Speaker of the Knesset,
Members of Knesset,
Dear Veterans, World War II fighters,

Sixty three years have passed since the Allied Forces closed the curtain on the darkest period in the history of mankind.  Sixty three years since sanity prevailed over madness, since the forces of light defeated the forces of darkness, since the continued spread of evil across the globe was thwarted, and the world was confronted, for the first time, with the actual magnitude of the killing and destruction inflicted by the war.

Even today, with the gradually diminishing numbers of those who personally experienced the events of the war, difficult questions continue to resound, questions which have not been fully answered:

How did an entire nation become an oiled machine of slaughter and killing? How, out of sheer blind hatred, did human mortals become human monsters?
And perhaps the most poignant question of all: how could so many of the nations of the world stand idly by while millions were being led to their death?

The sixty three years which passed since May 1945 left these questions unanswered, and it is highly doubtful that an unequivocal answer will ever be found.

However, on one issue concerning the war there was neither question nor doubt: the heroism demonstrated by the Allied fighters, among them approximately a million and a half Jews who served in the Allied armies and among the ranks of the Partisans – those who enlisted all across the globe in order to destroy the Nazi enemy and guarantee a better world for citizens everywhere and for their Jewish brothers in particular.

Today, these fighters honor us with their presence. 
You, who sacrificed yourselves and were willing to risk your lives for the hope of a brighter future,
You, who showed the greatness and strength of the human spirit even in the darkest of times,

You, who have seen thousands of your friends die on Europe's killing fields and not live to see one of the most important results of the war – the establishment of the State of Israel.

We will also remember the thousands of members of the yishuv in Eretz Israel, boys and girls who enlisted in the British army and in its framework fought against the Nazi enemy.

It was David Ben-Gurion who declared upon the outbreak of World War II: "we must help England in its war as if there was no White Paper, and stand against the White Paper as if there is no war".  Over 30,000 men and women answered this call, many were killed in battle, many were wounded, and many more were captured by the Germans. All of them, however, were driven, all along the way, by a faith and aspiration to a different tomorrow – a more promising and just one.

You, veteran fighters, are the ultimate proof of the existence of that same spirit and hope which has typified, more than anything, the Jewish people throughout the generations.  On this festive day, as in any other day of the year, we wish to draw you closer to our hearts, express our profound gratitude for your activities and salute you in honor of your contribution.

When the storm of the war subsided, you were fortunate to create new life, build a home in Israel and watch your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow. You saw the magical dimension in the establishment of our state, the wonder which we have succeeded in creating, and the achievements we have made in sixty years.

Members of Knesset,

Every generation produces a new enemy for Israel.  The arena changes, the language is polished and the circumstances are different, but, unfortunately, the same common denominator of blind animosity and a similar rhetoric which inflames it still remains, still thunders and is still disturbing.

Anti-Semitism was, and remains, a sore evil, an actual plague, which continues, even at this time, to attract many misguided followers from among many nations of the world.

 
The Free World has long understood that this hatred, this essence of evil and malice, is not a problem of the Jewish people or the State of Israel alone. Each and every citizen of the western world is an enemy of that destructive spirit of hatred, and it is therefore incumbent upon every nation in the Free World to recognize in advance the dangers emanating from this hatred, and its serious repercussions for the future.

The State of Israel is committed today, after sixty years of existence, to remember the dark and incomprehensible days of World War II.  We will forever remember the horrifying events of the Holocaust, and treasure the memory of the infants, children, women, men and the elderly who were tortured, butchered and burned alive. We will forever remember, and will never forget.

Only if we continue to remember, and the memory is carved in our hearts, will we be able to look straight in the eyes of those fighters and survivors who lived through the war.  Only then can we know that we are doing everything in our power to guarantee that those who died did not die in vain and those who remained would, as would their descendants, live in a better world. 

Thank you.