Below is most of a speech made by Yitzshak Rabin, former Prime Minister of Israel, on September 13, 1993 at the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles. Peace is a fragile thing. This speech seems even more poignant to me in light of current events in the Middle East. Mr. Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 and was assassinated on November 4, 1995.
Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,
This signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles, here today, is not so easy -neither for myself, as a soldier in Israel`s wars, -nor for the people of Israel, -and not for the Jewish people in the Diaspora, who are watching us now with great hope, mixed with apprehension.
It is certainly not easy for the families of the victims of violence, terror and war, whose pain will never heal. For the many thousands who defended our lives with their own, and have even sacrificed their lives for our own - for them, this ceremony has come too late. . . .
We have come from Jerusalem, the ancient and eternal capital of the Jewish people. We have come from an anguished and grieving land. We have come from a people, a home, a family, that has not known a single year - not a single month in which mothers have not wept for their sons. We have come to try and put an end to the hostilities, so that our children and our children's children will no longer have to experience the painful cost of war, violence, and terror.
We have come to secure their lives, and to ease the sorrow and the painful memories of the past - to hope and pray for peace.
Let me say to you, the Palestinians: We are destined to live together, on the same soil in the same land. We, the soldiers who have returned from battle stained with blood, we who have seen our relatives and friends killed before our eyes, we who have attended their funerals and cannot look into the eyes of their parents, we who have come from a land where parents bury their children, we who have fought against you, the Palestinians - we say to you today in a loud and clear voice: Enough of blood and tears. Enough.
We have no desire for revenge. We harbor no hatred towards you. We, like you, are people who want to build a home, to plant a tree, to love, live side by side with you - in dignity, in empathy, as human beings, as free men. We are today giving peace a chance and again saying to you: Let us pray that a day will come when we will say, enough, farewell to arms.
We wish to turn over a new chapter in the sad book of our lives together - a chapter of mutual recognition, of good neighborliness, of mutual respect, of understanding. We hope to embark on a new era in the history of the Middle East.
Today, here in Washington, at the White House, we will begin a new reckoning in relations between peoples, between parents tired of war, between children who will not know war.
President of the United States, Ladies and gentlemen, Our inner strength, our higher moral values, have been derived for thousands of years from the Book of Books, in one of which, Ecclesiastes, we read: "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to love, and a time to hate; A time for war, and a time for peace."
Ladies and gentlemen, the time for peace has come. . . .
In the Jewish tradition, it is customary to conclude our prayers with the word "Amen." With your permission, men of peace, I shall conclude with words taken from the prayer recited by Jews daily, and I ask the entire audience to join me in saying "Amen":
"May He who makes peace in His high heavens
grant peace to us and to all Israel. Amen."
From the web page "Quotes and speeches by Yitzhak Rabin" at http://www.dadalos.org/int/Vorbilder/Vorbilder/rabin/zitate.htm
