Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed Monday that Israel would not ignore any calls for its obliteration, as the Knesset held a special session to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"We will not permit ourselves to be complacent to the sounds of voices calling for the obliteration of Israel, which are backed by murderous and jealous ideologies, tyrannical regimes, supporters of terrors and malicious programs to develop weapons of massive destruction," Olmert said during his address to the Knesset, held one day after the international day of remembrance.
The United Nations declared three years ago that each January 27 would be the International Day in Memory of Holocaust Victims.
It was the first time since the end of World War II that the UN recognized the killing of an estimated 6 million Jews and minorities by Nazi Germany.
Germany nominated the day as a national day of commemoration in 1996, while the UN named the date International Holocaust Remembrance Day in November 2005.
In his address to Knesset on Monday, Olmert also accused the allies of the Second World War of not making even the slightest effort to stop the extermination of Jews.
"The killing machine worked nonstop. Military aircrafts bombed hundreds of thousands of places across Europe, but not one raid was meant to stop the extermination process. Auschwitz, the railroads, the trains and the platforms, all worked uninterrupted, like a clock, a Nazi clock, but the sky remained clear; the sun went up and down as usual. Rain fell, snow piled up, the murderer murdered, and not a single aircraft interrupted the killing routine," Olmert said.
Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik said during the session that at the height of the Holocaust many of Israel's present-day friends said they did not see, hear or know anything.
"Today, there is no doubt about the existential danger we're facing, and no one could claim that they didn't know," she said.
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said that "the allies knew everything, but did not dispatch even one pilot. They had intelligence in real time and some of the most enlightened leaders of the 20th century. But they were apathetic to the fate of the Jewish people."
Also on Monday, The United Nations and Israel issue a special stamp to mark the day.
Ambassador Dan Gillerman said Israel has come out of isolation caused by the rejection of the once Arab-dominated UN General Assembly. Gillerman was elected a vice president of the 192-nation body for the current session that began in September.
"It's not the case any longer," said Gillerman, of Israel's isolation in the UN, which had once left it seen as a "permanent non-member."
He said there have been "improved feelings" between the UN and Israel and several symbolic steps have been taken to integrate Israel into the international community. The assembly has adopted fewer anti-Israel resolutions in recent years and last year elected Gillerman as one of 21 vice presidents to preside over its lengthy meetings.
Later on Monday, the UN General Assembly will hear addresses by survivors of Nazi death camps, including U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, and a concert by the Tel Aviv University Symphony conducted by Zubin Mehta.
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Source: Ha'aretz
