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Following is Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s greeting on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day:
“Dear Friends,
Preserving the memory of the Holocaust is more important today than ever for in this period of resurgent and sometimes violent anti-Semitism, it is commemorations like this that remind us all where the oldest and most enduring hatred can lead.
Unfortunately, in Europe and elsewhere, Jews are once again being targeted just for being Jews. Around the world, Jewish communities are increasingly living in fear. We see anti-Semitism directed against individual Jews, and we also see this hatred directed against the collective Jew, against the Jewish state. Israel is targeted with the same slurs and the same libels that were leveled against the Jewish people since time immemorial.
Islamic extremists incorporate the most outrageous anti-Semitism into their murderous doctrines. We see this in Gaza; we see it in Raqqa; we see it in Tehran. And it’s not just Islamic extremists in the Middle East and Europe. Even respected Western opinion leaders have become afflicted with hatred for the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
The obsession with the Jews – the fixation on the Jewish state – defies any other rational explanation. While across the region, Islamist militants brutalize entire populations, enslave and rape women, murder Christians and gays, the UN Human Rights Council repeatedly condemns Israel. More than North Korea. More than Iran. More than Syria. More than all of them put together. Some things just don’t change.
But one thing has changed. We have changed. The Jews have changed. We are no longer a stateless people endlessly searching for a safe haven. We are no longer a powerless people begging others to offer us protection.
Today we are an independent and sovereign people in our own homeland. Today we can speak out against the voices of hatred and those seeking our destruction. Today we can protect ourselves and defend our freedom. We have changed and we stand and speak out and we defend ourselves. But where is Europe? Where is the rest of civilization?
When a state like Iran and movements like Daesh and Hamas openly declare their goal of committing another Holocaust, we will not let it happen. But Europe and the rest of the world must stand up together with us. Not for our sake; for theirs.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
If Hashem doesn’t protect a city, its watchman’s diligence is in vain. (Tehillim 127:1) The only thing protecting the yishuv in Eretz Yisroel is those who learn and keep the Torah. The army knows that Hizbulla has far more long-range missiles than it has defenses against and lately they’re stockpiling very sophisticated, destructive drones capable of doing enormous damage, may Hashem protect us. Not to mention that the “Islamic State” has a large force of sympathizers within Eretz Yisroel who are probably training to strike at vital points of the infrastructure in the event of war, ר”ל. And the government is doing everything in its power to get bnei Torah out of the Beis Medrash and into the army for the stated purpose of “changing their values” and “integrating them into mainstream (i.e. secular) Israeli society”, even if they’re being realistic and doing it gradually with an “adjustment period”. If all these enemies are talking about destroying us, ר”ל, it’s nothing more than warnings from Hashem that we need to do more teshuva. May Hashem help and protect us.
Netantahu is a zionistic fool who ought to get some G-d into his life and belief system.
עומדות היו רגלינו. . . בשעריך ירושלים
Por, I’m really not interested in arguing or causing more sinas chinam. Perhaps you can look at it from the perspective of Israelis who send their children to War, to fight and die for the land of Israel, while these so-called Talmidei Chachamim sit in Yeshiva all day! Obviously we need Torah study, but maybe take some time to think about loving your fellow Jews instead of bashing them. Chuck, Netanyahu mentions G-d in many of his speeches. None of your comments here are reflective of what he said in his Speech.Just more bashing. As we all know Hitler (yemach shemo) did not discriminate.