(Jerusalem Post) Yehuda Avner - On the first day of his premiership in 1977, Menachem Begin was asked by the BBC whether he looked forward to a time when the Palestinians would recognize Israel. "I don't need Palestinian recognition for my right to exist," he replied. Later that day he told the Knesset, "Would it enter the mind of any Briton or Frenchman, Belgian or Dutchman, Hungarian or Bulgarian, Russian or American, to request for its people recognition of its right to exist?" "We were granted our right to exist by the God of our fathers at the glimmer of the dawn of human civilization four thousand years ago. Hence, the Jewish people have an historic, eternal, and inalienable right to exist in this land, Eretz Yisrael, the land of our forefathers. We need nobody's recognition in asserting this inalienable right. And for this inalienable right, which has been sanctified in Jewish blood from generation to generation, we have paid a price unexampled in the annals of nations."
2006-06-14 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive