We do not go out to the streets to distribute candy and rejoice in enemy
casualties; we do not have jihadists or shaheeds (martyrs); and there are no
mothers among us who joyfully send their sons off to strap on an explosive
belt and blow up buses full of passengers, malls full of people or families
innocently dining in a restaurant.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Speech at the Memorial Ceremony for the Victims
of Terror
Translation
07/05/2008

Honorable President of the State of Israel, Mr. Shimon Peres,
Speaker of the Knesset, Ms. Dalia Itzik,
Honorable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Dorit Beinish,
Honorable Chief Rabbis, the Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yona Metzger and the
Rishon LeZion Rabbi Shlomo Amar,
Honorable Government Ministers,
Chairman of the Opposition,
Honorable Chairman of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Federation,
Mr. Zeev Bielski,
Honorable Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi,
Honorable Police Commissioner, Commissioner Dudi Cohen,
Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Ambassador Henri Etoundi Essomba,
Honorable Mayor of Jerusalem, Mr. Uri Lupolianski,
Honorable Chairman of the Organization for Victims of Terror, Mr. Zeev Rapp,
Madam Director General of the National Insurance Institute, Ms. Esther
Dominisini,
Bereaved Families,
Distinguished Guests,

On this day of remembrance when the people of Israel join together in
unbounded respect and gratitude with the memory of the fighter-heroes who
fell in Israel's campaigns, we also remember with profound sadness the
precious memory of those good and loyal citizens, innocents, who were slain
at the hand of our enemies and by murderers from terrorist organizations.

In several hours, when evening falls, Remembrance Day will end and the State
of Israel will celebrate sixty years of independence. Had our neighbors
responded in 1948 to our hand extended in peace - how many victims would
have been spared from both sides! How tremendous the suffering and loss,
and how powerful the pain and grief which would have been prevented! How
vast the resources destroyed in the name of the foolish illusion (which is,
regrettably, still prevalent in certain parts of the Middle East) of
bringing an end to the State of Israel, while criminally neglecting the real
possibility of rehabilitating the refugee camps, ending poverty and illness,
dousing flames, resolving hardships, broadening minds, building a better
human and national future.

Today Israel surrounds the bereaved families with love and a sense of shared
destiny. This is a day of restrained and quiet sadness, without hate,
without outbursts, unblemished. For this is how we are, and that is our
advantage: the legacy of Israel sanctifies life rather than death. At this
time of togetherness with our citizens who are victims of terror, I cannot
but envisage the horrific sights of the terrorist attacks I witnessed in
Jerusalem.

I cannot help but think how deep the moral chasm is which separates our
values and the values of our enemies. We do not deny the right of any
people and country to live in peace. We fight only to defend ourselves and
prevent aggression directed at us. We are making every possible effort to
reduce and pinpoint our strikes against terrorists, and never intentionally
harm innocents.

We do not go out to the streets to distribute candy and rejoice in enemy
casualties; we do not have jihadists or shaheeds (martyrs); and there are no
mothers among us who joyfully send their sons off to strap on an explosive
belt and blow up buses full of passengers, malls full of people or families
innocently dining in a restaurant.

Hence the justness of Israel's stance, which has won broad international
recognition - to prevent the granting of legitimacy to an organization
responsible for the premeditated murder of innocent citizens, to making the
total and proven cessation of terror a condition for dialogue, to
recognizing the existence of Israel as a Jewish state and to obtaining a
practical commitment to signed agreements.

There is nothing we desire more than to end the conflict with our neighbors,
and there is nothing that would benefit both sides more than the end of the
conflict. This is in no way a conflict without a solution, despite the
difficulties and pitfalls. The principles to resolving it, I can say with
authority, are not so far out of reach. Among our neighbors there are
leaders who understand this, and we are conducting serious negotiations with
them. However, the axis of hate, terror and provocation which is warring in
our region, the head of which is known, is doing its utmost to fan the
hatred and nourish the violence. Therefore, achieving peace is conditional
on the joining together of all those who desire peace and stability in the
region, with the strong backing of the international community, against the
unholy alliance which constitutes the axis of terror.

Ongoing fighting, uncompromising demands and a determined stand against the
terrorist organizations are not only a policy undertaken as a result of
Israel's aspirations to peace, but is a moral command crying out from the
spilled blood of the citizens maliciously murdered and from the grief of
bereavement of so many families in Israel which lost that which is most
precious.

On this day of remembrance, as we praise the heroism of the fighters who
fell on the battlefields; we cherish in our hearts those citizens who were
the victims of terror and acts of hostility. We will remember for the
murderer's hand is directed at all of us, at every Jew and every citizen of
Israel without distinguishing between men and women, and between an infant,
a child or an elderly person. Only the hand of fate summoned the murdering
terrorist, the bomb, the bullet or the missile to its random victim. It
could have been any one of us.

Therefore we will embrace you, the bereaved families, with encouraging and
strengthening arms. We will pray that G-d, "who heals the heartbroken and
bandages their sadness" will salve your hurts and that you will know no more
sorrow, and that the sword of terror and hostility will be felled forever.

May the memories of the murdered be blessed and bound to the life of the
State of Israel.