Governor Pawlenty's Prepared AIPAC Remarks
Thanks, Andy, for your kind introduction and for your incredible friendship. I want to also recognize tonight my fellow speakers, Governor O’Malley, and Colonel Bar of the IDF. Thanks to both of you for your great leadership and service.
I want to also applaud Howard Kohr for his leadership, and the past and incoming presidents of AIPAC, David Victor and Lee Rosenberg.
As Andy mentioned, we traveled recently to Israel together. For my State, it was an incredible trade mission -- focusing on the potential for even more high-tech trade between Israel and Minnesota.
But, of course, it was also so much more.
From a personal faith standpoint, merely being present in the Holy Land was a life-changing experience.
From a historical standpoint, walking on soil that is more rich in history than anywhere on earth was truly humbling.
And, having the chance to visit Yad Vashem—and to be given the honor to lay a wreath there, in memory, dramatically reminded me of images and lessons I always carry with me.
At a time when the relationship between the governments of the United States and Israel is at a critical stage, AIPAC’s work is all the more important.
Like Andy, you put resources, time, and energy into ensuring that American policymakers understand that Israel’s cause is our cause — and I thank you sincerely for all that you do.
In the family of nations, Israel and the United States are kindred spirits, with bonds deeper than culture and commerce, deeper even than shared geopolitical and strategic interests.
We are coupled on our national journeys by the strongest of all possible connections. By faith in freedom, democracy, and peace by an acknowledgement that liberty is the birthright of every man, woman, and child and by our place as beacons of hope for those in the shadows.
Those are the ties that bind us and they are unbreakable.
You can see those beacons in unexpected places, like Haiti. American and Israeli relief teams worked shoulder to shoulder to help the millions affected by the tragedy. And, it was the IDF field hospitals that set the gold standard for care for the wounded.
For Israel’s small size, it has a supersized heart for those in need around the world.
But as you know, there are many challenges ahead and there is much work to be done.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to begin this evening by laying out a process for Middle East peace. It might be difficult to follow along, but bear with me, please.
Step one: the Palestinian people reject terror.
Step two: peace.
Everyone in this room understands that all Israel wants is to live peacefully, side by side, with its Palestinian neighbors.
Israel simply desires to be left alone. It is not too much to ask.
Everyone in this room understands that peace is in the hands of the Palestinians.
There will be peace only when the Palestinians are led by people willing to break with the past—only when they have leadership that has abandoned the anti-Zionist principles, the violence, and the corruption that have been bad for Israel but catastrophic for the Palestinians.
Everyone in this room understands that Israel is not the cause of the conflict in the Middle East--or anywhere else for that matter.
And everyone in this room understands that a strong Israel is in the best interest of the region, the United States, and the cause of freedom everywhere.
Together, the US and Israel must be clear not to blur the lines between friend and foe, and we must see our most dangerous enemies as they are—and not as we imagine them to be.
Our enemies are tempted by weakness, not strength, and they are glad to exploit utopian visions held by other nations.
The reality is that there are regimes—Burma, Syria, and many others—who do not share our interests or our values.
There are tyrants—Chavez, Ahmadinejad—who cannot be reasoned with.
There are people—bin Laden, Khalid Sheik Mohammed—whose life’s work is to destroy us.
There are also people who will never negotiate in good faith or with good intentions. But they must still be held to account for their behavior.
Fortunately, there are genuine allies around the world, allies who deserve our support and protection. Israel, of course, is one of them—and the United States must always stand squarely and indivisibly with Israel.
We must never undermine Israel’s diplomatic ability to negotiate peace. When we do, we put Israeli lives at risk by emboldening the most murderous actors in the region, including Hamas and Hezbollah.
Sadly, as I look around the globe today, I see disappointed allies, I see missed opportunities to support freedom and human rights, and worst of all, I see emboldened enemies who perceive weakness.
But this is not the way it has to be.
America has a key role in the world—as a steadfast ally, as a defender of freedom, and as a symbol of hope for the oppressed. Those of us in this room understand that.
We believe that our foreign policy involves more than managing America’s supposed decline. That we should never publicly scold an ally for defending itself. That the oppressed around the world should never doubt the American government and the American people who stand beside them. That the exercise of American influence was the greatest force for good in the twentieth century, just as it will be in the twenty-first century…
And I believe, as Ronald Reagan did, that pressure and engagement—are not mutually exclusive tactics. He proved that you can face down your enemy without betraying your values.
