This is an awesome talk, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (then) Testifies Before a House Committee, with Tom Lantos. I wish I had the whole clip, but CNN cut it off for some breaking news. I think the breaking news was a medal of honor presented to Bono of U2, about how wonderful he is on the world stage.
September 20, 2001
Lantos: why the international terrorist movement hates us so much. Many argue they hate us for our policies. It is my judgment that they don't hate us for what we do, but they hate us for what we are. We are open, tolerant, accepting of others, and this is dynamic -- diametrically opposed to what the fanatic terrorist believe in, and which they are clearly are prepared to sacrifice their lives.
Netanyahu: Why do the terrorist -- why do the Islamic militant terrorist hate us so much? And it's a collective "us." I'll tell you it's a collective us in the sense of Belgium was in the Middle East or Holland was in the Middle East instead of Israel, the same thing would be there. And if Israel, by the way, didn't exist, the same thing would be there. This is centuries of antipathy of a particular virulent strain of Islam, to distinguish from the vast majority, that does not recognize modernity.
What is especially rejects is the idea of plurality and individual choice. It is a very rigid conception of life. I think a very forlorned and dark one, but it cannot tolerate the idea we're having this conversation right now, that we can have genuine disagreements, that we can have a genuine parliament. That's why they have farcical parliament in Tripoli or the Sudan. But their not real parliaments, because what they want, what they want to have is a certain uniformity. They reject our respect for life, for individual right. They reject our conception of personal choice in the way we dress and the way we educate our children, and our choice of music and art, choices I should say. It's a completely different world outlook.
And, therefore, you are absolutely right when they say that they hate the West, not for what it does, but for what it is. It is a fundamentally opposed view of the way human life and civilization should be constructed. And make no mistake about it, ours is better. Ours is right. There's is wrong. And that's why they use barbaric methods to try to stamp out ours, they cannot stand free competition. They can not stand choice on the international scene or in their own societies. That's why they're closed, because they know that given the choice, just give the choice to the citizens of Iran, you know what they will choose...
Lantos:It was not long ago that many in our government at the highest levels were issuing highest calls for restraint, when Israel struck back at terrorist. I remember once a specific incidence, when a terrorist chief was, with surgical accuracy, terminated by an Israeli helicopter pilot, and the Department of State was calling for -- piously for restraint.
Just imagine what an American pilot would get in the form of decorations if he would find Osama and put an end to him in his cave someplace. He would get the Congressional Medal of Honor in record time.
