(Ynet).Throughout Israel heads are bowed as the nation marks Holocaust Remembrance Day and remembers the six million murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War. During a commemoration ceremony held Sunday at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of the lessons of the Holocaust and the Iranian threat.
"Israel is a wellspring of innovation in the world, with its face to the future", he said. "But we still need to ask the question: Have the lessons of the Holocaust been learned?
"I believe that three of the lessons are: Strengthen yourself, educate for good and fight evil. The first lesson – strengthen yourself – first of all concerns us, the people of Israel who were abandoned and powerless before the waves of murderous hate that broke against us again and again, in every generation. We need to gird our strength for our independence to ensure that the next enemy cannot plot his schemes against us. Maintaining our strength is the first condition for our existence. It is also the necessary condition for widening the circle of peace with those of our neighbors who have come to terms with our existence.
"The second lesson – educate for good – means educating to accept the other and accept different ideas," the prime minister continued. "This is the awareness that lies at the base of Jewish thinking, that each human being is created in the image of G-d, that each human being has the right to freedom, to life, to choose his own path. This is the essence of a free society, this is the ground from which Nazi or fanatic ideology can never grow, ideology which strives for genocide and commits it also.
"This is how we educate children in the State of Israel, which is a light of tolerance in a region of darkness and zealotry. But this good state has a complementary side, and this is the third lesson of the Holocaust: to fight evil.
"A free society must ask itself what it should do in the face of evil forces who aim to destroy it and to trample human beings and their rights underfoot. There is no limitless tolerance, and we must draw the line. This is the question that all enlightened states must ask. The historic failure of the free nations before the Nazi beast was in the fact that they did not gather to oppose it in time, when it was still possible to stop it.
"We are witness today to the new-old fire of hate, hatred of Jews inflamed by organizations and regimes of extremist Islam, most of all Iran and its satellites. Iran's leaders are scurrying to develop nuclear weapons and freely announce their desire to destroy Israel, but before these repeated declarations to wipe the Jewish state from the face of the earth, at best we hear faint protest, and even this is fading.
"We don't hear the forceful protest that is required, we don't hear the strong denouncement, nor the angry voice. But as usual, there are those who direct their criticism against us, against Israel… The world accepts Iran's declarations of annihilation and we still don't see the international determination required to prevent Iran arming… I call on the enlightened nations to rise and denounce this intention to destroy, and to act with real determination to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons."
"Israel is a wellspring of innovation in the world, with its face to the future", he said. "But we still need to ask the question: Have the lessons of the Holocaust been learned?
"I believe that three of the lessons are: Strengthen yourself, educate for good and fight evil. The first lesson – strengthen yourself – first of all concerns us, the people of Israel who were abandoned and powerless before the waves of murderous hate that broke against us again and again, in every generation. We need to gird our strength for our independence to ensure that the next enemy cannot plot his schemes against us. Maintaining our strength is the first condition for our existence. It is also the necessary condition for widening the circle of peace with those of our neighbors who have come to terms with our existence.
"The second lesson – educate for good – means educating to accept the other and accept different ideas," the prime minister continued. "This is the awareness that lies at the base of Jewish thinking, that each human being is created in the image of G-d, that each human being has the right to freedom, to life, to choose his own path. This is the essence of a free society, this is the ground from which Nazi or fanatic ideology can never grow, ideology which strives for genocide and commits it also.
"This is how we educate children in the State of Israel, which is a light of tolerance in a region of darkness and zealotry. But this good state has a complementary side, and this is the third lesson of the Holocaust: to fight evil.
"A free society must ask itself what it should do in the face of evil forces who aim to destroy it and to trample human beings and their rights underfoot. There is no limitless tolerance, and we must draw the line. This is the question that all enlightened states must ask. The historic failure of the free nations before the Nazi beast was in the fact that they did not gather to oppose it in time, when it was still possible to stop it.
"We are witness today to the new-old fire of hate, hatred of Jews inflamed by organizations and regimes of extremist Islam, most of all Iran and its satellites. Iran's leaders are scurrying to develop nuclear weapons and freely announce their desire to destroy Israel, but before these repeated declarations to wipe the Jewish state from the face of the earth, at best we hear faint protest, and even this is fading.
"We don't hear the forceful protest that is required, we don't hear the strong denouncement, nor the angry voice. But as usual, there are those who direct their criticism against us, against Israel… The world accepts Iran's declarations of annihilation and we still don't see the international determination required to prevent Iran arming… I call on the enlightened nations to rise and denounce this intention to destroy, and to act with real determination to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons."