Civilization Versus Barbarism

Last week, the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu stepped to the podium at the United Nations and did the unthinkable for that collection of pimps, thieves, killers and pirates.

He told the truth.

This son of Holocaust victims, schooled in the United States, presides over a tiny spit of a country the size of Delaware. But that did not stop him from calling out the world's bullies who have made the UN a trade association for third world dictators, as I like to say.

In deeply calm voice he called BS on every Castro, Chavez, Khadafi, Arafat, Putin and Ahmadinejad who every sullied the place. Holding a 67-year old blueprint of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, he challenged every Holocaust denier who ever stood at that very podium.

Speaking directly of the Denier-in-Chief, Iran's Ahmadinejad, he spoke with a forceful clarity unknown to the General Assembly:

One-third of all Jews perished in the conflagration. Nearly every Jewish family was affected, including my own. My wife's grandparents, her father’s two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie?

Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries.

But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency?

A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state. What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations!

Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You're wrong. History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others.

And then, turning his sights to Islamic fanaticism and terrorism he said:

In the past thirty years, this fanaticism has swept the globe with a murderous violence and cold-blooded impartiality in its choice of victims. It has callously slaughtered Moslems and Christians, Jews and Hindus, and many others.

Though it is comprised of different offshoots, the adherents of this unforgiving creed seek to return humanity to medieval times. Wherever they can, they impose a backward regimented society where women, minorities, gays or anyone not deemed to be a true believer is brutally subjugated.

The struggle against this fanaticism does not pit faith against faith nor civilization against civilization. It pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the 9th century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death.

The primitivism of the 9th century ought to be no match for the progress of the 21st century. The allure of freedom, the power of technology, the reach of communications should surely win the day.

And the, challenging the UN itself, he questioned:

Will the international community confront a despotism that terrorizes its own people as they bravely stand up for freedom?

Will it take action against the dictators who stole an election in broad daylight and gunned down Iranian protesters who died in the streets choking in their own blood?

Will the international community thwart the world's most pernicious sponsors and practitioners of terrorism?

Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world?

The people of Iran are courageously standing up to this regime. People of goodwill around the world stand with them, as do the thousands who have been protesting outside this hall. Will the United Nations stand by their side?

Ladies and Gentlemen, The jury is still out on the United Nations, and recent signs are not encouraging.

Prime Minister left the General Assembly with this warning:

Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the "confirmed unteachability of mankind," the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them.

Churchill bemoaned what he called the "want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong.”

I speak here today in the hope that Churchill's assessment of the "unteachability of mankind" is for once proven wrong. I speak here today in the hope that we can learn from history -- that we can prevent danger in time.

In the spirit of the timeless words spoken to Joshua over 3,000 years ago, let us be strong and of good courage. Let us confront this peril, secure our future and, God willing, forge an enduring peace for generations to come.

The American author John Steinbeck wrote in his epic novel East of Eden "We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil." Last week at the UN Benjamin Netanyahu confronted evil in that body and the evil in all of us--the unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, as Churchill said.
In doing so he showed a courage, an honesty and a goodness that is rare in diplomacy, and rarer still in the UN.

Just thought you might like to know.