Political Quotes

“today, Israeli Prime Minister Bingamin Netanyahu delivered an important address to Congress in which he outlined his vision of continued close ties between our two democracies and of the peace process between Israel and her neighbors. A process with which we have been so closely involved. His address had many important elements, none more so than when he deviated from his prepared statement to pronounce the ancient Roman maxim: Pacta sunt servanda--agreements must be honored. It should not come as a surprise that the disciple of the disciple of Vladimir Jabotinsky speaks of the importance of international law when addressing the U.S. Congress. Jabotinsky found the Revisionist party--the forerunner of the present Likud party--in 1925 which had as its goal the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine under the protection of international law. When Prime Minister Netanyahu asserts that agreements must be honored, he aligns himself with a principle that was of vital importance in international affairs at the beginning of this century but which suffered neglect during the cold war. From its earliest days the leaders of the Soviet Union had asserted, in the words of Maxim Litvinov, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, in 1922 that ``there was not one world but two--a Soviet world and a non-Soviet world * * * there was no third world to arbitrate. * * *'' Which is to say there was no common law against which to measure conduct.…”