Benjamin Netenyahu gave these quotes at the end of his speech to the combined houses of Congress.
Deuteronomy 31:6
חִזְקוּ וְאִמְצוּ, אַל-תִּירְאוּ וְאַל-תַּעַרְצוּ מִפְּנֵיהֶם:
"Be strong and resolute, neither fear nor dread them"
The full video of the speech can be found at
https://www.youtube.com/embed/wRf1cdw4IAY?autoplay=1
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Congress Tuesday about the emerging nuclear deal with Iran.
Here is the full transcript:
Thank you Thank you…
… Speaker of the House John Boehner, President Pro Tem Senator Orrin
Hatch, Senator Minority — Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. I also want to acknowledge Senator, Democratic Leader Harry Reid. Harry, it’s good to see you back on your feet. I guess it’s true what they say, you can’t keep a good man down.
My friends, I’m deeply humbled by the opportunity to speak for a
third time before the most important legislative body in the world, the
U.S. Congress. I want to thank you all for being here today. I know that
my speech has been the subject of much controversy. I deeply regret that
some perceive my being here as political. That was never my intention.
I want to thank you, Democrats and Republicans, for your common support for Israel, year after year, decade after decade. I know that no matter on which side of the aisle you sit, you stand with Israel.
The remarkable alliance between Israel and the United States has
always been above politics. It must always remain above politics. Because America and Israel, we share a common destiny, the destiny of
promised lands that cherish freedom and offer hope. Israel is grateful
for the support of American — of America’s people and of America’s
presidents, from Harry Truman to Barack Obama. We appreciate all that President Obama has done for Israel.
Some of that is widely known, like strengthening security cooperation
and intelligence sharing, opposing anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N. Some of what the president has done for Israel is less well- known. I called him in 2010 when we had the Carmel forest fire, and he immediately agreed to respond to my request for urgent aid. In 2011, we had our embassy in Cairo under siege, and again, he provided vital assistance at the crucial moment. Or his support for more missile interceptors during our operation last summer when we took on Hamas terrorists. In each of those moments, I called the president, and he was there. And some of what the president has done for Israel might never be
known, because it touches on some of the most sensitive and strategic
issues that arise between an American president and an Israeli prime
minister.
But I know it, and I will always be grateful to President Obama for that support. And Israel is grateful to you, the American Congress, for
your support, for supporting us in so many ways. Last summer, millions of Israelis were protected from thousands of
Hamas rockets because this capital dome helped build our Iron Dome. Thank you, America. Thank you for everything you’ve done for Israel.
My friends, I’ve come here today because, as prime minister of
Israel, I feel a profound obligation to speak to you about an issue that
could well threaten the survival of my country and the future of my
people: Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons. We’re an ancient people. In our nearly 4,000 years of history, many
have tried repeatedly to destroy the Jewish people. Tomorrow night, on
the Jewish holiday of Purim, we’ll read the Book of Esther. We’ll read
of a powerful Persian viceroy named Haman, who plotted to destroy the
Jewish people some 2,500 years ago. But a courageous Jewish woman, Queen
Esther, exposed the plot and gave for the Jewish people the right to
defend themselves against their enemies. The plot was foiled.
Our people were saved.
Today the Jewish people face another attempt by yet another Persian
potentate to destroy us. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei spews the oldest hatred of anti-Semitism with the newest
technology. He tweets that Israel must be annihilated. You
know, in Iran, there isn’t exactly free Internet. But he tweets in
English that Israel must be destroyed.
For those who believe that Iran threatens the Jewish state, but not
the Jewish people, listen to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah,
Iran’s chief terrorist proxy. He said, "If all the Jews gather in Israel,
it will save us the trouble of chasing them down around the world." But Iran’s regime is not merely a Jewish problem, any more than the
Nazi regime was merely a Jewish problem. The 6 million Jews murdered by
the Nazis were but a fraction of the 60 million people killed in World
War II. So, too, Iran’s regime poses a grave threat, not only to Israel,
but also the peace of the entire world. To understand just how
dangerous Iran would be with nuclear weapons, we must fully understand
the nature of the regime.
The people of Iran are very talented people. They’re heirs
to one of the world’s great civilizations. But in 1979, they were
hijacked by religious zealots — religious zealots who imposed on them
immediately a dark and brutal dictatorship. That year, the zealots drafted a constitution, a new one for Iran. It
directed the revolutionary guards not only to protect Iran’s borders,
but also to fulfill the ideological mission of jihad. The regime’s
founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, exhorted his followers to “export the
revolution throughout the world.”
I’m standing here in Washington, D.C. and the difference is so stark.
