My good friend, Efi Stenzler, the World Chairman of Keren Kayemet and JNF,
And Dalia,
My old friend, Stanley Chesley, President of JNF in the United States of America,
Mr. Russell Robinson,
Distinguished representatives of JNF from 27 countries,
Dear Friends,
Dear Partners,

I am proud and I am happy to have this opportunity to meet with all of you.  I want to say something personal to Stanley.  Stanley is the first president that I'm going to meet this week, but certainly not the last.  In the next few days, I'm going to meet with more presidents in one week than I think I met over quite a long period of time.  The last is going to be the President of your country Stanley, George W. Bush who is coming to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel with us.  And the reason I mention this, is not just to prove to you that it's going to be a very hectic week.  Every week for the Prime Minister is hectic somehow, but I think this is a testament to something that we are very proud of.  We are very proud of the way that the world at large relates to the State of Israel these days.  The presidents that are coming this week will participate in a very extraordinary conference that is organized by another great president, the President of the State of Israel, Mr. Shimon Peres.  But  we already had a series of the most important leaders from Europe, from Asia, and there are many more to come after this week, all of them for one purpose – to express their support, their respect and admiration for the achievements that were made in this small country in the last 60 years. 

And I want to tell you why I am so proud and happy that I have this opportunity to start this week with this very powerful and impressive gathering of people that came from so many different countries:  You are part of this achievement.  You are part of what has happened here in the last 60 years.  You who come from so many different places, from really different corners of the world, were active and supportive and involved and devoted to the building up of the State of Israel – one can say long before the State of Israel was proclaimed. 

Now, let me tell you something very personal if I may.  You see this blue box.  The first thing that I brought into the official residence of the Prime Minister of Israel when I was elected, formally elected, because I was serving as Acting Prime Minister for a few months because of what happened to my dear predecessor, Ariel Sharon.  But when I was elected Prime Minister and I came into the official residence of the Prime Minister, the first thing I brought in was the blue box of Keren Kayemet, the JNF.  And I have it – proudly I have it – in my home to remind me every day of the basics of where it all started.  And it started by so many Jews across the world that as you say Stanley, dropped one penny or one cent into this box until it was filled.  Then they emptied it to allow the small community of Jews living in Israel to use this in order to buy land so that there will be enough for all of us Jews who want to live where we really, really belong, which is here in the land of Israel and in the State of Israel. 

I proudly think that I am very familiar with the Keren Kayemet and JNF for many reasons.  Not only because I'm a very close personal friend of Efi Stenzler, who is the World Chairman and has been my friend for so many years - when both of us were still mayors and didn’t know that we would meet one day at this gathering, he as the World Chairman and I as Prime Minister.  I've been working with Keren Kayemet for many years and I've been impressed with the devotion, with the care, with the enthusiasm which characterizes so many of your communities throughout the world in their unlimited energies invested in the building up of the State of Israel.  It was correctly said by Efi earlier that the map of the State of Israel, historically, was created largely by Keren Kayemet and JNF.  Tel Aviv was there; Jerusalem was there, some of the major historic cities were there for generations, for thousands of years, but the spread of townships and settlements from north to south, from east to west was created with the pioneering spirit of people who came to this country 80 and 70 and 60 years ago, and the assistance of the volunteers and contributors to Keren Hayesod, who helped them build those townships and settlements that ultimately dictated the shape of the map of the State of Israel.  This has been an historical achievement of which all of you ought to be very proud.  You are not here as foreign guests.  Technically maybe you are, because when you have to come through Ben Gurion Airport you have to present your passports, but you are here in Jerusalem in the heart of Jerusalem, because you are partners, you are here because you share with us the burden of building this country up and the pride of moving forward all the time with the great achievements that characterize the life of our country in the State of Israel.

Now I know that maybe some of the media people are expecting me to make a political statement because I guess for some strange reason they may be interested in politics.  But I'll tell you something; this is the true politics of this country.  The true politics of this country is the day to day work of millions of people that love this place, that are absolutely dedicated to this place, that are ready to defend this place, to protect the people that live here, to fight for the safety and to invest in the growth and expansion of the Israeli economy which is really the basis of what we are trying to do in the next few years. 

