I voted the national security interests of the United States. I soon found that my instincts and my conscience and my sense of America's national security needs put me in alliance with all of you. We meet tonight in the aftermath of a brilliant and vibrant display of democracy in Israel. Israel has always lived on the edge of adversity and on the edge of urgency. Societies that are forced into such circumstances do not ordinarily make resilient democracies.
Democracies are still too rare in our world, and they deserve support.
They do not deserve carping, quibbling support, but support that is confident and full -throated and open. That is what Israel deserves, and it is not what Israel often receives. It is true that Israel now does have a good number of fair -weather friends. But what it needs is foul-weather friends. America is a foul -weather friend of Israel.