c-span: golda meir was born here wasn't she? >> guest: golda meir was born here. actually born here or in russia and came here. c-span: you have been here all your life. as a matter to you or others that you came from another country whether or not you can be part of the government? >> guest: know, first of all it doesn't make a difference. we live in a democracy and everyone might be a lot did and they call it the democratic way. altogether i don't think there is a major difference. all of us are jewish. myself, first of all i am jewish before anything else. if something really worries me about that, the future of the jewish people that was one of the reasons for writing the book. i'm looking for a situation where israel will be able to provide those needed challenges for the jewish and israel. c-span: when you say you are jewish, are you religious? >> guest: no i'm i am not religious but i am jewish. i am a jewish and that is more than anything else. c-span: what is that? how much does religion play a role in the whole exercise of government do you think? >> gue

for that it's hard to see how we'd be standing here on this day -- leaders like david ben gurion, golda meirn, the list goes on, and you, mr. president, you all had one thing in common from an outside observer's perspective, despite your political differences, it was that you knew in your bones, as one israeli prime minister told me over 35 years ago when i was opining of the difficulty israel faced surrounded by hostile neighbors at the time, looked at me and said, senator, don't worry. we jews have a secret weapon in our struggle in the region. we have nowhere else to go. that realization, it seems to me, is what energized your entire generation of leadership. i believe that's one of the reasons why arik sharon and so many others fought so hard their whole lives. prime minister sharon was not only loved by the jewish people, he not only loved them -- the jewish people -- but he loved the land of israel. not just the idea of it, but the actual land itself. born on a farm, about to be buried on a farm, a ranch, i remember one of the meetings i had with him. it was a somewhat heated, and he h