State Visit by the President of Israel – Speech by M. Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the Republic, at the dinner hosted in honour of Mr Shimon Peres, President of Israel

Paris, 10 March, 2008

President Peres, dear friend,

It is a very great pleasure for me to welcome you here today. It is not just a pleasure, it is an honour.

Rare indeed are the statesmen who embody the history of their country to the extent you do. As this year Israel celebrates her 60th birthday, I want to tell you how much I admire the way your life both in- and outside politics has for six decades espoused and influenced your State’s turbulent and moving destiny.

Need I recall that you were barely 10 years old when you left your shtetl, in what was then Poland, to disembark on a Jaffa beach? You, architect and poet, were, perforce, to become a fighter. You committed yourself body and soul to Israel’s existence, alongside a man whose name no one has forgotten in France: David Ben-Gurion. Then you became one of the main organizers of the defence of the young State. And it was during those years that you built up special relations with France, where you forged some solid friendships.

Basically, President Peres, you have been involved in every stage of Israel’s tumultuous existence. You fought in all the battles, shared all the pain, doubts, joys and hopes. And here you are today at the pinnacle of this fascinating career, at the head of the State of Israel.

Better than any other, you can appreciate the extraordinary progress made. After 2,000 years of exile, after the utter abomination of the Holocaust, which we won’t forget, the Jewish people are finally seeing their renaissance in their independent and democratic State.

Today, Israel is one of the most open and most brilliant societies; she has one of the world’s most successful and most dynamic economies. You are one of those who inspired this, you whose passion for modernity and progress grows ever stronger as you, spectacularly, and a little worryingly for the other presidents in the world, get younger!

FRANCE/ISRAEL

You are also, President Peres, the living symbol of French-Israeli friendship.

I want to say here how much I welcome the revitalization of the relationship between our two countries. I wanted the first State visit to France after I took office as President of the Republic to be reserved for Israel and for you, President Peres. It’s not a coincidence, it’s what I wanted, a choice I take responsibility for.

I know there have perhaps been misunderstandings between our two countries, and even differences of view, but the reality is that the people of France have always been among the first to stand by the people of Israel, that the people of France have always backed Israel on her path to development and prosperity, and that the people of France have supported Israel in her legitimate claim to the right to exist and to security.

Yes, there is probably an unequalled human bond between our two countries. This bond we owe first – but not solely –, after all, to France’s Jewish community. I love this community which overflows with dynamism, which overflows with generosity. I know its unfailing commitment to our Republic, equalled only by its concern for Israel’s security and well-being. We also owe this bond between our two countries to the French and Francophone community in Israel, which contributes through its initiatives and talent to the enrichment of Israeli society and which, through its attachment to France, forms a wonderful link between our two countries. I am greatly looking forward to meeting these men and women during my visit to Israel in June.

Finally, we owe this extremely special bond to the millions of French, admirers of the Israeli miracle, impressed by the unprecedented adventure of this democratic State, which is both so young and at the same time heir to an age-old culture. You won the battle for independence, you won the battle for democracy. Independent and democratic, that inevitably says something to the hearts of the people of France.

These are human bonds which explain the existence of exceptionally substantial and high-quality cultural relations between our two countries.

PARIS BOOK FAIR

President Peres, there could not have been a more appropriate event for your visit to France than the inauguration of the Paris Book Fair, of which Israel is this year’s guest of honour – all credit to those who made this important and pertinent choice. You yourself are a great reader, you are known for your love of literature, a love which goes back to your childhood and which you inherited from your maternal grandfather and your mother, who unlocked the doors for you to Russian, Yiddish and Hebrew literature. Israel can take pride in a literary production of outstanding variety and vitality, particularly valued in France, as shown by the writers here this evening, whom I want to extend greetings to and welcome as friends.

FRANCO-ISRAELI CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION/OIF

There is no shortage of signs of the dynamism of our cultural and scientific cooperation. Last June, the French cultural institute in Tel Aviv opened in a building on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Last September saw the inauguration of the Tel Aviv French-Israeli Lycée, with its French-Israeli baccalaureate, which for me is extremely important because it will give access to higher education in both France and Israel. Over the next few weeks, the France-Israel Foundation, the new instrument of cooperation for our young generations, will be established.

I’m thinking too of Israel’s Francophone community, of which you, President Peres, are a renowned example. I want to face up to my responsibilities: with all her heart France wants Israel to join the institutions of La Francophonie [international Francophone organization], to which Israel should naturally belong.

RESTITUTION OF LOOTED ART

Finally, a few weeks ago, the exhibition entitled "Looking for Owners" opened in Jerusalem. It highlights the exemplary nature of the active policy France has conducted to restore to their owners the works of art looted by the Nazis in our country during the dark period. In this year, which also marks 60 years of friendship between Israel and France, it’s a strong symbol.

