“Those who murdered Jews at a synagogue in Jerusalem and those who murdered Jews and journalists in Paris are part of the same problem,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday evening at a memorial ceremony for the victims of this week’s terror attacks in Paris against a magazine and against a kosher supermarket.
The two attacks by Islamist terrorists claimed the lives of 17 people, including four Jews at the supermarket who will be buried in Israel.
“We must condemn them and fight them!”
“Israel will fight terror, and will continue to defend itself,” he added.
‘’When Israel protects itself, it protects the Western world as well,’’ the Prime Minister added, expressing his appreciation to France for taking a strong stance against anti-Semitism and against terrorism.
The Israeli premier condemned radical extremist Islam and highlighted that the attacks were carried out in connection to extremists.
"We're talking about radical, fundamentalist Islam, not ordinary Islam," he stated to the hundreds gathered at the Grand Synagogue of the rue de la Victoire in Paris.
“The truth and righteousness are with us. Our common enemy is extreme Islam, not Islam, not regular extremists, but extreme Islam,” he said.
Netanyahu said extreme Islam doesn’t hate the West because of Israel, but hates Israel because it is an organic part of the West.
‘’Just as Israel stands with France against terrorism, so France must stand with Israel against terrorism,’’ he said.
"Today I walked the streets of Paris with the leaders of the world, to say enough terrorism; the time has come to fight terrorism,” Netanyahu said to the crowd of hundreds of French Jews.
Before he spoke, numerous senior political figures, from French President Francois Hollande to Prime Minister Manuel Valls and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, came to the ceremony.
Amid a growing feeling of insecurity among French Jews, Netanyahu also told them: “ I want to say to you what I say to all our Jewish brothers, that you have a full right to live secure and peaceful lives with equal rights wherever you desire, including here in France.”
But he also added, “these days we are blessed with another privilege, a privilege that didn’t exist for generations of Jews – the privilege to join their brothers and sisters in their historic homeland of Israel.”
The Prime Minister received an ovation after these remarks.
“Any Jew who chooses to come to Israel will be greeted with open arms and an open heart, it is not a foreign nation, and hopefully they and you will one day come to Israel,” he said.
‘’Am Yisrael Chai. Am Yisrael Chai,’’ Netanyahu concluded.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Francois Hollande were greeted by loud cheers as they entered the Synagogue.
Some of the crowd chanted Netanyahu's nickname "Bibi", and "Israel will live, Israel will overcome" as the leaders arrived for the ceremony.
Hollande and Netanyahu were sitting side by side within the synagogue respectively surrounded by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and the President of the Central Jewish Consistory of France, Joel Mergui. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Diaspora Minister Naftali Bennett were seated a row behind them. Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, was also present.
Following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s passionate speech, a cantor recited prayer for the security of the State of Israel and the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikva,” was sung by the crowd, by the French “La Marseillaise.”
Netanyahu’s remarks came as his office announced that the bodies of the four French Jews killed in the Hyper Cacher supermarket on Friday – Yoav Hattab, 21, Yohan Cohen, 20, Philippe Braham, 45 and Francois-Michel Saada, 64 – would be flown to Israel for funerals on Tuesday.
Earlier on Sunday, Netanyahu joined President Hollande and fifty other world leaders as they led an unprecedented unity and solidarity march in Paris against terror followed by 1,2 million people.