Transcript: Barak concession speech

My friends, good evening.

The electorate have spoken, and I respect the verdict of democracy. And from here, I want to express my gratitude to the vast numbers of Israeli citizens who have expressed their trust in me by voting for me.

I greatly appreciate their support, and this helps me to look forward for their sake, together with all of us, to fight on along our path for the sake of the children of Israel.

Not long ago, I telephoned member of Knesset Ariel Sharon and I congratulated him on his election. Please, no booing.

Just a short while ago, Ariel Sharon didn't even imagine that this evening he would be elected as prime minister, and he stood at a Likud conference and he said he wanted to see me as his minister of defense, and then there was booing. And there shouldn't have been booing then and there shouldn't be booing now.

I promised Ariel Sharon that with the establishment of a new government under his prime ministership and with his obtaining of the confidence of the Knesset the government would be transferred in an orderly fashion, as in a proper, democratically run, civilized country.

My friends, we have lost the battle, but we will win the campaign, the war.

Accepting the will of the electorate does not undermine our confidence in the rightness of our path. The path that we have chosen is the sole right path. It is the path which will ultimately lead the state of Israel to peace and security through the power to decide to become separate from our Palestinian neighbors and to place a boundary between them and us. Only a boundary will bring tranquility, only a border will bring personal security, only a border will bring deterrence and only a border will bring mutual respect.

This path is the one which will maintain the Jewish and democratic nature at the state of Israel as a free and enlightened society in the family of nations that will bring an end to the struggles with our neighbors and that will allow us to be a light unto the nations. This is a path which requires the readiness to make sacrifices, and perhaps the public is not entirely yet prepared to accept the painful truth that we have revealed to it.

More than that, on the other side, too, on the Palestinian side, there is not yet sufficient maturity and a willingness to take decisions in order to confront what is also a painful reality for them, too. And violence has become the refuge of desperate people.

My friends, to some extent, we have been ahead of our times, but the time will come, and I have no doubt at all that that time will come. The truth will conquer in our circles as well in theirs, because there is no other path.

I bear the overall responsibility for the path of my government and its policy and I am proud of both. I'm also responsible for this electoral campaign and its results. And I regret the result, but I respect it. We have acted as a government a great deal in the last 18 months, in order to advance the state of Israel. We have taken the Israel Defense Forces, the IDF, out of Lebanon.

We have had the determination to decide to get the army out of Lebanon and to decide to get the economy out of the recession, and to insist that Yossi Sarid, the best education minister the country has ever had, should jointly set new standards for education for children age 3 and 6 and to reduce tuition fees for university students.

But our government was, above all, based on the political issue.

And we will always be proud of our government efforts to come to grips with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, so that we could determine the framework once and for all within which peace arrangements would be reached with the Palestinians and the Syrians at the same time.

Secondly, we took off all the masks from our neighbor, who's both a participant and a rival, without conceding anything, being however prepared to talk about the most far-reaching areas which governments of the past have never touched upon in order to make sure once and for all whether it is possible to achieve an agreement, a settlement or not.

Not only did we strip off the masks from our rival, but also the illusions that we ourselves have veiled ourselves in with regard to the possibility of achieving a solution with the Palestinians, the price of achieving that solution, which would be a painful one, which would not enable us to achieve all our dreams.

And we also managed to take away the masks with regard to our illusions as to the nature of our neighbor. We found out that our neighbor is, in fact, less than we thought, and we found that the lack of maturity is a very painful situation for all of us, but just as adolescents, growing up for all of ourselves and of all of our children is an inevitable and vital part of the process of growing into responsible adults.

And fourthly, we have prevented a terrible tragedy of entering into another bloody round with our Palestinian neighbors where some of our people are not sure that the responsibility for the situation lies not with the Palestinians, but with the Israeli government. And we've done all of this showing responsibility in how to tackle the situation and our use of force.

And quite often I am charged with the idea that the current violent results from the concessions made by the Barak government. I tell you that the opposite is true, this violence is because when it comes to the readiness to talk about far-reaching concessions, we talked about this prior to the outbreak of violence.

In my phone conversation this evening with Prime Minister-elect Sharon, he proposed to me that we establish a national unity government. I am aware of the desire among the people for such a government, but unity cannot be a substitute for a path.

If it is possible to work out a joint realistic plan of action for genuine promotion of policy to have proper economic and civil agreed principles and a proper way of making progress along the path of peace, then a national unity government should not be ruled out.

But if that is not possible, the Labor Party will be a combatant opposition, and it will fight for its principles using all democratic and parliamentary resources in order to convince the people of the rightness of its path and to replace the government that will come into being during the next few weeks as soon as possible.

My friends, let me express my gratitude here, my loving thanks to my wife, my darling wife, Nava, who is by my side always, who's been by my side for decades now, and to our daughters and to our family, who've always been a steadfast anchor of support and love.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the hundreds of activists, to our ministers and the members of Knesset of the Labor and Meretz Party. To the wonderful Meretz people who have been the most wonderful, the warmest discovery for me throughout this election campaign. To the people from the organization and information and ground force people from the Meretz and Labor Youth Parties, warm thank you to all of you.

To Roman Bronfman, Michael Melchior and the people from the Meimad party, to everyone who's helped us in this election campaign, and first and foremost, the wonderful young people who have totally swamped the country with their support and devotion. And I'm convinced that we have to keep this wonderful human complex alive and breathing for the day that we will be able to give them further orders.

When I look at you here, I have tears in my heart. I love you. I'm proud of you. You are the trustees of my truth forever, and I know that we will meet in every struggle in the future that we will share.

I have the responsibility for the political path of my government, and I believe in its vital nature in historical terms, in my determination, after establishment of the new Knesset, to resign from my position as the head of the government and from the Knesset, and the head of the Labor Party, of course.

I intend to resign from the Knesset and from my position as the leader of the Labor Party. And to remain -- just a moment -- and to remain a member of the Labor Party and its institutions, and for a certain amount of time to leave a political matters behind me.

After 41 years, in the service of the country, I think Nava and I have earned this.

I will not sever my commitment to the path I have followed and my determination in believing this is the right path for the country. And consequently, I know that it's possible that one day we will also come back, because our path is the only path. It's the true path, the right path, and ultimately, the truth will win.

Thank you very much.

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