i look out there and see an old friend, annette lantos. annette, how are you? her husband tom lantos, a survivor, was my assistant, was my foreign policy adviser for years, and tom used to say all the time, joe -- he talked that hungarian accent -- joe, we must do another fundraiser for aipac. [laughter] i did more fundraisers for aipac in the 1970s and early 1980s than -- just about as many as anybody. thank god you were not putting on shows like this. we would have never made it. we would have never made it. my lord, it's so great to be with you all and great to see you. mr. president, thank you so much for that kind introduction, and president-elect bob cohen, the entire aipac board of directors, i'm delighted to be with you today, but i'm particularly delighted to be with an old friend -- and he is an old friend. we use that phrase lightly in washington, but it's real, and i think he'd even tell you. ehud barak, it's great to be with you. great to be with you. [applause] there is a stand-up guy. there is a stand-up guy, standing up for his country, putting h

i look out there and see an old friend, annette lantos. annette how are you? r husband tom lantos, a survivor, was my assistant, was my foreign policy adviser for years. and tom used to say all the time, joe -- he talked that hungarian accent -- joe, we must do another fundraiser for aipac. i did more fundraisers for aipac in the 1970s and early 1980s than -- just about as many as anybody. thank god you weren't putting on shows like this. we would have never made it. we would have never made it. my lord, it's so great to be with you all and great to see you. mr. president, thank you so much for that kind introduction. and president-elect bob cohen, the entire aipac board of directors, i'm delighted to be with you today. but i'm particularly delighted to be with an old friend -- and he is an old friend. we use that phrase lightly in washington, but it's real, and i think he'd even tell you. ehud barak, it's great to be with you. great to be with you. there is a stand-up guy. there is a stand-up guy, standing up for his country, putting his life on the line for h

many of you in this hall, i won't start to name them but many of you in this hall, starting with annette lanto s's house who is not here, god rest his soul, and many of you have been teachers and mentors. a lot of this started at my father's dinner table. he's what you would call a righteous christian. we gathered at the dinner table to have conversation and incidentally eat as we were growing up. it was at that table i first heard the phrase that is overused sometimes today but in a sense not used meaningfully enough. i first heard the phrase never again. it was at that table i that learned that the only way to ensure it could never happen again was the establishment and existence of a secure jewish state of israel. i remember my father being baffled at the debate taking place at the end of world war ii talking about how to remember it at that time, about how there could be a debate about whether or not within the community, of whether or not to establish the state of israel. my father would say, were he a jew, he would never, never entrust the security of his people to any individual nation,