Ken Mehlman's speech at the Christians United For Israel Dinner

July 18, 2006 - Washington, D.C.

As I look across this room, I see men and women who are more than just friends. As Christians and Jews, we are fellow children of Abraham, brothers and sisters who share the same values, worship the same God, descend from a common tradition and heritage. And we honor that common heritage and tradition, and our common values, as we together stand up for Israel.

Christian leaders have recognized the justice of Israel's cause for many years. It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, "...peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world .... Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality."

We stand up for Israel because we value freedom and democracy. For the past 58 years, there has been one democracy in the Middle East. One nation that adopts our own Declaration of Independence's vision of unalienable rights from the Almighty, one nation where the people elect their leaders, one nation where women have the same rights as men, one nation where people of all faiths-Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or any other-have full and equal rights.

That one nation is Israel. The global jihadists don't just hate democracy in Israel. They are enemies of democracy in Lebanon, in Iraq, and in other nations. By launching attacks from Lebanon, they are also salting the ground in their own land, trying to turn back democratic progress that might change not just the politics of the Middle East, but the lives of typical Muslims who no more want war than we do.

We stand up for Israel because we remember history. Harry Truman's recognition of Israel in 1948 wasn't based on economics, business interests or realpolitik. Instead, our commitment to Israel was and is based on fundamental support for a fellow democracy, a moral commitment to an oppressed people's right to live again in their historic homeland. From the Greeks and the Romans millennia ago to Islamic extremists today, Israel's enemies have come and gone.

Yet the same people who 4,000 years ago first prayed to the God who created heaven and earth say the same prayers in the same way in the same language in the same places today. And today, because the Holy Land is governed by Israel, people from all faiths and all nations are welcomed to worship according to their traditions at the holy sites of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

We stand up for Israel because we are committed to fairness. But many others remain opposed to Israel's right to exist. Recently, Israel became the first nation in modern memory to trade land for peace, withdrawing its forces from Lebanon, then Gaza. The result? Suicide bombers, rocket attacks ... and dead Israelis.

Isn't it clear that the global jihadists don't want peace or a 'two-state solution'? They want an end to Israel. They want to drive the Jews into the sea.

We stand for Israel even if we have to stand alone. The UN has condemned Israel more than any other country on the face of the earth. More than China, which routinely suppresses both dissent and religion. More than Cuba, where owning a private library can earn you a trip to prison. More than Iran and North Korea, rogue nations intent on holding the world hostage to their nuclear ambitions.

Israel is the only nation prevented from joining any of the UN's regional groups ... and therefore prevented from having a seat on the countless commissions, committees, and councils that make up a huge part of the UN. And the same United Nations that's so quick to condemn Israel is often silent when Israeli lives are shed.

Where were the United Nations, the E.U. and other organizations when 1,000 rockets flew from Gaza into Israel? Where were they when suicide bombers murdered men, women and children, and Israeli soldiers were taken captive? Is there any better example of the need for United Nations reform than their outrageous double standard when it comes to the Middle East?

We stand for Israel because their war is our war too.

Hezbollah and Hamas don't work on their own. They are financed and supported by Syria and Iran, the two regimes that support more anti-American, anti-western terror than any others in the world. The same global jihad that fires rockets into Israel's cities and towns was responsible for September 11, the London bus bombings, attacks on our troops in Iraq as well as innocent Iraqis, and so many others.

This is a worldwide war, one in which peace and freedom loving Christians, Jews, and Muslims - who all worship the same God - all have a duty. We are all fighting a relentless worldwide network, united and powered by a perverted vision of a religion of peace. And if we hope to defeat this enemy, we must understand their true nature, and learn the lessons of the past generation.

September 11 was not the beginning of this global jihad. For almost a generation, radical Islamist terrorists have declared war on all free nations, using terror as their tactic.

From the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, when terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes and the United Nations condemned Israel's response, not the terrorist act.
... to the 444 days that American hostages were held in Iran, met with just one under-planned and under-manned rescue attempt.
... to our withdrawal from Beirut in 1983 after terrorists attacked the Marine barracks.
... the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, met with lawsuits.
... to Riyadh in 1995 ... Khobar Towers in 1996 ... the embassy attacks in 1998 ... and the U.S.S. Cole in 2000 ...

The lesson of the past generation is that these attacks kept coming and got worse because they worked. Too often, free nations looked the other way ... and responded to the attacks with lawsuits or international protests ... and made political concessions to the terrorists. Yasser Arafat won a Nobel Prize and numerous invitations to the last White House, even as he encouraged a terrorist war on women and children...

What changed on September 11 was not that terrorists trying to carry out a jihad against America and the world. It was that on September 12, under the leadership of President George W. Bush, we finally made war on these terrorists in return.

Israel is an ally in this war and President Bush will continue to stand with Israel as they fight our common enemy. We will stand together against those who target innocent men, women and children We will stand together against those whose vision of political change is the wreckage of buses, malls and pizzerias ... and blood on the streets. We will stand together and oppose terrorism without reservation, without rest and without retreat. Just as the United States does not bargain with terrorists, nor do we expect Israel - or any other nation - to.

What Ronald Reagan once said about the US and the Soviet Union applies here as well: Israel will negotiate for peace. They will work for peace. They will pray for peace and pay for peace. They will sacrifice for peace.

But they will not surrender for peace.

Security will not come to Israel at the threat of a bullet or a car bomb. And that does not just go for Hamas and Hezbollah. Having learned the lesson of the past generation, we cannot and must not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons ... period.

Why not?

Because no regime funds, supports, and espouses the Islamist ideology more than Iran ... no regime is more of a threat to its Arab neighbors in the region ... no regime is more likely to share WMD with a terrorist organization ... no regime is more central to the global jihad.

There is no doubt that there are difficult choices ahead for the United States and for Israel when it comes to Iran ... Gaza and the West Bank ... Lebanon ... and the rest of the Middle East. But while the choices of action may be difficult, the moral imperative is not.

President Bush will continue to stand by Israel, unhesitatingly, unapologetically, unwavering, as he has for five years now ... and as our nation has for almost 60 years. America will not be a neutral arbiter between democracy and autocracy. We will not follow the morally confused approach of equating a democracy defending itself and the terrorists who are attacking it.

Here's what we will do.
We will reform the UN.
We will stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
We will stand with Israel in the face of terrorist threats.
We will take on the global jihad on our timetable, our terms and their territory, so we don't have to face them here.
We will not retreat from the world, and we will not shirk our responsibilities. Instead, we will do exactly what we are doing: meet violence with strength, autocracy with freedom, and suffering with compassion. This is what America has always done ... and it is what Israel has always done.

Because if we abandon Israel ... We are abandoning our own integrity, our own decency, our own morality. What's right is right, and it is not and cannot be for sale.

The cause of Israel is more than a Jewish cause. The cause of Israel is the cause of anyone anywhere who believes in democracy, believes that God endows every man, woman and child in their world with the unalienable right to freedom.

It is a just cause and a righteous cause.

Today, if you love freedom, whether you are Christian, Jewish or Muslim ... whether you are American, Japanese, or Indian ... today we are all Israelis. Thank you, and God Bless you all.

Ken Mehlman's speech at the Christians United For Israel Dinner

July 18, 2006 - Washington, D.C.

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