedom is preferable to suppression, and prosperity is preferable to poverty. That’s the message that comes not from capitals, but from citizens, from our people.

And when the cornerstone of this very building was put in place, President Truman came here to New York and said, “The United Nations is essentially an expression of the moral nature of man’s aspirations.” The moral nature of man’s aspirations. As we live in a world that is changing at a breathtaking pace, that’s a lesson that we must never forget.

Peace is hard, but we know that it is possible. So, together, let us be resolved to see that it is defined by our hopes and not by our fears. Together, let us make peace, but a peace, most importantly, that will last.

Thank you very much. (Applause.)

 

---

 

1. A statesman worthy of the honor of addressing the General Assembly would direct his words to them, not to the Communists and greedy grabbers who make up his electoral support base. If truly worthy of that honor, he would restrict his remarks to the subject at hand instead of wandering through the pages of the catalog of Communist talking points.  
2. War is not a function of poverty, deprivation, ignorance, disease or starvation. All too frequently, those evils are consequences of war. War is a function of the intersection of greed, lust for power and opportunity.  War is a function of predators.  Predators seek opportunity in the form of weakness.  When a predator senses weakness or lack of will  to resist in potential prey, it attacks.   If you don't want to be preyed upon, eliminate the predators.  If you can't eliminate them, demonstrate possession of the will and ability to effectively defend yourself when attacked.  Peace is an abstract concept, not something to be pursued. If you seek peace, pursue predators; hunt them to extinction and convince potential predators that you are able and willing to end their existence if they attack. .
3. "Thou shalt not covet they Neighbor's..." If that commandment was obeyed, conflicts would not lead to war. If two men want the same land or the same woman, there is conflict and a potential for violence. If there is a strong police presence, clearly perceived by both parties, there will be no violence if both parties are sane and sober. Internationally, the UN ideal was to serve as the policeman.
4. Poverty, ignorance and disease are not the causes of the ongoing war between Islam and Israel.  Islam's war against Jews, which began in the 7^th century with Moe's raids on the Jewish settlements around Medina, resulted from hatred and envy. Moe wove bits of Jewish scripture into his new cult in hopes of winning the Jews over to it. Instead, most saw through his deception and rejected Islam.  Moe wanted their land and wealth, so he fabricated pretexts, demonised the Jews,  roused the Islamic rabble to fight and launched his attacks.For proof of Moe's mercenary motivation, refer to my blog post: Islam's Mercenary Mission.

        Moe  went out to the Jews, told them that he owned the earth and desired to expel them, demanding that they embrace Islam in return for safety. This is related in Sahih Bukhari 4.53.392.  Asked about his priorities for conquest, Moe expressed a preference for the Roman Province of Syria, based on Allah's having "on my account taken special charge of Syria and its people". That is recorded in Sunan Abu Dawud 14.2477.

        Caliph Umar "sent the Muslims to the great countries to fight the pagans.", as recorded in Sahih Bukhari 4.53.386. Umar completed the conquest of Syria in 638. That is the root of the current war.  Islam regards all land conquered by Muslims to be Waqf, in irrevocable sacred trust; it must not be relinquished. For the details, refer to the Charter of HAMAS, Part III, Article 11.  Allah promised victory, see 8:65 & 13:41. 

        When Kuffar reconquer land conquered by Islam, an intolerable condition is created: Allah is exposed as an impotent idol because he had promised victory.  Muslims could not tolerate the demonstration of impotence consequent on the Crusades and reconquered the Levant.  Then they fought on the wrong side of WW1 and lost again.  Britain, with the Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations, restored part of Israel's patrimony which had been stolen by Muslims in 638. Muslims can't let that stand, so they went to war in 1948.  If they wanted a state of their own, along side Israel, they would have accepted the partition plan.  But they are not interested in a state, they are interested in a restored caliphate on all waqf land, and expanding on a global scale so they made war instead of peace. 

