Netanyahu: In Israel, Jews can defend themselves against the ‘barbarians’

“We know there will be further attacks,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday evening in the wake of the Sydney Chanukah massacre, adding that the safest place for Jews is where “we can defend ourselves”—in Israel.

“We defend ourselves with the Israel Defense Forces, with the security forces and with the heroic policewomen and policemen of the Israel Police,” Netanyahu stated.

The premier delivered these remarks at a Chanukah candle-lighting event at the Police Academy in the city of Beit Shemesh, attended by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Danny Levy and the family of Staff Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last fallen hostage remaining in Gaza.

“We returned to our land after the exile that was decreed upon us,” Netanyahu continued. “And the first thing we had to renew was our capacity for self-defense. That is what we have been doing over the past two years with greater intensity and greater success. We are in fact representing the free world, modern civilization, against the barbarians who want to drag us back to the Middle Ages. That is what they want.”

He added, “As in the days of the Maccabees, though we are few against many, we are a state of about 10 million facing many, facing enemies who only recently fought us, numbering some 200 million.”

Addressing Gvili’s family, Netanyahu vowed that Israel “will bring Rani back, just as we brought back 254 out of our 255 hostages. … We are a people who learned to help ourselves, because we knew that in times of distress it is not certain that anyone else will help us. That was, to a large extent, our fate in the Diaspora, with waves of antisemitism that rose and fell, rose and fell.”

The prime minister went on to say that the only thing that has changed with the creation of the State of Israel is that now Jews can fend off their murderers, whose deeds “always came after accusations, lies and countless slanders.”

Netanyahu also related that he had delivered a letter to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in August, warning that his policy is encouraging terror. “You are calling for a Palestinian state, and you are in effect giving Hamas a reward for the horrific massacre they carried out on Oct. 7,” said Netanyahu, reiterating the letter’s message. But Albanese “did nothing,” the Israeli leader stressed.

He added that Israel’s enemies caused it “an unbearable catastrophe” on Oct. 7, 2023.

“But on Oct. 8, it already turned around. We went after them and struck them methodically: first in Gaza, then in Lebanon, then in Syria, also in Iraq and above all—in Iran.”

In Ben-Gvir’s address, he praised the members of the Israel Police, likening them to the “Maccabees of the past … who light a flame even when surrounded by darkness.”

Police Commissioner Levy dedicated the first candle-lighting of Chanukah to deceased hostage Gvili, stating that on the day of the massive terrorist invasion from Gaza, “Ran did not hesitate. Injured, he left his home, fought bravely and saved many civilian lives. We pray for his return, wish a full recovery to all the wounded and send our embrace to the bereaved families who lost what is most precious to them.”

In a separate candle-lighting event at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog hosted Gvili’s family as well, commemorating the heroism of “the last hostage still being held by murderous terrorists in Gaza. We renew our call for Ran to be released immediately and returned home to his dear family for dignified burial!”

© JNS