This is an English translation of the speech Bibi gave in an imaginary national broadcast to the people:
Good evening.
This has certainly been an interesting year. We have faced and (so far) beaten back a threatened diplomatic and military tsunami at the UN. We have witnessed and are still witnessing changes in the Arab world that we have no influence over and in truth – have no idea what the outcome will mean for us.
We are watching the European Union disintegrate before our very eyes as the hard working few are trying to prop up the profligate many.
The United States is now in a double dip recession with unemployment close to 10% and deficits that extend past the moon.
And here in Israel, 30 years of hard work by the entire country has brought the unemployment rate down to below 5.5% - the lowest in the history of the country. 30 years of hard work have brought consumer goods, top international performers, major corporations, scientists, writers and artists to our shores.
30 years of hard work by the citizens of Israel – union members, government workers, private sector workers – engineers, cooks, mechanics, business people, artists, artisans, soldiers – citizens all – have created one of the few countries to weather the economic storm of the last 3 years.
The reason for all this is that we have been able to unleash the creative potential of our great citizens by giving them more freedom and more opportunity.
The one thing that shocked me most about the social protests this summer was the one person, I forget who it was – who got up on Kikar Rabin and shouted “ I have no hope”. You can protest high prices, inequality or whatnot – but to claim you have no hope?
Let’s really look back 30 years and see what kind of “hope” there is for the young people today.
If you want to work in television and movie production – you had one option 30 years ago. Today – your limits are the world’s entertainment market. Who would have thought 30 years ago that US television producers would be buying ideas for shows from Israel? Who would have thought that video games would be created here and sold throughout the world? Who would have thought that Israeli movies would be commercially successful in the international market?
If you wanted to be an engineer 30 years ago your option was working for Israel Aircraft. Today – your options are nearly limitless. You can work for Intel or start your own company in your bedroom. You can work for Checkpoint or Amdocs or Nice – or Google or Cisco or SAP.
If you studied health sciences 30 years ago your options were … Teva – a truly world class company. But today – you can work for that great company or for the hundreds of other companies in the biotech, pharmaceutical or medical device company that dot our landscape.
We can go on and on – but you get the point. Together – we have built a growth country. A developing country that is also part of the developed world.
Hope? Yes, we have problems in this country, but you have no hope? If you have no hope then you are not working hard enough.
I am not all that happy with all the recommendations of the Trachtenberg committee. Personally, I think it will set the country back a bit. I think that the competition committee did more important work for our future. But – sometimes you have to give a little in order to get a little.
Unfortunately, that is not the attitude of the so-called leaders of the social protest. Let’s call a spade a spade – they are socialists –no communists. They want to control our lives. They want to tell you – yes you, every one of you – what you can buy and when you can but it. They want to tell you what you can work at and how much your should earn. They want to tell you where you can live and how many rooms you can live in. In short they want to take our freedom away – they want to take our prosperity away.
And I won’t let them do it – if they want to run in the next elections and the citizens of this country elect radical communists well then – there won’t be a lot I can do about it. But I will not let them blackmail the people of this country into following them down the road to serfdom.
Let’s get back to making this country even better than it already is.
