On Thursday, millions of Israelis stood still for two minutes to honor the victims of the Nazi genocide on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
People stopped their daily work and drivers stood by their parked cars in the middle of the road to remember the six million who were murdered.
Speaking at a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial Wednesday night, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said “no event in history” can be compared to the cruelty of the Holocaust.
“My brothers and sisters, the Holocaust is an unprecedented event in human history. I take the trouble to say this because as the years go by, there is more and more discourse in the world that compares other difficult events to the Holocaust. But no. Even the most difficult wars today are not the Holocaust and are not comparable to the Holocaust,” said Bennett.
Bennett explained that while history “is full of cruel war, brutal murders and also genocide,” they usually were means to achieve a military, political, economic or religious goal. However, the Holocaust was designed with one aim – to exterminate Jews for simply being Jews, he said.
“Never, in any place or during any time, has one people acted to destroy another in such a planned, systematic and indifferent way, from a place of absolute ideology and not out of utilitarianism. The Nazis did not kill Jews to take their jobs or their homes. The Nazis sought to hunt all Jews and exterminate every last one of them,” said Bennett.
Bennett said anti-Semitism, which has been around for thousands of years is still alive today.
“Whenever we are tempted to believe that we have entered a new, liberal, modern era in which people no longer hold on to Jew-hatred, reality awakens us to the truth,” he said.
A new report from Tel Aviv University showed a sharp increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents from 2020 to 2021 in the largest Jewish populations outside Israel. Researchers say that increase was fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic and Israel’s 11-day war with Hamas last May.
Bennett noted the Jewish people had been in exile for nearly 2,000 years when the Holocaust took place.
“The Jewish people can live in the Diaspora and dream about Jerusalem, but eventually, the genuine and natural existence of our people can only truly take place by our physical presence in our original homeland, here in the Land of Israel. Building this homeland is an obligation but also an enormous privilege for all of us,” he said.
Statistics indicate about 165,000 Holocaust survivors live in Israel and 273 are newcomers, who fled the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Worldwide, at the end of 2020, there were 15.2 million Jews, similar to the global Jewish population in 1939 just before the outbreak of World War II.
The prime minister urged Israelis to stand together as a united and strong nation so that they can face the challenges of anti-Semitism today.
“Today, thank God, in the State of Israel, we have one army, one government, one Knesset and one nation – the people of Israel. When we are united, no external enemy can beat us,” said Bennett.
In addition to speeches by Bennett, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and others, Holocaust survivors lit six torches at the Yad Vashem ceremony – for the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.
During Wednesday night’s ceremony, places of entertainment and restaurants closed and television screens either went dark or only featured programs about the Holocaust.
Other ceremonies remembering the genocide are also held throughout Israel on Thursday.
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
The irrationality with which many have despised the Jews is often puzzling to those who may be unfamiliar with God’s Word. Why has antisemitism flourished throughout history? Why are unsubstantiated and wicked accusations about Israel and the Jewish people often quickly accepted?
One of the numerous examples is the Black Plague in the 1300s. Many at that time pointed the finger at the Jewish population, claiming that they had spiked wells causing the illness. Similar to what took place in Nazi Germany, Jews were then evicted from countries, forced into ghettos, and massacred by a population that was swift to eat up anti-semitic propaganda. Even to this day, we have seen hordes of people who try desperately to blame the Jewish people for the coronavirus!
This madness can only be understood through the lens of Scripture.
Through the Jewish people, God brought the law, giving His creation an understanding of sin, and subsequently, through the Jewish people, God provided humanity a Savior from that sin, Jesus Christ (Romans 9:4-5, Rom. 7:7, Rom. 10:4, Rom. 3:1-2, Matt. 5:17).
The Jewish people and the nation of Israel are interwoven within God’s plan for all mankind, beginning to end. They are, by God’s mercy, the chosen people used to bring about His perfect will and salvation (Luke 2:25-32). It is for this reason that a battle, which is spiritual in nature, is constantly being waged against Israel and the Jews (Eph. 6:12). Satan detests the people through whom God provided His Son, Jesus Christ, who will ultimately defeat him and his followers (Revelation 20:10).
Although the world may look at Israel and automatically see red, to the Believer in Jesus Christ, the reborn State of Israel should arouse awe of God and hope.
Thousands of years ago, God promised that Israel would again become a nation under miraculous circumstances (Ezekiel 36, Ezekiel 37, Isaiah 66:7-8). This is especially important because Jesus told His disciples that when Israel is reborn, one generation would not pass away before His Second coming (Matthew 24:32-34).
Therefore the nation of Israel has been used to bless believers yet again, with the joyful expectation of our Blessed Hope, the soon catching away of the Bride Of Christ to forever be with the Lord in the Rapture of the church (1 Thess. 4:15-18, Titus 2:13, 1 Corin. 15:51-53).
If you do not know Christ, seeing the nation of Israel should promote urgency in you to accept Jesus today. Satan hates Israel, and he hates you also. But God displayed His power to us, through the rebirth of Israel and by countless other means, that we may come to know Him and the saving knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ (John 14:29).
If you would like to know more about Salvation through Jesus Christ — Click here
