Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Thursday), attended the dedication of the new Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem, together with Paraguayan President Santiago Peña and his wife Leticia Ocampos, Foreign affairs Minister Gideon Saar, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion and Paraguayan Ambassador to Israel Alejandro Rubin.
The beginning of the ceremony was marked by a festive ribbon-cutting and the affixing of a mezuza at the Embassy.
Afterwards, Prime Minister Netanyahu held a private meeting with President Peña in his office during which the President invited the Prime Minister to visit Paraguay.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Peña then went to a festive reception at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at which several MOUs and bilateral agreements were signed.
Prime Minister Netanyahu stated, "We are here in a hi-tech zone of Jerusalem. Israel is a powerhouse of technology and innovation. We have common interests. President Peña is a man of economy. He understands all of the potential. But when you look around here, this is the product of the free-market revolution that we introduced here and if you came here a few years ago, there was nothing, but there were these hills. These were the hills that 3,000 years ago King David proclaimed Jerusalem as the capital of Israel."
"The national anthem that we just heard talks about the dream of the people for about 2,000 years to come back to Jerusalem and reestablish Zion, our national home, our sovereignty, our country. And this was seen as an impossible thing. It was impossible. We are a tiny people, exiled from our land. There were many people that were exiled from their lands in history. Most of them disappeared. Nearly all of them disappeared. But we refuse to disappear. And we had that binding faith and that prayer and that desire to come back to Jerusalem," Netanyahus said.
He continued, "Jews around the world in their various Diasporas, said, 'Next year in Jerusalem.' And we came back. First in small numbers and then in greater numbers. And then we had to fight to survive as the Diasporas were being erased by those who seek to wipe out the Jewish people. They keep changing but it’s a constant phenomenon."
"But what happened when we established our capital in our country, and our army, was that we could fight back. We’re not just fighting for our own values. We’re fighting back for the values of civilization against barbarism. But there was, as you pointed out in your great speech yesterday, there is a basic sympathy between our people and the people of Paraguay. And you have to know the history of Paraguay to understand why it’s so common. Because you too are a small people. You too are beset by great powers. You too suffered the specter of annihilation. We underwent the Holocaust, you underwent a massive massacre. But you didn’t lose faith, you didn’t disappear and you maintained yourself," he said.
He added, "This desire, both to seize the future, to create this progress, to create the benefits for humanity, which is what you see in this building, is coupled with the understanding that we have a heritage and a commitment to our past and to our future that transcends time."
"The story of Israel, which is represented here by this embassy, is that we have this eternal capital for 3,000 years, and it wasn’t the capital of anyone else, and it is the correction of a historical distortion, which is amazing," Netanyahu said.
Addressing President Peña, he said, "You recognize the truth here: Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. It will always be Israel’s capital. It will be the undivided capital of Israel; it will never change. This is a fact and you recognize it and we recognize the fact that you speak out and stand up for that because of the common values."
"The story of Israel is a parable for all nations. Because if the Jewish people were able to not merely survive but to ford the torrential river between annihilation and salvation, to reconstitute our life here, to rebuild our capital, to be a thriving power and a thriving innovator for humanity. This means that there is hope for all nations of the world. And the one nation that we seize with great friendship and great sympathy and great love is Paraguay. Thank you for coming here. Thank you for opening the embassy," Netanyahu concluded.
Paraguayan President Santiago Peña stated, "Mr. Prime Minister, for me it is such a privilege to take this decision. I met you the first time you visited Latin America. I was impressed with your strength, with your commitment, with your determination. I was very happy to see that during the time that I was minister of finance, the government of Paraguay took a very bold decision, a very ambitious decision to open the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem."
"I was very sad a couple months later when a new administration, driven mostly by revenge, an internal revenge, nothing to do with the people of Israel, decided to move it back. I am very happy that this is taking place in this very moment that the world is living, where a lot of people talk but not many people act. For us, not only saying but doing is very important," he said.
"Mr. Prime Minister, on behalf of all the Paraguayan people, we were with you, we are with you, we will stay with the people of Israel forever," Peña concluded.