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January 11, 2004 Ministry of Foreign Affair Website


Good evening to all of you,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the Government of Israel, it gives
me great pleasure to welcome you all here in Jerusalem, the eternal,
united and undivided capital of the Jewish people and the State of
Israel, on the occasion of the New Year.

It is my sincere hope and prayer that this New Year, 2004, will
enable us to make progress on the road to peace, security and
prosperity with all our Arab neighbors as well as in the Middle East
at large.

The past year was not an easy one for us and I am sure also for you
in your efforts to cover the developments in Israel.

Despite the loss of innocent lives and damage to our economy, we did
not break, and managed to stand firm and defend our citizens and our
democracy.

In the past year our region has witnessed some major developments as
a result of the successful campaign by the United States headed by
President Bush in his courageous and determined stand against global
terrorism and its supporters.

No doubt these developments created new opportunities to move the
peace process forward. And we follow those developments closely.

I would like to stress once again to this distinguished forum: Israel
and the government I lead, seeks real durable peace, and we are fully
committed to opening negotiations without preconditions and without
the use of violence, terrorism and incitement in order to achieve
peace and security with all the Arab countries.

Thank you, if you do have questions, I will be glad to answer.

Q:

Mr. Prime Minister, a question about borders: If the Palestinians
were to do everything that they've been asked, if they were to
dismantle all the terror networks, if they were to give up the right
of return would you consider withdrawing to the '67 borders, or is
that a red line?

And another border-related question: if the Syrians were to do the
same, if they were to rain on Hizbullah, to throw all the terror
groups out of Syria, would you consider giving up the Golan or is
that also a red line that you will not cross?


PM Sharon:

As to he question about Samaria, Judea and Gaza: We adopted the
Roadmap, with the 14 points our reservations, and that's what the
government approved. And we of course believe, and I believe, that
the Roadmap is the only plan that can provide security and peace, and
altogether, I don't see any other plan that can provide us with
security and peace as the Roadmap.

In the Roadmap, as you know, there are three stages, and the
Palestinians should accomplish several things, like the reforms that
should be implemented by them. By now nothing happened in this
direction. And they have to dismantle the terror organizations and
there should be full cessation of terror, hostilities and incitement.
I believe that once the reforms will be implemented, and the security
steps will be taken, Israel will be ready to negotiate the political
side of the agreement.

Of course, I would like very much that there will be negotiations
now. We invited the Palestinians and Prime Minister Abu Ala, whom
I've known for years now and I have good relations with him. The
problem is that by now they didn't accept our invitation. They are
not ready to come to negotiate.

If they will be willing to come, the first stage will be discussed,
and that is security. If it will be quiet, and life will be normal,
then we will start the political side of the negotiations. In this
political side of the negotiations, I suggested that in the second
stage, if it is quiet of course, Israel will recognize a Palestinian
state, with no final borders yet. If relations will develop and it
will be quiet, then we will come to the third stage, where the final
borders between Israel and the Palestinians will have to be discussed
and agreed upon. So that is my answer to the question about the
Palestinians.

I don't think that we ever discussed or announced that Israel will
withdraw to the '67 borders. We never said that - to the contrary.
But where the borders will be, that will be discussed when we reach
this point.

About Syria: Israel, altogether, is a peace-seeking country. We would
like to negotiate and reach peace with every Arab country. I would
say altogether with every country in the world, but especially when
you speak about Arab countries, those that have borders with us,
those that are in the region.

And of course we will be ready to negotiate with Syria.

Of course, we have one thing we have to understand: what really
brought the Syrians to propose that proposal? Syria is under
pressure, mostly after the war in Iraq; Syria is suspected to help
and give cover to the terror in Iraq, and Syria is behind together
with the Iranians the leading terror against Israel, and provides
help and support to Iran, otherwise Iran could not have done what
they are doing. Even now, after those announcements about the peace
negotiations with Israel, they continue to help the Hizbullah that
acts together with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards against Israel.

So I believe that what should be done is: Syria should stop its help
and support to terror organizations, and if that happens, I believe
that Israel will be very glad to negotiate. It should be without any
pre-conditions.

Their side should sit around the table, I believe that each side has
terms, and the two sides should sit and well decide. Again, I would
like to emphasize that Israel is ready and willing to negotiate, once
Syria, of course, will stop the help to terror which mostly acts from
an area which is under full occupation of the Syrians, since January
1976. I hope the day will come that they will take the steps and we
will be able to start negotiations.



