Politicians speak of peace and security on Memorial Day

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog says striving for an end to war is a moral duty owed to the fallen

By Stuart Winer

You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

22 April 2015, 7:47 pm

Edit

Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

Memorial ceremony held at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, on Israeli Memorial Day, April 22, 2015. (photo credit: Gili Yochanan/POOL)

Knesset members from across the political spectrum attended annual Memorial Day ceremonies on Wednesday and spoke of Israel’s yearning for peace, while remaining vigilant against its enemies.

Across Israel, families and friends of fallen soldiers flocked to military cemeteries to commemorate the fallen.

MK Isaac Herzog, leader of the left-wing Zionist Union party, represented the state at a cemetery remembrance event in the southern city of Ashkelon.

“The striving for peace is our moral duty to all those who risked their lives for the State of Israel,” he told the gathered crowds and described Israel’s constant balance between readiness for war, and readiness for peace.

Zionist Union list Isaac Herzog speaks at a conference in Tel Aviv, Wednesday, March 11, 2015 (photo credit: FLASH90) — Isaac Herzog (photo credit: FLASH90)

“One hand is always ready on the trigger, to protect the security of the state and its citizens against the enemy, while the other hand is outstretched in peace,” Herzog said. “This principle was the moral basis for sending soldiers into the battlefield on the one hand, and brave and innovative steps in the diplomatic field, on the other.”

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party, addressed bereaved families at a ceremony in Rishon Lezion’s military ceremony.

“In every generation they rise up against us to destroy us, each time a different oppressor and enemy but the idea and the motive is the same,” he said, paraphrasing a well-known quote on anti-Semitism drawn from the Haggadah text read during the Passover Seder, which was celebrated last month by Jews across the world.

The chairperson of the centrist Yesh Atid party, MK Yair Lapid, attended a similar ceremony in Ra’anana.

“It isn’t right that they died but that they died for the most just cause in the world,” he said. “That it is due to them that we have a State of Israel, that it is due to them that we stand here today.”

At 11 a.m. Wednesday, a two-minute siren sounded throughout the country, bringing the nation to a momentary halt as Israelis stopped where they were and stood silent in remembrance of the dead.

The traditional memorial siren brings highways to a standstill and businesses to a momentary pause in a country where nearly everyone knows one of the 23,320 fallen soldiers and civilian victims.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.