While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
New Living Translation
When people are saying, "Everything is peaceful and secure," then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman's labor pains begin. And there will be no escape.
Peace is 'necessary, just and possible,' says president
Peace is only way to ensure security for Israel, says Obama at Rabin memorial
In pre-recorded speech to Tel Aviv rally, US president pays tribute to PM, says ‘a bullet can take a man’s life, but his dream of peace will never die’
October 31, 2015, 10:46 pm
27
President
Barack Obama addresses the 20th anniversary rally in memory of Yitzhak
Rabin, Tel Aviv, October 31, 2015 (US embassy, via Twitter)
US President Barack Obama paid
tribute to slain Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin on the 20th
anniversary of his assassination via video message on Saturday night,
declaring that Rabin’s vision of peace remains “necessary, just and
possible.”
In
a pre-recorded message broadcast in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square where
organizers said some 100,000 Israelis gathered for the memorial rally,
Obama related the murdered prime minister’s legacy to the need to
advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Calling Rabin “a warrior for peace,” Obama recalled the night the late prime minister was gunned down.
“One the night he was taken from us, he looked
at the thousands gathered and said that the path of peace was
preferable to the path of war, and he exhausted every opening, every
possibility in the pursuit of a just peace,” Obama said.
Rabin, Obama said, “understood the challenges and dangers Israel faced and defended his country like a general.”
Rabin “also said the Palestinians could not be
ruled over forever by force. And, like a true statesman, he was willing
to exhaust every opening, every possibility, in pursuit of peace,” he
said.
“The Jewish people have the right to live in
their homeland, and Palestinians have the right to be a free people in
their own land. And peace is possible, if both parties are willing to
truly compromise and take risks for the only real solution — two states
for two people; a democratic Jewish state living side-by-side in peace
and security with a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian
state,” Obama said.
“And in these difficult times, for Israelis,
Palestinians, the region, Yitzhak’s life and dream inspire us still,”
Obama urged. He promised the US “commitment” to Israel and its security
“will never waver.”
Obama recalled a speech he gave on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his presidential visit to Israel in
2013, where he said that peace was “necessary, just and possible.”
“Peace is necessary, because it is the only
way to ensure true and lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians,”
he said. “Peace is just,” he said, “because the Jewish people have the
right to live in their homeland and Palestinians have the right to be a
free people in their homeland.” It is possible, he said, “if both
parties are willing to truly compromise and take risks for the only real
solution: two states for two peoples.”
“A bullet can take a man’s life, but his
spirit and his dream of peace will never die,” Obama concluded, adding a
blessing to all in the crowd and for all who seek peace and justice.
Earlier Saturday, former US president Bill Clinton spoke in person at the event, delivering a similar message to Israelis.
“He gave his life so that you could live in peace… What does it all amount to? Now that is up to you,” Clinton said at the rally, adding that “all of you now must decide when your leave here tonight…how to finish the last chapter of his story.”
Rabin knew, Clinton said, that “the risks of peace are not as severe as the risks of walking away from it.”
“Those who loved him and love your country are praying that you make that decision. May God bless this country,” he said.
The rally on Saturday night, at the square
that now bears Rabin’s name, will cap a week of commemorative events in
Israel, which have included a state ceremony at Mount Herzl and a
special Knesset session.
The Nobel Peace prize laureate who signed the
1993 Oslo accords aimed at resolving the decades long
Palestinian-Israeli conflict was fatally shot in Tel Aviv at a peace
rally on November 5, 1995, by Jewish extremist Yigal Amir at the same
plaza that hosted Saturday’s rally.
No comments:
Post a Comment