We are very proud of our achievements, and you are part of these achievements. And I know of the great vision of Keren Kayemet and JNF which is to realize the dream of the greatest leader we ever had, the founding father, the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, who moved to the Negev in the early fifties because he understood then what we now understand much better, but he felt well over fifty years ago, at the very beginning of the State of Israel, that the future of Israel, if we don't want a state limited to the range between, as we say Hadera and Gadera, if we want to be able to exhaust all the potential of our country, we need to move southward, all the way, and to inhabit it, the Negev, which can be from what it is in some parts today, a desert blossoming into a garden of agriculture, of townships that are based on high technology, of industrial parks, of a center of cultural and social activities that will make the life of this country richer, happier and stronger. 

The program of Keren Kayemet and JNF, the Blueprint Negev, is a landmark towards the realization of this great dream.  And I'm telling you now, Stanley, since you have requested it, in front of this great crowd, that the Government of Israel is committed to invest in the next ten years, 17 billion shekels in the growth, the development, the expansion of the Negev for the people of Israel.  This is not a minor expense for a country which has to find the necessary revenues at the same time to face all the dangers and all the threats and all the difficulties that are part of our lives.
 
We have to deal with enemies in the north, we have to deal with enemies in the south, we have to deal with enemies that are distant but are talking about wiping Israel off the map.  And we have to be ready at any time at any given moment for any event that may take place that would threaten the very existence of the State of Israel.  And we are investing all the necessary revenues needed in order to be ready and we will always be ready.  You can count on us.  This is a strong country filled with great people - inspired by the endless desire to protect the one country in the whole world which is entirely our country. 

There is nothing more that we want to do than to achieve peace with all our enemies.  We are working hard to do it.  It is not easy.  It's sensitive, it's delicate, it's dangerous, it's uncertain, but we are absolutely committed to moving forward in our peace talks in order to try and reach an understanding with the Palestinian people as a breakthrough that will help us and them - and maybe the entire neighborhood of this part of the world - to live with slightly more security for all of us, and much less danger that has been part of our lives for so many years.  And I believe that we will do something that will make it move forward.  It's very hard, particularly in this city to pretend or even to become a prophet.  You know what the fate of the prophets was.  But I'm not talking as a prophet.  I'm not.  I'm a political leader and I have this responsibility.  While on the one hand we are doing everything to make sure that this country will be able to protect itself against any enemy close or distant, at the same time we are making every possible effort in order to build up the necessary foundations so that our children (and in my case, I can say my grandchildren) will not have to live through the difficulties, through the pains that characterized the life of this country for so many years.  And I'm certain that we will make this step.  It may not be the final step; it may not soon bring the permanent peace, but I believe that we are moving in the right direction – that we now have partners who are ready to accept the existence of the State of Israel, which our former partners to negotiations were not.  This time I believe that they are prepared.  We will not miss any opportunity that we may have in order to move forward in this direction. 

And yet at the same time, we need to make this country look more beautiful, have a higher quality of life, have a much more protected environment than we had in the past, and have all parts of the country develop on an equal basis for all the citizens so that the affluence which has been accumulated over the last decade in some parts of the country will be shared by everyone.  Sderot, as well as Maalot.  Mitzpeh Ramon as well as Carmiel.  Those in the north as well as those in the south.  This is our obligation and you are going to be our partners in doing it.  And I urge you at this very, very impressive gathering of JNF and Keren Kayemet, to take it as a serious challenge for your organization.  I know you have the power, I know you have some of the means, I know that much of it will have to come from the government - and it will come from the government - but you can make a difference, and I know that you have the spirit deep in your heart to want to be able to say to yourselves and to your children and to your grandchildren when you send them to live in the State of Israel that you helped make this country a much better, a much stronger, much more progressive, much more affluent, much more successful country for all of the Jews that will want to live in the State of Israel. 

So at the very beginning of this conference I am really proud that I can thank all of you for everything that you have been doing, and to promise you that as the governments of Israel were in the past, always partners of Keren Kayemet and JNF, we will continue to be your partners and I know that you will continue to be our partners, and that this combination together will make a difference that will make all of us proud as Israelis and proud as Jews.

Thank you very much and have a wonderful conference that will be a landmark for the future of JNF, Keren Kayemet and the State of Israel.  Thank you very much.