On November 10, 1975, the United Nations passed the resolution that Zionism is a form of racism.
Chaim Herzog, Israel's Ambassador to the UN at the time, had some serious cojones. He got up to the podium and gave a speech that blasted the resolution. As he concluded the speech, he picked up the resolution and tore it in half.
I was only 3 years old at the time. However, that whole debate on "Zionism is Racism" became such an integral part of Jewish life and American Jewry's relation to Israel, that during later years one could not avoid hearing the debate and references to the great speech of Chaim Herzog.
Now some British historians are publishing a new edition of the book "Speeches that Changed the World". They have debated which speeches should be included in the book and Herzog's speech is one of them.
I could not find a video of the full speech, but I did find this of excerpts of the speech. It comes from the Yad Chaim Herzog Foundation:
Rafi, thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeleteIsrael could use a spokesman with that kind of courage, today.
Someone who can stand up and say, "Hamas and Fatah are just a bunch of thugs; read their founding documents and see just what kind of "peace" they want with Israel."
Or how about, "We will not negotiate for the release of Gilad Shalit. We will punish his captors."
Or even, "There will be no more withdrawals. He we stand, and here we remain," would be nice.
Unfortunately, we have Olmert et al... ugh.
Have you ever read any of Herzog's other UN speeches? There are several at the end of the book 90 Minutes at Entebbe; check them out.
thanks Michael, I will check it out..
ReplyDeleteyou can see the whole text of the speech here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/UN/herzogsp.html