Sen Lieberman speaks to AIPAC

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[..] There is something profoundly wrong when opposition to the war in Iraq seems to inspire greater passion than opposition to Islamist extremism.

There is something profoundly wrong when there is so much distrust of our intelligence community that some Americans doubt the plain and ominous facts about the threat to us posed by Iran.

And there is something profoundly wrong when, in the face of attacks by radical Islam, we think we can find safety and stability by pulling back, by talking to and accommodating our enemies, and abandoning our friends and allies.

Some of this wrong-headed thinking about the world is happening because we’re in a political climate where, for many people, when George Bush says “yes,” their reflex reaction is to say “no.”

That is unacceptable.

It’s time to step back and start thinking together about our national interest again, to say “yes” when we agree and “no” when we don’t, and to find ways to disagree without dividing ourselves from one another.

It’s time to step back and remember that there is a real enemy out there—an enemy violently opposed to human rights and women’s rights and gay rights and the basic political rights of each one of us.

It’s time to step back and see that America’s interests lie with the interests of free people everywhere, and that the response to radical Islam is not to abandon them but to stand with them—whether they are in Baghdad or Teheran or Jerusalem. [..]

In supporting the U.S.-Israeli relationship, AIPAC has been internationalist, strong, and nonpartisan. That is precisely what America’s foreign policy—and our domestic political debates about it—desperately needs to be right now: internationalist, strong, and non-partisan—not isolationist, weak, and partisan.

You have an opportunity and an imperative here in Washington this week—to combat the partisanship that threatens to elevate party interests over the national interest—to fight the fallacy that we can withdraw from the fight against radical Islam and make peace by sweet-talking people who shout “Death to America” and call for the destruction of Israel. That has never worked, and it will never work.

I want each of you here today to recognize that you are on the frontlines of this war. It is a war for security but also a war about ideas. In your meetings on Capitol Hill, in your discussions when you return home to your communities across America, I ask you to be proud of what you stand for, of what you are doing, and of the ideas and the organization you represent.

And when you are challenged about your beliefs, do not let the charges go unanswered. Do not shy from this fight. Do not retreat from the battlefield of ideas.

You know that the struggle for freedom is indivisible. You know that freedom itself is indivisible.

That is why we stand united—as Americans, as Israelis, as children of God, as children of freedom.

The esteemed historian of the Middle East, Bernard Lewis, was in Washington this past week. He said that, when he looks at the world today and the threats we face, it reminds him of the 1930s—and that he hears far more voices that sound like Chamberlain than like Churchill.

And so I challenge each of you to find the voice of Churchill inside yourself, and let it be heard this week on Capitol Hill and throughout the nation in the days and years ahead.

Stand up for your arguments. Stand up for your principles. Stand up for your values.

Stand up for America. Stand up for Israel. Stand up for freedom. And have confidence that in the end, our cause will, with God’s help, prevail.

Thank you so much.