UN General Assembly
2011

potential cracks in Israel’s security have to be sealed in a peace agreement before a Palestinian State is declared, not afterwards, because if it is left until afterwards they will not be sealed. And these problems will explode in our face and explode the peace. The Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their State. But I also want to say this. After such a peace agreement is signed, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian State as a new Member of the United Nations. We will be the first. There is one more thing. Hamas has been violating international law by holding our soldier Gilad Shalit captive for five years. They have not allowed even one Red Cross visit. He is held in a dungeon, in darkness, against all international norms. Gilad Shalit is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit. He is the grandson of Zvi Shalit, who escaped the Holocaust by coming to the land of Israel as a boy in the 1930s.