Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participated today (Wednesday) in the state memorial ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Second Lebanon War and addressed the security situation on the northern border and future relations between Israel and Lebanon.
"My dear all, and today at the forefront, my brothers and sisters - the relatives of those who fell in the Second Lebanon War and the civilian casualties in the campaign. I embrace each family with heartfelt pain, with true appreciation and recognition of the magnitude of your grief and its continuity.
A few months ago, I was moved to see the father of the late Major Roy Klein - a hero of the Second Lebanon War - giving his son, Roy's, beret to his grandson.
The grandson, Roy's son, joined the Golani Brigade as a fighter. Both grandfather and grandson proudly preserve the legacy of Roy Klein - who stopped a hand grenade with his body in the Battle of Bint Jabal, thereby saving the lives of his soldiers. The messenger's staff, passed down from generation to generation in the Klein family, is in the hands of all our soldiers and commanders in the current war - the War of Rebirth.
Lebanon was a major battleground 20 years ago, and it is a major battleground today. This is because the jihadists of Hezbollah have turned large parts of Lebanon into huge terrorist bases. As an Iranian proxies to our north, Hezbollah has decided to attack us, ignoring the cost of the war that Lebanon is suffering because of it.
But we proved two things to Hezbollah: First, that Israel will not be held hostage by the executive arm of the evil regime in Iran. Those who constantly provoked us, those who threatened our citizens and our communities - have been dealt a blow in a way they never imagined. And the second thing we proved to Hezbollah: Not only is Israel not "weak as a spider's web," as the oppressor Nasrallah once said - Israel is strong as a web of steel!
Lebanon is a beautiful country, very beautiful. I got to know it at the beginning of my military service in the General Staff Patrol. First when we landed at the airport in Beirut in one operation. There were other operations. I ended my service - on the last day of my service, in Lebanon in an attempt to capture the senior Syrian General Staff officials in order to exchange them for our captured pilots in Damascus. I remember, I left Lebanon on foot with my soldiers, and traveled to Bakum to be liberated.
In the middle I saw the cedars of Lebanon, which were used by King Solomon. I saw the beauty of the land, and I thought then: A beautiful and miserable land. And its tragedy is that it is very close to Israel. And its tragedy is that there is no natural border. Certainly not to the Litani River. A thicket - easy to come by. This tragedy first brought Fatah there. And when we expelled it from Lebanon - it brought Iran and its proxies.
Lebanon is a beautiful country, and there are beautiful people there too. But it is a disaster that it is being captured by a fanatical sect and the patronizing power of this sect, and they want to destroy us by raiding its territory. And this is what we decided, and our generations decided to prevent with their bodies and souls, including the generation of heroes, whom we remember today.
The Minister of Defense and I visited our forces in southern Lebanon yesterday. We were at the exact spot where Nasrallah delivered his grand speech - the day after Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000. We were looking out over Bint Jabal, it's not far away. And during the visit I thought to myself: whoever talked about spider webs then - has himself crumbled like a spider web!
Even after two decades of the Second Lebanon War, we remember your loved ones - our loved ones, who gave their lives. They worked with endless dedication, heroism, and sacrifice to eradicate those who sought our lives. The infantry soldiers, the engineering and artillery units, the air force pilots, the air crews, the navy crews, and with them the rest of the forces - defeated the enemy in every direct battle. Every direct contact - they had the upper hand.
Yoni Shtavun - now a lieutenant colonel in the reserves - participated in the battle at Bint Jabal alongside Roy Klein, whom I mentioned. In his book - "Under Fire" - Yoni distills the moment when his uniform was soaked in the blood of his comrades. He writes: "Contrary to what one might think, I felt a tremendous sense of power and pride for the privilege that had fallen to my lot despite the difficulty and pain. We knew that we had done what was incumbent upon us as fighters in the Israel Defense Forces.".
