WEBVTT

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What is the parents' dream?

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If I asked you to choose two words
describing the parents' dream,

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I believe most of you would say,
"A healthy child."

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When we, on our cell phone,
show pictures of a successful child,

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as a matter of fact,

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we speak about ourselves,

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because who made him?

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(Laughter)

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It's the extension of our own ego.

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Our second child was born in 1984.

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We gave him the name of my brother
that was killed in the war,

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and expected him to be better than us;
more successful, more talented.

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A source of pride.

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At the age of eight months,

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he was diagnosed -

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Didi, my wife and me
were told by the psychologist,

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"Your son has a combination
of autism and retardation.

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Probably he will never speak.

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Probably he will mentally,
stay as a child forever."

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That was a shock.

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The sky fell on our head.

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The parents' dream
became broken parents' dream.

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How do we continue managing our life
if our son has no future at all?

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This son, all his life,
has never said one word.

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Never said, (Hebrew) "Abba," Dad;
never said, (Hebrew) "Eema," Mum;

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never made eye contact.

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He was the greatest professor of my life.

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He told me...

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(Applause)

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He told me more than any other human being

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about myself, about our society,
about children like him.

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These children, unable to eat
by themselves,

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unable to dress by themselves,

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even unable to say,
"Please replace my diaper."

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These children are punished
for two life sentence.

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One: a broken body for all their life.

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Second, one day, being taken
and put in an institution,

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which is a life-long jail.

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When he was born,

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at that time,

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I was special force unit commander,
33 years old, Lieutenant Colonel,

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leading operations in Sudan

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to bring Jews who were in life danger
from Ethiopia to the State of Israel,

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the only Jewish state in the world.

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Behind me were hundreds of battles:

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all over the Middle East in Lebanon,
Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and more.

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Behind me

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was the very famous rescue operation


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in Entebbe, 1976,

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rescuing 105 Israeli hostages
who were kept for one week,

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one week of their life hostage.

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I was the first on the ground

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(Applause)

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I was the first on the ground and the last
to leave the Entebbe airfield.

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Behind me were the memories
of the Yom Kippur War, 1973.

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In this war, I lost many of my friends.

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In many moments, I thought
I won't see the next morning.

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But above all, the memories
of the telephone conversation

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with my mother at the end of that war.

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My brother fought in the Golan Heights.

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I fought in the south,
and I was afraid to ask,

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then, I got the courage and she said,

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"We lost Eran, we have no Eran anymore."

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My brother was killed.

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I came home,

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continued to the Golan Heights
to investigate his last battle.

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I found his burnt tank.

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And shockingly, I learned to know
that he was shot by a Syrian tank,

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thrown outside, bleeding, bleeding,
shouting for assistance for seven days.

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He has evacuated, dead already.

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I was rageous, frustrated, angry,

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and I swore...

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I swore to never ever leave
a wounded soldier behind .

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(Applause)

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11 years later,

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Didi, my wife, and me are raising a child,

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who is like the extension
of my bleeding brother.

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And this child-like saying,

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"My dear father, you know a lot
about special forces.

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You know a lot 
about highly motivated soldiers.

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But my dear father,
you know zero about children like me.

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About the shame,
the stigma, the stereotype.

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Come over, my dear father,
give me your hand.

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Let's go, let's move and see places
where children like me are hauled."

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We moved from institute to institute.

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We saw dirty, stinky, dark places.

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Children like him
were ignored, abused, harassed.

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We came home crying.

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Then we started learning
about the shame.

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For instance, Golda Meir,

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our commander-in-chief
during the Yom Kippur in the 70s,

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the one who sent me and my friends
to hunt down the terrorists

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behind the Munich massacre
of 11 Israeli sportsmen, 1972.

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Golda Meir was also
a grandmother to Meira,

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a Down syndrome granddaughter.

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And Meira told the Israeli public
after Golda passing,

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"Golda never visited me;
Golda didn't love me;

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Golda was fully ashamed in my presence."

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Golda told my mum to never mention

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the Prime Minister of Israel
having a retarded granddaughter.

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Then, we heard more stories
of distinguished and ordinary people

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hiding their children overseas
and in some institute in Israel.

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Inside me, I continued hearing
the sound of my child,

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"My dear father, wake up!