America’s founding document promises life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. Iran’s founding document pledges death, tyranny, and the
pursuit of jihad. And as states are collapsing across the Middle East,
Iran is charging into the void to do just that. Iran’s goons in Gaza, its lackeys in Lebanon, its revolutionary
guards on the Golan Heights are clutching Israel with three tentacles of
terror. Backed by Iran, Assad is slaughtering Syrians. Back by Iran,
Shiite militias are rampaging through Iraq. Back by Iran, Houthis are
seizing control of Yemen, threatening the strategic straits at the mouth
of the Red Sea. Along with the Straits of Hormuz, that would give Iran a
second choke-point on the world’s oil supply.
Just last week, near Hormuz, Iran carried out a military
exercise blowing up a mock U.S. aircraft carrier.
That’s just last week,
while they’re having nuclear talks with the United States. But
unfortunately, for the last 36 years, Iran’s attacks against the United
States have been anything but mock. And the targets have been all too
real. Iran took dozens of Americans hostage in Tehran, murdered hundreds of
American soldiers, Marines, in Beirut, and was responsible for killing
and maiming thousands of American service men and women in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Beyond the Middle East, Iran attacks America and its allies through
its global terror network. It blew up the Jewish community center and
the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. It helped Al Qaida bomb U.S.
embassies in Africa. It even attempted to assassinate the Saudi
ambassador, right here in Washington, D.C.
In the Middle East, Iran now dominates four Arab capitals, Baghdad,
Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa. And if Iran’s aggression is left unchecked,
more will surely follow. So, at a time when many hope that Iran will join the community of nations, Iran is busy gobbling up the nations.
We must all stand together to stop Iran’s march of conquest, subjugation and terror. Now, two years ago, we were told to give President Rouhani and
Foreign Minister Zarif a chance to bring change and moderation to Iran.
Some change! Some moderation! Rouhani’s government hangs gays,
persecutes Christians, jails journalists and executes even more
prisoners than before.
Last year, the same Zarif who charms Western diplomats laid a wreath
at the grave of Imad Mughniyeh. Imad Mughniyeh is the terrorist
mastermind who spilled more American blood than any other terrorist
besides Osama bin Laden. I’d like to see someone ask him a question
about that.
Iran’s regime is as radical as ever, its cries of “Death to America,”
that same America that it calls the “Great Satan,” as loud as ever.
Now, this shouldn’t be surprising, because the ideology of Iran’s
revolutionary regime is deeply rooted in militant Islam, and that’s why
this regime will always be an enemy of America. Don’t be fooled. The battle between Iran and ISIS doesn’t turn Iran into a friend of America. Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam. One
calls itself the Islamic Republic. The other calls itself the Islamic
State. Both want to impose a militant Islamic empire first on the region
and then on the entire world. They just disagree among themselves who
will be the ruler of that empire.
In this deadly game of thrones, there’s no place for America or for
Israel, no peace for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don’t share the
Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for
anyone. So when it comes to Iran and ISIS, the enemy of your
enemy is your enemy. The difference is that ISIS is armed with butcher knives, captured
weapons and YouTube, whereas Iran could soon be armed with
intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs. We must always
remember — I’ll say it one more time — the greatest dangers facing our
world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat
ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but
lose the war. We can’t let that happen.
But that, my friends, is exactly what could happen, if the deal now
being negotiated is accepted by Iran. That deal will not prevent Iran
from developing nuclear weapons. It would all but guarantee that Iran
gets those weapons, lots of them.
Let me explain why. While the final deal has not yet been signed,
certain elements of any potential deal are now a matter of public
record. You don’t need intelligence agencies and secret information to
know this. You can Google it. Absent a dramatic change, we know for sure that any deal with Iran will include two major concessions to Iran.
The first major concession would leave Iran with a vast nuclear
infrastructure, providing it with a short break-out time to the bomb.
Break-out time is the time it takes to amass enough weapons-grade
uranium or plutonium for a nuclear bomb. According to the deal, not a single nuclear facility would be
demolished. Thousands of centrifuges used to enrich uranium would be
left spinning. Thousands more would be temporarily disconnected, but not
destroyed.
Because Iran’s nuclear program would be left largely intact, Iran’s
break-out time would be very short — about a year by U.S. assessment,
even shorter by Israel’s. And if — if Iran’s work on advanced centrifuges, faster and faster
centrifuges, is not stopped, that break-out time could still be shorter,
a lot shorter. True, certain restrictions would be imposed on Iran’s nuclear program
and Iran’s adherence to those restrictions would be supervised by
international inspectors.