Q:

Mr. Prime Minister, when you were Minister of Agriculture, you
created the first settlements in the occupied areas. And today you
are ready to leave some of them. Tonight there is a big demonstration
in Tel Aviv and a number of ministers from your own cabinet are
taking part in it, which is in a way, unheard of. Are you going to
take any steps against them?


PM Sharon:

First, to make a small correction here. When I entered the office of
Minster of Agriculture, there were already 25 Jewish communities.
Those communities started immediatley after the Six Day War - 25
existed and two of them were under construction - and I think it was
the right thing to do under the Labor Government then. So that's
about the facts.

We don't know who is participating in that demonstration there.
Israel is a democracy, and I believe that that's what brought them. I
don't know who is there, maybe there are some ministers too. As I
said, Israel is a democracy and there is a government in Israel and
things are decided not by demonstrators, but by the government. The
government adopted the Roadmap and I think that if there are members
of the government there, they participated also in the government
decision.

It is not an easy thing for people who were living in the territories
for many years, they are already third generation there. But I
believe that in order to achieve peace, Israel will not be able to
hold all the Jewish communities. That has been said by me many many
times in the past. I said that in times that maybe politicians would
not have that during primaries, before elections, and I said exactly
what I'm going to do, so that nobody would come later and say: we
supported you because we thought you are going to do something
different.

I said very clearly what I'm going to do, and I repeated that again
and again, and that is my position. And when Israel - and I hope that
we'll be able to do it soon - has to follow the Roadmap, Israel will
not be able to hold all the Jewish communities. It's very clear, and
even if we do not succeed - and I assure you that we will make every
effort to implement the Roadmap - but if we do not succeed and we
will have to take unilateral steps of disengagement, no doubt that
there would be some relocation of Jewish communities, and
redeployment of Israeli armed forces: all that in order to provide
more security to the State of Israel.

That's very clear, and I'm repeating it again: if it will be
possible, and only if we have a partner. Now we do not have a
partner, they are not coming to negotiate - we'll implement the
Roadmap. We regard that to be the best potential plan, and if not -
if that does not work out, and it should be very clear to all the
countries of the world that we tried and we made a real effort, then
we will have to take unilateral steps in order to make this
disengagement and redeployment of forces and relocation of some of
the Jewish communities. I said it and repeated it now.


Q:

How are you going to build peace with the Palestinians who see every
day kids killed, many houses destroyed; and how are you going to
build trust with these people who see the army destroy and kill
without stop? We saw now two months without any kind of operation
from Hamas, from Jihad, from Fatah, and without any step from the
Israeli government. Even the Roadmap, you don't implement anything
even when you say yes. How are you going to convince the
Palestinians, the Arabs, Syria, Libya, that you are really want to
make peace with them?


PM Sharon:

First of all, I'm glad that we have press here from Arab countries,
Im sure there are also Palestinians here. That only emphasizes that
Israel is a democracy, a stable democracy, and the only democracy
that exists in this part of the world.

As for what you have mentioned, talking about those kids that are
killed daily and the civilians that are killed, and so on. I think
that the most important thing is, of course, to move forward in order
really to develop those relations. We can see them already now: when
all those that came from Arab countries can sit here and say whatever
they want and we accept it, I see it as a good sign for future
relations that I plan to develop with Arab countries.

But I believe that we brought here those figures about casualties,
and you can see exactly, what was the rate of casualties that Israel
had. I know as a soldier for many years that civilians are killed in
wars, not because that is the intention - usually that's not the
intention, but sometimes they are killed, and every casualty is a
tragedy.

The problem is that the targets of the Palestinians are civilians,
and when a suicide bomber enters a school bus with children, they
know that there are children, and they decide to do it. If you take
that terrible act of terror that took place in Haifa, when a lady,
who was a suicide bomber, entered the restaurant, had her meal there,
paid, then stood by a baby stroller - and she saw that there was a
baby - and committed suicide - that's an entirely different thing.

And that's not the only place.

As a matter of fact, what you have mentioned, sir, that it was
completely quiet for two months, theres nothing true in that. Terror
never stopped - maybe there was a certain reduction, and I would like
to tell you that as you can see now, there is less terror than
before. And that happened not because the Palestinians took any steps.

