Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Address to JPPI Conference
By PM Benjamin Netanyahu.. The following is the transcript of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu video address at the 2017 JPPI conference on Shifting Trends in the West and their Impact on Israel and the Jewish People: I’m delighted to address the JPPI and I apologize for not being with you. I feel a bit under the weather because I was quite a bit down under. I came back from a wonderful trip to Australia and Singapore but it has taken a toll on my vocal cords and my sinuses. But nevertheless, I’m happy to be with you even through video.
The future of the Jewish people, which is the subject you’re discussing, is directly related to the future of the Jewish state. For thousands of years the Jewish people faced a grim reality: either assimilation or annihilation.
Before the rebirth of Israel, both of these forces took a terrible toll on our people. And our future was in doubt. We had a growing cascade of calamities that culminated in the Holocaust. And it wasn’t clear that the Jewish people would have a future at all. But in 1948, Israel was reborn.
This created an impregnable safe haven for the Jewish people against both assimilation and annihilation. It restored the safety and strength we had lost as a result of those generations of exile. I want to be clear about that. This doesn’t mean the attacks against us have ceased, either against Israel or against Jewish communities worldwide. But it does mean that we now have the capacity to defend ourselves. We are no longer defenseless. Read the full story.