All this at the front. And in the rear - which also became a front under the barrage of rockets from Lebanon - Israeli society demonstrated resilience - a sign of things to come. The sharp public debate after the war yielded one decisive conclusion: in the next significant conflict - the achievement must resonate.
And indeed, at the beginning of the war - the War of Resurrection - Hezbollah once again ignited a destructive fire in the Land of Cedars. It attacked us savagely, but we remembered your loved ones, the sacrifice, the lessons. Of course, we did not sit idly by. There were those who frightened us about huge numbers of victims. About towers falling in Israeli cities. About the destruction of the state. My friends and I did not accept this. We knew that we must strike Hezbollah with all our might - also for the sake of your loved ones, the link in the chain. Your loved ones, who went to the battlefield in 2006.
We broke through the barrier of fear. We provoked. We attacked. We surprised. We prevented the invasion of Radwan's forces into the north of the country. We carried out Operation Beeper. We beheaded the top Hezbollah leaders in Dahiyya in Beirut and the master murderer Nasrallah and the organization's leadership.
Since the beginning of the war, we have eliminated over 9,000 terrorists. 3,500 just since the 'Roar of the Lion'. That's 15 times the number of terrorist victims from the Second Lebanon War. But they paved the way. They showed us the way. We destroyed the vast majority of the 150,000 missiles and rockets, which were intended to hit every point in Israel. We destroyed a significant portion of the terrorist villages in southern Lebanon, close to our border. We captured the Beaufort Fortress, which dominated the Galilee. And now we - the ones who look down on Lebanon from above.
And perhaps the most important lesson: We have created a wide buffer zone along the entire northern border. We do not accept a situation where a terrorist army will launch to our border, be able to build tunnels - which are difficult to imagine, to know this depth. We need to see this - that have the capacity to penetrate and can penetrate into our border. This security zone separates those who seek our harm from the citizens of Israel. We will remain in the protective strip in southern Lebanon - as long as necessary. And we will restore security and prosperity to the residents of the north, just as we did to the residents of the south. The "Gaza envelope" today is inside Gaza. The "Lebanon envelope" today is inside Lebanon. This is a critical lesson.
And there's another one. The President mentioned it. For the first time in decades, Israeli representatives held direct negotiations with representatives of the Lebanese government - mediated by the United States - on a combined military and political solution. A few days ago, we achieved a historic breakthrough. We signed a memorandum of understanding, which separates the Lebanese arena from the Iranian arena. This agreement recognizes Israel's right to hold the buffer zone in Lebanon until we remove the threat to our security from Hezbollah. The magnitude of the military blow and the political blow from the perspective of Hezbollah and Iran cannot be underestimated.
Iran - which wanted to force us to withdraw from southern Lebanon - this will not happen. I am not saying that we are not still facing battles, challenges, and bumps, but thanks to the chain of heroism - the First Lebanon War, the Second Lebanon War, and now - the third campaign - thanks to our strength, which is changing the face of the Middle East - the door has opened to a different reality in relations between Israel and Lebanon. We have taken an important step towards ending the conflict, and we will do everything to reach a peace agreement between the two countries in the future.
Dear families, the memory of your loved ones - the memory of each and every one of them - will be preserved with us. And I know how much it will be preserved in your hearts. I recently witnessed this from another angle, from the story of the late Keren. On a shield in the city of Rehovot, the words of the first female airborne mechanic in the IDF - Keren Tendler, the late Keren. Here are some of the words she wrote, a few days before she fell in battle with her comrades on the 'Hassur' helicopter. But I want to read them in sequence: "Glory to God, take care of our country, bring peace to our heights, bring blessings to all of our land, please protect us and those who fight.".
"In the spirit of the Tendler Foundation's words, we will continue to defend the State of Israel and, with God's help, ensure the eternity of Israel. We will preserve the image of the fallen of the Second Lebanon War - the heroes and heroines of Israel - and of the civilian martyrs. May their memory be blessed forever.".
