Israel reserves the right to defend itself against a nuclear Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday as he compared its regime with that of the Nazi one in Germany during the national ceremony to mourn the 6 million Jews who were killed during the Holocaust.
Netanyahu said at the ceremony that Iran seeks to rule the region and destroy the Jewish state.
"Appeasing tyrannical regimes will only increase their aggression and is an approach that is liable to drag the world into larger wars," he said.
“Has the world really learned from the incomprehensible, universal and Jewish tragedy of the last century, I wish I could tell you that the answer is yes,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister, who has been a vocal critic of the framework nuclear deal reached earlier this month between Iran and the world powers said, "The bad deal with Iran signals that the lessons of the Holocaust have not been learned."
"Even if we are forced to stand alone against Iran we will not fear. In every circumstance we will preserve our right and our ability to defend ourselves," he added.
It was clear at the end of World War II that the world needed to stand firm against dictatorial regimes that “extend their murderous arms in all directions,” Netanyahu said.
Only this kind of firm stance can protect the values of freedom and tolerance needed to ensure the freedom of humanity, he said.
The national commemoration for the six million Jews murdered by the Germans where Netanyahu spoke began with a torch-lighting ceremony attended President Reuven Rivlin and other senior officials at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
Israelis across the country began to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day with memorials and ceremonies on Wednesday evening. Ceremonies across the country will continue through Thursday.
Rivlin said at the ceremony that there are people who mistakenly believe that the state of Israel is compensation for the Holocaust.
"Israel was established by right, and by love of the ancient homeland and the power of dreaming a dream which became a reality. It was not established because of the threat of destruction or the hate of the other," Rivlin said.
Chief rabbis Yitzhak Yosef and David Lau recited psalms and the “Mourner’s Kaddish” prayer.
The theme of this year’s commemoration is “The Anguish of Liberation and the Return to Life: 70 years since the end of World War II,” and it will be broadcast live on channels 1, 2, 9, 10 and 33.
During the ceremony, survivors Dov Shimoni, Sara Weinstein, Ephraim Reichenberg, Eggi Lewysohn and Shela Altaraz each lit a torch in remembrance of those murdered during the war.
Yad Vashem has called on the public to fill in pages of testimony in commemoration of those killed in the Holocaust.
An English-language ceremony sponsored by Nefesh B’Nefesh, Adopt-A-Safta and the Israel Forever Foundation was held at Tel Aviv’s Goren Community Center Wednesday evening as well.
On Thursday at 10 a.m. the entire country will come to a standstill during the sounding of the annual memorial siren, followed by a wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem’s Warsaw Ghetto Square attended by the president, prime minister, deputy speaker of the Knesset and other senior governmental, military and political figures.
Afterward, at the Hall of Remembrance, a ceremonial reading of the names of Holocaust victims will take place.
On Thursday, Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog will speak at a memorial at the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum.
Also Thursday, the Jewish National Fund and B’nai B’rith will hold a memorial at Jerusalem’s Martyrs’ Forest to posthumously honor a Greek rabbi who led partisans against the Nazis.
“The phenomenon of Jewish rescue and the instructive stories of thousands of Jews who labored to save their endangered brethren throughout Europe are yet to receive appropriate public recognition and resonance,” the two groups said in a statement.
On Monday, the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims released a report stating that 45,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel are living below the poverty line.
Four out of 10 survivors have found that their finances do “not allow them to live in dignity,” while two-thirds indicated that they are “very or fairly troubled” over their financial future, an increase of 7 percent over 2014.
And according to new research released by Bar-Ilan University, the children of survivors are markedly more anxious about the Iranian nuclear program than their peers.
“Second-generation Holocaust survivors show not only more preoccupation and sensitivity to the Iranian threat, but also a more ominous outlook on the world in general – a world of threat and significant danger that can fall upon them,” the study’s author found.
Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry is set to release its annual global anti-Semitism assessment Wednesday morning. Jewish communities in Europe have expressed increasing fears regarding the growing prevalence of anti-Jewish sentiments and violence on the continent.