        Allah's jihad imperative against Jews is clear and unambiguous,  translated with great clarity by J.M. Rodwell.  Moe confirmed it, Tafsir Ibn Kathir explains it and Reliance of the Traveller codifies it into Islamic law.  Exactly what part of this does President Barack Hussein Obama, as a Muslim, not comprehend?

   9:29 . Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in God, or in the last day, and who forbid not that which God and His Apostle have forbidden, and who profess not the profession of the truth, until they pay tribute out of hand, and they be humbled.  [The Order to fight People of the Scriptures until They give the Jizyah] ["I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.'] [The caliph (o25) makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians ]
   
        Allah said that "He would certainly keep on sending against them (i.e. the Jews), till the Day of Resurrection, those who would afflict them with a humiliating torment. ". That promise is contained in 7:167.  Tafsir Ibn Kathir tells us that Jesus will return to lead the Muslims in the final genocide against the Jews.  A hadith, recorded by Bukhari & Muslim, informs us that the gates of Paradise will not swing open for Muslims until they hunt down and kill the last Jew. 
   [In the future, the Jews will support the Dajjal (False Messiah); and the Muslims, along with `Isa, son of Mary, will kill the Jews. This will occur just before the end of this world.]  ["The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."] 
   
   Poverty, ignorance & disease are not the causes of this war; it is caused by the damnable doctrines of Islam and no other cause.  Peace will only be obtained by removing Islam from the region and the world. If Muslims do not quit believing or quit living, they will not quit waging war against Jews. 
5. In Islam, peace is the condition appertaining when Dar Ul-Harb is completely conquered and engulfed by Dar Ul-Islam; it is the fruit of conquest.  Islam does not make peace.
   47:35. So be not weak and ask not for peace (from the enemies of Islâm), while you are having the upper hand. Allâh is with you, and will never decrease the reward of your good deeds. 
   
