Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Monday that the joint U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran has turned the longstanding pledge of “Never Again” into reality, saying the strikes dealt the regime “the hardest blow in its history” and prevented a second Holocaust.
Speaking at Israel’s state Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Netanyahu framed the ongoing campaign against Iran as the fulfillment of a commitment he has repeated for years, insisting that the Jewish state would never again face annihilation.
“Year after year, I stood here and pledged: we will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said, adding, “As Prime Minister of Israel, I promised — there will not be a second Holocaust. This year, we turned that promise into reality.”
The ceremony, marking the beginning of Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, was held under security constraints and broadcast nationally, honoring the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany while underscoring Israel’s present-day security challenges.
Netanyahu centered his remarks on what he described as a historic reversal of Jewish vulnerability, contrasting the helplessness of Jews during the Holocaust with the military strength of the modern State of Israel.
“During the Holocaust, we were an abused people crying out in agony,” he said. “Today, we have a state which is stronger than ever, which roars with power.”
Netanyahu said Israel, in coordination with the United States, had delivered “the hardest blow in that regime’s history,” adding that Iran’s military infrastructure and strategic assets had been significantly reduced.
He said the campaign — known in Israel as Operation Roaring Lion and in the United States as Operation Epic Fury — followed earlier strikes that targeted Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and missile production, culminating in what he described as the systematic destruction of its enrichment and weapons capabilities.
“We have succeeded in crushing the nuclear program and crushing the missile program,” Netanyahu said in a televised address, adding that Iran “no longer has a single functioning enrichment facility,” while its missile production capacity has largely “vanished.”
Framing the stakes in stark historical terms within the context of the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign, Netanyahu warned that without such action, Iran’s nuclear sites could have become synonymous with the Nazi death camps.
“Had we not acted, the names Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan and Parchin might have been remembered like Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek and Sobibor,” he said.
He also invoked the recurring historical question of whether earlier intervention could have prevented the Holocaust, dismissing such counterfactuals and emphasizing the need for decisive action in the present.
“There are no ‘what ifs’ in history,” Netanyahu said. “The terrible disaster happened … Six million of our brothers and sisters were murdered.”
“Given all this,” he continued, Israel is acting to ensure that “future generations will not ask what if, with a sense of missed opportunity.”
Netanyahu detailed Israel’s ongoing multi-front campaign against what he described as the “Iranian axis of evil,” citing operations in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Judea and Samaria, as well as targeted strikes against senior militant leaders.
“For two and a half years, we have been systematically crushing the Iranian axis,” he said, arguing that the campaign has reversed decades of Iranian efforts to encircle Israel through proxy forces and advanced weapons programs.
The prime minister also emphasized the unprecedented level of coordination with Washington, describing Israeli and American forces operating “wing to wing” in the skies over the Middle East.
“Who could have imagined 80 years ago that our pilots would defend the Middle East alongside American pilots,” he said, calling the partnership a historic alignment that has reshaped the regional balance of power.
Netanyahu said the impact of the campaign extends beyond Israel’s immediate security, arguing that the country, together with the United States and allied nations, is defending the broader Western world.
“Together, we are defending not only ourselves, but the entire world,” he said.
Turning to Europe, Netanyahu warned that the continent has failed to internalize the lessons of the Holocaust, charging that it is losing control of its identity, its values, and its commitment to defend civilization from barbarism.
“Europe is infested today with a deep moral weakness,” he added, arguing that Israel’s actions underscore the necessity of drawing a sharp distinction between good and evil.
Netanyahu also reflected on a recent meeting with Holocaust survivors ahead of the ceremony, telling them that Israel’s military strength and strategic alliances ensure that the Jewish people will no longer face existential threats without the ability to respond.
“Today, we are the ones hunting the oppressors,” he said. “We have prevented them from realizing their plan of destruction … There will not be another Holocaust.”
He concluded by describing the State of Israel as the culmination of a historic transformation “from Holocaust to rebirth,” saying it will continue to serve as a “beacon of liberty, progress and prosperity.”