But here’s the problem. You see, inspectors
document violations; they don’t stop them. Inspectors knew when North Korea broke to the bomb, but that didn’t
stop anything. North Korea turned off the cameras, kicked out the
inspectors. Within a few years, it got the bomb. Now, we’re warned that within five years North Korea could have an arsenal of 100 nuclear bombs.
Like North Korea, Iran, too, has defied international inspectors.
It’s done that on at least three separate occasions — 2005, 2006, 2010.
Like North Korea, Iran broke the locks, shut off the cameras. Now, I know this is not gonna come a shock — as a shock to
any of you, but Iran not only defies inspectors, it also plays a pretty
good game of hide-and-cheat with them.
The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, said again yesterday
that Iran still refuses to come clean about its military nuclear
program. Iran was also caught — caught twice, not once, twice —
operating secret nuclear facilities in Natanz and Qom, facilities that
inspectors didn’t even know existed. Right now, Iran could be hiding nuclear facilities that we don’t know
about, the U.S. and Israel. As the former head of inspections for the
IAEA said in 2013, he said, “If there’s no undeclared installation today
in Iran, it will be the first time in 20 years that it doesn’t have
one.”
Iran has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted. And
that’s why the first major concession is a source of great concern. It
leaves Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure and relies on inspectors
to prevent a breakout. That concession creates a real danger that Iran
could get to the bomb by violating the deal.
But the second major concession creates an even greater danger that
Iran could get to the bomb by keeping the deal. Because virtually all
the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program will automatically expire in
about a decade. Now, a decade may seem like a long time in political life,
but it’s the blink of an eye in the life of a nation. It’s a blink of
an eye in the life of our children. We all have a responsibility to
consider what will happen when Iran’s nuclear capabilities are virtually
unrestricted and all the sanctions will have been lifted. Iran would
then be free to build a huge nuclear capacity that could product many,
many nuclear bombs.
Iran’s Supreme Leader says that openly. He says, Iran plans to have
190,000 centrifuges, not 6,000 or even the 19,000 that Iran has today,
but 10 times that amount — 190,000 centrifuges enriching uranium. With
this massive capacity, Iran could make the fuel for an entire nuclear
arsenal and this in a matter of weeks, once it makes that decision.
My long-time friend, John Kerry, Secretary of State, confirmed last
week that Iran could legitimately possess that massive centrifuge
capacity when the deal expires. Now I want you to think about that. The foremost sponsor of global
terrorism could be weeks away from having enough enriched uranium for an
entire arsenal of nuclear weapons and this with full international
legitimacy. And by the way, if Iran’s Intercontinental Ballistic Missile program
is not part of the deal, and so far, Iran refuses to even put it on the
negotiating table. Well, Iran could have the means to deliver that
nuclear arsenal to the far-reach corners of the Earth, including to
every part of the United States.
So you see, my friends, this deal has two major
concessions: one, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program and two,
lifting the restrictions on that program in about a decade. That’s why
this deal is so bad. It doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb; it paves
Iran’s path to the bomb.
So why would anyone make this deal? Because they hope that Iran will
change for the better in the coming years, or they believe that the
alternative to this deal is worse? Well, I disagree. I don’t believe that Iran’s radical regime will
change for the better after this deal. This regime has been in power for
36 years, and its voracious appetite for aggression grows with each
passing year. This deal would wet appetite — would only wet Iran’s
appetite for more.
Would Iran be less aggressive when sanctions are removed and its
economy is stronger? If Iran is gobbling up four countries right now
while it’s under sanctions, how many more countries will Iran devour
when sanctions are lifted? Would Iran fund less terrorism when it has
mountains of cash with which to fund more terrorism?
Why should Iran’s radical regime change for the better when it can
enjoy the best of both world’s: aggression abroad, prosperity at home? This is a question that everyone asks in our region. Israel’s
neighbors — Iran’s neighbors know that Iran will become even more
aggressive and sponsor even more terrorism when its economy is
unshackled and it’s been given a clear path to the bomb.
And many of these neighbors say they’ll respond by racing
to get nuclear weapons of their own. So this deal won’t change Iran for
the better; it will only change the Middle East for the worse. A deal
that’s supposed to prevent nuclear proliferation would instead spark a
nuclear arms race in the most dangerous part of the planet.
This deal won’t be a farewell to arms. It would be a farewell to arms
control. And the Middle East would soon be crisscrossed by nuclear
tripwires. A region where small skirmishes can trigger big wars would
turn into a nuclear tinderbox.
