World Jewish Congress (WJC) Ronald S. Lauder has called for Jewish people to accept that a two-state solution is the only way to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians. In a keynote speech to the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York on Sunday, Lauder said: “Now is a time for bold action because the stakes are too high for anything else. It is not enough to be united. We must also decide to be solution-oriented. I want to be very clear: No serious discussion about peace for the Jewish people of Israel can take place without a strong agreement for a viable two-state solution.”
The WJC president also urged action against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. “The BDS movement is a very smart media campaign directed against Israel. Its not directed against the settlement issue as it claims. It seeks to destroy the state, its economy and its very legitimacy. BDS offers no answers. They want a one state solution and that one state is not a Jewish state,” he told the annual conference of the Israeli newspaper. Among other things, Lauder suggested the adoption of a bill to be adopted by the US Congress to fight discriminatory trade practices against Israel.
Text of the speech by Ronald S. Lauder to the Jerusalem Post Annual Conference
I want to thank the Jerusalem Post for allowing me to begin this very important and very timely conference.
I have spoken to many of you one-on-one and in large groups over the years and we have had countless discussions about the future of the Jewish people and Israel.
Today, I may surprise you. Because, today, I’d like to change the discussion.
Today, I would like to offer some new ideas and ask that everyone in this room refocus their energies – as I have – on SOLUTIONS.
It is too easy to fall into the old traps of endlessly talking to ourselves about what has gone wrong in the past.
How we’ve been mistreated, and where we may disagree. Respectfully, I am not interested in that conversation. Because quite frankly this isn’t getting us any closer to peace and security for the Jewish people. Some could even argue that our collective situation is actually getting worse.
I believe now is the time for new, fresh solutions. And now is the time for bold action.
Because the stakes are much too high to do anything else.
At the fundamental core of my philosophy is the belief that we can only find that peace and security through our collective ingenuity, our wit, and our skills, our brains. The more we are divided, the easier it is for our enemies to hurt us.
When Jews act as one people we can be unbelievably strong and capable. But that is only half the equation. It is not enough to be united. We must also decide to be forward-looking.
First and foremost, I want to be very clear: no serious discussion about peace for the Jewish people and Israel can take place without a strong agreement for a viable two-state solution.
This should be done with no pre-conditions and never ignoring Israel’s security.
Before I go any further on this issue I think we need to look back and remember a particular moment in time. A moment that reminds us all that peace is entirely possible if we have the will and the resolve to see it through.
Twenty-two years ago, on 13 September 1993, I was invited to the White House along with several hundred Americans, Israelis and Palestinians, to watch the signing ceremony between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat. As I stood there on the White House lawn with everyone else, you could feel the tension.
Everyone looked at one another; we were nervous, wondering what was going to happen as these two men walked out with President Clinton.
After the signing, the two men stood there stiffly, but with a slight push from President Clinton, Arafat held out his hand. I was right near the front and I saw Rabin hesitate for a split second – and in that moment everyone held their breath. Then Rabin reached out and shook Arafat’s hand. What happened next is hard to describe. I have never in my life felt a spontaneous exhale from several hundred people all at once. With that handshake, all of the tension in that space suddenly vanished and spontaneously, everyone started shaking hands.
That first handshake was not easy for someone who defended his country through every war since he was a teenager. There was so much promise at that moment. There was hope and there was optimism.
What went wrong?
In just two decades, we have reached a dangerous deadlock and in a twisted turn of reality, much of the world blames Israel for the impasse, although we all know that is not true. In his speech that day, Rabin said directly to the Palestinians: “We are destined to live together on the same soil.”
And as much as we have very sadly moved away from that moment of promise, the reality of that one sentence never goes away. Because it is true – Jews and Arabs are destined to live side by side.
I believe we must acknowledge that a two-state solution is the only viable, workable and negotiable end. Of course, it will not come easy.
The Palestinians have played an on-going game of not quite recognizing the Jewish state. They continue to teach their children to hate. They name streets after terrorists.
The world ignores this. The world also ignores the fact that the prime minister of Israel has said over and over again that he endorses a two-state solution, and so have many of his ministers.
The prime minister knows the ultimate goal of two states cannot be avoided. Let it not be said that the Israeli government opposes a two-State solution. And we must convince the world – over and over again – that Israel wants peace and it’s the Palestinians that are holding it up. But we must move forward.
You know me. And you know that I don’t compromise when it comes to the security of Israel, or the safety of Jews worldwide. But what we are doing, how we are defending ourselves, is not working!
