Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin etanyahu insisted that no amount of pressure will prevent his country from defending itself on Sunday, denouncing a “volcano of anti-Semitism” and criticism from around the world of Israel’s conflict in Gaza.
“If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone,” Netanyahu said.
Speaking at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem, he lamented that when the Nazis killed six million Jews during World War II, his people “were totally defenceless against those who sought our destruction.
“No nation came to our aid,” he said as the Israeli flag billowed at half mast and survivors of the Holocaust prepared to light torches.
“Today, we again confront enemies bent on our destruction,” Netanyahu told the large crowd gathered for the ceremony.
One yellow chair sat empty representing the hostages still held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
“I say to the leaders of the world, no amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum, will stop Israel from defending itself.”
He bemoaned the outpouring of international condemnation directed towards Israel for its Gaza war, which was sparked by Hamas’s historic October 7 attack.
Additionally, he condemned “this terrible volcano of anti-Semitism” that, in his words, was erupting globally.
Netanyahu also drew parallels between the anti-Semitic sentiment prevalent in American and international institutions during World War II and the treatment of Jews at German universities.
“What a distortion of justice and history,” he said.
The criticism, he said, was not “due to the actions that we do, but because we exist… because we are Jews.
“You will not chain our hands… Israel will continue to fight human evil… until victory,” he said.
“We will defeat our genocidal enemies. Never again is now!”
Gaza’s bloodiest-ever war began following Hamas’s attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Approximately 250 captives were taken by militants during the assault. According to Israel, 128 people are still being kept captive in Gaza, of which the army claims 35 are dead.
Israel’s counteroffensive, which it claimed would destroy Hamas, has killed at least 34,683 people in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run enclave.
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