Herzog says comparisons to Nazis must be avoided: ‘They, and they alone, were Nazis’

President Isaac Herzog refers again to the worsening rifts in Israeli society and the increasingly divisive discourse on various topics, including the judicial overhaul, which sometimes include comparisons of Israeli individuals or group to the Nazis.

“Citizens of Israel, this year, all the more so, I wish to add something important here: The Nazi abomination was an unprecedented evil, with no parallel by any metric. It was no mere malice. It was an infinity of horror. We must remember, repeat, and internalize, time and again: they — and they alone — were Nazis. That — and that alone — was the Holocaust,” he says.

“Even in the grips of ferocious disagreements about fate, about destiny, about faith, about values, we must be careful to avoid any comparisons, any equivalences with the Holocaust or with the Nazis,” the president says.

“At the high point of this sacred day, it seems that even the obvious must be stated: for the Nazi monster, opinions within our nation made not the slightest difference. None of the ideologies, beliefs, or ways of life, none of the differences or varieties within our people, bore any meaning. For them, we were all one people… whose fate was one: death and extinction.”