PM Netanyahu Speaks at the Reinternment ceremony for the Remains of Shimon and Rivka Herzl

PM Benjamin Netanyahu

PM Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at the reinterment ceremony for the remains of Shimon and Rivka Herzl, August 5, 2026.  Screengrab via Youtube

Remarks by Prime Minister Netanyahu at the reinterment ceremony for the remains of Shimon and Rivka Herzl, grandfather and grandmother of Binyamin Ze’ev Herzl:

“Distinguished President of the State, Isaac Herzog, Speaker of the Knesset, MK Amir Ohana, Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Noam Solberg, Chairman of the World Zionist Organization, Yaakov Hagoel, Cabinet Ministers, members of the Knesset, Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, Commissioner-General of the Israeli Police, Commissioner Daniel Levy.

Ambassador of Serbia to Israel, I kindly request that you convey our greetings and gratitude to the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and to your foreign minister who speaks Hebrew; he can translate.

We send our embrace to our heroic fighters, to the families of the fallen, and to our wounded, in body and soul, who are heroes as well.

We know that we are on a long journey. The long journey of the Herzl family from foreign soil to the soil of Zion ends here today, on Mount Herzl. All of us hold respect and admiration for Binyamin Ze’ev Herzl for the gigantic Zionist enterprise that stands proudly.

But now our gaze focuses on the foundations of the building: Judaism – as the basis for Zionism. The Torah and the entire Tanakh – as the cornerstone of identity. The chain of generations – as the anchor of values and heritage.

The home of Herzl’s grandfather and grandmother provided the roots that grew a trunk, branches, and fruit. And this was not a simple process, because the 19th century greatly challenged traditional Judaism in its encounter with modernity. And the Herzl family as well was influenced by the tension between tradition and enlightenment.

And there was an additional very powerful factor that left its mark on that century, and on Rabbi Alkalai, precisely in those years, in the mid-19th century. On Alkalai, and on Lilienblum, and on Moses Hess, and on all these proto-Zionists. And this component was the rise of nationalism.

I wish to tell you that at the entrance to the Prime Minister’s Office, a figure of Herzl is displayed. And when world leaders arrive for diplomatic meetings in my office, I make a point of lingering with them for a few moments near this figure of Herzl. And I explain to them, in the only way I can explain it to them, that Herzl is the modern Moses.

Because Herzl created the conditions that brought us to the Promised Land. He did so with genius, with determination, with dignity. He did so also in a very practical manner, with great pragmatism. The combination of vision and practicality characterized Herzl; he was essentially the first Jewish statesman in the modern era who acted on behalf of the Jews. Jewish statesmen existed, but they did not act for the sake of the Jews. He acted for the Jews.

I further say to my interlocutors that for us Herzl is a leader on the scale of ‘nation architects’. That is what I call them, revered ‘nation architects’ around the world: George Washington in the United States, Simon Bolivar in Latin America, Mazzini and Garibaldi in Italy.

This is Herzl’s uniqueness, from our perspective: because the prayers that were traditionally recited by his grandfather Shimon Leib and his grandmother Rivka in the Diaspora – ‘And may our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy’ – these prayers and dreams were transformed by their grandson into a practical action plan that changed the course of Jewish history.

Herzl stood proudly before rulers who decide fates, and he tried to reach a partnership of interests with them. He did not always succeed; he tried with the Kaiser, he tried with the Turkish Sultan, and he tried with world leaders and others.

He also sought to save us from the rising wave of antisemitism, because he sensed the magnitude of the danger approaching us. And above all, above everything, Herzl instilled in us the belief that we must take our destiny into our own hands: with boldness, with determination, with courage. That was true then, and it is no less true today.

Throughout the War of Redemption, I emphasize that the State of Israel represents an unbreakable will. The fateful decisions we made in the face of all pressures, all the pressures from without and within, and the fighting spirit of our heroic soldiers and commanders – have granted us tremendous achievements on the fronts of the campaign.

Herzl spoke of the descendants of the Maccabees who would come to life. And indeed, the spirit of the Maccabees resonates within the young generation – the generation of victory – who stand ready to strike down those who seek our harm, and to ensure the security of the homeland. He believed in the ability of our people to establish a firm foothold in the land of our ancestors, while also bringing prosperity to the entire region.

Owing to our Jewish roots, owing to the national resilience we have developed in countless crises, owing to our belief in the sanctity of life, in freedom, in progress, in innovation – we incessantly stand the trials of existence.

