Thank you very much. That was very moving.
I must admit that I thought of many possibilities for inviting a speaker to address an audience, but I never thought of this idea of two pretty girls from Sderot singing from the heart and penetrating the heart in such a beautiful way. Thank you very much.
Honorable President of the State of Israel, Mr. Shimon Peres,
Ms. Julia Koschinsky, of the UIA Federation leadership not only in Canada, but the Jewish UIA worldwide,
Ms. Barbara Farber, President of the United Israel Appeal of Canada,
Zeev Bielski, Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization,
Yossi Tanuri, Director-General of the United Israel Appeal of Canada,
My friends, private economic Israeli leaders, Yitzhak Dankner, Nochi Dankner, and Orly Dankner, Eitan Wertheimer, Mike, Raya and Ofra Strauss,
Fighters, Officers, and Soldiers of Elite Units of the Israel Defense Force who are present here and Cadets of the Officer Training Course, I am very proud of you,
My friend, Avi Pazner, World Chairman of Keren Hayesod, UIA,
Mayors and Heads of Local Authorities,
UIA Contributors,
Dear Friends,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Actually, I'm going to speak in English, but just before I speak in English, in the event that some of the young Israeli soldiers do not entirely understand English, I think in their honor I should say a word in Hebrew and then I will move on. Okay?
Last night we concluded celebrations for Independence Day and I allow myself to say perhaps due to natural circumstances that I know a lot more than most of the people, about what each unit present here does. I know that a) it isn't easy. On a daily basis you confront difficult missions in an uncertain reality, where at any moment incidents could occur in the Gaza Strip and afterwards in another area in the Center, in the East, in the North and you are always prepared, ready and brave. As one who sees many of you almost every day, and when I don't see you, I receive reports, I want to say to you, if Israel can celebrate its independence for the 60th time in security, and lack of fear, in strength, it is thanks to you, thanks to the soldiers of the Israel Defense Force. I would like to thank you on behalf of the Government of Israel and I salute you. Way to go!
Now, let me say a few words in a language which I'm sure you understand somewhat better. It's really been as Barbara said, my practice now for the last maybe 30 years, to meet with UIA Canada, on many occasions here and quite a few occasions over there, in almost every major Jewish community in Canada, whether it was in Montreal or in Toronto, or in Ottawa or in Calgary, or in Edmonton or in Vancouver - and I have met many of you. And I always admired the care and sensitivity that you have manifested to the State of Israel and to the people of Israel. You know, people sometimes ask me, particularly in the last few years, when I was Finance Minister and then Prime Minister, and I'm in charge of the budgets and the allocations and the priorities in the budgets, and how much we should give here and there and how we can somehow make sure that all the essential needs of the State of Israel are met in an appropriate manner. And it's not easy. I was asked how much do the Jews altogether give to the State of Israel? So, first of all I said, they give a lot. But secondly, which is equally important, is not only the financial dimension, it is the emotional dimension. It is the feeling that in times of crisis - and there are sometimes crises in this very unusual part of the world, we are not alone because we have you. We have you without conditions. We have many friends across the world. Some of them are wonderful friends. Many of them are helpful friends to the State of Israel. None of them of all the friends are the unconditional friends of the State of Israel as the Jews are, and as the Jews of Canada are. And that's why we are so grateful to you.
Now, I'm sure that while you are here - and I can see many kids here, so I guess this is a family visit, and you brought your families and you can move around the country and you can see that Israel is moving on – that Israel looks better – that we still have lots of problems, and some of these problems are not easy to deal with, and it will take a lot of time before we can be entirely happy and satisfied and certain that we can provide all the solutions for all the problems for the State of Israel. But we have a strong economy. I don't want to say stronger than others, I think it would be arrogant, but we have a strong enough economy that can deal with the crises of the world markets as they were in the last few months without a major shake to our economy. And if the international monetary fund anticipates that this year the growth of Israel will be only three and a half percent, I ask myself did any West European country enjoy a growth of three and one half percent in the last three years while Israel enjoyed a growth of 5.3 percent per annum for the last four years? So we have a growing, expanding and I think successful economy and we are very proud of it.
