Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a message of hope and resilience on Monday to his country’s official memorial to the victims of the terror attack of October 7, 2023, including the 100 hostages still in Gaza.
His full speech follows (translated from Hebrew by the Government Press Office):
Citizens of Israel,
A year ago, on October 7th, we were all hurled into a critical battle.
That day, a Saturday, the Sabbath and the holiday of Simchat Torah, will be etched in the history of our nation as a day of grief and loss, of unimaginable agony.
On that day, the Hamas monsters attacked our communities, our brothers and sisters, who are so dear to our hearts.
They murdered and kidnapped babies and children, adults and old people. They tortured, maimed, raped, burned and destroyed.
The memory of our citizens who were killed in the terrorist attack, and the memory of all the fallen heroes from the IDF and security forces, will be cherished forever.
On October 7th, we were all hurled into a critical battle, but we were not defeated. On the contrary, it is we who are acting to defeat and deter our enemies.
And, as we have often experienced in our history, it is in dark moments such as these that we exude our great inner power.
We rallied together to defend our country, our homeland. We mustered immense mental strength. We outlined the goals of the war and we are achieving them: toppling the rule of Hamas; bringing all the hostages home, the living and the deceased alike—this is a sacred mission and we will not stop until we complete it; eliminating any future threat from Gaza to Israel; and returning the residents of the south and the north safely to their homes.
We are doing this with solidarity unlike anything among the nations. When put to the test we proved, once again, that we are the Eternal People. A people that fights to bring light to this world, that aspires to spread good and eradicate evil. ‘A people that rises like a lion, leaps up like a lion’.
Every time my wife and I meet with our soldiers, our wounded, with bereaved families, we hear the same message over and over again: we mustn’t stop the war prematurely. As long as the enemy threatens our existence and the peace of our country, we will continue to fight. As long as our hostages are still in Gaza, we will continue to fight. We will not forsake any of them. I will not give up. As long as our citizens have not returned to their homes safely, we will continue to fight.
We will continue to fight, and united—we will win. And when we win, not only for our sake but for the sake of future generations and for all humanity, we will rebuild the Tekuma region even bigger. When we hold onto the roots, the tree of life will grow back
.
Laly Derai, the mother of Saadia, who fell in battle said: ‘Shadow is not darkness. Shadow is a sign that there is light from behind. Even if a mountain of grief obscures the light, we must all, as a nation, climb the mountain, because the light exists. We must always aim up, towards the light.’Citizens of Israel, my dear brothers and sisters,
Victory is the light. Victory guarantees eternity.
October 7th will symbolize for generations the cost of our revival, and for generations it will demonstrate how determined we are and how strong our spirit is.
Together we will continue to fight. And together, with God’s help we will win.
Am Yisrael Chai! [The Nation of Israel Lives!]
Israel has lost 729 soldiers since October 7, including roughly 300 who died repelling the Hamas invasion on that day.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.