Indeed, for Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, each the child of a survivor, it is only one generation removed. The Holocaust is hardly ancient history to Israelis, particularly for the many whose families were gutted and shaped by it. Partly, the difference reflects a generational shift. This last theme reflects Bennett’s current priority, as he was targeted by a death threat earlier this week, which was mailed to his home with a bullet in an envelope, and his broad but bare governing coalition wobbles without a majority. His focus was on the lessons for Israel and the Jewish people on the Holocaust’s unique evil: the persistence of antisemitism through the ages the Jewish people’s essential and unbreakable link to its historic homeland Israel’s obligation to be strong and self-reliant and the imperative for unity to triumph over divisions in Israel. Not infrequently, Netanyahu described the threat in terms that evoked the prospect of a second Holocaust-an outcome he swore that Israel would act to prevent even if the world turned away.īennett took a different approach. Together, with tributes to Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators and emotional words honoring the survivors, he nearly always took the opportunity to speak bluntly about the threat of Iran and its pursuit of nuclear weapons. This address, broadcast live with government officials, leading figures in Israeli society, and Holocaust survivors and their families present, is one of the most prominent speeches an Israeli prime minister delivers annually.įor each of the past thirteen years-five of which I attended as US ambassador to Israel-former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the speaker. In his speech on April 27, at the opening ceremony of Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett departed from his predecessor’s approach in one very significant way: he made no mention of Iran. ApIsrael’s PM gave a Holocaust Remembrance speech without mentioning Iran.
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