DeLay speaks of solidarity with Israel

JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY

JERUSALEM - The following is the text of Rep. Tom DeLay's speech to the Israeli Knesset on July 30, as transcribed by DeLay's office:

"Even now, I am filled with a gratitude and humility I cannot express, except to say that, like millions of my countrymen who have come before me to the Holy Land, I stand before you today, in solidarity, as an Israeli of the heart.

I also look forward to sharing my experiences with President Bush, whose leadership and clarity make peace in the Middle East possible and victory in the war on terror inevitable. ...

The solidarity between the United States and Israel is deeper than the various interests we share. It goes to the very nature of man, to the endowment of our God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. ...

It transcends geography, culture, and generations. It is the solidarity of all people - in all times - who dream of and sacrifice for liberty. It is the solidarity of Moses and Lincoln. Of Tiananmen Square and the Prague Spring. Of Andre Sakharov and Anne Frank. And in its name I come to you - in the midst a great global conflict against evil - with a simple message: Be Not Afraid.

Freedom and terrorism cannot coexist. Terrorism cannot be negotiated away or pacified. Terrorism will either destroy free nations, or free nations will destroy it. Freedom and terrorism will struggle - good and evil - until the battle is resolved. ...

In short, it is the position of the people of the United States, as expressed by their representatives in Congress, that Israel's fight is our fight. And so shall it be until the last terrorist on earth is in a cell or a cemetery.

In nations with govern-ments of the people, by the people, and for the people - as in our two nations - no tyrant or wicked regime can exert their brutality. It is in democracy that the hope for peace resides. Democracies do not starve their citizens, nor torture their dissidents, nor threaten their neighbors. ... And, by their nature, democracies neither enable terror nor instigate war.

This war we fight - this war on terror the United States shares with free nations, like Israel, around the world - we fight for this reason: to establish and secure a community of nations safe to be free, and free to be prosperous. It's the same reason we fought Nazism, fascism, and Com-munism: the liberation of all mankind from oppression.

Terrorism, like its tyrannical forebears, is borne of the idea that with enough guns, enough fear, and enough violence, human power can control the human spirit. It is a lie.

Arafat must be isolated. Nations and organizations - however well-intentioned - that acknowledge Yasser Arafat and his network as legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people validate The Lie, and perpetuate terror.

One day, Israel - with the United States by her side - will live in freedom, security, and peace. And terrorism will perish from the earth. But until Almighty God, in His infinite wisdom, ordains that day to dawn, free men the world over - whether of the cross, the crescent, or the Star of David - will stand with Israel in defiance of evil.

Editor Barry Cohen contributed to this story.