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Exchange of Toasts between the President and Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel
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7342322
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Exchange of Toasts between the President and Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
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Dinners and dining
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1976-01-27
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1976
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Digitized from Box 20 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 27, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
THE WHITE HOUSE
EXCHANGE OF TOASTS
BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT
AND
YITZHAK RABIN
PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL
THE STATE DINING ROOM
10:15 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Prime Minister and Mrs. Rabin
and distinguished guests:
It is again a pleasure for us to say shalom.
Betty and I have, of course, and all of our guests
feel a very special warmth as far as you, Mr. Prime Minister,
and Mrs. Rabin are concerned, and our friendship on a personal
basis has been one of long standing and a very enjoyable and
very pleasant one.
Your five years in Washington as the distinguished
Ambassador of Israel created many and very warm friendships.
Betty and I are two of those friends and we are deeply grateful
for that relationship and we are obviously delighted to be
your hosts tonight.
We are very proud that you are the first head of
Government guest during our Bicentennial year and I think
that tells us something -- the celebration of our Nation's
history gives Americans a deeper appreciation of basic
values that we share with the State of Israel.
The tribute that your country and ours pay to these
ideals you expressed in Philadelphia last night. Both of
our Nations have had a very painful birth as well as growth.
As havens for men and women fleeing persecution, both of
our Nations find their vitality as well as their strength
today in a commitment to freedom and a commitment to
democracy and the spirit of free peoples.
Both of our Nations, Mr. Prime Minister, have
tasted the bitter truth of war and the struggles that are
necessary to preserve independence and security. Both of
us know full well in today's world that eternal vigilance
is the price of liberty and we individually and collectively
will not fail.
MORE
Page 2
I applaud your statesmanship, Mr. Prime Minister.
You have shown it over and over again. It has contributed
so much that has been achieved so far. I am gratified that
our personal friendship and relationship now facilitates
the closest consultation on the very complex problems that
we face in the problems ahead.
From the moment of Israel's independence, all of
America's Presidents, as well as the major political parties,
have identified with your freedom and your progress.
America now completes its second century. Israel
counts its heritage in thousands and thousands of years and
its modern history in decades. Yet, our heritage, your country
and mine, are the same.
I think we must take inspiration from the founding
fathers of both our Nations and the principles of justice
and freedom which they have passed down to you as well as
to myself for the survival of those principles, which is our
major responsibility. You are dedicated to that end,
Mr. Prime Minister, and all of your people are likewise, and
they are an inspiration to all of us.
Israel, Mr. Prime Minister, like the United States,
has stuck to its principles and persevered with courage
and determination. The unbreakable spirit of the people of
Israel remains its strongest defense. And as we reflect
on this Bicentennial year, we are both mindful of the
indispensable role that the United States has played in the
world as a guardian of stability and defender of freedom.
I want to tell you, Mr. Prime Minister, that I am
determined, as I think most Americans are, that America will
remain strong and America will remain committed to its allies
and to its world responsibilities.
I know that Israel and our other friends and allies
depend upon America's strength and America's commitment.
Our two Nations have been working together for peace in the
Middle East. No peace-making process, as you well know,
is easy, but important steps have been taken and we are
proud of the role that America has played in working with
your country.
I know that all Americans deeply desire to see
the process continued toward its goal of a just and secure
peace.
MORE
Page 3
The United States has demonstrated many, many times,
including yesterday in the United Nations, that we will oppose
measures that we consider unrealistic or unworkable or that
make peace harder to achieve. But we have demonstrated
at the same time we are committed to seek and to support
positive measures, positive moves toward peace.
We will continue the hopeful effort in which we
are jointly engaged.
You and I began our discussions this morning in
a spirit of friendship and a spirit of common desire for
peace. You stated this morning, and many times otherwise,
your Nation's views eloquently and persuasively.
Ladies and gentlemen, I ask that you join me in
a toast to the Prime Minister of Israel and to Mrs. Rabin,
to the enduring friendship between Israel and the
United States and to a just and lasting peace in the
Middle East.
