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Madam Speaker,
Government Ministers,
Knesset Members,
Distinguished guests on this festive day for the Israel Knesset,
The fifteenth of Shvat is the traditional birthday of the Israel Knesset.
A birthday is a joyous event – one which also includes an element of soul-searching and interim conclusions;
On the one hand, our parliamentary democracy is very much alive and vibrant. On the other hand, clouds are hovering over the skies of pubic life in Israel.
I wish to focus my greeting today on these two elements.
I doubt if there is any other country in the world in which freedom is so evident and open. We are truly a land of freedoms, a land where anything can be said – and anything is said – for and against the Government, for and against the State, for and against G-d, and everything within the complex and demanding framework of the democratic discourse.
Not everyone understands the essence and subtleties of the political arena. Therefore, we must return to the fundamental explanations:
The Knesset is not a philharmonic orchestra which is required to perform its piece with precision and harmony. On the contrary. The Knesset is a melting pot of opinions and beliefs, convictions and perceptions, people and their values. This is where the law and the Halacha powerfully meet; it is where Jews and Arabs often contend, and where all religious denominations meet – here, at the Knesset.
The heat stemming from the Knesset is not the heat of a burning house, but rather the heat of friction between opinions and convictions which never would have met and collided had it not been for the existence of the State of Israel and the Israeli Knesset. In this we take pride.
In recent years, numerous fundamental issues have been clouding over us:
The war which has not yet ended on the one hand, and the peace which is late in coming, on the other.
The frustrating sense that the Middle Eastern conflict has spilled beyond the political arena and turned into a religious confrontation, into radicalism and fanaticism.
And at home – scandals and affairs, which give us no rest, until people begin to question whether we have a future, and if so, what that future is.
I wish to say several words on this issue and to use this platform to make two calls:
Firstly – let us not forget that the fundamental principle of justice in a law-abiding country assumes, as an invaluable component of the freedom doctrine, that all men are innocent until proven guilty. Without this fundamental, there is no point to the whole system.
My second call is addressed to the law enforcement agencies in Israel. Do not cease investigating, do not cease inspecting, do not cease aspiring to fix the world in which we live.
Do this with integrity and efficiency, while examining each case individually, free of any tainted atmosphere or outside influence.
We, Members of the Knesset, will continue to protect the legal institutions, the bastions of democracy, including the one and only Supreme Court.
These are not easy days, but I would still like to talk about our hopes. Despair has never been part of my vocabulary and I do not believe in it as a political program or recommendation for a political policy.
The only thing despair knows how to do is to instill a sense of hopelessness. To it, Government and parliament do not exist. We are here to give hope, to offer plans and outline ways towards a better tomorrow.
What is the Israeli Knesset faced with? Certainly the day-to-day politics, but it is not enough.
All of us together – legislators and executors – should rise above the demands of the day-to-day routine and present to the nation a vision and a plan of action to fulfill that vision.
By Israel's 60th birthday, we must try to complete the missing chapters in Israel's Constitution, so that each and every citizen, whether he/she is a member of the majority or the minority, will know that he/she is protected against any wrong or persecution.
The Israeli governmental system also requires some amendments, which will bring us, public officials, closer to the citizens, who feel that we have alienated ourselves from them.
A government cannot rest on its laurels. What the Government of Israel needs from you, legislators, is a constitutional infrastructure which will allow it to perform and govern better and which will be more adaptable to the challenges of the 21st century.
Many states and nations suffer from an increasingly escalating democratic crisis. People's confidence in parliaments throughout the western world gradually diminishes, and a similar process is also occurring in the State of Israel.
The path to a new democratic authority goes through the renewal and rejuvenation of the most fundamental bases of our lives – the meaning of justice and the place of compassion, the character of the leadership and the nature of elected officials.
These – and more – are the challenges facing us.
A considerable part of our ability to succeed stems from our ability to learn from our mistakes, admit our errors and fix them.
This is how the Knesset acts. This is how the Government acts, and how I, as its head, act. Only one duty rests on our shoulders and that is that when we come to fix, we must take caution not to break or destroy our country in those floods of "holy rage" which often overcome us.
Happy birthday.
Finally, I commend you, Madam Speaker, on the respectable, worthy, restrained and determined way in which you fulfill your duty. The honor of the Knesset is your honor; it is our honor.
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