A Word, More Like it, A Speech, From Israel's Prime Minister

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested at the cabinet meeting on Monday to change the name of the war "The Revival [Tekuma] War". 

He said: "One year ago today, at 06:29 in the morning, Hamas terrorists launched a murderous surprise attack against the State of Israel, against the citizens of Israel. Shortly after this massacre, I said at the Kirya [IDF headquarters] in Tel Aviv: 'We are at war. This is not a military operation, this is a war". We will fight back with a strength that the enemy has never known, and we will exact a price from him that he has not known. We are in a war and we will win it."

"Since that black day we have been fighting. This is our war of existence - the 'War of Revival. That is what I would like to call the war officially," said Netanyahu, adding that "since that black day we have been on the offensive on seven fronts. Our counterattack on our enemies in Iran's axis of evil is a necessary condition for guaranteeing our future and our security."

"We will end the war when we complete all the goals we set: overthrowing the evil rule of Hamas, returning all our hostages home - both the dead and the living, thwarting any future threat from Gaza to Israel, and returning our residents in the south and north safely to their homes."

"On this day, we give respect to the memory of our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, our parents and our elders, who were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists. Children and girls who were murdered in cold blood, women and men who were slaughtered, entire families who were destroyed. Our hearts are with the bereaved families whose loved ones have been broken and whose lives have drastically changed. Our hearts are with families of the hostages, who are going through endless agony of pain and worry for the fate of their loved ones. We will forever remember the faces, the stories, the lives that were lost, the lives that we still have to save."

Netanyahu added: "We will remember our heroes who fell in the battle in Gaza, in Lebanon and in other areas. Thanks to them we defeated the enemy, thanks to them we destroyed most of its capabilities. We freed many of our hostages, and we are determined to complete the mission. We will send a prayer for the peace of our wounded heroes, and we will express gratitude from the bottom of our hearts to the heroism of our fighters in the Israel Defense Forces and in the security arms. They are the ones who stand as a protective wall between the evil of our enemies and the good of our people and our country. These warriors stand between the fate of our people who were slaughtered in past generations, and now rise in our country as a strong and fighting nation. They fight in the air, at sea and on land. They fight without hesitation and with endless determination."

Netanyahu concluded his speech: "These fighters are imbued with the heroic spirit of our people - women and men, regular and reserve, army and police, Shin Bet and Mossad. They are determined to secure our future - they are determined to win. The October 7th massacre was the most horrific attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. But unlike the Holocaust - we rose up against our enemies and fought a fierce war. We are changing the security reality in our region; for the sake of our children, for the sake of our future, to ensure that what happened on October 7th will not happen again, never again. With God's help - together we will fight, together we will win - and Israel's will secure its victory."

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Netanyahu's proposal sparked a heated discussion online. Journalist Asaf Liberman responded: "Netanyahu can call the war 'The Revival' or 'The Genesis' or 'The War of Mr. Defense Saves the Situation.' Either way, the images will haunt him for the rest of his life. The terrorists on the motorbikes, the Israelis being led to Gaza, the helplessness, the shock."

"All the evidence shows how our nation was brought to its knees by his failed policies, how he was deceived by Sinwar, how he armed the enemy. No new name will erase the disgrace."

Opposition leader [YL] responded: "There will be no revival until all the abducted and displaced people return to their homes. You can change as many names as you want, you will not change the fact that on your watch the most terrible disaster happened to the people of Israel since the establishment of the state. This government is not a government of revival, this is the government of blame."

The headquarters of the hostage families responded: "The headquarters of the hostage families wishes to remind the Prime Minister that there will not be a revival without the return of all the hostages - the living for rehabilitation and the victims and the murdered for a proper burial in their country."

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi wrote after the cabinet meeting that "the people of Israel have proven tremendous strength during this year of the war of revival."

Karhi wrote: "A year has passed since the terrible massacre. A year since that heinous dream that turned out to be a horrifying nightmare, when our people were murdered with such brutality, helplessness. We promised 'never again' and suffered more of that shocking holocaust in our own country and our own sovereign state."

He added: "We will never forget our brothers and sisters who were murdered, burned, raped and mutilated by the Arab Nazi enemy from the Gaza Strip. We pay our respects to their memory, be strong and pray for the sake of our heroic soldiers and our hostages that they should return in peace, soon with God's help."

"In this year of the war of revival, the people of Israel proven their tremendous strength, their amazing mutual care, the sanctity of life that they lead at all costs, and the will and determination to fight for our land, our homeland, our independence, with all our might, and to win with God’s help."

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/397237