And we try now to deal very effectively and very seriously with the educational issues, welfare issues. I saw Feigie Zimmerman here. I remember the days when I was Minister of Health, and Feigie Zimmerman came to my office every two or three weeks to remind me of the rights and the need to provide special care for children from the age of birth. Feigie, the State of Israel this year allocates hundreds of millions of shekels for taking care of children from the age of birth to the age of six, something that has never been done before in the State of Israel. We will create in Israel 253 holistic centers for child care in every city, in every small place, in many of the peripheral cities first to take care of the needs of children so that when they reach the educational system at the age of six, they will already be identified with all the achievements and weaknesses and qualities and shortcomings, so that we will be able to exhaust their potential before they have to be dealt with as failures at the age of 15, with all the unlimited budgets that are needed in order to solve this problem. And this is just one example of a long strategy of a government policy which is now taking great care of the social and education needs of the State of Israel. I can go on forever, but I know I was allocated only ten minutes and I'm very, very close to using all of them.
So I want to say two final things which are, I think, of some significance to you as well. We appreciate, we admire and we thank you for your support and it's not just lip service. You know how deeply I feel it and how deeply I appreciate it.
Three names of prominent Israeli philanthropists were mentioned here. The names of Nochi Dankner, actually it's Orly and Nochi and Yitzhak Dankner because it's a family and the same for the other two, the Strauss family with Mike and Raya and Ophra and the rest of them, and Eitan Wertheimer and Stef Wertheimer. Let me tell you something. I think one of the most beautiful phenomenon in the change which is taking place in our society is that: Number one, we have people that have made quite a fortune because of the growth of the Israeli economy, and because of the entrepreneurial spirit of Israeli business people which is taking over and is becoming a phenomenon not just in the State of Israel but I think in many economies throughout the world. But the other thing is their deep commitment to the needs of our society and their ability to manifest this commitment by giving in a very considerable manner which makes us all very proud of them. So I want to take this opportunity to thank them. It's funny because this is the UIA Canada event and we have three prominent Israelis that could be considered as major donors by the highest standards of UIA any place in the world with regard to the State of Israel.
And finally I want to say one thing about the young man that was sitting next to me at the table here; a very young man, perhaps the youngest in this hall. He's the President of the State of Israel, Mr. Shimon Peres. I know you laugh, but you don't really laugh because you know that he's a very young man, because how can you measure the youth of the person if not by the endless energies that keep all his entourage tired, almost on a daily basis and also the very creative imagination with which I can characterize this person throughout his career. Actually I wanted to share a secret with you. I'm not sure that we are all alone here. But still, there is a very unique phenomenon in Israeli politics these days. The President and the Prime Minister have very, very good personal relations. It hasn't always been the case. But this is the case now, primarily because I admire him. He's a great leader. He's the most respected statesman in the world today. Believe me. And in the next few days, there will be hundreds of prominent guests coming from across the world with some of the top leaders of the world. I think twelve presidents, and prime ministers including the President of the United States of America, who was here just a couple of months ago, and he's coming again at the invitation of our President, and many others, to participate in a conference which will take place probably here, and will deal with the problems of the world, because this is the nature of Shimon Peres. He, in his mind, already knows what the solutions are for Israel. Now he wants to offer to the world leaders the solution for the whole world. You know what? When they listen to him they normally say, well this is a great idea. How come I didn't think of it? The answer is that they are not Shimon Peres.
So my dear friends, thank you very much for being here with us on Independence Day. Thank you for honoring Israeli philanthropists, who honor Israeli society by their generosity and their commitment and their care for the needs of the people of Israel, sharing their fortunes with the entire population as they do. I am very proud of them and thank you for the good work - and please say hello to Stephen Harper. I don't know who mentioned him, I think Julia. I'm not involving myself in any way in Canadian politics. It's not my business; believe me I have enough political issues to deal with here. Not too many, but you know, every now and then. I can tell you one thing; Steve Harper is a great friend of Israel. He's a fantastic guy, he's a great friend, we are waiting for him to come soon, perhaps at the end of this month to visit us, and he is a great representative of the spirit which you inspire.
Thank you very much.