America has embarked on a war of liberation. And while that war will be fought in different ways in different places, the objective is unchanging: spreading self-government, human rights, and the rule of law throughout the world.
All of you are part of this struggle that now must be our consuming focus. And as members of the Republican Jewish Coalition, you are making a special contribution that merits special recognition.
In particular, I want to congratulate you on the coalition-building initiatives you have launched across the country. That grassroots work — actually reaching out to people in their own communities — represents the foundation of effective advocacy.
Through such efforts, the Republican Jewish Coalition is making certain that our message is reaching a record number of Jewish Americans.
As you know, this success is the product of a compelling vision for our country and for the world. And that vision is freedom, democracy, and human rights for all people everywhere.
I do not have to explain to this audience that Saddam Hussein cannot be allowed to threaten the United States and the world with weapons of mass destruction.
But all of us — you and me and every individual who shares our convictions — need to explain the case for standing by all democracies under siege. And we need to direct that explanation to our fellow Americans and, most forcefully, to the other nations of the world.
American support for our democratic friends is not arbitrary. Rather, it is driven by an unwavering allegiance to the qualities and characteristics that define civilization.
This remarkable process has resulted in a diverse coalition of U.S. allies, all of whom share not a common religion, or language, or color, but a common commitment to timeless ideals.
It is the message of the Exodus and Sinai shouted throughout the world.
As a result, the brotherhood of free nations includes wonderfully different members: Japan and Turkey; Italy and Taiwan; Poland and India.
And of course, this brotherhood includes the State of Israel.
Matzoh Balls and Baseballs
It is easy to forget the magnitude of Israel’s success.
Israel is an oasis of liberty and humanity surrounded by a desert of hostility and aggression. And as all of you know, this liberty and humanity have produced great things.
In 2000, Israel’s Gross Domestic Product was $17,700 per person. In Lebanon it was $5,000, in Syria $1,000, in Jordan $1,500, in Egypt $1,420, and in the West Bank controlled by Palestinian Authority Chairman Arafat, it was $1,500.
Within Israel, people are educated longer and more successfully. Israel has produced almost universal literacy. With the exception of Jordan, only between half and three-quarters of the people in neighboring countries can read.
Infant mortality rates in Israel are between five and eight times lower than in neighboring countries.
People in Israel also tend to live at least ten years longer than those living in the undemocratic regimes that surround it.
Is this correlation between self-government and prosperity nothing more than an uncanny coincidence?
Of course it isn’t. And U.S. support for nations that practice democracy, respect human rights, and uphold the rule of law is no coincidence either.
So, the question is not, “How can America be so loyal to the Jewish state?”
No, the real question is, “How could we be anything other than loyal to the Jewish state?”
Just consider for a moment that Israel has a fair, free national election, and no one thinks anything of it. Yet we can only dream about such an election occurring anywhere else in the region.
Every once in a while someone says to me, “You’re an evangelical Christian from Sugar Land, Texas. You don’t know a matzoh ball from a baseball. So why do you care so much about defending Israel?”