If anyone thinks — if anyone thinks this deal kicks the can down the
road, think again. When we get down that road, we’ll face a much more
dangerous Iran, a Middle East littered with nuclear bombs and a
countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve come here today to tell you we don’t have
to bet the security of the world on the hope that Iran will change for
the better. We don’t have to gamble with our future and with our
children’s future.
We can insist that restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program not be
lifted for as long as Iran continues its aggression in the region and in
the world. Before lifting those restrictions, the world should demand
that Iran do three things. First, stop its aggression against its
neighbors in the Middle East. Second…
Second, stop supporting terrorism around the world.
And third, stop threatening to annihilate my country, Israel, the one and only Jewish state. Thank you. If the world powers are not prepared to insist that Iran change its
behavior before a deal is signed, at the very least they should insist
that Iran change its behavior before a deal expires. If Iran changes its behavior, the restrictions would be lifted. If
Iran doesn’t change its behavior, the restrictions should not be lifted.
If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country. My friends, what about the argument that there’s no
alternative to this deal, that Iran’s nuclear know-how cannot be erased,
that its nuclear program is so advanced that the best we can do is
delay the inevitable, which is essentially what the proposed deal seeks
to do?
Well, nuclear know-how without nuclear infrastructure doesn’t get you
very much. A racecar driver without a car can’t drive. A pilot without a
plan can’t fly. Without thousands of centrifuges, tons of enriched
uranium or heavy water facilities, Iran can’t make nuclear weapons.
Iran’s nuclear program can be rolled back well-beyond the current
proposal by insisting on a better deal and keeping up the pressure on a
very vulnerable regime, especially given the recent collapse in the
price of oil.
Now, if Iran threatens to walk away from the table — and this often
happens in a Persian bazaar — call their bluff. They’ll be back, because
they need the deal a lot more than you do. And by maintaining the pressure on Iran and on those who do business
with Iran, you have the power to make them need it even more. My friends, for over a year, we’ve been told that no deal is better than
a bad deal.
Well, this is a
bad deal. It’s a very bad deal. We’re
better off without it. Now we’re being told that the
only alternative to this bad deal is war.
That’s just not true. The alternative to this bad deal is a much better deal. A
better deal that doesn’t leave Iran with a vast nuclear
infrastructure and such a short break-out time. A
better deal that keeps
the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in place until Iran’s
aggression ends. A better deal that won’t give Iran an easy path to the bomb. A better
deal that Israel and its neighbors may not like, but with which we
could live, literally. And no country…
… no country has a greater stake — no country has a greater stake
than Israel in a good deal that peacefully removes this threat.
Ladies and gentlemen, history has placed us at a fateful crossroads.
We must now choose between two paths. One path leads to a bad deal that
will at best curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions for a while, but it will
inexorably lead to a nuclear-armed Iran whose unbridled aggression will
inevitably lead to war. The second path, however difficult,
could lead to a much better deal, that would prevent a nuclear-armed
Iran, a nuclearized Middle East and the horrific consequences of both to
all of humanity.
You don’t have to read Robert Frost to know. You have to live life to
know that the difficult path is usually the one less traveled, but it
will make all the difference for the future of my country, the security
of the Middle East and the peace of the world, the peace, we all desire.
My friend, standing up to Iran is not easy. Standing up to dark and
murderous regimes never is. With us today is Holocaust survivor and
Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel. Elie, your life and work inspires to give meaning to the words, “never again.” And I wish I could promise you, Elie, that the lessons of history
have been learned. I can only urge the leaders of the world not to
repeat the mistakes of the past. Not to sacrifice the future for the present; not to ignore aggression in the hopes of gaining an illusory peace.
But I can guarantee you this, the days when the Jewish people
remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are
over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to
defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And
the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first
time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves.
This is why — this is why, as a prime minister of Israel, I can
promise you one more thing: Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel
will stand. But I know that Israel does not stand alone. I know that America stands with Israel. I know that you stand with Israel.
You stand with Israel, because you know that the story of Israel is
not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that
refuses again and again to succumb to history’s horrors.
Facing me right up there in the gallery, overlooking all of us in
this (inaudible) chamber is the image of Moses. Moses led our people
from slavery to the gates of the Promised Land.
And before the people of Israel entered the land of
Israel, Moses gave us a message that has steeled our resolve for
thousands of years. I leave you with his message today, (SPEAKING IN
HEBREW - SEE ABOVE.), “Be strong and resolute, neither fear nor dread them.”
My friends, may Israel and America always stand together, strong and
resolute. May we neither fear nor dread the challenges ahead. May we
face the future with confidence, strength and hope.
May God bless the state of Israel and may God bless the United States of America.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you all.
You’re wonderful.
Thank you, America. Thank you.
Thank you.
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