In much of the Arab world, "Zionism" is pretty nearly synonymous with evil and incompatible with
peace. Grossman's speech however, is a testament that peace is an essential Zionist goal.
The opening paragraphs express the feelings of all those who love Israel, and explain to those who do
not understand, why we are here, why we cling to this land, and why he is moved to speak out for peace. Peace is not a
gift that the Israeli lift wants to give to our enemies. Peace is something that we all need in order to survive.
It is not easy to take a look at ourselves this year. There was a war, and Israel flexed its
massive military muscle, but also exposed Israel's fragility. We discovered that our military might ultimately cannot be
the only guarantee of our existence. Primarily, we have found that the crisis Israel is experiencing is far deeper than
we had feared, in almost every way.
I am speaking here tonight as a person whose love for the land is overwhelming and complex, and yet
it is unequivocal, and as one whose continuous covenant with the land has turned his personal calamity into a covenant
of blood.
I am totally secular, and yet in my eyes the establishment and the very existence of the State of
Israel is a miracle of sorts that happened to us as a nation - a political, national, human miracle.
I do not forget this for a single moment. Even when many things in the reality of our lives enrage
and depress me, even when the miracle is broken down to routine and wretchedness, to corruption and cynicism, even when
reality seems like nothing but a poor parody of this miracle, I always remember. And with these feelings, I address you
tonight.
"Behold land, for we hath squandered," wrote the poet Saul Tchernikovsky in Tel Aviv in 1938. He
lamented the burial of our young again and again in the soil of the Land of Israel. The death of young people is a
horrible, ghastly waste.
But no less dreadful is the sense that for many years, the State of Israel has been squandering, not
only the lives of its sons, but also its miracle; that grand and rare opportunity that history bestowed upon it, the
opportunity to establish here a state that is efficient, democratic, which abides by Jewish and universal values; a
state that would be a national home and haven, but not only a haven, also a place that would offer a new meaning to
Jewish existence; a state that holds as an integral and essential part of its Jewish identity and its Jewish ethos, the
observance of full equality and respect for its non-Jewish citizens.
Look at what befell us. Look what befell the young, bold, passionate country we had here, and how, as
if it had undergone a quickened ageing process, Israel lurched from infancy and youth to a perpetual state of gripe,
weakness and sourness.
How did this happen? When did we lose even the hope that we would eventually be able to live a
different, better life? Moreover, how do we continue to watch from the side as though hypnotized by the insanity,
rudeness, violence and racism that has overtaken our home?
Grossman asked the questions that must occur to all of us time and again. "We all know what the
solution must be. Why then is it so hard to achieve it?" and "Assume that indeed there is only a very slight chance of
peace, why not try to exploit that chance?"
Any reasonable person in Israel, and I will say in Palestine too, knows exactly the outline of a
possible solution to the conflict between the two peoples. Any reasonable person here and over there knows deep in their
heart the difference between dreams and the heart's desire, between what is possible and what is not possible by the
conclusion of negotiations. Anyone who does not know, who refuses to acknowledge this, is already not a partner, be he
Jew or Arab, is entrapped in his hermetic fanaticism, and is therefore not a partner.
Let us take a look at those who are meant to be our partners. The Palestinians have elected Hamas to
lead them, Hamas who refuses to negotiate with us, refuses even to recognize us. What can be done in such a position?
Keep strangling them more and more, keep mowing down hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are innocent
civilians like us? Kill them and get killed for all eternity?
Turn to the Palestinians, Mr. Olmert, address them over the heads of Hamas, appeal to their
moderates, those who like you and I oppose Hamas and its ways, turn to the Palestinian people, speak to their deep grief
and wounds, acknowledge their ongoing suffering.
Nothing would be taken away from you or Israel's standing in future negotiations. Our hearts will
only open up to one another slightly, and this has a tremendous power, the power of a force majeur. The power of simple
human compassion, particularly in this a state of deadlock and dread. Just once, look at them not through the sights of
a gun, and not behind a closed roadblock. You will see there a people that is tortured no less than us. An oppressed,
occupied people bereft of hope.
Certainly, the Palestinians are also to blame for the impasse, certainly they played their role in
the failure of the peace process. But take a look at them from a different perspective, not only at the radicals in
their midst, not only at those who share interests with our own radicals. Take a look at the overwhelming majority of
this miserable people, whose fate is entangled with our own, whether we like it or not.
Go to the Palestinians, Mr. Olmert, do not search all the time for reasons for not to talk to them.
You backed down on the unilateral convergence, and that's a good thing, but do not leave a vacuum. It will be occupied
instantly with violence, destruction. Talk to them, make them an offer their moderates can accept. They argue among
themselves far more than we are shown in the media. Make them an offer that will force them to choose between accepting
it or prefering to remain hostage to fanatical Islam.
Approach them with the bravest and most serious plan Israel can offer. With the offer than any
reasonable Palestinian and Israeli knows is the boundary of their refusal and our concession. There is no time. Should
you delay, in a short while we will look back with longing at the amateur Palestinian terror. We will hit our heads and
yell at our failure to exercise all of our mental flexibility, all of the Israeli ingenuity to uproot our enemies from
their self-entrapment. We have no choice and they have no choice. And a peace of no choice should be approached with the
same determination and creativity as one approaches a war of no choice. And those who believe we do have a choice, or
that time is on our side, do not comprehend the deeply dangerous processes already in motion.
Maybe, Mr. Prime Minister, you need to be reminded, that if an Arab leader is sending a peace signal,
be it the slightest and most hesitant, you must accept it, you must test immediately its sincerity and seriousness. You
do not have the moral right not to respond.
You owe it to those whom you would ask to sacrifice their lives should another war break out.
Therefore, if President Assad says that Syria wants peace, even if you don't believe him, and we are all suspicious of
him, you must offer to meet him that same day.
Don't wait a single day. When you launched the last war you did not even wait one hour. You charged
with full force, with the complete arsenal, with the full power of destruction. Why, when a glimmer of peace surfaces,
must you reject it immediately, dissolve it? What have you got to lose? Are you suspicious of it? Go and offer him such
terms that would expose his schemes. Offer him a peace process that would last over several years, and only at its
conclusion, and provided he meets all the conditions and restrictions, will he get back the Golan. Commit him to a
prolonged process, act so that his people also become aware of this possibility. Help the moderates, who must exist
there as well. Try to shape reality. Not only serve as its collaborator. This is what you were elected to do.
Certainly, not all depends on our actions. There are major powers active in our region and in the
world. Some, like Iran, like radical Islam, seek our doom and despite that, so much depends on what we do, on what we
become.
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