NETANYAHU: THE IMPORTANCE OF DEFENDING OURSELVES

Benjamin Netanyahu has given his speech for Holocaust Memorial Day, and said the following:

The six million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust were remembered on Sunday in ceremonies held across the nation at sundown, the eve of Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day. [...]

In his speech, Netanyahu asked the nation to walk away with three important lessons from the Holocaust.

The first lesson, he said, is "If someone threatens to destroy us, we should not ignore it or diminish it."

He asked, "Has the world understood this? I doubt it. We cannot just think that the threats of Holocaust are over. We have new threatening forces today. They call for our destruction."

"Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas - they call for the destruction of the Jewish people," the prime minister said. "All of those who said they have learned the lessons of the Holocaust, they need to condemn, in a clear way, those who call for the destruction of the Jewish state. The world has not done this. These threats against us, we cannot sweep them aside."

Netanyahu said the second lesson was "the duty to reveal the face of hatred against our nation."

Such hatred, he said, grew, conquered, and impacted opinion makers and leaders in Europe before the Holocaust.

"Now this hatred is emerging again in Europe against the Jewish state," Netanyahu emphasized.

Netanyahu concluded his speech with a last lesson: "We can't leave our fate in the hands of others."

He said, "If we don't defend ourselves, the world won't stand by our side. It is appropriate to declare here, today, and now to all of our enemies that they should know one thing: When the people of Israel and the army of Israel say to the world 'no more', we mean every word."

And this is why self-reliance is crucial to our survival.

Also worthy of note: aging Holocaust survivors give relics to Yad Vashem as part of preserving their memory for future generations.