Rivlin with Yehezkel Landau, father of Shmuel Yair Landau OBM
Rivlin with Yehezkel Landau, father of Shmuel Yair Landau OBMMark Neiman, GPO

President Reuven Rivlin spoke today, Tuesday, at the memorial ceremony for the fallen soldiers of the First Lebanon (Peace for Galilee) War, held at Mount Herzl. Members of the bereaved families, Minister of Religious Services Yitzhak Vaknin and Acting Speaker of the Knesset Tal Russo also participated in the ceremony.

In an emotional appeal to the families, the president said: "Thirty seven years have passed since the outbreak of the First Lebanon War. Thirty seven years of waiting every day. Thirty seven birthdays not celebrated. Thirty seven years of pain, of loss, of emptiness. Each year, we come up to this mountain, Jerusalem’s mountain of longing and pain, to remember and remind ourselves of your loved ones, our loved ones. In our hearts they are forever young in Beaufort, Sidon, and Tire, on the Beirut-Damascus road and in the Shuf Mountains."

"The First Lebanon war was not a war of choice," the president stressed, "It was a war of no choice, a war for the peace of the Galilee and its inhabitants, a just war of a sovereign state seeking to protect its citizens. It was a war for daily life of kindergartens and schools, of children, women, old people and men who lived for years under the shadow of death." The president added, “Then, as now, we have and have never had anything against the Lebanese people. Then, as now, it was the terrorist organizations that exploited the weakness of Lebanon, the Lebanese state, to attack the State of Israel and its citizens."

"Only two months ago we brought Zachary Baumel of blessed memory for burial in Israel. Zach came home. The State of Israel kept its promise to our soldiers, our sons and daughters, to bring home those who do not return from the battlefield. We never have and never will relax our commitment to this sacred obligation. We remain committed to do everything possible to find every shred of information about Zachary’s comrades, Yehuda Katz and Tzvika Feldman, and bring them home for burial in Israel. "

The president also remarked on Operation Northern Shield and the discovery of Hezbollah's attack tunnels: "We hereby warn Hezbollah not to impose Iran’s agenda on Lebanon, and we warn Lebanon not to be a base for attacks on Israel," he said. “We are not eager to fight. But the IDF is alert and ready to respond to any threat and to any scenario. The State of Israel will not stand idly by and will ensure that citizens of Israel continue to sleep peacefully! "