PM Netanyahu’s Remarks at the State Memorial Ceremony for the Fallen in the War of Redemption

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Remarks at the State Memorial Ceremony for the Fallen Soldiers of the War of Redemption at Mount Herzl:

The Honorable President of the State of Israel, Isaac Herzog, and his wife Michal,

Distinguished guests, and first among them my brothers and sisters in bereavement – the family of courage,

My wife Sara and I embrace each and every one of you, just as we embrace the families of the hostages: those who have returned to Israel and those whom we will bring back to Israel. And we are committed to returning them all, to the very last one.

Since the outbreak of the war, on Simchat Torah two years ago, we keep our fallen heroes in our thoughts every day. I understand the depth of your sorrow; I know the life that has changed at one blow. I know the moment when it suddenly becomes clear to us how happy the life we had before was. And I express to you the gratitude of the nation, its existence safe thanks to your loved ones who fell in battle.

Ofra Samiach, the mother of fallen soldier Ido Samiach, who served in the Nahal Brigade Reconnaissance unit said, “My son is not merely a fallen soldier, a void left behind. My son is the foundation upon which the state is being built”. That is so true.

Our wonderful sons and daughters, who sacrificed their lives in the war, are the foundation stones of Israel’s Redemption. Jews, Druze, Christians, Muslims, Bedouin, Circassians and members of other groups. They fought shoulder to shoulder to achieve all the war aims – and we will indeed achieve all of the war aims. The memory of the fallen will be ingrained in us for generations to come.

Two years ago, we were given a dreadful demonstration of the term “Genocide“. I am not talking about a fictitious “genocide”, the one we are being accused of by those who seek to harm us, in their antisemitic libels.

The October 7th massacre was a monstrous slaughter, monstrous in the full sense of the word: ruthless slaughter of babies, children, adults and the elderly. And I tell you, if those murderers could, they would have slaughtered each and every one of us. That is the real genocide! And confronting it, confronting that unfathomable evil, shocked us. And astonishingly, it immediately solidified us into an iron fist.

We promptly understood the plot of the fanatical regime in Iran and its terror proxies: choking the State of Israel to death in a ring of deadly fire. But our enemies did not take into account one thing: the power hidden within us. We rose as one, we summoned tremendous reserves of inner strength. We fought with uncompromising might on seven fronts. We shifted the combat into enemy territory. We delivered decisive blows against the enemy. The people of Israel rose – as a Rising Lion.

You rightly said, president herzog, that the struggle is not over. But one thing is clear: anyone who raises a hand against us knows they will pay a heavy price for their aggression. We are determined to complete the victory, which will have an impact on our way of life for many years.

There is a greater truth here: Israel stands at the frontline of the clash between barbarism and enlightenment, between boundless cruelty and humanity. This is a global struggle, and it revolves around one question: Do we revert to the bleak fanaticism of the Middle Ages, or do we progress towards a future of stability, prosperity and peace? Israel is the dam which keeps the destructive forces of extreme Islamism at bay. Israel’s fighters are the protective barrier that separates us from them.

Our brave soldiers and officers did this in difficult, dense and dangerous places. They did so with supreme courage and astonishing resourcefulness. They did it above and below ground. They did it using innovative methods of warfare that amazed the armies of the world.

The sense of mission, the sacrifice, the love of the land, the justice of the cause, the determination — the Victory Generation knows what it is fighting for, and its brilliant achievements speak for themselves. We turned the tables: from the October 7th Valley of Tears, we reached the summit of Mount Hermon, the skies of Tehran and the heart-stirring embrace of the hostage families with their loved ones.

The ground, air and naval forces merit our utmost gratitude, and their heroic deeds will one day be told. But I want to mention another force that joined them in this war — the route-clearance forces. The operators of the bulldozers and excavators who were exposed to enemy fire. They risked their lives to save lives, and some of them paid with their lives. The engineering vehicles, their force-multipliers, are also steeped in fierceness, a spirit of steel. The memory of each of our heroes is with us at all times, everywhere.

A new community near the town of Arad, Mitzpe Yonatan, commemorates the commander of the Nahal Brigade, Colonel Yonatan Steinberg. Givat Roi, near the War of Independence’s Burma Road, commemorates the commander of the Multidimensional unit, Colonel Roi Levy. I heard that there is a new initiative in memory of Eitan Oster, an officer in the Egoz unit who fell in southern Lebanon. The initiative is called A Day to Strengthen the ‘Why’: why we are here, and why we fight. The laser defense system for intercepting enemy missiles, Or Eitan, is named after Eitan Oster as well. His father, Dov, is one of the system’s developers.

I was moved, as I’m sure you all were, to see friends of fallen soldiers commemorating them with flags of their units on the world’s highest mountain peaks: on Mount Olympus in Greece, on Mont Blanc in France, on the ridges of Mount Everest in Nepal. At altitudes of five kilometers, in the freezing cold, you see them holding pictures of their fallen comrades.

No other nation in the world carries the memory of its loved ones to every corner of the globe, including the recitation of Kaddish and the singing of HaTikvah. The locals are astounded; they have never seen anything like it.

We are acting on both fronts simultaneously. And what is required on both fronts is unity: unity in war and unity in peace. We will achieve all our goals only with internal solidarity and mutual responsibility, by bolstering what we have in common and not what separates us. Our beloved country, the State of Israel, is a solid rock in the turbulent and unruly Middle East.

Our forefathers built a home here, and we, who follow in their footsteps, continue to safeguard our home and the existence of future generations. We do this for our children, for our grandchildren, for our great-grandchildren and for generations to come.

Bereaved families, we know that there is no substitute for those we have lost, and the terrible loss is heart-rending. But at the same time, we also know that thanks to the tremendous impact left by our fallen ones, everyone is guaranteed a place in the eternity of Israel.

I wish all those who were wounded in the war a speedy recovery, in body and soul. They are swathed in the love of the nation, which supports them along the path to rehabilitation. Just a few days ago, I saw them again in the rehabilitation ward and was impressed once more. I saw amputees with such a strong disposition, a great spirit, which they expressed in two words: For Israel.

The three fighting brothers of the Levi family: Rachamim Yishai, Yedidya, and Elkana, they can testify to that. All three were wounded on the battlefield, but despite their severe injuries, their spirit remained resolute. And as soon as they recovered from their complex surgeries, they expressed a meaningful sentiment: United for victory! United on the family level, united on the national level.

Thanks to our heroes, the soldiers, the fallen, the wounded, and thanks to your steadfastness, citizens of Israel, with God’s help, we will defeat our enemies and ensure our future together.

May the memory of the war’s fallen be engraved in the story of Israel’s revival forever”.