Reagan met with the Soviets, but he also showed great strength. He negotiated, but he also called the Soviet Union what it was: an “evil empire” and told Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down that wall.”
He made compromises, but he also made clear to the Russian people that we stood with them. When Sharansky sat in a prison cell for the crime of teaching Hebrew, he knew exactly where Ronald Reagan stood.
We must show strength to our enemies.
And let’s start with Iran.
The President has said that a nuclear Iran is unacceptable. On that, we all agree. And, we all agree military force is the option of last resort.
But we need to do a much better job of raising the costs and lowering the benefits of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
This means increasing political pressure on Ahmadinejad and imposing sanctions that would heighten the pressure. The US needs to better enforce its existing sanctions against Iran and impose new measures now.
It also means the UN Security Council taking action. Despite progressively alarming reports from the IAEA, the Council has not imposed new sanctions against Iran in over two years.
I find this inexplicable and inexcusable. The Security Council was created to address threats to international peace and security, but it continues to sleep while Iran continues to enrich.
I also believe that we must be investing in our missile defense systems that would deny Iran the ability to threaten its enemies.
And, we must publicly and strongly back those risking their lives in Iran to oppose the regime and its thugs.
To deter Iran, we must also work with China, which has not done enough to end business as usual with Iran and help enact tougher sanctions.
But we should also realize that now more than ever, our national security is imperiled by America’s out of control spending. We do not have much leverage over places that prop up our economy by buying our debt. These issues are related and we must as a nation face these difficult facts.
The United States should leverage our strengths, all of our strengths, in support of our great ally, Israel.
We need to further strengthen a strategy to build Palestinian institutions in the West Bank and cultivate a new, peaceful Palestinian political elite—one that rejects terror.
We should ensure that our assistance to the Palestinians immediately ends the teaching of hatred that still goes on every day in Palestinian classrooms and over their airwaves.
The U.S. has let that pass for too many years. We must insist that incitement ends now.
We should also ensure that our assistance cultivates and empowers moderate forces in Palestinian society. New leaders who are honest and capable, who appreciate the rule of law, who understand that war against Israel has doomed generations of Palestinians to lives of bitterness, violence, and poverty, and who are more interested in improving Palestinians’ lives than eliminating Israel.
These potential new leaders are Israel’s best hope for honest, earnest negotiators. Peace is possible but only with the right partners.
Ladies and gentlemen, America and Israel face the same enemies, who hate us for many of the same reasons: our belief in freedom, democracy, and human rights.
Relations between the American people and Israel are strong.
The global war against Islamic extremists has brought our nations closer together, not divided us.
In this war, Israel is the indispensable ally of the United States. It is our closest friend in the world’s most important and volatile region. Israel must keep the light of freedom alive in the face of those working to extinguish it.
In these efforts, the United States must stand with Israel--just as we have for the past 60 years.
Our shared challenges can and will be overcome.
We can and will defeat our common enemy.
And America can and will be what it has always been--the world’s best hope for freedom and peace.
Thank you all, and may God bless the United States and the State of Israel.
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Governor, I used to think that you were a very common-sense, rational politician. But this speech is clear political pandering and an oversimplification of one of the longest running conflicts in the world. You've definitely lost my vote in the primary and my financial support
Obvious the above person doesn't really value his comment as he could not even give his first name at least! I totally agree with Governor Pawlenty's views. We must stand by Isreal. There is a bigger power than just the ones he mentioned. God will not be mocked, He is a just God and one day you will see that whether you believe in Him or not, you WILL bow before Him one day! God will be on Isreal's side when it comes down to it!
Thank you Governor Pawlenty for your wise words. I know this will not be easy but you have many people praying for you and all those that stand with you.
When we betray our staunchest allies, with whom do we stand? Thank you for your strong stance for our most important ally in the world, along with Japan and South Korea and England. I pray for people like you to continue to fight against the ravages of this unconstitutional, anti-American administration.
Diane...I posted the first comment and stand by it.
I would learn how to spell Israel before we have a conversation about this issue. The issue of Israel is a complex one and boiling it down to Palestinian support of terror is an extreme over simplification. Even Ronald Reagan in his diaries noted that Israeli intrasigience on settlements etc. would forestall peace in the region.
