​(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this afternoon (Tuesday, 12 March 2019), at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem, addressed the state memorial ceremony for former PM Levi Eshkol . Following is an excerpt from his remarks:

"We are continuing to take vigorous action against Iran's attempts to entrench militarily in Syria. We are also doing so in the face of the aggression of Hezbollah and Hamas, whose tunnels we are systematically dismantling.

Eshkol faced a very great test during the siege on Israel before the Six Day War. Eshkol did not rejoice in unnecessary wars; no responsible leader of Israel rejoices in unnecessary wars. He understood the cost of such a war but when war was forced upon us, it was clear to him that we had to push back strongly, and repel the aggression directed against us.

It is true that Moshe Dayan replaced him as Defense Minister several days before the war, but it must be made clear – our crushing victory, which included ejecting the Syrian enemy from the Golan Heights, was achieved by the readiness of the IDF which Eshkol had promoted in the years before the war.

The crushing victory in the Six Day War was one of the strongest layers of the iron wall that we established against the Arab supremacy, just as foreseen by Jabotinsky, whose remains Eshkol brought to this mountain.

Only when our neighbors are convinced that our strength and our presence here are irrefutable facts, only then some of them will be persuaded to make peace with us, and we are fully advancing this recognition and agreement process with our remaining neighbors, not with all of them, but with most of them.

We are doing this with extensive segments of the Arab and Islamic world in an expedited normalization process, only part of which the public can see. We are also holding this process in secret, and Israel is currently in contact with half a dozen important Arab and Islamic countries, which up until recently were hostile to Israel.

This is incomparably important to the vision of peace – peace through strength. Eshkol, who replaced David Ben-Gurion, forged a special path for himself in leading the country. He sagaciously avoided unnecessary wars but at the moment of decision he used the power of the IDF as a mailed fist against enemies who threatened our existence on three fronts."