I welcome you to Jerusalem the capital of the Jewish People for over 3,000 years, 3,009 to be exact, the capital of the State of Israel, its eternally united and undivided capital. I am glad to see you. I believe that this is the fifth year that I have met here with new immigrant soldiers who have come from various countries. To tell you the truth, every year when I come in here I always have the feeling that perhaps I have erred, none of you seems like a new immigrant. I see your shoulder tags, you are all serving in the IDFs best units and are sharing in the IDFs manifold responsibilities. We have finished a difficult year but we carried out all of the missions that the security establishment was charged with. We met the harsh struggle against Palestinian and Arab terrorism, as we have been doing for over 120 years and I hope that we will one day succeed in overcoming it. I have been ready to make difficult and painful concessions in order to reach a diplomatic settlement one day and – with Gods help – peace in its wake. There is one thing that I have never been prepared to make concessions on and that is the security of Israel; in this area, there is no possibility of making any concessions. The past year was not easy; actually, we have had five difficult years. I hope that the coming years will be easier. We have taken a series of tasks upon ourselves, including security-related. Israel will make no concessions regarding security problems. We have undertaken to try and reach a diplomatic settlement. We have also committed ourselves to the war on poverty, which we view as a central goal, as well as to the struggle against violence and to education. I hope that this year will be the year in which we succeed in fulfilling the missions before us in all areas. I again welcome you and I am glad that you are here.
BPI-info
BPI-info
