Netanyahu addresses Keren Hayesod-UIA world conference
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the Keren Hayesod-UIA Annual World Conference in Jerusalem.
Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the conference Photo Kobi Gideon/GPO
The Prime Minister received the Isaiah Award given annually to leaders, artists and donors whose actions prove great commitment to the State of Israel.
Prime Minister Netanyahu told the conference at the Jerusalem International Convention Centre: “I have followed the work of Keren Hayesod in my years in government, but every citizen of Israel should know that Keren Hayesod has been working on behalf of Zionism and the Jewish state for decades, decades and decades, achieving enormous successes in so many areas, beginning in Aliyah, and moving on to every major realm of endeavor that defines the future of our society and our people. And I want to thank all of you for participating in this. It’s a bond that connects us to Jewish communities everywhere and to strengthening the Jewish state.
We live in momentous times. The founders of modern Zionism did not say that the attacks on the Jewish people would seize once we establish a Jewish state. They said that we could defend ourselves against those attacks. And that’s exactly what the State of Israel has done. It’s restored the capacity of the Jewish people to defend ourselves, by ourselves, against any threat. And we are as powerful as we’ve never been before. We’re economically successful as we’ve never been before, and we take our economic power and our military might and we weld them together to have unprecedented diplomatic flourishing of Israel’s relations around the world. This covers all the continents.
There was one year, a year ago, that I visited six continents, if you make North and South America two continents. And every leader that I meet, every leader, is transfixed by the miracle of Israel, what we’ve accomplished. Our technology, our know-how, our intelligence, I mean military intelligence, our many full capacities. They’re impressed with it, and they always ask me, they ask me: what is your secret? What is the secret of this small state? They’re always amazed at the number, when I tell them that there are less than 9 million people in Israel they say, no, it can’t be, of course. And then I show them the number and they say, no, it’s at least 100 million, we know that, tell us the truth. And I did. But then they said, what is your secret? What is it that makes this small state such a huge success? And I tell them our secret is the fact that we have old traditions, we have deep roots in our land, but we have this immense creativity and curiosity, we send branches to the sky.
And it’s this unique combination of tradition and innovation that makes our people so powerful. We have a brain, we have a heart, we have a country, we have a state, we have an army, we have a future. And you are a part of that future. You’re all building that future.”
