(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Advisor)
Distinguished guests,
Speaker of the Knesset, my friend Yuli Edelstein,
My brothers and sisters in the family of bereavement,
I know your pain and longing. Thirty-nine years after my brother's death, the grief does not fade. The grief did not fade for my late parents until their final days. The grief does not fade for Mazal and Eli, and it does not fade for you.
On this day, the people of Israel share in our grief. A proud nation bows its head today and lowers its flag in unrivaled gratitude in memory of our loved ones who perished – twenty-three thousand, three hundred and twenty soldiers in Israel's campaigns: Jews, Christians, Muslims, Bedouin, Druze and Circassians.
I asked to learn about the first fallen soldier on this long list. His name was Aaron Hershler, aged 23, from the Mishkanot Shaananim neighborhood here in Jerusalem. In 1873, 142 years ago, Arab rioters and robbers attacked the Jewish neighborhood that was located outside the walls of the Old City. Aaron, a diligent yeshiva student, cut his studies short, ran off the rioters, chased after them and attempted to catch them. They shot him and he was fatally wounded. Here was a fighter at the dawn of our national renaissance who charged forward, and through his courageous actions, he marked the direction for those who followed him. This became our people's path. This is the legacy of our fallen: in the watch groups, the Hebrew Battalions, the underground movements, the Jewish Brigade, the IDF – and in all other branches of the security services. Our sons and daughters gave everything – including their lives – to safeguard the rebirth of our people and our security.
Over the subsequent 142 years of Israel's fight to return to its land and establish its sovereignty there, the battlefields have remained the same – only our enemies change. But even as our enemies' threats to destroy our home – the State of Israel and that which preceded it – increase, so too our determination to defend our home increases. The spirit that lives in us has not weakened over the years – it only grows stronger.
We witnessed this great spirit just last summer during Operation Protective Edge. What courage, what comradeship, what unity, what sacrifice. We also saw lone soldiers who came from the Diaspora to serve the State of Israel in the IDF and who fell in battle. They left their families and their comfortable lives abroad behind and chose to join combat units. They said, "This is our home and we are here to defend it," and as was said here with such clarity, throngs of Israelis paid their respects on their final journeys.
My brothers and sisters, bereaved families,
The bonds that tie us to our land and our country are strong and eternal. We are among the few people with a connection to their homeland spanning thousands of years, and there is no other people torn from their land who defied the rules of history and returned to establish a national life in that land. Israel is the source of our life. The blood of our loved ones is soaked in its soil, and when the pain rises up and the torment of loss increases, we will take comfort in the fact that our sons and daughters fell during the most noble of missions: ensuring the existence of our nation. I say the existence of our nation because the Jewish people have no future without the State of Israel – and it will have a future if we succeed in defending our country.
On this day, on the day when our private grief is intertwined with the nation's pain, we salute the heroism of the fallen – and we will lovingly cherish their memory. And we will remember too the wounded who defended us with their bodies and we will wish them a speedy recovery and good health.
May the memory of the fallen in Israel's campaigns be forever blessed.