PRESIDENT PERES/ISRAELI-ARAB CONFLICT

President Peres, while Israel’s defence and security are at the heart of your concerns, we can’t today mention your name without thinking first of the man of vision, the man of harmony, the man of peace, the Nobel Prize winner, who does not bring credit only to Israel, but to the whole of mankind.

Since the launch of the Oslo Process, alongside Yitzhak Rabin, you have worked constantly for a resolution of the Israeli-Arab conflict. No one better than you epitomizes the Israeli people’s aspiration to live side by side with their neighbours in peace and security. You continue unremittingly to promote cultural and economic projects designed to bring the peoples together and create trust. Israelis and Palestinians, you have suffered so much, the time has come to make peace and stop the suffering.

FRANCE/MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS

President Peres, you know my unfailing commitment to Israel’s security. No people anywhere in the world can live under the threat of terrorism – this terrorism which has just struck Jerusalem and that France utterly condemns. Despite the acts of violence, the Israeli leaders have courageously chosen to continue the peace process. President Peres, for France, this is the only path. There is no solution for the Palestinians and Israelis other than a political settlement.

And France is intent on giving Israel her full support on that path towards a just peace, a lasting peace in the region. The hopes, spawned by the international Annapolis conference, must not be disappointed. The goal remains the achievement of a final status agreement before the end of the year. Do people think there hasn’t been enough suffering, that the waiting has to go on? Waiting for what? And for whom? And who can say that next year or the year after, or the decade after, it will be easier than this year? And the key issues must be resolved: the borders, security, refugees, the status of Jerusalem. Peace is complex but it is infinitely less dangerous than war.

France hosted last December’s Donors’ Conference for the Palestinian State. By helping in the creation of a Palestinian State, we are helping Israel, and as a friend of Israel, I owe it to you to speak the truth. For Israel to have security, there has to be a democratic and modern Palestinian State and an end to the settlement policy.

I affirm this before you who are convinced of it: Israel’s long-term security depends on the creation of a modern viable Palestinian State. There won’t be – and it’s a friend of Israel who is saying this from the bottom of his heart – any security for Israel without a democratic viable Palestinian State on her borders.

I want emphatically to repeat this so that everyone clearly understands me. France, President Peres, will always be at Israel’s side when her existence is called into question. Not from time to time, President Peres, always. And those who scandalously call for Israel’s destruction will always find France confronting them, barring their way.

IRAN/NUCLEAR

Iran’s nuclear programme also calls for a very firm reaction. Israel isn’t alone. France is determined to pursue with her partners a policy combining increasing sanctions with openness to discussion, if Tehran chooses to comply with its international obligations. An Iran with nuclear weapons – I want to say this – is unacceptable for France!

DURBAN WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, XENOPHOBIA AND RELATED INTOLERANCE/FRENCH EU PRESIDENCY

A close eye will also have to be kept on the Durban human rights conference. No one here, President Peres, has forgotten the excesses of 2001, which transformed that conference into an intolerable platform against the State of Israel. I won’t accept any repetition of this in 2009.

France, who will hold the European Union presidency in the second half of 2008, will argue for Europe to pull out if its legitimate demands aren’t respected. Israel can also count on France’s support to give a new boost, under our presidency, to her relationship with the European Union and more broadly – to conclude, President Peres – the time has come for all the peoples of the Mediterranean and Europe to work at what brings them together instead of confining themselves to what divides them. There has been enough fighting and killing around the Mediterranean to found the Union for the Mediterranean, based on peace, development and security.

EUROPE/MEDITERRANEAN

As Jean Monnet proposed with the European coal and steel community, let us build our common future in the Mediterranean on practical solidarity; let us work together to clean up the Mediterranean Sea. Let us make this sea the cleanest in the world. And in your region where fresh water is so scarce, where water, as you had imagined it would be a few years ago, Shimon, is becoming a factor in cooperation – so that all may have access to it. Let us act together to deal with the threats to our fragile environment and forest fires. Let us build solidarity in practical ways. That is the objective France is proposing to all the leaders of Europe and the Mediterranean – in Paris on 13 July. It is time to make peace in the Mediterranean world.

* * *

These, President Peres, are some of the issues we discussed at our meeting which was so very moving for me this afternoon. But what struck me the most in listening to you is your extraordinary capacity to see things on a big scale when so many see small, and to see far when so many think that clear-sightedness consists of close up.

You embrace the twenty-first century, President Peres, with the eyes of a young man and a prophet’s vision. President Peres, allow me to raise my glass in the company of the Prime Minister and ministers, the Foreign Minister and speakers of both our parliaments, and my wife, in a toast to your health, President Peres, which I hope will long be excellent, to the stronger-than-ever friendship between our two peoples, and also in your tradition to life quite simply, l’chaim. Long live Israel. Long live France. Long live French-Israeli friendship./.