Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday warned that Israel would not be bound by a resurgent nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, declaring that the Jewish state was obliged to defend itself against those who wanted to destroy it.
In a speech at the Yad Vashem Memorial Museum during Israel’s official Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony, Netanyahu referred to negotiations in Vienna aimed at bringing the US back to its 2015 nuclear power, while Iran fulfilled its obligations to the unraveling agreement had to be kept.
“An agreement with Iran that threatens us with extinction will not oblige us,” Netanyahu said.
Get The Times of Israel Daily Edition by Email and Never Miss Our Top Stories Free Sign Up
“Unlike in the past, there is no one in the world today who will deprive us of the right and power to defend ourselves against an existential threat,” he said. “The nuclear deal with Iran is back on the table. Such transactions with extreme regimes are worthless. ”
“I also say to our closest friends: ‘An agreement with Iran that threatens us with extinction will not oblige us. ‘Only one thing will oblige us: to prevent those we want to destroy from carrying out their plans. ”
Netanyahu often used his speeches during Holocaust-related occasions to call on Iran as the new existential threat to the existence of the Jewish people.
US President Joe Biden has said he is ready to renegotiate the decision of his predecessor Donald Trump to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal to ensure Iran does not develop a military nuclear program, but the White House insisted that Iran first return to compliance.
Tehran is demanding that the US lift the first sanctions, imposed by Trump, and put the sides on a stalemate. Netanyahu has opposed the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, from the beginning.
In his speech, the prime minister also opposed the ‘outrageous’ decision of the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel for possible war crimes against Palestinians.
“The Jewish people were defenseless against the Nazis, but are no longer so and have every right to defend themselves against their enemies,” he said.
The ICC, he noted, was formed in the image of the courts of the Nuremberg trials that brought Nazis to justice. But “from Nuremberg to The Hague, things were reversed. A body established to defend human rights has become a body that actually defends those who trample on human rights. ‘
President Reuven Rivlin speaks during a ceremony held on April 7, 2021 at the Yad Vashem Memorial Museum in Jerusalem. (Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90)
President Reuven Rivlin, speaking before the Prime Minister, addressed his speech to the 900 Holocaust survivors who died in the coronavirus outbreak last year.
After surviving the Nazi atrocities and the perilous journey to Israel in the years between the end of World War II and the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, ‘they waged the last battle of their lives alone behind masks and gloves, their loved ones, thirsting for contact. ”
“Tonight our hearts are with them and with their families who are here with us,” Rivlin said.
“The burden of remembrance we carry in our hearts is a sacred duty,” Rivlin said. ‘Whether we like it or not, the memory of the Holocaust shapes us as a nation. The Holocaust offers us and our country, the state of Israel, the endless remembrance. ‘
This year’s commemoration ceremony returned to the traditional format of a gathering of dignitaries, Holocaust survivors and their families at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Last year, due to the outbreak, the ceremony was pre-recorded without an audience and then broadcast later.
The memorial service will continue on Thursday when a siren will sound at 10 a.m. for two minutes, usually stopping Israeli outdoor life. Pedestrians stand in their place, buses stop in busy streets and cars drive on major highways, their drivers stand with arched heads on the roads.
At 11:00 a.m., there will be an official ceremony at the Knesset, during which lawmakers will read out the names of Holocaust victims.
Holocaust Remembrance Day is one of the most solemn dates on the Israeli calendar. Survivors usually attend memorial ceremonies, share stories with teenagers and take part in commemorative processions at former concentration camps in Europe.
Agencies contributed to this report.
