“We came here 75 years ago just to live.
Back then, we had no country and no army.
Seven nations waged war against us.
We were only 65,000 people.
There was no one to save us.
Only the God of Israel, Jehovah, saved us.
And yet, attacks against us never ceased.
“Countries like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, and Saudi Arabia showed us no mercy.
They all wanted to destroy us.
But we survived.
“After being exiled from our own land, we returned.
The United Nations gave us a land that was 65% desert.
We soaked it with our blood.
We turned it into our nation because it means everything to us.
“We forgot nothing.
We escaped Pharaoh.
We escaped Greece.
We escaped Rome.
We escaped Spain.
We escaped Hitler.
We escaped the Arab nations.
We escaped Saddam.
We escaped Gaddafi.
We will escape Hamas.
We will escape Hezbollah.
We will escape Iran.
“Our Jerusalem has been attacked 52 times,
besieged 23 times,
destroyed 39 times,
completely destroyed 3 times,
and captured 44 times—
but we have never forgotten Jerusalem.
It is in our heart, in our mind,
and it will live in our soul as long as we live.
“Let the world remember:
Those who tried to destroy us are no more—
Egypt, Lebanon, Babylon, Greece, Alexander, the Romans—
all are gone.
But we still survive.
“They (the Islamists) want to erase us.
They took our traditions and heritage.
They took our teachings.
They claimed our prophets.
Abraham became Ibrahim,
Solomon became Suleiman.
“Then one day they said,
“Your prophet (Muhammad) has come.”
We did not accept it.
They asked how we could reject it.
The time of his coming had not yet arrived.
They said, “Accept it! Proclaim it!”
We refused.
So they killed us.
They seized our cities.
They turned our city Yathrib into Medina.
They murdered us and drove us away.
“In Mecca, we were 200,000.
They killed us.
They called us enemies and slaughtered us.
The same happened in Syria and Oman.
300,000 of us were murdered.
In Iraq, we were 200,000.
In Turkey, we were 400,000.
We were massacred.
“They killed us and took our cities, money, property, homes, livestock, and honor.
Yet, we survived.
“Over 1,300 years, millions of Jews were killed.
Still, we survived.
“75 years ago, they spat on us, humiliated us, beat us.
That was our fate.
But we held firm in leadership and in faith.
“Today, we have our own land.
We have our own army.
We have a modest economy.
In this time, we created Intel, Microsoft, IBM, and Facebook.
Today, our doctors make medicines.
Our writers write books.
This is for everyone—
for the well-being of all humanity.
“We turned the desert green.
Our fruits, medicines, tools, and satellites—
they are for everyone.
“We are not enemies to anyone.
We have not vowed to destroy anyone.
We do not wish to destroy anyone.
We do not even conspire against anyone.
“All we desire is to live with honor
in our country, on our land, in our homeland.
“For the last thousand years,
we were destroyed, expelled, persecuted—
but we were not wiped out.
We were never defeated.
And we never will be.
“We will win. We will prevail.
We were in Jerusalem 3,000 years ago.
Today we are in our first homeland—Israel.
Jerusalem was ours.
It is ours.
It will remain ours.
Jerusalem is from us.
We are from Jerusalem.”
