“Fire consumed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs; their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.” (Psalm 78:63–64)

On Wednesday’s International Holocaust Memorial Day, United States President Barack Obama said rising anti-Semitism is undeniable.

At the Israeli Embassy in Washington, during a Righteous Among the Nations Award Ceremony, Obama said everyone is responsible to fight against anti-Semitism and must confront hatred toward the Jewish people.

“When any Jew anywhere is targeted, we must all respond as if we are all Jewish … we must all do what we can,” Obama said.  “We have a responsibility, and as president, I will make sure the US is leading the fight against anti-Semitism.”  (JPost)

In the context of fighting antagonism toward Jews, Obama said, “We are all indeed Jews. … When we see Jews leaving Europe … and attacks on Jewish centers from Mumbai to Kansas, when we see swastikas appear on college campuses, we must not stay silent.”

Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer described Obama’s address as a “message of friendship” and “the first time a sitting president has ever spoken to our [Israeli] embassy.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement describing the widespread hatred for Israel and the Jewish people.

“We see anti-Semitism directed against individual Jews, and we also see this hatred directed against the collective Jew, against the Jewish state,” Netanyahu said, emphasizing that it is “more important today than ever” to remember — that the events of the Holocaust “remind us all where the oldest and most enduring hatred can lead.”

“Around the world, Jewish communities are increasingly living in fear,” Netanyahu stated, with resurgent anti-Semitism tipping over into violence, Islamic extremists disseminating among their flocks murderous hatred for Jews and “even respected Western opinion leaders … afflicted with hatred for the Jewish people and the Jewish state.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Holocaust survivors. (GPO photo by Kobi Gideon)

Anti-Semitism is the only rational explanation for the world’s obsession with the Jews and its fixation on the Jewish state.

Netanyahu stated that while anti-Semitism has not changed, the Jews have.

“We are no longer a stateless people endlessly searching for a safe haven.  We are no longer a powerless people begging others to offer us protection,” he said.  “When a state like Iran and movement like Daesh [ISIS] and Hamas openly declare their goal of committing another Holocaust, we will not let it happen.”  (CNS News)

Netanyahu also said Europe and the rest of the world must stand up for Israel for their own sake.

Meanwhile, in Germany, ahead of state commemorations for the Holocaust Remembrance Day, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Social Democrat) rebuked all racism and prejudice as “intolerable.”

“For when Jews, those of different faiths, or of different beliefs, no longer feel safe in Europe, then no one can feel safe here,” Steinmeier added.  (DW)

Meeting of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier in Berlin (GPO photo by Amos Ben Gershom GPO, October 2015)

In contrast, leading in to the January 27 memorial day, UN Sec. Gen. Ban Ki-moon did not condemn the crimes of the Holocaust or the millions of Jews slaughtered — but rather, gave excuses for Palestinian terrorism.

The brutal attacks against Israeli Jews are merely “a reaction to the fear, disparity, and lack of trust the Palestinians are experiencing,” Ban stated, blaming “Palestinian frustration,” hatred and extremism on “a half century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process.”

“As oppressed people have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation,” Ban said.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper wrote in response to Ban’s comments and a state of apathy toward anti-Semitism in Europe, that “there is something much worse than forgetfulness: shedding crocodile tears for dead Jews while doing nothing to defend live Jews.”

Netanyahu warned of the urgency that we learn the lessons of the Holocaust. Today, Jews are not the only targets, he wrote in a letter to commemorate the day:

“While across the region, Islamist militants brutalize entire populations, enslave and rape women, murder Christians and gays, the UN Human Rights Council repeatedly condemns Israel.  More than North Korea.  More than Iran.  More than Syria.  More than all of them put together.  Some things just don’t change.”  (MFA)