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I'm the hostage in our society,
unable to do anything by my power.

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Will you fight for me?

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Will you change our society?

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Will you give me hope?"

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We decided to fight for him.

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We decided to love him,
never to be ashamed.

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For him, and [others] like him,
we built a village.

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A wonderful place, a paradise.

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No longer isolated in an institution,


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surrounded by walls of silence.

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but rather social community center.

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(Applause)

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A paradise, Utopian society;

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Christian, Muslims, and Jews,
working in full harmony

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to serve children like our loved son,

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(Applause)

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to love them.

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In this village,

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we give them the best housing,
the best education, the best health care,

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the best food, the best clothes,
the best social life,

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culture, music, gardens, any need.

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And in this village,

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we created a new model of acceptance,
a new model of integration.

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How come? By four elements.

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Number one: rehabilitation.

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Number two: education.

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Number three: visits.

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Number four: volunteers.

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The rehabilitation model
is based on every day,

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about 200 outpatients
from the outside community,

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arriving to be treated together
with the most severely disabled children,

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like our loved son,
metaphorically and physically.

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It says that at the same swimming pool
you may find a soldier wounded in battle,

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head of regional
municipality after stroke,

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parliament member after a road accident,

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Down syndrome, Bedouin girl,
and someone like our loved child.

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We give them various kinds
of therapeutic treatment

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like hydrotherapy, physiotherapy,
music therapy, horse riding,

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animal therapy, vocational therapy,
anything, any therapy ever invented.

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We have there.

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The second element: education.

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At the center
of the rehabilitation center,

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we placed ordinary kindergarten
for ordinary kids from age one.

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We teach children from age one
to accept those who are unable,

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those who unprivileged,
the severely disabled.

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We teach them
what is social responsibility

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from age one.

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(Applause)

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The third element: visits.

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Every day, about hundred people
are arriving to visit to see the wonder.

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They are moved, they are excited.

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People from the United States and Europe;

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tourists, high-tech workers,
soldiers, veteran, parents.

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People are arriving and saying,

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"We got a propulsion.
We'll assist you to change our society.

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We are your messengers."

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Number four: volunteers.

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We have more than 400 volunteers.

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Some of them arriving from Germany,

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and this young Christian from Berlin

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saying, " We come for atonement
on the murder of the six million Jews

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in the Second World War;

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we come for atonement
on Hitler's decision to kill the disabled

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when Second World War started.

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They are saying,

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"No more discrimination. No more racism.


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Human-being is human-being.

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We all equal by our rights,
not equal by our power."

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They are very well integrated
with about 100 Muslims workers,

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Bedouin from the south,
with about 600 Jews,

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to serve the severely disabled children.

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They are saying,
"We are more given than giving.

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We'll assist you to change the world.

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We'll assist you
by being your ambassadors."

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Tonight, exactly tonight, February 6.

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We count ten years
for the passing of our loved child.

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He's not anymore with us.

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He was living for one
wonderful year in the village

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that we built especially for him.

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His spirit spread
to every corner of the village.

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His spirit is here at my heart.

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His spirit is the goodness in our world.

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(Applause)

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14 years ago,

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I left the military as Major General
to build this village,

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to be his mouthpiece;
to change our society;

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for continued fighting for him,
and like him until my last day.

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(Applause)

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A year ago,

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I was decorated by the highest award

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the State of Israel can give to a citizen;

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the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement

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This prize...

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(Applause)

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This price should be given
to him, not to me.

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I am only the messenger.

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He changed me.

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He made me a better human being;
more humble, less selfish, less arrogant.

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If the number of children like him


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is only one per cent
of the worlds population,

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this one per cent
can change the 99 per cent.

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This one per cent can be the teacher
and educator the same as he was for me.

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This one per cent can make the 99 per cent

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more humble, less selfish, less arrogant.

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(Applause)

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The social chain is always
measured by its weakest link.

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The more we do to strengthen this link,
the better and stronger society we are.

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In the military,

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we decorate people and soldiers
for bravery and courage.

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In our social life,

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it seems to me the highest decoration


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a person can be given by the disabled,

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by the one per cent children like him
is the title: 'human being.'

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Thank you.

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(Applause)