MS CAPLAN: Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here in Yad Vashem to remember the victims of the Holocaust and the living legacy of the survivors. I am honored to invite Yad Vashem's chairman, Mr. Dani Dayon, to deliver his remarks.
MR DAYON: Secretary Rubio, Minister Sa'ar, excellences, distinguished guests: One of the millions of names included in these venerated Hall of Names is the name of Eliahu Gutkovski. Eliahu Gutkovski was an educator, a public leader, murdered in the Warsaw ghetto along with his entire family. Gutkovski wrote the following: "We the Jews are an ancient nation with a rich culture, a people with the great spiritual tradition from which we draw immense strength. A nation such as this can only be oppressed for a short time, but it cannot be erased from the face of the Earth. With all our successes and failures, we are like the mythical phoenix that rises again and again from the ashes."
Secretary, the state of Israel is the ultimate expression of that phoenix. The state of Israel was not born because of the Holocaust, because of the Shoah, but despite the Holocaust, despite the Shoah. The Jewish people were compelled to fight and shed blood, including the blood of Holocaust survivors, to reclaim our sovereignty, to reclaim our independence.
It is not the consolation prize that the world granted us, but rather the outcome of a battle fought at our most vulnerable moment. Mr. Secretary, to truly comprehend the Israeli society and the essence of the Israeli people, you must know that the Holocaust is seared onto our collective memory, ever present in our conscience. We have all sailed on the St. Louis only to be denied refuge in any country. We are all actual witnesses to the atrocities committed by the Nazis. We are all survivors of Auschwitz, even if we were not born yet.
Today, unfortunately, we are witnessing a resurgence of hatred toward the Jewish people. It does not emanate only from the corridors of power in Tehran but also from the quad of Columbia University in New York City. This is a challenge. This is a test not only for us Jews. It's a challenge and a test even more so for the leaders of the world.
Welcome to Yad Vashem.
MS CAPLAN: Thank you, Chairman Dayon. I am honored to invite His Excellency Mr. Gideon Sa'ar, foreign minister of the state of Israel, to give his remarks.
FOREIGN MINISTER SA'AR: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chairman of Yad Vashem Dani Dayon, ladies and gentlemen, we live in a time where the ancient desire to eliminate the Jewish people has become stronger. It has become a plan of action for our enemies. We live in a period where antisemitism is rising again and spread across the world, and it has only been 80 years since the Holocaust. Its survivors still live among us.
Still, Secretary of State, in the Senate confirmation hearing for your important position, you outlined the unique danger of antisemitism very well. Antisemitism has brought indescribable suffering to the world in general and specifically in the previous century. I believe that the United States global leadership has a powerful moral standing when it bears the banner of the fight against antisemitism. This banner has already been waved by the current administration under the leadership of President Trump throughout its first days.
The new antisemitism is the persecution of the state of Israel, the state of the Jewish people. It uses demonization, delegitimization, and double standards. The attempt to deny Israel, the most attacked and threatened country in the world, its right to defend itself is horrific. The use of so-called international courts to try and tie Israel's hands, to assassinate its (inaudible) right to self-defense is the most evil thing. Our nation is one of the most ancient peoples in the world. It should today have been one of the largest nations had our people not been murdered across the world throughout our long exile when we did not have the means to defend ourselves.
Mr. Secretary, we are descendants of King David and Judah the Maccabee. We know how to fight, and we are determined to fight for our existence in the lands of our forefathers if only the sword is not taken out of our hands. Not supplying us the necessary tools to fight with, and illegal warfare being waged against our right to self-defense is a dangerous combination. We do not have greater friend than you, than the United States of America, in our journey to ensure our national existence here for generations to come. And I believe that you do not have a greater ally than Israel in your quest to defend America's values and interests. May these words be in the blessed memory of Yocheved, Rivka, and Raizel, the sisters of my late grandfather David, that were murdered on European soil because they had no one to protect them.
MS CAPLAN: Thank you. Thank you, Minister Sa'ar. I am honored to invite His Excellency Mr. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States of America, to deliver his remarks.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Standing here today, I am reminded - we are reminded - of both the incredible achievements that we as a species, as mankind, are capable of and also the depths of depravity that we are capable of. The depths of depravity are self-evident - that not a thousand years ago but only 80, less than a century ago, on this planet in perhaps what was considered the most cultured and civilized of all nations in Europe arose a movement that industrialized the mass murder of over 6 million human beings because of their heritage, their culture, and their religion.
That happened, as I said, not so long ago. There are those alive today who survived it, who witnessed it as liberators, and who witnessed it as those who said nothing while it happened. This ancient poison called antisemitism, which has plagued mankind for centuries, has visited us now again in this new century. It hides behind geopolitics. It embeds itself in international organizations, in the curriculums of our colleges and universities, in the voices of some who hide in social media and even openly espouse this ancient poison.
We stand here today also reminded why it can never be ignored, why it always starts by what some believe is the wild ideas of a random person with no power and no influence, but left unchecked and unchallenged can turn into the tragedy that is commemorated here in this building today.
I said at the outset that not only are we reminded of the depravity of mankind, but we're also reminded of the human spirit and what it's capable of achieving. For from that moment emerged a nation-state, a home for the Jewish people in a land ancestral and ancient who their ties to it cannot be questioned. And it is a nation-state that from the day of its very birth was surrounded by those who sought to destroy it from the very minute, from the very moment, and sadly that has not changed.
But while the enemies of Israel have always come at it from an armed perspective through armies of nation-states and terrorists, we now see them also utilize international forums and international illegitimate courts and in the voices of academia, on the campuses of colleges, in the voices and opinions of prominent people.
This cannot be ignored; this cannot be tolerated. This must be challenged everywhere it rears its head, for if history teaches us anything, is an - an evil that goes unchallenged does not simply vanish or go away on its own. It is ether defeated or it will grow and it will do horrific things.
MS CAPLAN: Thank you.
