PM Netanyahu's Remarks at the Special Knesset Session Marking the Knesset's 75th Anniversary
Israel - Prime Minister's Office
The 37th Government
24.01.2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today, at the Knesset:
"Distinguished colleagues,
'The true sons of the kindred of David that fell with their sword in their hand... There is no truth, there is no glory but them.' With these majestic words, the poet Uri Zvi Greenberg mourned our fallen soldiers, the defenders of the homeland by whose virtue we live. Today, the finest of our sons and daughters are buried in Israel's soil. On my behalf and on behalf of all the citizens of Israel, I would like to express our endless gratitude for their heroism and boundless appreciation for their sacrifice. Our hearts, my heart, is with my brothers and sisters, family members stricken by grief. I know: Your lives have changed forever. Your agony, the void in your souls, cannot be put into words.
Each of us feels this sacrifice. Yesterday, my son Avner called me, choked up, and said, 'Dad, one of the fallen soldiers was my pupil for an entire year.' One way or another, we are all connected to the fallen, know someone who knew someone, know the families. We all embrace them with tremendous love.
All of us, together - at this moment of all moments - must dig deep for more fortitude. We will continue to fight determinedly to vanquish the brutal enemy we face. We will continue to safeguard our national revival, thereby fulfilling the desire of our dear children, mighty in spirit and deed. Their last will and testament, as you read, Mr. President, cannot be clearer. They say, 'Together to victory!' May their memories be a blessing.
Members of Knesset,
Two months ago, our commanders and their soldiers took control of the Hamas 'Parliament' in Gaza, as they call it. Of course, it is not a real parliament. It is a fiction. There are no free and democratic elections in Gaza. From time to time, this regime executes people, brings them to the town square and shoots them in the back of the head. If anyone even wants to leave the war zone, they stop them and shoot them too.
There is no real parliament in Gaza. That is why the parliament of extremism and hatred being destroyed by our forces is an image of victory. It is a powerful image, a very symbolic one, in a long and difficult campaign.
Even on this sad day, in our real parliament in Jerusalem, we see another image of victory. The Knesset's anniversary is an expression of the victory of our people's revival, the victory of freedom, of democracy, of national sovereignty. Representatives of the people are here on behalf of the people, for the people - our millennia-old people, who embrace the values of progress. Every democracy, small and large, is tested during times of war. The State of Israel has experience with war and has been tested - and we will stand together and emerge victorious from this current test as well, with G-d's help.
Every day, we prove to our enemies that they made a grave mistake. They believed we would lose all that we held dear. They fooled themselves again that Israel was as weak as a spider's web. However, the complete opposite actually occurred: We were dealt a very heavy blow on October 7, but we got back up very quickly. Israeli society came together. Regular and reserve soldiers reported for duty in droves. The IDF and our security services honed their capabilities.
This is a war for our home. It must end - and it will end - with the defeat of the aggression and evil of the new Nazis. Anyone who participated, took hostages, and raped and murdered our citizens, brought unprecedented destruction on themselves.
Members of Knesset,
I have heard the opinion that the events of Simchat Torah brought us back to the early days of Zionism, to the antisemitic pogroms of Eastern Europe and later the eastern lands. This may be true in one respect: The intention of those who wish to destroy us has not changed over the years. It is the same hatred. The bloodlust is the same bloodlust. However, today, unlike in the past, we have a country and we have our own army. We restored to the people of Israel the defensive force that it lost over generations. We stand like a fortified wall in the face of the dark barbarism that came for us.
We set goals for the war, and they are robust and valid: To end Hamas's rule, to return our hostages home - all our hostages - and to ensure that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel. Anyone who lifts a hand against us in Gaza, anyone who lifts a hand against us anywhere, will very quickly feel our power. There is not, nor will there be, any compromise with regard to safeguarding our existence and our future for the generations to come. I would like to add: If we have indeed returned to the early days of Zionism, it is only to clarify the understanding that we must shape our fate by ourselves.
We will hold onto our land even more strongly. We will rehabilitate our communities, the moshavim and kibbutzim in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip. We will return the residents of the south and the north safely to their homes. We will advance more vigorously a policy of becoming stronger. A policy of strengthening and strengthening and strengthening. Mr. Speaker, it will reach the Knesset very quickly, this clear change in our policy to strengthen ourselves, to bolster the Jewish state to a strength heretofore unknown. We will fortify Israel's status as the civilized world's guard tower in the Middle East.
Already at the beginning of the war, I told the leaders of the world, 'If Israel, G-d forbid, does not win, you will be next. The danger will certainly reach you much sooner and faster than you think.' I told them, including yesterday, 'Our war is your war, and our victory is your victory.' I also said, 'Israel will never surrender to the murderous terrorism directed by Iran.' We will fight back against those who attacked us, thereby giving humanity hope - light and not darkness, good and not evil, freedom and not slavery.
I emphasize this message, my friends, also at home. A vast majority of the people believe in Israel's spirit, in Israel's resilience, in the justness of Israel's path. When faced with those who doubt this, we will respond with words from the Bible, instead of 'a small, weak voice,' a 'strong, brave voice.' Courage will win - the courage of our soldiers, the courage of our fallen heroes. The people of Israel will be victorious.
Members of Knesset,
Tomorrow is Tu B'Shvat. Even before this day became the day of the Knesset's founding, it was a time of deepening roots and planting saplings. At Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, on the Israel-Gaza border, new trees will be planted - trees of heroism. In recent years, members of the kibbutz, secular and religious, have planted a tree in every hollow created by a rocket falling within the kibbutz's borders.
They will do so again this year, despite the kibbutz's temporary relocation to a different part of the Negev. Tomorrow they will plant the saplings, the trees, to commemorate those who fell while defending their community on Simchat Torah, an expression of the victory of our life over our enemy's culture of death. This is a great victory. It will be complete and it will be absolute.
Happy holiday to the State of Israel, to our commanders and soldiers and to the Knesset of Israel."
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