   That ayeh is quoted by Reliance of the Traveller O9.16, which informs us that truces can only last ten years and are important matters best reserved for the caliph because " it is a matter of the gravest consequence because it entails the nonperformance of jihad, whether globally or in a given locality, and our interests must be looked after therein, which is why it is best left to the caliph under any circumstances,". 
6. Peace has nothing to do with dignity, prosperity, social justice or any other item in the Communist litany. Peace is the absence of war and threat of war. If either war or the threat thereof are present, peace is not.  The condition precedent for peace is the total defeat of the aggressor. In the case of Islam, that requires the destruction of Islamic faith. While Muslims continue to believe, Islam is not defeated and there will be no peace. 
7. Peace is not hard, it is impossible. While human nature remains what it is, there will always be greedy or narcissistic megalomaniacs who assert a divine commission to conquer and rule the world.  The proximate solution to this insoluble problem is to bring about the death of those megalomaniacs and the defeat of their armies so that they permanently lose the will to wage war.  Maintaining the fragile peace is only possible by manifesting such military strength and resolute will that  warmongers are deterred from mounting attacks for fear of destruction.  
8. You have the power, but not the will to deliver peace. Harry Truman showed the way in August of 1945.
9. That maundering anal orifice is deliberately conflating cause and effect. Wars cause poverty, poverty does not cause wars. Islamic aggression has a  is driven by Islamic doctrine which has a mercenary motivation. Muslims are threatened with eternity in the fire if they sit at home and promised eternity in gardens flowing with rivers of wine if they wage jihad. While Muslims believe those threats and promises, peace is impossible.  
10. Islam has a standard, set by Moe's recitation & sunnah. When one reads the Qur'an & hadith, one discovers the fatal fact that normative Islam is genocidally violent by design.  Usama bin Ladin was a believer, not an extremist. He acted in obedience to Allah; in emulation of Moe.
11. Allah expressly forbids partnership with Kuffar in several ayat including: 3:28,  3:118,  4:144,  5:51, 5:57,   
12. Capable of what? Are they capable of preventing the creation and maintenance of terrorist training camps?  Are they willing to prevent the creation and maintenance of terrorist training camps?  Can they protect secular Muslims from the Taliban?  Are they willing to protect the secular Muslims?  I see no evidence of either capacity or will.
13. We can not restore what you have destroyed unless we first get rid of you and your willing associates in Congress. That process will not be rebuilding, it will be tearing down the counterproductive policies and regulations you have enacted.  
14. What strength? Our inventories of cruise missiles and smart bombs have been depleted. Our forces are over extended. Our troops are exhausted from excessively long combat rotations and many are losing life and limb as a result of your suicidal rules of engagement.  In the best case, strength is weakness if not accompanied by resolve; the will to completely destroy the enemy.  While Islam exists, we have no victory, we have a defeat.
15. Al-Qaeda is not the enemy, it is one of many brigades. Islam is the enemy, no matter what name it operates under. HAMAS, Hezbollah, PLO and Al-Qaeda are one; they are Islam. 
16. One down, one billion to go. Killing one General does not end the war. Leaders can be replaced, like shark's teath, when one falls, another steps forward to take his place. Winning the war and establishing peace requires killing the shark. 
17. Peace is a compound condition, not a direction. Peace is the absence of war & threat of war. Peace can not be obtained while Islam exists. Progress toward peace is only made by inducing the apostasy or death of Muslims.
18. The UN may declare that everyone is born free & dignified, but Islam denies it. Moe's denial is clear on the face of Sahih Bukhari 1.8.387, which confirms the jihad imperatives. When disbelievers recite Shehade and follow Islam's rules & rituals, then "their blood and property will be sacred to us".  Our blood and property are not sacred to Muslims until we become Muslims.  ""Whoever says, 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah', faces our Qibla during the prayers, prays like us and eats our slaughtered animal, then he is a Muslim, and has got the same rights and obligations as other Muslims have."".  We have no rights or dignity until we become Muslims!  Exactly what part of that does Barack Hussein Obama, a Muslim, not comprehend? 
19. How about the right of citizens of Israel to live in peace on their own land, free from assault, attack and abduction, without a constant rain of rockets & mortar shells?  It is not possible for Jews to enjoy those rights in Israel while there are Muslims within rocket range.  Israel will have no peace until their enemy is eliminated from the region.  Falestinians do not have any rights that Jews do not have. No matter what 'rights', privileges or prosperity you provide to them, they need to exterminate the Jews.  That fatal fact will not change until they quit believing in Allah or quit living. Nothing can alter this objective factual reality. Malignant maundery does not cut the mustard.
20. You can not maintain what does not exist.  Peace and security can not be maintained because they do not exist. Peace and security do not exist because Islam exists. 
21. They can only claim their rights and dignity by breaking Allah's yoke of slavery and rejoining the human race. While they are Muslims, they are Allah's slaves, with no rights or dignity, they fight in Allah's cause, killing others and being killed. The "Arab spring" is not about rights and dignity, it is about exchanging one tyrant for another.  Exchanging one tyrant for another is change without improvement.
22. Three years ago, we stupidly elected you. We are worse off for it.  I wrote in Alan Keyes.  
23. Democracy is mob rule.  How is mob rule superior to any tyrant?  Tyranny of the majority is still tyranny. Tunisia is still misruled by Muslims and will remain so for the foreseeable future.  Improvement can only come with secular, limited government.
24. A few demanded universal rights, those with guns demanded Shari'ah. Guess who prevailed.  Exchanging one tyrant for another is not an improvement. The Arab spring is a flood of blood.
25. They have no freedom, they are Allah's slaves. They have toppled one tyrant to enthrone another, gaining nothing. The only improvement is a small reduction in the number of Muslims in the world.
26. "Change" is an Obama campaign slogan. Change is not synonymous with improvement.  The change they want is global conquest. Who gives a damn how they accomplish that objective?  Ballot or bullet, its a bad outcome!  Electing Obama changed things for the worse. Islamic attacks and conquest change things for the worse. We need to roll back both of them.
27. 33:36. It is not for a believer, man or woman, when Allâh and His Messenger have decreed a matter that they should have any option in their decision. And whoever disobeys Allâh and His Messenger, he has indeed strayed in a plain error.    Moe ruled by decree, and he is the exemplar for Muslims to emulate. 33:21. Indeed in the Messenger of Allâh (Muhammad ) you have a good example to follow for him who hopes in (the Meeting with) Allâh and the Last Day and remembers Allâh much  Islamic law is what Moe said and did; so much for democracy in Islam.
28. People can not live in freedom when they are Allah's slaves.  They need to throw off Allah's yoke and rejoin the human race.  Until they do, everyone else is in danger from them, with neither peace nor security. 
29. What did you do about it when the green revolt began?  You allowed it to be suppressed.  What will you do when their next protest is launched?  You will sit idly by and watch the suppression, just as you did last time.
30. Peaceful transition to what?  From one tyrant to another. Replacing one loaded diaper with another is change without improvement.
31. Free & fair, such as where ballot boxes were stuffed in Alaska and New Black Panthers swung batons at the entrance to a polling place?  Or "one man, one vote, one time"?
32. Such as the rights of women in Saudi Arabia? And the rights of Christians in Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia? 
33. Free & fair, such as requiring two female witnesses to match that of one male? Such as barring Christians from giving testimony?  
34. Elections, justice and rights are not elements of peace. War is a function of greed, avarice, the lust for power & Islamic doctrine. Peace is a function of the absence of those evils.  At he height of its Empire building, Rome had an elected senate, did that stop their conquest?  Hitler was elected, too.
35. It is the genocidal intention of Islam toward Jews.  The gates of Paradise won't swing open until they kill the last Jew. Get a clue from Sahih Bukhari 4.52.177.
36. How much money have we given them?  How much did they get from the UN & EU?  How much did Arafat & his cronies bank?  You want them to be independent? Then quit enabling their dependency. Cut off the flow of tribute.
37. Two World Net Daily articles contain vital information which is necessary to understand this crucial issue.

