The people of Israel are entitled, as is any other nation, to live in peace and safety.
Interpretation
All nations, including Israel, have the right to exist safely and in harmony.
This quote emphasizes the universal right of every nation to peace and security. It highlights that the people of Israel, like any other community around the world, deserve to live free from violence and fear, reflecting a broader principle of human rights and dignity for all nations.
In practice
In a speech addressing global leaders, I could quote Jonathan Sacks to emphasize the need for peace among nations.
Stabilizing the euro is one thing, healing the culture that surrounds it is another. A world in which material values are everything and spiritual values nothing is neither a stable state nor a good society. The time has come for us to recover the Judeo-Christian ethic of human dignity in the image of God.
Governments cannot make marriages or turn feckless individuals into responsible citizens. That needs another kind of change agent.
Jews read the books of Moses not just as history but as divine command. The question to which they are an answer is not, 'What happened?' but rather, 'How then shall I live?' And it's only with the exodus that the life of the commands really begins.
Why did God create mankind? Because God likes stories.
Find people not to envy but to admire. Do not the profitable but the admirable deed. Live by ideals.
Some years ago there was a study to discover the most stressful occupation. It turned out not to be the head of a large business, football manager or prime minister, but rather: bus driver.
And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights -- the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation β the right to breathe air as nature provided it -- the right of future generations to a healthy existence?" (John F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963, American University speech)
In each of us, there lies a divine connection to a power more powerful than hate or violence. Today is the day to attune to that power and use it on behalf of peace on earth.
The Nobel Peace Prize is a powerful message. A durable peace is not a single achievement, but an environment, a process and a commitment.
I truly believe there is a field of peace within and that it can be enlivened and brought to the surface to be enjoyed by all.
Without peace and without the overwhelming majority of people that believe in peace defending it, working for it, believing in it, security can never really be a reality.
It may seem sometimes as if a culture of peace does not stand a chance against the culture of war, the culture of violence and the cultures of impunity and intolerance. Peace may indeed be a complex challenge, dependent on action in many fields and even a bit of luck from time to time. It may be a painfully slow process, and fragile and imperfect when it is achieved. But peace is in our hands. We can do it.
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