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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday delivered a speech at a conference led by Minister Amichai Chikli on combating antisemitism, warning of a resurgence of anti-Jewish sentiment worldwide and likening it to past threats faced by the Jewish people.
Addressing attendees in Jerusalem, Netanyahu thanked participants for "standing with Israel and the Jewish people against barbarism." He described antisemitism as "a disease carried by barbarians" and "a war against the existence of Jews."
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech
(Video: GPO)
Netanyahu referenced historical warnings about antisemitism, citing Zionist leader Theodor Herzl, who foresaw the destruction of European Jewry at the turn of the 20th century. "Herzl wrote more than 30 times about the impending destruction," Netanyahu said. He quoted Herzl: "The stone is rolling down the mountain slope to the bottom. The absolute bottom. Will there be devastation? Will there be confiscation? Will they expel us? Will they murder us? I anticipate all these things and more."
He also highlighted similar warnings from Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who in 1938 urged Polish Jews to flee, and from his own father, historian Benzion Netanyahu, who in 1933 wrote that "racial antisemitism is inciting a global war against the existence of the Jews."
Netanyahu linked past atrocities to modern-day threats, arguing that "antisemitism legitimizes and unleashes wanton violence against a part of human society just because of their identity." He warned that the same forces that fueled the Holocaust have "reemerged through radical Islamist carriers in Yemen, Iran, Lebanon, Gaza and elsewhere."
Referring to Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, Netanyahu said, "The Hamas monsters who attacked us on that day beheaded our men, raped our women, and burned our babies. They took 251 innocent people hostage, including grandmothers and grandchildren. We brought back 196 of them, 147 alive. We are determined to bring all of them home."
Netanyahu drew comparisons between Hamas and Nazi Germany, stating: "As Chancellor Scholz of Germany told me, they’re not different from the Nazis. They're exactly the same as the Nazis." He emphasized that Israel is now in a stronger position than during the Holocaust, with a state and an army to defend itself.
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Netanyahu touted Israel's military actions against Hamas, Hezbollah and other adversaries, saying, "We have battered Hamas. We have brought Hezbollah to its knees. We destroyed the remnants of Syria’s army. We hit the Houthis with the great help of our American allies. And we exposed Iran’s vulnerability. We have changed, we are changing, the face of the Middle East."
The prime minister also criticized the rise of antisemitism in the West, particularly in universities. "They rage in America’s elite universities. I went to one of them. I can’t believe that in Boston, in Cambridge, in MIT where I went to school, and nearby Harvard, in Columbia in New York and elsewhere, people are demonstrating for these murderers, these rapists, these mass killers."
Netanyahu blamed what he described as "a systemic alliance between the ultraprogressive Left and radical Islam" for fueling anti-Israel sentiment. "This vilification of Israel, the Jewish people, and Western values must be resolutely fought by civilized societies to safeguard their future," he said.
He praised former President Donald Trump for his "decisive actions against antisemitism" and urged other governments to take similar measures.
Netanyahu ended his speech with a call to action, recounting a recent meeting with Jewish student leaders in Washington who described harassment on campus. "One student told me that he was facing the dean of the university who invited one of the Hamas killers to give a lecture. And I said, what are you doing about it? He said, 'I'm suing him.' I said, 'Good for you. This is exactly what you should be doing.'"
Netanyahu emphasized that combating antisemitism requires strength and determination. "We refuse to surrender to terrorism. We do not bow our heads to antisemitism. We fight back."