But we are now on Mount Herzl, we are near the grave of Herzl, near the graves of Herzl’s family members. And Herzl understood that there is another condition for existence: you must identify the danger in time, but you must also unite forces in time. Unite forces on matters that require unity.

And he was not naive; he understood that there are arguments among people, certainly in a democracy, for that is its essence – the resolution of disagreements and conflicts, through debate or through compromise.

Today I was at the IDF induction center, and I met soldiers who are enlisting, coming from all parts of the country, from the city, from the village, religious, secular – everyone, Jews and non-Jews. And I saw how they are united in the mission. Not because they do not have different opinions on many things, but regarding the main issues, they understand that our state, the state of the Jews that grants equality and rights to non-Jews – the only ones in the region who do this – that the Jewish state is under attack, that we are fighting here for the nation-state of the Jewish people.

And we understood many things after October 7. Whoever did not understand, we have united on many issues. We will not establish here a Palestinian terror state that we know is aimed at destroying the Jewish nation-state. We understand that they want to destroy us because we promote values of progress and democracy and freedom and liberty, which are hated by our barbarian mortal foes.

Herzl listened and understood what the antisemites –like the Vienna mayor elected at the time – he understood what they were planning. He did not cover his ears, and we do not cover our ears either.

We heard today the commander of the IRGC, Vahidi, explicitly declaring Iran’s intention to keep developing nuclear weapons, ‘to continue’ as he put it. Well, as Prime Minister of Israel, I too am determined to continue. To continue preventing Iran from possessing nuclear weapons.

And I wish to clarify: President Trump is the greatest of our friends, the greatest of the friends we have had in the White House. And the United States is our great ally, and everyone understands also that we deeply appreciate the joint efforts, ours and those of the United States, against Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

I wish to clarify also that Israel’s existence is not open to negotiation. With an agreement or without an agreement, I am determined, we are all determined, to do everything necessary to ensure our security and our future.

Israel is a strong nation-state, proud of its identity, confident in the righteousness of its path. Other struggles await us as well: a struggle against the rising antisemitic wave in our days, exactly like in the days of Herzl, the wave that works to delegitimize the State of Israel and Israel’s fighters. IDF soldiers are the most heroic soldiers, the most moral, and the most vilified on the face of the earth. And these slanders that come from the outside – they must not come from the inside as well.

But I want to tell you that there is also another side to the coin; many leaders in the world say to me: ‘Prime Minister, we appreciate your country – we even admire your country – and we need you. Israel is our model in the struggle against radical Islam which threatens the entire civilized world’.

I hear this from one leader, from a second, third, fourth one. I hear it in the region. I hear it also from Europe and Latin America and across all continents.

Distinguished guests, I wish to tell you that I think of Herzl with great frequency. I think of how he, a 36-year-old young man, changed our history in 8 years –how did he do it? Because he was calibrated, he was committed to this immense calling.

The love of Zion passed from generation to generation in the Herzl family, and thanks to it, the Zionist fervor was instilled in the soul of the nation. And I know, Mr. President, that this is the case in your family – and so too in my family. My late grandfather, Rabbi Natan Mileikowsky-Netanyahu, of blessed memory, committed himself to the success of Zionism with the Herzlian compass in his hand. This does not mean that my grandfather agreed with everything Herzl said or did.

When Herzl presented the ‘Uganda Plan’ for the temporary settlement of Jews in the heart of Africa, my grandfather rejected it outright. And yet, he served as a delegate at the World Zionist Congress in the Hague in 1907 – three years after Herzl’s passing. He sanctified Herzl’s legacy, and it was passed from my grandfather to my father, the historian Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, of blessed memory, who wrote: ‘If we do not want Herzl’s enterprise to perish in chaos and his efforts to be in vain, if our admiration for Herzl is sincere – let us cleave to his teaching, let us carry its imperatives upon our raised banner, and let us protect ourselves with the spirit he sought to outfit us with!”

This sublime spirit is folded within the caskets of Shimon-Leib and Rivka Herzl, of blessed memory, who were brought from Serbia to our eternal capital, Jerusalem. May the soil of the homeland be sweet to them, for the vision has arisen and become reality. Zionism has won. The grandson, Binyamin Ze’ev Herzl, has won.

And with God’s help and the heroism of our fighters – we are winning. May the memory of the Herzl family be blessed forever.”