From Shimon Peres’ speech:
“We, members of the Jewish people, were victims of racism, persecution and discrimination but we never abandoned the obligation to honor every person, we were not blinded by darkness. Even in a dark world, we have aspired and continue to aspire to be a light unto the nations.
“We were alone, with no state of our own. The allied forces’ bomber planes that flew over Auschwitz did not drop a single bomb on the mass murder facilities,” he said.
“The Holocaust determined there is no replacement for a home of our own. There is no replacement for the Israel Defense Forces. Today we have an excellent army which the world has learned to respect. We have a democratic regime which knows how to defend itself and spread peace. That is our answer to the enemy, to any enemy.”
Peres added: “Even after the Holocaust there remains a regime whose leaders are public Holocaust deniers and inciters. This should arouse horror with any person and shock any conscience.
“Iran’s fanatic high echelon is a danger to the entire world, not just a threat on Israel. It poses a real danger to the fate of mankind. The world’s nations have declared they will not tolerate a nuclear Iran. They are now being tested.”
Not that the world will ever learn. But as Netanyahu said:
“We must not bury our heads in the sand and dismiss the threat with words of mockery,” he said. “Has the world learned its lesson? I doubt it. Have we? I believe we have.”
Addressing Israel’s enemies, Netanyahu said: “The world should know that when the people of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces say never again – we mean every word.”
Well it certainly moved me.
P. J. O’Rourke visited Israel during Pesach/Easter in 2001. He visited Yad Mordechai during the trip. He wrote that there is a war memorial at one end of the kibbutz, and a Holocaust Memorial Museum at the other. The museum, he said, passes quickly over the sorrow and pity part and focusses on the resisters. But, he wrote, the actual message of the museum is that the real Holocaust Memorial is the war memorial at the other end of the kibbutz.
The Memorial for the Holocaust is Zahal.
Am Yisrael Chai.