Izraeli PM Netanyahu’s Remarks at the Start of the Cabinet MeetingPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Sunday, 27 January 2013), made the
following remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting:
„Today, we mark International Holocaust Remembrance
Day<www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/
communiques/International_
Vashem Council Chairman Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and the Chairman of the Yad
Vashem Board of Directors, Avner Shalev. This day was established at the
initiative, and as a result, of systematic action by Silvan Shalom, who was
then Foreign Minister, and I welcome the work of Public Diplomacy and
Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein, who has struggled for the
commemoration of the Holocaust, and who has struggled against the new
anti-Semitism that is flooding the world. Anti-Semitism has not disappeared
and – to our regret – neither has the desire to destroy a considerable part
of the Jewish People and the State of Israel. They exist and they are
strong. Holocaust-denial is being spread by one of the world’s major
countries, not by a group or by individual countries or by marginal
elements, but by Iran which, today, from the UN or any other platform, is
the leader of Holocaust-denial while preparing for what they deem to be
another Holocaust – the destruction of the state of the Jews. They are not
halting their relentless and systematic race to achieve a nuclear weapons
capability in order to realize this intention. We do not make light of these
threats and we will prevent them. This is our primary mission as a
government and as a people.
In the perspective of the almost 75 years that have passed since the
Holocaust, what has not changed is the desire to annihilate the Jews. What
has changed is the ability of the Jews to defend themselves. This ability
finds expression in the state, the military, and the security services and
in our willingness to act against those who come to destroy us. This ability
is the difference between what was then and what there is today. Nobody will
defend the Jews if they are not ready to defend themselves; this is another
lesson of the Holocaust. It is impossible to rely on separate and
independent action to defend the Jews if the Jews will not defend
themselves.
Therefore, the root of the issue today, International Holocaust Remembrance
Day, is not what happened, but how we can prevent it from happening again
and this depends on the ability and the determination of the state of the
Jews to defend itself against those who would destroy it. To this end, we
must look around us, at what is happening in Iran and its proxies and at
what is happening in other areas, with the deadly weapons in Syria, which is
increasingly coming apart. The Middle East is not waiting on the results of
the elections and it will not stop during the formation of the government.
There are many threats here, among the more difficult that I have pointed
out and others, and the reality is developing apace. In the east, north and
south, everything is in ferment and we must be prepared. Strong and
determined in the face of all possible developments. To this end, I would
like to form the broadest and most stable government as possible in order –
first of all – to meet the significant security threats that face the State
of Israel, and I am convinced of our ability to deal with these threats.”