No doubt Israel is a great democratic ally in a region where few are to be found. But, if we want to preserve the character and state of Israel as it is, Israel must find a way to maintain relations with an independent Palestinian state on the basis of mutual respect? Why do I say that? Arabs are the fastest growing population in Israel. By some estimates they will make up a majority by 2030 in Israel. So if we want our ally to be a democratic, Jewish state in the Middle East the best thing we can do for Israel is force it to respect territorial boundaries for an eventual Palestinian state and stop it from breeding hate amongst Palestinians through continual economic blockade. We have to be even-handed in this matter if we really want our ally to be safe and prosperous in the years to come
Did I read it right? Is the governor saying that the Palestanians hate Israel for its record of "human rights" ? You gotta be kidding me. Israel is starving millions of people including women, children and elderly in the largest prison called Gaza, bulldozing homes and bombing schools and hospitals (including the ones run by UN) at will. Is that what you call human rights?
I agree with Diane that God will not be mocked, He is a just God. Don't be an accomplice to oppression.
We need to end the Federal Reserve, eliminate dual citizens from public office at all levels and require elected officials to (re)take a loyalty oath which should be strictly enforced.
Governor Pawlenty has been too isolated and needs new sources of information, most of all regarding the middle east.
"America first" should be Pawlenty's campaign motto and with it he would find an eager following. Unfortunately, he would never get any traction from the media if he were to say that.
For those who believe Israel to be our stauchest ally, wake up and smell the coffee.
http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/netanyahu-to-the-west-destroy-iran-before-israel-destroys-you/
Pawlenty tells so many lies in his money-grubbing speech to AIPAC that it would probably take an hour or more just to refute them all. I will stick to a few basics.
Israel is an Apartheid Regime by any measure. They incite hatred of Palestinians with some Israelis even celebrating Baruch Goldstein's machinegunning of 179 praying Palestinians at a mosque in 1994. The Israeli government has never stopped building settlements in Palestine despite having agreed to do so as part of the Oslo Accords.
Also the Israeli government has been caught spying on the USA on numerous occaisions. Much of this spying is actually conducted by disloyal American Jews. They attacked the USS Liberty in 1967 and killed 34 American Sailors. Contrary to international law they even machine gunned our sailors on life rafts to keep the truth from getting out. Israel mooches billions of dollars from american taxpayers every year. We get nothing in return but the very well earned enmity of the Arab world.
The reason the American economy is in such a state of collapse is because we our fighting 2 wars which we can't afford. These wars are outgrowths of Bin Laden retaliating against America by attacking the World Trade Center because we have aligned the USA with the barbaric Apartheid regime of Israel.
Now the Jews are trying to start a war with Iran which, unlike Israel, hasn't attacked any of their neighbors in hundreds of years. Iran is not a threat to the USA. If Pawlenty and his Jew buddies want a war with Iran they should all move to Israel and fight their own war. Let Americans live in peace.
In the meantime, Minnesota needs a governor who tends to Minnesota's interests and has a degree of dignity beyond what he demonstrates when he acts like AIPAC's trained monkey.
PAWLENTY YOU ARE A LIAR AND A DISGRACE.
I think speeches like these make peace impossible in the Middle East. Given that this Governor is speaking before an Israeli Lobby and he had to be very friendly to them. And I know that each Presidential hopeful will want the Israeli Lobby on his side. But it does not give him the right to bash the other side, the native Palestinians, as they are the ones who occupy Israel, the ones that came from all over the world to displace Israelis, and the ones who own the F-16s and cluster Bombs to be used against their civilians (Pawlenty had it all wrong and upside down). I am really not sure how a human being could be so oblivious to his/her ethical and moral standards where he/she chooses to look only on one side and refuse to entertain the possibility of being wrong (And Mr. Pawlenty, you are dead wrong on this issue).
"Israel" is a fraud. And this politician grovelling at the feet of this zionist AIPAC mafia makes me want to puke.
Well well well, t-paw is a jerk, so you finally berate the annointed one?
When I wonder will you finally see the hegelian dialectic at work in your face for what it is.
There is no left and right. No dems vs repubs. No conservatives vs liberals.
There is only slavery for the poor, and policies that make the rich richer, leading the nation into giving up the liberties provided by the constitution ONLY.
The constitution is all we have to stop the usurpation of our nation by scum who are stealing us blind.
But I doubt anyone will save us. No one has yet…and I have been waiting and watching for a while…
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