Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu on Sunday evening lit the first Hanukkah candle at the National Police Academy together with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, his wife Ayala, and Israel Police Inspector-General Danny Levy.
The moving ceremony was attended by the family of the National Counter-Terrorism Unit fighter Master-Sgt. Ran Gvili, of blessed memory, who fought bravely on October 7 and was taken hostage to Gaza; Israel Police Chief Rabbi Rami Berakhyahu; the senior police command staff; and male and female police officers.
"We will bring Ran back, just as we brought back 254 out of our 255 abductees," Netanyahu began. "Some did not believe. I believe. My friends in the government believed. They said: 'It will be a miracle.' I said: 'This nation performs miracles.' The Holy One, Blessed be He, helps a people who help themselves. We are a people who have learned to help ourselves, because we knew that in times of distress, it is not certain that anyone else will help us."
"This was largely our fate in exile with waves of antisemitism that kept returning, rising, returning, rising, and returning, rising. What changed with the establishment of the State of Israel was not the disappearance of antisemitism but our ability to repel the massacres and mass murders against Jews, which always followed numerous accusations, lies, and insults. That is the change."
Responding to the Sydney Hanukkah massacre, Netanyahu noted, "Even today, they try to murder, and sadly, even today they succeeded in murdering Jews. They massacred Jews in Sydney, Australia."
"Four months ago, I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of Australia. I told him: 'Your policy encourages terrorism. It encourages antisemitism. You call for a Palestinian state, and you are essentially giving a prize to Hamas for the terrible massacre they carried out on October 7th. You are legitimizing all these rioters and you are not lifting a finger to eliminate these terror hotspots. This will lead to more murders.' He did nothing.
"We know there will be additional attacks. The safest place for the Jewish people in the world is where the government, the army, and the security forces will defend them - that is first and foremost in the State of Israel, because we defend ourselves, and we defend ourselves with the help of the IDF, with the help of the security forces, and with the help of the brave male and female officers of the Israel Police."
Netanyahu continued, "Honored guests and friends, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, his wife Ayala, the Police Inspector-General, the command staff, and the academy graduates, you were on the first line of defense on October 7. I do not forget that. I was on the line and I saw the line of the heroes and heroines, the female police officers who fought and fell, and the male police officers who fought and fell. A tremendous hero, Ran Gvili, simply fought until the last bullet with a broken arm, but with an unwavering spirit."
"Somehow we returned to our land after the exile imposed upon us. And the first thing we had to renew was our capacity for self-defense. This is what we have been doing over the past two years with renewed vigor and great success. We essentially represent the free world, modern civilization, against the barbarians who want to return us to the Middle Ages. That is what they want. And like in the days of the Maccabees, they hesitate - the few against the many - we are a nation of about ten million against many, against the enemies who only recently fought us as two hundred million.
"True, they attacked us, they caused us an unbearable disaster on October 7, but on October 8, it already turned around. We went and struck them clockwise. First in Gaza, then in Lebanon, then in Syria, also in Iraq, and above all - in Iran. No one believed, no one believed in the miracles and wonders in those days and in this time. But we believed. You believe.
"I want to commend you, police officers of Israel. Continue to believe. Continue to safeguard us and also safeguard one another. Thank you very much on behalf of the people of Israel throughout the generations. Happy Chanukah to all of you."