Some people thought that after the horrors of Auschwitz and Treblinka, humanity would learn the lessons • They made a bitter mistake: Anti-Semitism is still present in the West and the East • But one thing has changed: the Jewish people • A special column
Prime Minister Netanyahu with Chief of Staff Kochavi at the graduation ceremony of an officers' course
Photography:
Kobi Gideon / GPO
Today, January 27, the world commemorates the horrific atrocities of six million Jews - men, women and children - by the Nazis and their aides during the Holocaust.
We remember the darkest chapter in human history, when a European country decides to adopt a systematic plan to exterminate the Jews, to the last of them, while mobilizing its full developed industrial power to realize this horrific horror.
The mass murder of the Jewish people did not take place in a vacuum.
For centuries anti-Semitism was widespread throughout Europe.
With no one to challenge her, she intensified, spread, and finally erupted in full force.
Hatred of Israel, which has its roots in ancient times and left its negative mark on the Middle Ages, has moved into full force into the new era.
Some have thought that after the horrors of Auschwitz and Treblinka, humanity will learn the necessary lessons once and for all, shake off the poison of anti-Semitism and throw the destructive hatred into its rightful place in the dustbin of history.
Well, they made a bitter mistake.
The scourge of toxic anti-Semitism continues to spread in the 21st century.
His discoveries are evident on the campuses of reputable universities in North America, in madrasas in South Asia and among European elites.
Anti-Semitism is present in the developed world in the West and in the developing world in the East.
This is the official policy of Iran, which declares day after day, with arrogant arrogance: our goal is to exterminate another six million Jews, and to destroy the State of Israel.
Indeed, a vaccine for the antisemitic virus has not yet been found.
And there are those who say that this phenomenon will not go away, because there are things that never change.
But I can tell you what has changed: we, the Jewish people, have changed.
If during the Holocaust we were homeless, stateless and helpless, and had to beg others to protect it - then no more.
Today we are free, rooted in our homeland and powerful in our independent state.
As the Prime Minister of the powerful and proud State of Israel - a state born to a new life after the Holocaust, a state established from the ashes of destruction, a state that provided a home for the survivors, a state where the Jewish people fulfill their dream of resurrection - I swear we will never forget the tragic past. Seekers of our souls.
"Never again" is not just a slogan.
This is our policy, this is our mission and this is our mission.
We will stand by them, and with God's help we will secure the eternity of Israel.