        * We have all been had!
        * Palestinian people do not exist

        Here is a vital excerpt from the second article.

        Way back on March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

            The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

            For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.

38. Islam demands genocide & politicide; Israel demands the right to live in peace in their own homeland. How do you hope to bridge that difference?  Islam demands total surrender from the start. No negotiation is possible. Israel can not obtain peace without pushing the Muslims back beyond rocket range.  The land belongs to Israel, was stolen in 638 & 1948. Israel won it back when the Muslims attacked again in 1967. There is no excuse for demanding that Israel yield that land.
39. The goal is just peace: Israel alone, secure in her own homeland without attack and the threat thereof.
40. The goal can be reached by removing Muslims from the region, inducing mass apostasy or ushering them into Hell. There are no alternatives.
41. Would you give half of Washington D.C. to the Confederacy? Who would get the Capitol?  Who would get the White House?  Exactly why in Hell should Israel give their enemies one blessed centimeter of their homeland?  In 1948 King Hussein seized half of Jerusalem, promising to all ow access. What really happened?  How did Jewish tomb stones wind up in latrines?  Why were Jews completely excluded from the Temple Mount?  Exactly why should Jerusalem revert to those conditions?  Exactly why should Muslims be firing rockets and artillery from the Golan Heights and the peaks of the Jordan Rift Valley?  The Muslims left the land they were squatting on with assurances that Jews would be driven into the sea so that the Muslims could hold the entire area. Their genocide failed.  Why in Hell should Israel let them return with their brood, to try again? 
42. "Long live Israel." || "From the river to the sea."  How do you compromise with genocide.  God  bless you, I want to know: exactly how in Hell do you compromise with genocide. Answer this question in a comment, please.  "Ok, just kill 4 million of us." Great idea, right? 
43. They want to achieve three things, reconquer Israel, merge the region into a caliphate and conquer the rest of the world. No limits! What a great idea.
44. Damned fools and traitors assert that Falestinians have 'legitimate aspirations', operating on the assumption that the hierarchy of needs we all learned about in Psychology 101 applies to Muslims.  Unfortunately, it does not. Lets get real.  Islam is not about live long and prosper, it is about die fighting and get into the celestial bordello.  Islam values Allah's celestial bordello over this worldly life.

