Jump to 30 min 50 seconds to hear it in his voice:
I often hear them accuse Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem. That’s like accusing America of Americanizing Washington, or the British of Anglicizing London. You know why we’re called “Jews”? Because we come from Judea.
In my office in Jerusalem, there’s a — there’s an ancient seal. It’s a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall, and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there’s a name of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu. That’s my last name. My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin — Binyamin — the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and there’s been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since.
And for those Jews who were exiled from our land, they never stopped dreaming of coming back: Jews in Spain, on the eve of their expulsion; Jews in the Ukraine, fleeing the pogroms; Jews fighting the Warsaw Ghetto, as the Nazis were circling around it. They never stopped praying, they never stopped yearning. They whispered: Next year in Jerusalem. Next year in the promised land.
As the prime minister of Israel, I speak for a hundred generations of Jews who were dispersed throughout the lands, who suffered every evil under the Sun, but who never gave up hope of restoring their national life in the one and only Jewish state.
Ban Ki-Moon’s decision to submit the Palestinian bid to the Security Council immediately instead of hanging on to it for a while is somewhat surprising. It also suggests that hopes for a compromise look more slender.
If the Palestinians were proving responsive to calls to delay the Security Council vote to give the Quartet time to find a formula to restart negotiations, the delaying tactics would have started here. Ban Ki-Moon allegedly told the Palestinians last week he could sit on their bid once they submitted it for as long as they wanted. Palestinian officials told me a few days ago that they could well play ball. I think things changed after Obama’s speech, which horrified the Palestinian camp and, indeed, the Palestinian public.
Ahhhhhhhhh yes
And there it is :)
The 2012 people will have a field day with this nugget
20:37 (15:37) Things are moving quickly tonight. The Quartet appears to have begun issuing a statement already, calling for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of 2012.
Bibi was raised up for such a time as this.