President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin both made reference to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech Monday at the Geneva conference on racism in their remarks to open Monday evening's observance of Holocaust Memorial Day at the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem. Peres said the Jews cannot understand why Hitler, Stalin and Ahmadinejad chose to target them. He noted that a third of the world's Jewish population died in the Holocaust. He said there could be no heritage without heirs, and that those that threaten to break the Jews will be broken.
Netanyahu opened his remarks by noting the recent passing of David Plonsky, who brought food to the Warsaw Ghetto as a 14-year-old as an example of those who survived to take up residence in Israel. He also noted that only decades later, there are those who would wipe Israel off the map and a weak response, at best, from the cultured nations of the world. He asked the president of Switzerland how he could meet with Ahmadinejad, and praised those nations who boycotted the conference or walked out on the Iranian president. He said it is important that those who deny the Holocaust don't bring on another one, and pledged his committment to the well-being of Holocaust victims.