began his pro-israel journey in 1973, sitting in the study of prime minister golda meir. over the next four decades, joe biden return to jerusalem dozens of times and has been able to call every prime minister since golda meir a friend. four years ago, months after you were sworn into office, mr. vice president, we welcome you to the aipac conference. i think it is fitting that at the beginning of your second term, we have the honor of welcoming you again. [applause] the past four years have seen tremendous change in transition in the middle east. once constant has been the strength of u.s.-israel strategic relationship. thanks to president obama and you, mr. vice president, we know that we have an administration committed to the security of israel. [applause] we are fortunate that our leaders hear the conviction that iran must never be allowed to have a nuclear capability. [applause] the world community has rallied around the united states. we have implemented tough, biting sanctions that have left the iranian regime more isolated than ever before. however, the islamic r

hyperbole -- of getting to meet for the first time and subsequently -- i met her beyond that -- golda meir. she was the prime minister. now, i am sure every kid up there said, you cannot be that old, senator. i hope that's what you're saying, but seriously, the first trip i ever made -- y'all know those double doors -- you go in the office -- and the blond furniture and the desk on the left side, if my memory serves me correctly and golda meir, as the prime minister and defense minister, she had those maps behind her that -- you know, you could pull down all those maps like you had in geography class in high school and she sat behind her desk, and i sat in the chair in front of her desk, and a young man was sitting to my right who was her assistant. his name was yitzhak rabin. [laughter] seriously, that is a true story, and she sat there chain-smoking and reading letters, reading letters to me, letters from the front in the six-day war. she read the letters about and then told me how this young man or woman had died and missed her family. and this went on for i do not know how long. i gues

[applause] you know, joe biden described his meeting with golda meir. she said to him, our secret weapon is we have no other place to go. well, we have our place under the sun, and ladies and gentlemen, we shall defend it. the rebirth of israel is one of the greatest events in history. i think churchill said that it transcends generations. it transcends centuries. he said it is significant in the perspective of thousands of years. we never lose sight of the perspective. we shall always defend the one and only jewish state. [applause] the second issue i intend to discuss with president obama is the situation in syria. over the last two years, over 70,000 syrians have been killed. hundreds of thousands have been wounded and maimed. millions have been forced to flee their homes. besides this humanitarian crisis of great tragedy, syria could soon become a strategic crisis, one of monumental proportion. you see, syria is a very poor country, but it has chemical weapons, antiaircraft weapons, and many other of the world's more deadly and sophisticated arms, a

[applause] joe biden described his meeting with golda meir.he said, our secret weapon is we have no other place to go. we have our place under the sun . he shall defendant. the rebirth of israel is one of the greatest events in history. personal -- churchill said it transcends generations and centuries. it is significant in the perspective of thousands of years. we never lose sight. we shall always defend the one and only jewish state. [applause] the second issue i intend to discuss with president obama is the situation and bang syria. over the last two years, 70,000 syrians have been killed. thousands have been wounded. millions have been forced to flee their homes. besides this crisis, syria could become a strategic crisis of monumental proportions. syria is a poor country. it has chemical weapons, antiaircraft weapons and other deadly arms. as the choline -- as the regime collapses, the danger of the weapons falling into terror groups is real. terror groups are trying to seize these weapons. they are like a pack of hyenas feeding off of a c

words of a man who began his pro-israel journey in 1973, sitting in the study of prime minister golda meir. other the next four decades, joe biden returned to jerusalem dozens of times and has been able to call every prime minister since golda meir a friend. four years ago, months after you were sworn into office, mr. vice president, we welcomed you to the aipac policy conference. i think it's only fitting that at the beginning of your second term, we have the honor of welcoming you again. [applause] the past four years have seen tremendous change and transition in the mideast but one constant has been the strength of the u.s.-israel strategic relationship. thanks to president obama and you, mr. vice president, we know that we have an administration committed to the security of israel. we are fortunate that our leaders share the conviction that iran must never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon capability. the world community has rallied around the united states. we have implemented tough sanctions that have left the iranian regime more isolated than ever before. however, the islamic repu

file in the cia, and he told the israelys themselves -- in fact he went to israel and met with golda meirthere's going to be a war and you may think they're faking but they're not. and the israelys just as we, when we heard the report, saved they're faking, they're trying to bluff us into launching a diplomatic initiative to get the israelis to withdraw from the occupied territories, and it's nothing other than a bluff. but then we have a meeting between president nixon and general secretary brezhnev in which he demanded a special meeting to talk about the middle east, and he said, don't know exactly when it's going to happen, but there is going to be a war in the middle east this fall. unless we can do something to prevent it. now, that information i knew, and took seriously as i think kissinger did, not as a presize warning but he start asking us to watch carefully for any signs it might be true. i don't believe this information was shared with the cia. and this is a problem where policymakers know things that they don't convey to the analysts. and then, of course, we saw the soviet adv