That happened only because our security people, our soldiers, our
policemen, manage to stop terror. Even today there was a suicide
bomber on his way to the center of the country, until he saw soldiers
around him - it was in a road accident somewhere - and he operated
the explosives, but there were no casualties. Only he died. And it
never stopped for one day; never stopped.

And the Palestinian Authority did not take, though I've been talking
to them - to the former prime minister whom I've also known for
years, Abu Mazen - I talked to them. I told them that they can move
forward, they can solve their problems, they can make the lives of
the Palestinians much easier, because then we can remove all the
roadblocks, it would make it much easier.

But nothing happened, they have not taken any step whatsoever. And
that is the problem. And it should be very clear that I would like to
move forward, I would like to solve the problem, I feel that it is my
responsibility to make every effort. But if someone thinks for one
minute that Israel will make any concession whatsoever when terror
continues, that is a wrong assumption. It will not be. And the
Palestinians now have an opportunity to start solving their problems.

Therefore, I think that all that information that might come on the
one hand, Im very glad that you are sitting here together with us. On
the other hand, if you were not a guest here, I would say: lies and
lies and lies. And that one must understand. If it will be quiet and
I have said it many many times: for genuine, durable, real peace,
Israel is ready to make painful concessions.

Why painful? Because these concessions are in areas which are the
cradle of the Jewish people. The Jewish people was born as a people
4,000 years ago, and as a matter of fact, never left. There were Jews
that never left this country. And that one must understand.

For genuine, durable, real peace, there will be concessions. If you
ask me:

Will there be any concessions or compromise with terror? The answer
is no!

There will not be any compromise with terror. Maybe for some people
its hard to understand that its our right, and we have to exercise
our right of self-defense. Therefore, when it comes to security, no
pressure by anyone not now and not in the future there will not be
any compromises. We have the right to live peacefully.

I know people are talking about the fence. Do you know who built the
fence?

The terror built the fence. If not for terror, we would not have done
its very hard for us economically the fence was built by the terror.
If not for the terror, maybe we would not have done it at all. But I
think it's very important to know that when it comes to security,
there will be no compromises: not now, not in the future. Never! And
I feel that it is my historic responsibility to defend the lives of
Israeli citizens, and that's what I'm going to do.

As for other things, I believe that we could have done tremendous
things together with our neighbors.



Q:

[Hebrew] Last year 12,000 immigrants from former Soviet Union
countries arrived in the State of Israel, while at the same time,
24,000 Jews immigrated from former Soviet Union countries to Germany.
Are you concerned about that and what do you and the government you
head intend to do in order to change that and make the State of
Israel a more viable place for Jews to immigrate to, since you said
often in the past that you believe that what is needed for the
vitality, for the survival of the Jewish people, is immigration to
the State of Israel.


PM Sharon:

The main target of the government I lead is Jewish immigration to
Israel. And we believe that the answer to our problems here is first
of all immigration. And we put a target that within 12-15 years, we
will have to absorb here another million Jews, according to the Law
of Return. We believe that the potential immigration from what used
to be the Soviet Union is still about one million, according to the
Law of Return. But we are making efforts everywhere, in the United
States, in Latin America, in Europe - mostly when we see the growing
spread of anti-Semitism. We already managed to absorb 1.2 million
within 12 years or 13 years in the past, and with all the problems,
we don't have any people without roofs over their heads. It was a
tremendous effort, but we have done it.

We see the situation. Of course, it depends upon many things,
including a change in the economic situation. In Russia Jews are
making efforts to send more children over here to study here, and
usually when they come to study here, later they come and serve in
the military and become part of sharing the lives of Israeli citizens
here.

You mentioned Germany. The conditions that are provided, or the help
that is provided by the German government is much higher than here,
and no doubt there are difficulties here. The security doesn't bother
them as much as the economic situation, and the fact is that not
everyone who comes here can work in their profession. Of course,
those one million that came here made a tremendous contribution to
the State of Israel in every field. We don't think that we could have
achieved our achievements in hi-tech, in science, without that
immigration. So it is worrisome, we are studying this problem now and
we will decide what to do in order to have more of them coming over
here.


Q:

Mr. Prime Minister, one of the most important questions for the
future of Israel is the demographic development. In five or maybe two
years, the Arabs will be the majority in the territories between the
Jordan River and the Mediterranean sea. What in your opinion Israel
must do so that the Jewish people remain the majority in its own land?