In the ancient toast of the Jewish people,
l'chayim.
MORE
Page 4
PRIME MINISTER RABIN: Mr. President and Mrs. Ford,
distinguished guests:
First allow me in the name of my wife and myself to
thank you, Mr. President, and you, Mrs. Ford, for your kind
invitation to come over to this country as your guests.
We also cherish our personal friendship for the time
that I served here as the Israeli Ambassador. I remember that
many times I used to come to your office as the Minority Leader
in the House to ask for your advice, to get a better understand-
ing about what was going on in this country and I always came
out of your office more encouraged about America, about the
Congress, about your determination to do what you believed that
should be done here in this country as well as this country's
policies towards the world, towards securing peace and freedom
wherever and whenever it is possible.
Since you took this office, awesome responsibility
of the President of the United States, this is the third
meeting between us here and we have discussed through this
period every possibility, everything that can be done to
encourage every option, every avenue to move from war towards
peace, to achieve tranquility and stability in the area as
long as peace has not been achieved, and I appreciated always
your attitude that whenever there is a confrontation the
efforts to bring about peace must be done from the standpoint
of strengths because no totalitarian regime will tolerate a
weak democracy and only a strong democracy can expect to
achieve peace with dignity, peace that is worthwhile.
I am especially glad, as you mentioned, Mr. President,
that I am the first head of government to be your official guest
in this Bicentennial year. I am glad especially because I think
I represent even though a very small democracy but it is the only
one that exists in the Middle East.
Before we came over I found that when you got your
independence 200 years ago the total population of then the
United States was three million which is exactly (Laughter) the
population of Israel today. And I found that your growth came
as a result of the determination of the founding fathers to
build a country, but in addition to that, by maintaining the
basic principle of open gates to waves of immigrants, and your
country grew up by the waves of immigrants that came to this
great country.
We maintain the same policy and we have grown through
immigration and will continue to grow through immigration.
In the last one and a half years we have taken
certain steps through the good offices of the United States
Government under your guidance in the effort to bring about
certain moves toward peace. I believe that on our part we did
our share. We have taken risks in the hope that a better future
might be built not only for Israel but for the whole Middle
East, for all countries and for all peoples.
MORE
Page 5
We are in a country in which war might be imminent.
We have fought four major wars in the last 28 years and between
them we have never entertained one day of peace. And after 28
years of war, believe me, Mr. President, if there is something
that we aspire to, that we desire, that we are longing for, it
is to achieve a real peace.
Allow me to add that when I stayed in this country I
learned one thing -- that the vaguest word in the English
dictionary is "peace" because so many interpretations are given
to this word and therefore one has to be careful when the word
is uttered and no practical and meaningful interpretation is
given to that.
And therefore for us the meaning of peace that we
want to achieve is peace that will give us, as well as to our
neighbors, a sense of security to live the way that we prefer
to live in our own country and they in their own.
We have done something to bring stabilization to the
area but still the road to peace unfortunately is still long
and it will require courage, determination and skill to navi-
gate the ship of hope of peace until it will be a real one,
and in facing all these complex problems one has not to lose
his hope but at the same time to have no illusions in coping
with the difficulties that should be overcome.
After the first talk that I had with you, Mr. President,
I believed that we realize the difficulties. We are determined
to do everything to find ways to cope with these difficulties
and I can assure you, Mr. President, that on the part of Israel
every effort will be done to find ways to cooperate with you in
the efforts to bring about peace to the area which has suffered
so much from wars in the last years.
Allow me also, Mr. President, to thank you personally
in the name of the people of Israel for your support through the
years, to your support to Israel and to the cause of peace in
the area in your capacity as the President of the United States.
You mentioned what happened yesterday and I am encouraged by
what happened today and I would like to thank you very, very
much.
And allow me to raise my glass to the President of
the United States and to the friendship between our two countries.
L'chayim.
END
(AT 10:33 A.M. EST)