Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with foreign ambassadors earlier this week, renewing a practice he had when he was Prime Minister, and asked them to put themselves in Israel's place:
"Israel expects the world not only to support us when we bury our dead; Israel expects the world to support us when we fight to defend our lives against the forces of terror... I think you can imagine what would happen if, in your own countries, worshipers would be killed or wounded, holy sites would be attacked - either churches, or mosques, or synagogues - and if this would be an unrelenting attack that attacks your people day in and day out. So we have to address this in the way any civilized country would do..."
The late Foreign Minister Abba Eban, who passed away at the age of 87 only a few hours after Netanyahu uttered the above words, earned much acclaim for himself and for Israel for the manner in which he presented Israel's case to the world, particularly during and after the Six Day War period in 1967. Interestingly, Eban made the same point as Netanyahu did above. "The General Assembly," he told the United Nations in 1967, "is chiefly pre-occupied by the situation against which Israel defended itself on the morning of June the 5th. I shall invite every peace-loving state represented here to ask itself how it would have acted on that day if it faced similar dangers."
"Israel expects the world not only to support us when we bury our dead; Israel expects the world to support us when we fight to defend our lives against the forces of terror... I think you can imagine what would happen if, in your own countries, worshipers would be killed or wounded, holy sites would be attacked - either churches, or mosques, or synagogues - and if this would be an unrelenting attack that attacks your people day in and day out. So we have to address this in the way any civilized country would do..."
The late Foreign Minister Abba Eban, who passed away at the age of 87 only a few hours after Netanyahu uttered the above words, earned much acclaim for himself and for Israel for the manner in which he presented Israel's case to the world, particularly during and after the Six Day War period in 1967. Interestingly, Eban made the same point as Netanyahu did above. "The General Assembly," he told the United Nations in 1967, "is chiefly pre-occupied by the situation against which Israel defended itself on the morning of June the 5th. I shall invite every peace-loving state represented here to ask itself how it would have acted on that day if it faced similar dangers."