00:00Thank you very much. Thank you.
00:09Thank you very much, everybody.
00:14It's a great honor. Nice place. Very nice place.
00:19Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister,
00:23Mr. Speaker, esteemed members of the Knesset
00:26and cherished citizens of Israel,
00:30we gather on a day of profound joy, of soaring hope,
00:35of renewed faith, and above all,
00:38a day to give our deepest thanks to the almighty God
00:42of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
01:00After two harrowing years in darkness and captivity,
01:1220 courageous hostages are returning to the glorious embrace of their families,
01:18and it is glorious.
01:2028 more precious loved ones are coming home at last to rest in this sacred soil for all of time.
01:29And after so many years of unceasing war and endless danger,
01:34today the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still,
01:39and the sun rises on a holy land that is finally at peace,
01:43a land and a region that will live, God willing, in peace for all eternity.
01:50This is not only the end of a war.
02:01This is the end of the age of terror and death
02:04and the beginning of the age of faith and hope and of God.
02:09It's the start of a grand concord and lasting harmony for Israel
02:15and all the nations of what will soon be a truly magnificent region.
02:21I believe that so strongly.
02:23This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East.
02:28I want to express my gratitude to a man of exceptional courage and patriotism
02:33whose partnership did so much to make this momentous day possible.
02:38Well, you know who I'm talking about.
02:41There's only one.
02:42Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
02:45Maybe please stand up.
03:05And he is not easy, I want to tell you.
03:07He's not the easiest guy to deal with.
03:11But that's what makes him great.
03:14That's what makes him great.
03:22Thank you very much, baby.
03:25Great job.
03:25And let me also convey my tremendous appreciation for all of the nations of the Arab and Muslim world
03:39that came together to press Hamas, to set the hostages free, and to send them home.
03:45We had a lot of help.
03:46We had a lot of help from a lot of people that you wouldn't suspect.
03:49And I want to thank them very much for that.
03:51It's an incredible triumph for Israel and the world to have all of these nations working together as partners in peace.
04:00And it's pretty unusual for you to see that.
04:03But it happened in this case.
04:05This was a very unusual point in time, a brilliant point in time.
04:10Generations from now, this will be remembered as the moment that everything began to change and change very much for the better.
04:19Like the USA right now, it will be the golden age of Israel and the golden age of the Middle East.
04:28It's going to work together.
04:30I'd like to thank several great American patriots for their invaluable help in getting something done
04:35that almost everyone thought was absolutely impossible.
04:40We were wasting our time.
04:42So many people said, you're just wasting your time.
04:46But we weren't because we had talented people working with us.
04:49And we had people that love your country and, frankly, people that love the region.
04:55They love the Middle East.
04:57I want to thank my friend Steve Whitcoff.
04:59You know, Steve was chosen by me.
05:27He never did this before, but I knew him as a few things.
05:32He was a great businessman, but I know a lot of great businessmen, to be honest with you.
05:37He had tremendous negotiating skills, but I know a lot of people that negotiate pretty well, although it is an art.
05:44But there are people that can negotiate pretty well.
05:48But most importantly with Steve, he's just a great guy.
05:52Everybody loved him.
05:53I mean, I know some negotiators that are so good, but you wouldn't have had peace in the Middle East.
06:06You'd be would be in World War three right now with some of these guys.
06:10Everybody loves Steve and they respect him and they somehow can relate to him.
06:15I've known him for many years and I've seen it over and over again.
