Posted 14February2015 Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו
אני רוצה לחלוק איתכם סיפור אישי-לאומי שמלווה אותי מאז היותי ילד ועד היום. סיפור שעיצב את דרכי ואת השליחות שלי למען עם ישראל ומדינת ישראל.
I want to share with you a personal-national story that has accompanied me since I was a child until today. A story that shaped my path and my mission for the people of Israel and the State of Israel.
“Many people around the world ask me, ‘how does such a young country, such a small country, who is attacked by enemies at every turn – how does such a country reach such great achievements?” Netanyahu begins.

Netanyahu then related to a personal story, about his grandfather, Natan Netanyahu Mileikowsky.

“He stood at a train station in the heart of Europe at the end of the 19th century, along with his younger brother Yehuda – two yeshiva [Torah academy – ed.] students,” he recounted. “Suddenly, they saw many anti-Semitic thugs waving batons, screaming, ‘Death to Jews.”

“My grandfather turned to his brother and told him, ‘Run, Yehuda, run!'” he continued. “He tried to chase after the thugs to save his brother. They beat him until he lost consciousness.”

“They left him to die.”

“Before he lost consciousness, lying in his own blood, he thought to himself: ‘What a shame. The descendants of the Maccabees are lying here in mud, unable to defend themselves,” he continued. “He promised himself that if he would survive the night, he would bring his family to the Land of Israel and help build a new future for the Jewish people in Israel.”

Netanyahu then brought the scene back to the present-day.

“I am sitting here now as the Prime Minister of Israel because my grandfather kept his promise,” he said. “Here in the Land of Israel we have returned to what the Jewish nation did not have for thousands of years: security.”

“Security to stand up for ourselves and secure ourselves under our own sovereignty, to protect ourselves with our own power – security not just to survive, but to alloy one of the most advanced countries in the world,” he continued.

“We are a nation that aspires to peace – our hands are extended in peace to all who choose to grasp them,” he added.

“But to our enemies, I say: there is no baton, there is no rocket, there is nothing that can defeat us – because we are united in our faith and in our right to our land – the Land of Israel.”