Speeches

You are joining the IDC in its 20th year. This place was established for you. We wanted to establish a university which will prepare the younger generation to become the future leadership of Israel. We were the first in Israel to establish an interdisciplinary university.

Her Royal Highness Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands; Their Royal Highnesses Prince El Hassan bin Talal and Princess Sarvath El Hassan of Jordan; Mrs. Fischer, representing her husband, his Excellency Dr. Heinz Fischer, President of Austria, to whom we wish quick recovery; Our generous host, the Governor and Mayor of Vienna, Dr. Michael Häupl; Read More

The Israeli Declaration of Independence was pronounced at a very dramatic moment. The British Mandate was to expire the next day, the envisioned orderly transfer of power through an appointed United Nations commission did not materialize and the Jewish Yishuv (ישוב) was already under attack of Arab forces. The words of the declaration expressed the dreams and values of the Zionist movement. 52 years have passed since Herzl contended in his famous speech in front of the Maccabi Club in London: “The Jews want a state of their own in which they finally can live as a free people”.

Welcoming Prof. Ron Harris, Director of the David Berg Institute, Prof. Yoram Shachar of IDC and the spirit behind this conference and the deliverer of the keynote address Prof. David Armitage of Harvard University. A special welcome to Prof. Aron Shai, Rector of Tel Aviv University. Up till now we saw you at IDC as a visiting beloved lecturer, and today it is a unique pleasure to welcome you as the Rector of Tel Aviv University. I am sure that your wisdom and humane approach will render a great service to your highly respected Academic Institution.

One cannot open the conference today without congratulating the most recent Nobel Prize Laureate Prof. Shechtman and the Technion for the great accomplishment and the honor bestowed on the Israeli academic community.

Each of us has his own private, inner album; pictures of formative moments in our lives. My Yom Kippur War was also bloody and filled with death. But what I remember best of all is one quiet moment that occurred some ten days after the fighting ended. I was standing at the bedside of Yehouda Wahaba at the Rambam Medical Center. Both of his eyes were bandaged and he could not see me. As if in a scene taken from a Russian World War II movie, I stood there while he recounted my brother Gadi’s last moments.

The strategy to terminate the Jewish state is no longer based on winning one major all-out war. The strategy is based on two long term operations. One is a continuous low intensity violent campaign. Such terror acts directed at civilians are aimed to break the citizens’ will-power, cause internal debates and chaos.Read More

On July 6, 1896, Theodor Herzl presented his vision in a speech to the Maccabim Club in London. “The Jews want a state of their own,” he said. “In which they finally can live as a free people.” Establishing a state was vital in order “to finally guarantee [the Jews] that they will never again be persecuted for religious or nationalistic reasons… We have a right,” Herzl said in London, “at least as much as anyone else to demand a country for our national existence. Read More