Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said the world is remembering the Holocaust but it is not doing enough to condemn Iran and its anti-Semitism.
The prime minister spoke at a special Knesset session marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day that will be observed on Thursday.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin also spoke at the session, saying: "The world remembers, but is silent." Rivlin lashed out at the world for not taking action against Iran.
"Six years after the world established International Holocaust Remembrance Day and vowed to remember – the serpent of destruction again raises its head," Rivlin said. "It turns out that in complete contrast to the hopes of the Zionist movement, an old anti-Semitism is emerging again. Today, we’re not talking anymore about secret protocols, so tomorrow no country can claim that it didn’t know and didn’t hear. The snake has announced its intentions with the UN, and today its venom is aimed at the entire free world. So just remembering the Holocaust is not enough."
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni condemned the statements of both Netanyahu and Rivlin.
"It is forbidden to compare the situation of Israel to that of the Jews of the Holocaust," she said. "We always have the Holocaust in mind and our leaders must justifiably ask themselves if we recognize a threat in time and how to act. But parents who ask themselves what they would do if they lived at that time must not be given the feeling that Israel is in a similar situation. Israel is not defenseless or in exile alone against evil that tried to destroy them because of who they are."
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