Netanyahu: Jews Must Not Live in Denial of Reality
"As the Prime Minister of Israel I wish to add that the lessons of the Holocaust must be the compass that guides us on our way," he said.
"The most important lesson is that if someone threatens to annihilate us, we must not ignore his threats," he said. "Has the world learned this lesson? I doubt it. Have we learned it? I believe so. But in the history of the Nation of Israel, we have not always excelled at prescience. On occasion, we repressed the reality that faced us."
"The next lesson comes from knowing that attacks upon our nation were always preceded by acts of hatred. In the middle ages and the modern era, Jews were held to be responsible for many of the world's illnesses. This hatred was not only present among the ignorant, but also spread to the hearts and minds of Europe's thinkers. The same Jew hatred now reawakens as hatred for the Jewish State. Today, too, there are those who blame the Jews for the world's illnesses."
"The third lesson is that we cannot leave it to others to decide our fate. Relations with the world's countries are very important to us, but if we do not defend ourselves, no one will stand beside us."