PM Sharon:

I don't see any danger that the Jews will not be the majority in
their own land. First, you mentioned the population between the
Jordan River and the Mediterranean: we never sought to annex areas in
Samaria and Judea, as you call it the West Bank, or in Gaza. We never
thought about that. We never wanted to annex those areas, and we
never had any plan whatsoever to provide the Palestinian population
there with Israeli citizenship. And it's not going to happen. So once
that's not going to happen, there is no reason to worry about that.

According to the Roadmap - as I myself suggested to the White House
more than two years ago to adopt the plan which later came out as the
Roadmap - the areas which are heavily populated by Palestinians would
be part, according to the plan, of the Palestinian Authority.
Therefore, I don't see any danger here. Besides that, I believe there
should be a major effort to have more 'olim', newcomers to Israel.
Thats what we have to do and that will be one of our major efforts. I
dont see any demographic danger. You live here, so every day there
are some news and some announcements and some professionals and
people from the academic circles or journalists that write about this
demographic problem. When somebody wants to frighten or to impose
plans which are not always plans that can provide peace or security
here, they come with this issue. I don't think that there is
demographic danger, and I speak about a democracy, not a situation
where the Palestinians will be under our control but will not have
citizenship. Thats not going to happen. That is not the plan.



Q:

Mr. Prime Minister, you have often been talking about painful
concessions towards the Palestinians, also today. Can you be more
specific, can you give us examples?


PM Sharon:

The areas that we speak about are areas in Samaria and Judea, or as
you will refer to them as the West Bank. If you know the Bible, you
do not need a guide book in this country, because you can hold the
Bible and all the names, biblical names, are them. Jerusalem is
Yerushalayim and the Jordan is Hayarden and Jericho is Jericho and
Bethlehem is Bethlehem and Hebron is Hevron, whereas King David ruled
Israel for seven years and six months. And Mount Carmel is Har Carmel
and Mount Tabor is Har Tavor and there is Kever Rachel and Shilo that
was the Jewish political and spiritual center for 369 years; and
Beit-El - all those names kept for thousands of years.

And how were they kept for thousands of years? Because first, they
are in the Bible, and second: Jews never left this country. I believe
that about 100 years before the Muslims arrived here, the number of
Jews here was still close to half a million. So when you see all
these things and you see all those names, then you understand why
it's painful.

For years we talked mostly about security. I think that this approach
was a mistake. To emphasize on security, because for security you
have that or other means. I think Israel made a mistake and I include
myself in one of those not to speak about the Jewish rights over this
country. It's painful.

But in order to provide peace, we will have to take painful steps.
The Palestinians could have seen it already, if they had started to
negotiate.

One cannot do these things unless your partners are coming. I invited
Mr. Abu Ala whom I met many times before, I invited him to come and
discuss. I saw him in the past and I saw him at home in the farm; I
saw him in Jerusalem in the Prime Minister's Residence here. The only
thing is to come and negotiate. And then, of course, I believe that
things could move. It would still be painful. We speak about the
history of the Jewish people. And the Jewish people as Jews have
existed for 4,000 years and never left this country. Therefore, it is
painful, but painful steps will have to be taken.



Q:

You have spoken of the need to dismantle or to move settlements, many
of which or some of which you may have helped to create. And that
indeed would be very painful. So I wonder if you would be prepared to
concede today that it might have been a mistake to establish so many
settlements all over the interior of the West Bank and Gaza. What did
it achieve?



PM Sharon:

I think that the decision then to build those Jewish communities in
the area was the right thing to do. No doubt that those decisions
were made by the governments since the Six Day War. Many things have
changed since then. But still I believe that it was important, and I
agree that some of them will have to be removed, but altogether, I
think that that was the right thing to do. So many governments -
Labor Governments, Likud Governments, National Unity Governments -
all of them have done that.

Now, when we approach a time when I believe that we can and should
move forward, we will have to relocate some of them, and we will have
to redeploy our forces in order to have more security for Israeli
citizens, and I hope that we will do that. Altogether, with all the
pain that it creates, I think that it was the right decision. I know
that this decision was not liked by many countries, including the
United States which never agreed to that. But all those governments
with a number of prime ministers decided that and have done that.

In any case, thank you very much and I am looking forward to seeing
you next year, and meanwhile, happy New Year to all of you.