PM Netanyahu's Address at US Independence Day Celebrations at the US
Ambassador's Residence
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Following is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address, this evening
(Wednesday, 1 July 2015), at US Independence Day celebrations at US
Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro's residence in Herzliya:

Sara and I are delighted to be with all of you. This is a great day because
on the 4th of July, all Israelis unite with our American brothers and
sisters. It's our celebration too. That's because the history of our two
countries is remarkably intertwined. The Founding Fathers of America were
inspired by the Bible, and specifically by the Book of the Exodus, by the
dream of building freedom in a new Promised Land. And as you stand in the
Chamber of the American Congress, you see right across you the image of one
man – Moses, with a quote from the Bible.

And since the establishment of the United States, that's two and a half
centuries, the vision of justice and the vision of peace espoused by the
Prophets of Israel served as a guiding light for Americans from Thomas
Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King to many others seeking to
form a more perfect union.

But just as our heritage inspired America, America inspired us. If you read
the Founding Fathers of Zionism, you see how powerful and inspirational the
American Revolution was – the ideas of freedom and liberty. They
reverberated everywhere for people seeking liberty, but they reverberated
powerfully for the Zionist movement and the ideas of reestablishing our
land, our promise, our justice here.

Zionism has always been about freedom, about national freedom, the Jewish
people returning to our ancestral homeland to rebuild our one and only
sovereign state. But it's also been about personal freedom. We built the
State of Israel on the same democratic foundations upon which the United
States was built.

And what a remarkable foundation it's proven to be.

The Middle East is plagued by tyranny. Majorities are oppressed. Minorities
are persecuted. Women are subjugated. Gays are lynched. The press, if there
is any, is muzzled.

Yet in this turbulent and violent Middle East, Israel stands out as a beacon
of freedom and human rights, with unfailing constancy, an island of
democracy in a sea of despotism.

The Middle East is imploding all around us. States that have existed for a
century are disintegrating. The forces of militant Islam are rushing to fill
the void, the militant Sunnis led by ISIS, the militant Shiites led by Iran.

Iran conducts a campaign of aggression in the region and terrorism
worldwide. It seeks to build nuclear weapons to advance its mission to
export the Islamic revolution, so they say, around the globe. For the
mullahs that rule Tehran, Israel is the small Satan and America is the great
Satan. They say, Dan, we are you and you are us. And you know something? On
this, they are absolutely right. We stand with America. America stands with
us.

Iran's quest for a nuclear weapon, Iran's worldwide campaign of terrorism
and aggression must be stopped. So too must the campaign of ISIS, whose
savagery is now sweeping the Middle East. We ourselves have felt the
reverberations of Islamist terrorism in the last few days. Today I visited
the hospital of those Israelis wounded – remarkable heroism shown by a young
woman and by a young man. And we grieve for the loss of a brilliant,
brilliant young Malachi. We suffer those pains and we see that that
terrorism is not only exploding within our own country. We see ISIS at the
gates – across the border in the Golan, across the border in Egypt. We send
our condolences to the government and people of Egypt for the fallen
Egyptians slain by ISIS terror.

We must stand up to all the forces of militant Islam, those led by Iran,
those led by ISIS. We should not strengthen one or the other. We should
weaken both of them. And as we do this, we will continue our quest for a
durable and secure peace with the Palestinians, mindful that we must not let
militant Islam gain another foothold.

My friends,

The values we share are at the heart of the unbreakable bond between the
United States and Israel. Dan, we are family. Let me translate. We are
mishpucha [family]. And we are partners.

I take this opportunity to once again express my appreciation to President
Obama, the United States Congress and the people of America. I want to thank
them for their continual support of the State of Israel. Across the length
and breadth of the United States, Americans of all stripes stand with the
Jewish state. I've said it before but I'll say it again tonight: Israel has
no better friend than America and America has no better friend than Israel.

On this day that celebrates freedom both of us know this: Neither one of us
can take life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness for granted.
Americans and Israelis have paid a high price to protect these sacred
principles. We are stronger when we face our great challenges together.

And today the bells of freedom ring across America. They ring loud in Israel
too. May we always cherish our freedom. May we always cherish our
friendship.

On behalf of all Israelis, I wish all Americans a happy 4th of July. God
bless Israel and God bless the United States of America."