Netanyahu rebukes Europe as Israel commemorates Holocaust in shadow of Iran war

The premier castigated Europe on Monday, as Israel ushered in Holocaust Remembrance Day in a pre-recorded ceremony from Yad Vashem, amid ongoing hostilities with Iran and the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

In his speech, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Europe today is “afflicted by deep moral weakness,” and that Israel is now defending the continent, “which has forgotten so much since the Holocaust.”

He accused Europe of “losing control of its identity, of its values, of its responsibility to defend civilization against barbarism.”

“It has much to learn from us,” the premier said, “especially the essential lesson of the clear moral distinction between good and evil, which in moments of truth demands that we go to war for the sake of what’s good, for the sake of life.”

“Israel, on the other hand, doesn’t forget that eternal responsibility,” Netanyahu said.

“Along with the US, and along with other countries with which we are creating alliances that will be spoken about in the future, we are defending ourselves — we are defending the entire world,” he said, adding that “Israel stands with the United States at the forefront of the free world.”

He said that the two countries “have dealt a crushing blow to the evil regime in Iran” in their two joint operations in the past year.

“If we hadn’t acted [against Iran’s nuclear, missile, and other military targets],” said Netanyahu, “the names Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan, and Parchin would likely have been remembered with eternal dread, precisely like Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Sobibor.”

Hours later, echoing Netanyahu’s criticism of Europe, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich assailed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for warning Israel against “de facto annexation” of the west Bank.

“On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the German Chancellor should bow his head and apologize a thousand times on behalf of Germany, rather than daring to preach morality to us on how to conduct ourselves against the Nazis of our generation,” Smotrich said on X.

Herzog: We didn’t rise from ashes to be consumed by discord

President Isaac Herzog, in his address, called for national unity, saying Israel did not rise from the ashes of the Holocaust only to be consumed by the fire of discord.

The president weaved his address around the story of Holocaust survivor Magda Baratz and her great-grandson Asaf Cafri, an IDF soldier.

Cafri was killed in combat in Gaza last year, and Baratz received news of her great-grandson’s death while at the site of the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she had once suffered during the Holocaust. She died shortly afterward.

“Exactly 70 years separated them,” Herzog said, “but one spirit bound the generations — a spirit of heroism, of dedication, of determination; a spirit of fighting for the only home of our people — the State of Israel.”

Highlighting Israel’s ongoing military operations, Herzog warned of continued threats from Iran and allied groups targeting civilians. He also called on world leaders to move beyond rhetoric to take decisive action against antisemitism “before it’s too late.”

Israel will continue to preserve Holocaust memory for future generations, even after the last survivors are gone, he concluded.

In honor of the day, the Jerusalem Municipality illuminated the Old City walls with images of the yellow badge, alongside memorial candles and the words “Remember” and “Never Forget.”

The capital is home to approximately 6,900 Holocaust survivors, who receive social services throughout the year, according to the municipality.

At the start of 2026, there were 111,000 Holocaust survivors total in Israel, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which began Monday evening and will end on Tuesday evening, is marked by official ceremonies and a two-minute siren during which much of the country comes to a standstill.

The day, which also marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, is separate from International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls in January, commemorating the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Though the central ceremony at Yad Vashem was pre-recorded this year, due to the fragile security situation, local ceremonies will still be held across the country, as well as the many small living-room gatherings held each year in which Holocaust survivors are invited to tell their story to the public.

At the Auschwitz site on Tuesday, some 50 Holocaust survivors will lead the annual March of the Living, alongside survivors of recent antisemitic terror attacks in the US, UK, and Australia.