    9:111. Verily, Allâh has purchased of the believers their lives and their properties; for the price that theirs shall be the Paradise. They fight in Allâh's Cause, so they kill (others) and are killed. It is a promise in truth which is binding on Him in the Taurât (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel) and the Qur'ân. And who is truer to his covenant than Allâh? Then rejoice in the bargain which you have concluded. That is the supreme success .

    9:38. O you who believe! What is the matter with you, that when you are asked to march forth in the Cause of Allâh (i.e. Jihâd) you cling heavily to the earth? Are you pleased with the life of this world rather than the Hereafter? But little is the enjoyment of the life of this world as compared with the Hereafter.

    47:36.  The life of this world is but play and pastime, but if you believe (in the Oneness of Allâh Islâmic Monotheism), and fear Allâh, and avoid evil, He will grant you your wages, and will not ask you your wealth.

    8:28. And know that your possessions and your children are but a trial and that surely with Allâh is a mighty reward.

    34:37. And it is not your wealth, nor your children that bring you nearer to Us (i.e. pleases Allâh), but only he (will please Us) who believes (in the Islâmic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds; as for such, there will be twofold reward for what they did, and they will reside in the high dwellings (Paradise) in peace and security.

    63:9. O you who believe! Let not your properties or your children divert you from the remembrance of Allâh. And whosoever does that, then they are the losers. 

45. The Oslo Accords contain a provision requiring the cessation of inculcating hatred & inciting violence.  Arafat never implemented that provision. No Muslim ever will.  Like Lucy snatching the ball away from Charlie Brown, the Muslims will never negotiate in good faith.
46. Two states: Israel & Trans Jordan. What happened in 1948?  What happened in 1967?  Can you get a clue?
47. Ever heard of the Maillot Massacre?  How about the murder of the Fogel family?  Then there was an anti-tank rocket fired at a school bus, killing one boy and injuring the driver.  Israeli children will only live peacefully and securely when the world is an Islam free zone.
48. That kind of blather induces incontinence. Barack Hussein Obama is merging his Socialist agenda into the peace issue. When there is war or the threat of war there is no peace.  When there are Muslims, there is no peace.  Peace and Islam are polar opposites.  Peace is not a function of prosperity, wealth, social justice, etc.  Peace is a function of the extinction of predators, extraneous issues should not be conflated with peace. 
49. Pandora's box is open, the lid is lost and the demons are loose.    Proliferation happened and it can not be reversed. Anyone who trusts Communists or Muslims who have nukes is a suicidal idiot.
50. Once again, the specter of International Socialism, aka. Communism raises its ugly head and bares its fangs.  Obama is not satisfied with wrecking the American economy, he wants to wreck the whole world and make us pay for it. 
51. Anthropomorphic climate change is a proven fraud. That spew of malarkey from President Obama is a great embarrassment to the nation who stupidly elected him three years ago.  There is nothing more deleterious to our economy than his cap and tax plan. The need for economic growth militates against that malicious policy.
52. Freedom of speech, such as Pakistan's blasphemy law, which they are trying to impose through the UN? . Freedom of religion such as Egyptian Copts are experiences with assaults, murders and arson with impunity? 
53. Shari'ah prescribes the death penalty for homosexuality. Iran hangs Queers.
54. In Islam. women are chattel; men own them.  Exactly how do you hope to change that?