PM Netanyahu marches alongside world leaders at Paris rally. (Photo: GPO)

In France, Netanyahu demands that Europe reciprocate and support Israel’s struggle against terror. Liberman and Rivlin call on world Jewry to make Israel their home.  

“Israel supports Europe in the struggle against terrorism, and the time has come for Europe to support Israel in the exact same struggle,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in Paris on Monday during a meeting with French Jewish community leaders.

In the wake of the attack at the Hyper Cacher supermarket, which claimed the lives of four Jews, Netanyahu thanked the community for their warm hospitality.

“I was also moved at the meeting with the bereaved families,” he said, adding that” the entire Jewish People embraces the families. This was a moment of genuine Jewish solidarity.”

“The visit to Paris was also a moment of general solidarity with humanity,” Netanyahu said. “It was natural that I come here. It was important that I come here, and therefore I came.”

Netanyahu stressed the Israel has been warning the world against Islamic terror for a long time. “If the world does not unite now against terrorism, the blows that terrorism has struck here will increase in a magnitude that can scarcely be conceived; therefore, I hope that Europe will unite. I hope that it will also take action,” he stated.

Referring to the massive march in Paris, Netanyahu declared: “I marched now in one row with world leaders in order to unite against terrorism. I told them that terrorism, any terrorism, must be fought to the end.”

Liberman Invites French Jews to ‘Come Home’

FM Liberman. (Photo: Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Speaking in Paris on Monday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said he hopes that all of world Jewry will eventually make aliyah (immigrate to Israel).

He told IDF Radio that Israel’s message to French Jews is: “We are here with them. We won’t forget our brothers, no matter where they are…. I hope that aliyah will bring all the world’s Jews to Israel, it doesn’t matter from where.”

Israel’s invitation to Jews the world over is not tied in with terror, Liberman pointed out, as the Israeli government has always advocated aliyah. “The nation of Israel, after thousands of years, finally has a state of our own, and we want to see all of our Jewish brothers here,” he affirmed.

Aliyah of Choice, Not Fear

President Reuven Rivlin. (Photo: Mark Neyman/GPO)

President Reuven Rivlin spoke of the special connection between France’s Jews and Israel, which has further strengthened following the recent wave of anti-Semitic attacks in France. “In the last few years, we have witnessed the strengthening and tightening of the vital connection between the Jewish community of France and the State of Israel, the citizens and people living in Zion,” Rivlin said, stressing the sense of “togetherness, the central bond which binds us together as a people and as a community.”

The Israeli president demanded that all governments, and the government of France in particular, protect and safeguard the security and well-being of the Jewish community. “There is an obligation to ensure Jews are able to live with dignity and pride, without being victims of attacks, threats and intimidation,” Rivlin declared. However, if this fails, “the State of Israel will warmly and affectionately receive every Jewish man or woman who wishes to immigrate to Israel and play a part in building the nation and the state.”

Rivlin expressed his hope that aliyah will “not be an aliyah of fear, but of choice, an Aliyah born out of a positive Jewish identity, out of Zionism, and not because of anti-Semitism.”

By: Aryeh Savir
Staff Writer, United with Israel