In my travels as president of the World Jewish Congress, I am now seeing something that I have never seen before. Jews are frightened, and for good reason. Anti-Semitism has come out in the open again, in parades , in the media and especially on the internet.
Israel has now become the world’s scapegoat in the same way that Jews were blamed for every evil over the past 2,000 years.
The question of security for Jews worldwide is a problem the World Jewish Congress takes very seriously. Seventy years after the end of the Holocaust, a Jewish boy wearing a yarmulke cannot safely walk down the streets of Paris or London or Berlin. Jews have been targeted and killed in France, in Belgium and in Denmark.
For the past year, the World Jewish Congress has been working on a solution with the world’s top security firms. We understand what’s at stake and we are doing something about it.
Four days after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish grocery store, I was in Paris and I watched as 2 million people stood up against terrorism. Throughout that day I kept hearing something that troubled me.
Everyone told me that the Jewish community of France has a serious problem. I disagreed. The Jews of France do not have a problem. France has a problem — every country in Europe has a problem — and it is serious.
They have to deal with the growing threat from radical Islam that they have ignored for far too long. Those terror attacks were attacks on the very idea of what it means to live in a free society with different religions.
The solution is not more guards in front of more schools.
The solution is not every Jew leaving Europe.
And it’s not the demonization of Muslims.
That won’t solve the problem.
But here is a possible solution: I will ask President Hollande of France to convene a meeting in Paris as soon as possible between French Muslims, French Jews and government officials. Let’s find out what we have in common.
With these shared goals, let’s see if we can solve this problem, whether it’s political or economic or educational. I believe that we will find that we have a great deal in common and that we can find a way to work together.
If it works in France, we can use this model in other countries as well.
The second problem and solution concerns the BDS movement. BDS is a very smart media campaign directed against Israel. It’s not directed at the settlement issue or the West Bank as it claims. BDS is waging an economic war on Israel to destroy the state, its economy and its very legitimacy.
It is a serious danger, and it’s growing.
BDS offers no solutions.
There is no two-state solution at the end of the road for BDS.
They want a one-state solution and that one state is not a Jewish state.
This is the same economic boycott of Israel that was attempted by the Arab states decades ago.
That effort was defeated by strong trade policies here in the United States that said it might be okay to say whatever you want about Israel, that’s free speech, but it is not okay to engage in discriminatory trade practices. That is illegal.
Our solution: we should encourage the trade bill now in Congress to include the strongest possible language to discourage any business from engaging in unfair policies regarding Israel, or any other country.
Next, we have another challenge related to BDS that is even more complicated – but I think there is a solution here as well.
College students across the country are now strongly influenced, and even bullied, by pro-Arab, anti-Israeli and even sometimes anti-Semitic teachers. This is very dangerous because for many young people, this is their introduction to the history and politics of the Middle East.
And in too many cases, what they are learning is not history, or policy, but a biased, one-sided political view that paints Israel as the villain – and the Palestinians as the victims.
The very definition of a university should be the free flow of all ideas. But too often, we have seen speakers offering Israel’s viewpoint shouted down … or not even allowed to speak. We have seen teachers who refuse to hear any thoughts that support the Jewish state.
Just reverse this equation for a moment. If any professor talked about minorities the way he or she talks about Jews, what would happen to him? What makes it okay to go after Israelis – and by extension, Jews?
Colleges that enable this kind of behavior should be exposed. A solution: alumnae and donors should know what their schools are teaching and they should act accordingly.
Finally, regarding the United Nations and the ongoing attacks against Israel. This institution, with its twisted obsession with the Jewish state, has made a mockery of itself.
It’s hard to even remember that the United Nations began with such promise out of the ashes of World War II. Today, it’s become more a political organization for many countries to push their own agendas rather than a forum for seeking peace.
We can’t change them. But there are countries that should know better and we have to do everything we can to persuade them to do what is right … and not what is politically expedient.
We would not suggest that the United States cut off its funding, because we still believe in the United Nation’s potential. But this disproportionate focus on Israel must stop.
Many great speakers will follow me here today. We may not all agree on the methods or direction, but I know that we all share that same goal.
We all want a safe and secure Israel.
We all want Jews everywhere to be safe.
If we disagree in how we get there let’s do that in private. But in public let’s speak with one voice.
Because in the end there is only one Israel, with one capital, Jerusalem.
Jews waited far too long and paid too high a price to lose it now.
When Jews are united, we can accomplish great things. We can do anything. And always remember this: what we do here today is not for us.
Just as those who came before us moved heaven and earth to preserve this gift we owe the same to future generations.
This is for our children, and our children’s children. It is for the future of the Jewish people.
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