STATE ZIONIST COUNCIL OF N. S. V1.
JSRAEL'S NATIONAL DAY
TOWN HALL, SYDNEY, N. S. W. 28 April 1968
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mr. John Gorton
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Charge d'Affaires, Mr. Speaker, Rabbi Porush,
Distinguished Guests and Ladies and Gentlemen:
Three days ago in Israel, near Gaza, there was dedicated
a memorial to men from Australia and New Zealand and you may be
sure that among them were many of the Jewish faith who rode and fought
in that storied land a little more than fifty years ago, and who are still
remembered by the people and the Government of Israel. They left behind
them for some reason, in the country which is now Israel, feelings of
friendship which have grown and flourished in the years since then as the
eucalypts they planted there have grown and flourished and increased in
those years. And it is possible, it can be argued, that the events of those
days so long ago began not to lead to the seed of the State of Israel, because
that seed had been nurtured in dreams for centuries, but perhaps with some
first faltering steps to the germination of that seed, which thirty years
later, and twenty years ago burst into life as the infant Jewish homeland
began to grow. Now twenty years later you, as fellow Australians, have
done me the honour to ask me to come and participate in your rejoicing,
not at the establishment but at the re-establishment of the Jewish State.
And so here in this city, this capital, where our ow;: i nation some
years ago began, we all to. night, as I think it is fitting that we should, in
this place where we began,, celebrate thne new begi: nin-1g of Israel some
twenty years ago. This, Mr. Chairman, is a night to remember a nation that
faith made real. A dream, that being cherished in hearts through centuries,
ultimately became a concrete fact. And this is a night, too, to rerre mber
that these kinds of developments come only through brains, devotion,
dedication, unremitting effort and hard work and the willingness to sacrifice
and fight to keep the reality a growing, pulsing entity. And that's been done.
Sir, what a story is here what a story comes to mind,
not just of that culmination of twenty years ago but of all the years and
hundreds of years before that. A people conquered when? 2,00
years ago a people which in spite of conquest adhered to their spiritual
faith and their religious beliefs and which, because they adhered to their
spiritual faith and their religious beliefs in that time, had their holy places
defiled and'their cities destroyed and their nation dispersed to the corners
of the earth. A people which can look back in those days on such epic
stories, which can draw strength from reflecting on that human greatness
which led to such actions as that thousand strong garrison of the fortress
of Masada who fled, after the destruction of Jerusalem, to a high plateau
and there were besieged by the Romans for two and a half to three years
and held out against them all that time and then when the situation was
quite hopeless, and the night before an inevitable conquest came about,
killed their women and their children and themselves because they preferred
to be dead than to be slaves. A people who can look back in sorrow to
victimisation, persecution, massacre, injustice, in many of the lands
/-3
will be strengthened. So this is no time for me to talk for long. I have
mentioned things, I have spoken of things which I believe must be deep
in the consciousness of all people of the Jewish faith but whiCh are as
true and as valid in the consciousness of people of any faith. And if in
the course of speaking to you, as may be possible, I've touched on
sentiments which I can feel but dimly, compared to the way they must
be felt in the blood aid bone and hearts of many here, and if I have
thereby trespassed perhaps, I ask your pardon. But I have done this
for two reasons. Firstly because, however imperfectly, I think I have
enough imagination, I think I have enough sentiment to begin to understand
the pride and joy which you, as Jewish people, must be feeling today.
And I want you to know this. And secondly, because I tall,, to you as
Australian citizen to Australian citizen, as part of my n-ation yours
and mine as I would talk to Australians of Scottish, or Irish, or
Scandinavian, or whatever-it -may-be descent because in this we are
one and I feel some right to rejoice with you.
We have much to do here, you and 1, in this country of
ours just as there is much to do in Israel, and as in Israel our far
tomorrows may see greatness, if we have the passion to live and create,
joined with a willingness to sacrifice and if need be die to preserve.
In one sense, the creation of Israel might be regarded as
a miracle, but as a great Jewish writer many years ago pointed out: " A
miracle cannot prove that which is impossible. It is useful only of a
confirmation of that which is possible". Perhaps everything is possible
for Israel -and Australia, given the spirit, given the endurance, given
the willingness, given the sacrifice, and I hope th at, both here and in
Israel, things now thought to be impossible will be shown to be possible
even if people may regard that as a miracle. One thing is sure and
having said this I'll sit down one thing i3 sure, that the values of a
human individual, the rights of a man to live ' his own' life without fear
of those eternal allies of totalitarianism, the secret police, the torture
chamber and the hangman, are rights which must be defended to the
death, are rights which if they are defended will lead to that full,
peaceful, happy life which yet eludes us, but for which you, as people of
Jewish faith, have striven and will strive, and for which you, as Australians
in Australia, will strive with me.
I thank you.