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EXCERPTS FROM BEGIN SPEECH AT NATIONAL DEFENSE COLLEGE

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/21/world/excerpts-from-begin-speech-at-national-defense-college.html



EXCERPTS FROM BEGIN SPEECH AT NATIONAL DEFENSE COLLEGE

Special to the New York Times
Published: August 21, 1982
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JERUSALEM, Aug. 20— Following are excerpts from the text of a speech made Aug. 8 by Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the National Defense College and published today in The Jerusalem Post:
The Second World War, which broke out on Sept. 1, 1939, actually began on March 7, 1936. If only France, without Britain (which had some excellent combat divisions), had attacked the aggressor, there would have remained no trace of Nazi German power and a war which, in three years, changed the whole of human history, would have been prevented.
This therefore, is the international example that explains what is war without choice, or a war of one's choosing. Let us turn from the international example to ourselves. Operation Peace for Galilee is not a military operation resulting from the lack of an alternative. The terrorists did not threaten the existence of the state of Israel; they ''only'' threatened the lives of Israel's citizens and members of the Jewish people. There are those who find fault with the second part of that sentence. If there was no danger to the existence of the state, why did you go to war?
The War of Independence
I will explain why: We had three wars which we fought without an alternative. The first was the war of independence, which began on Nov. 30, 1947, and lasted until January 1949.
What happened in that war, which we went off to fight with no alternative? Six thousand of our fighters were killed. We were then 650,000 Jews in Eretz Israel, and the number of fallen amounted to about 1 percent of the Jewish population.
The second war of no alternative was the Yom Kippur War and the war of attrition that preceded it. Our total casualties in that war of no alternative were 2,297 killed, 6,067 wounded. Together with the war of attrition - which was also a war of no alternative - 2,659 killed, 7,251 wounded. The terrible total: almost 10,000 casualties.
Our other wars were not without an alternative. In November 1956 we had a choice. The reason for going to war then was the need to destroy the fedayeen, who did not represent a danger to the existence of the state. Campaign for Sinai
Thus we went off to the Sinai campaign. At that time we conquered most of the Sinai Peninsula and reached Sharm el Sheikh. Actually, we accepted and submitted to an American dictate, mainly regarding the Gaza Strip (which David Ben Gurion called ''the liberated portion of the homeland''). John Foster Dulles, the then-Secretary of State, promised Ben Gurion that an Egyptian army would not return to Gaza.
The Egyptian Army did enter Gaza. David Ben Gurion sent Mrs. Meir to Washington to ask Foster Dulles: ''What happened? Where are the promises?'' And he replied, ''Would you resume the war for this?''
After 1957, Israel had to wait 10 full years for its flag to fly again over that liberated portion of the homeland. In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him. Wars With No Alternative
This was a war of self-defense in the noblest sense of the term. The Government of National Unity then established decided unanimously: we will take the initiative and attack the enemy, drive him back, and thus assure the security of Israel and the future of the nation.
As for Operation Peace for Galilee, it does not really belong to the category of wars of no alternative. We could have gone on seeing our civilians injured in Metulla or Qiryat Shimona or Nahariya. We could have gone on counting those killed by explosive charges left in a Jerusalem supermarket, or a Petah Tikvah bus stop. All the orders to carry out these acts of murder and sabotage came from Beirut. Should we have reconciled ourselves to the ceaseless killing of civilians, even after the agreement ending hostilities reached last summer, which the terrorists interpreted as an agreement permitting them to strike at us from every side, besides southern Lebanon? 'Not One Month of Quiet'
There are slanderers who say that a full year of quiet has passed between us and the terrorists. Nonsense. There was not even one month of quiet. The newspapers and communications media, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, did not publish even one line about our capturing the gang of murderers that crossed the Jordan in order to commandeer a bus and murder its passengers.
True, such actions were not a threat to the existence of the state. But they did threaten the lives of civilians whose number we cannot estimate, day after day, week after week, month after month.
During the past nine weeks, we have, in effect, destroyed the combat potential of 20,000 terrorists. We hold 9,000 in a prison camp. Between 2,000 and 3,000 were killed and between 7,000 and 9,000 have been captured and cut off in Beirut. They have decided to leave there only because they have no possiblity of remaining there. The problem will be solved.
I - we - can already look beyond the fighting. It will soon be over, we hope, and then I believe, indeed I know, we will have a long period of peace. There is no other country around us that is capable of attacking us.

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