JPost.com: Israel does not rush to battle, but its willingness to sacrifice is the guarantor of its existence, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday, just a day after he agreed to a ceasefire in the south instead of a much wider military campaign in the Gaza Strip against Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Netanyahu’s words came at ceremony in Jerusalem marking Remembrance Day, which began Tuesday evening to commemorate the fallen IDF soldiers and Israeli citizens killed in terrorist actions.
Thanks to those who fell, Netanyahu said, “our nation stands upright in our homeland, after generations of weakness and humiliation.
“Seventy-five years ago we were ash,” he continued. “Today we are a rising world power. Since our national rebirth in our land, every generation stands firm against those who seek our harm. We do not rush to battle, but we know that our willingness to sacrifice is what guarantees our fate.”
Netanyahu, who lost his brother Yonatan in the IDF raid on Entebbe in 1976 to free hijacked Israeli hostages, spoke about how memories of the fallen are always with those who live on after them.
“There is almost never a day when we are not flooded with memories of our loved ones,” he said. “The smiles they smiled, the words they said, the things they did, as if they were really with us, but they are not.”