Mr. Speaker, today we commemorate the 53rd anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, which comes one week after the commemoration of the 56th anniversary of the Holocaust.
Indeed we are sometimes told that if there had not been a Holocaust there would not be a state of Israel, as if the establishment of a state can ever compensate for the murder of six million Jews. The reality is the other way around: if there had been an Israel there might well not have been a Holocaust or the horrors of Jewish history.
In a word, Israel at its core is the embodiment of Jewish survival and self-determination, the reconstitution of an ancient people in its ancestral and aboriginal homeland. May I conclude with the age old Hebrew prayer for peace:
[Editor's Note: Member spoke in Hebrew as follows:]
Oseh Shalom Bimromov, Who Yaaseh Shalom Alenu V'al Kol Israel, V'imeru, Amen.
May God Who Establishes Peace on High, Grant Peace for Us All, Amen.
May this 53rd anniversary herald the end of violence, the protection of human security and a real, just and lasting peace for all peoples of the Middle East.