The Speech I Would Have Made at the UN

By Moshe Feiglin

27 Elul, 5771
Sept. 26, 2011

Translated from the Makor Rishon newspaper

Honorable Representatives of the Nations,

I chose to come here today to tell you the truth. Since the miraculous war in which the G-d of Israel led us to redeem Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and Israeli territory until the Jordan River, a strange costume ball has been taking place in this building.

The Jews come to the ball masked as Israelis, the Arabs come masked as Palestinians and everyone talks about a land that does not exist and never did: Palestine.

Today, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the day on which the Jewish Nation declares the Kingship of the Creator over themselves and the entire world, I have chosen to come here to remove the masks.

Beneath the Israeli mask is the Jewish Nation that went out of Egypt, received the Torah at Sinai and heralded the message of liberty to all humanity. The Israelis are those same Jews who traversed the Pharoahs, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans and the Greeks, the Romans and the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Crusaders, the Mamelukes, the British and the Germans. All of those nations swept onto the stage of history and waged war against the Eternal Nation chosen by the Creator to bring His message to the world. All of them faded away, while the Jewish Nation is not only still here, but has wondrously returned from all its exiles and hardships and has gathered in its Holy Land, just as the prophets had foretold. From its Land, the Jewish Nation will establish an exemplary, moral society and will fulfill its historic destiny.

Please forgive me for ruining the costume ball, but the time has come to remove the "Palestinian" mask: There is not and there never was a 'Palestinian nation.' Can anybody here point to Palestinian history? A Palestinian archeological site? The name of a Palestinian scholar from the 19th century?

For nineteen years, Judea and Samaria were void of Jewish settlements, occupied by the Jordanian state established by the British to steal the East Bank of the Jordan from the Land of Israel. The Palestine Liberation Organization was established in 1964 - before Israel liberated Judea and Samaria. Back then, they had no national claim on the territory on the other side of the Green Line because those territories were in the hands of the Arab nation.

Please allow me to quote the most precise definition for the essence of the conflict. It is a definition once pronounced by former British Foreign Minister, Mr. Ernest Bevin, in February 1947, in an address he gave to Britain's House of Commons. Mr. Bevins' speech was made as the issue of the Land of Israel was being deliberated in the United Nations:

"For the Jews, the main point is the establishment of a sovereign Jewish state. For the Arabs, the main point is to oppose Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine, until the very end."

Bevin is not suspect of over-enthusiasm for the Jewish cause. On the contrary. The British themselves gave the name 'Palestine' to the Land of Israel in an attempt to erase its true identity. At that stage, the British government did all that it could to ensure the victory of the Arabs, who had declared that they intended to finish up Hitler's work. Nevertheless, if we look at the conflict from the perspective of its 60 years, it is impossible to understand it without Bevin's precise analysis.

There is not and there will not be a Palestinian state. There are Jews who are returning to our Land and there are Arabs, whose entire purpose is to prevent a Jewish foothold in any part of the Land of Israel.

The Arab and international demand for Israel to retreat was fully implemented six years ago in the Gaza Strip. We could have expected that when Israel carried out precisely what the world had demanded of it for years, its international standing would have improved. We would have expected international anti-Semitism to dissipate and for the Arabs to respond quickly and positively to accelerated serious negotiations for a permanent peace treaty.

But just the opposite happened. Approximately one half of Israel's population - in the north and south - was targeted by rocket terror attacks. A more serious threat accompanied the physical threat: a vicious international attack on Israel's legitimate right to exist.

But this cannot continue, ladies and gentlemen. This false costume ball, for which the United Nations provides center stage - will not go on. We will no longer take part in it. Practically speaking, we will not oppose the Palestinian proposal, because we will simply not be here.

The Jews have returned to their Land to herald the message of Divine liberty for all humanity. From now, we will focus on our historic goal; to facilitate the moral redemption and well-being of all humanity.

If the Arabs who live in the Land to which the G-d of our Forefathers lovingly returned us desire peace, they are welcome to choose between the following options: Either they can fully recognize Jewish sovereignty over the Land and declare their loyalty to the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish nation. Or they can realize their national aspirations in any one of the 22 Arab nations that surround them.

Any other decision is a declaration of war. We trust in He Who returned us to our Land and defeated our enemies in all the wars that they started since the State of Israel was established.

I turn from here to all the civilized nations, to the good majority of humanity represented by a minority in this house: Remember G-d's blessing to Abraham: "And I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you."

The way that you relate to G-d's chosen nation will determine if you will merit His blessing or His curse.