Today, in honor of the international Holocaust memorial day, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke at Auschwitz. Netanyahu spoke of the memory we, as Jews, must keep. We must remember our people, who have died at the hands of others due to hatred. We must remember those who have done and would do us harm. And we must remember that while we live, and are still here, we must continue to defend ourselves.
Opening with the Kaddish, Netanyahu spoke of those slain. “From the cursed ground at Auschwitz, Birkenau and other camps rise the voices of our brothers and sisters, our people who choked to death and were burned and murdered.†Quoting Deuteronomy, he said, “Remember what Amalek did to you.†He warned that with the “Nazi Amalek” having past, a “new Amalek is appearing and once again threatening to annihilate the Jews. We will not allow it … We will never forget and always stand guard.â€
Speaking of Iran, and the threats of today, he stated that, “Murderous hatred must be stopped in its tracks, stopped right from the beginning. All countries in the world must learn this lesson, just as we did after losing a third of our people in blood-soaked Europe. We learned that the only guarantee for the protection of our people is the State of Israel and its army, the IDF… I promise, as head of the Jewish state, that never again will we allow the hand of evil to sever the life of our people and our state.” He discussed that Israel “must warn of the impending danger to the rest of the world and at the same time to be ready to defend ourselves… the most important lesson from the Shoah is that murderous evil must be stopped as soon as possible, before it can realize its schemes.”
Speaking of Israel, Netanyahu proudly exclaimed, “Am Yisrael Chai, we have returned to our homeland, to the land of our forefathers, to Jerusalem, our capital. We have converged from all corners of the world, Holocaust survivors, Arab Jews, Jews from former Soviet Union states, Ethiopian Jews.” Israel is the homeland of the Jews, all Jews; not as Obama alluded, a land built of Holocaust survivors. Ending his speech, Netanyahu expressed that, “we bow our heads in memory [of Holocaust victims] and raise our heads as our flag waves with its two blue stripes and the Star of David at its center.” Netanyahu quotes the Israeli national anthem, proudly reminding the world, “We still haven’t lost our hope.â€
Click here to watch Netanyahu speak at Auschwitz. Note: the speech is mostly in Hebrew.
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Every day the odds get poorer. At this point, Obama and Netanyahu both have wasted a year in which Iran has further advanced its program. Middle references Iran’s proxy armies, and we’ve seen what they can do in the past, but if Bibi’s to be taken at his word about Hitler analogies, there can be no prudential counterargument to doing everything to keep nukes away from Tehran. Else, Bibi’s lip service is no more meaningful than Obama’s.
If Netanyahu truly believes that the Iranian clerical regime can be compared to Hitler’s, he is squarely faced with the burden of doing something about it. His American ally, as must be clear by now to everyone, will do nothing, not even push for the ineffectual fig leaf of sanctions, or even regime change, despite the events of last summer.
Attacking Iran is not child’s play. At the very least, they have two proxy armies sitting on two of Israel’s borders, they have a sophisticated intelligence service, and they have been involved with bombing Jewish civilian centers in Argentina so one response to an attack could be targeting Jews around the world. Launching air strikes across the distances we’re discussing, with their facilities deep underground, is risky and maybe even impossible. It’s not as if Israel has a carrier fleet nearby. I think Israel has not launched an attack yet because making that decision is simply too hard considering the poor odds and the possible repercussions.