Amir Kochavi: A Holocaust Remembrance Day speech is not the time to be politically divisive

Hod Hasharon’s mayor, Amir Kochavi, gave a Holocaust Remembrance Day speech that drew praise from Israeli Arab anti-Israeli Member of the Israeli Knesset Ahmed Tibi. That in itself should raise eyebrows. After all, Tibi has eulogized terrorists from the Knesset podium and has made speeches to students in the Palestinian Authority praising the “martyrs,” meaning terrorists who kill themselves to kill Jews.

Kochavi’s speech enraged those who saw him as drawing a parallel between the IDF and the Nazis. I saw the inflammatory parts of his speech. But never one to just take someone else’s word for something, especially when I can hear it for myself, I went to his Facebook page to see if he uploaded his speech there. He did.

In the Facebook Post introducing his Holocaust Remembrance Day speech, Kochavi writes:

My opinion on [journalist] Amit Segal, the noise created thanks to him and the ugly spins being made on my words: that they are intended to make people forget that there are 59 kidnapped men and women who have been languishing in Hamas captivity for 565 days. They must be returned now, in one fell swoop. The dead for burial and the living for rehabilitation. Anything else is a distraction. For anyone who wants to hear six minutes about Jewish morality and Israeli morality and our right here and our duty to be better for the sake of the survivors, for the sake of the murdered and for the sake of future generations, the full speech is attached (lies, slander and violence – will be answered accordingly)

I do think he is being a bit arrogant here, claiming to be the voice of Jewish and Israeli morality (which he really puts as if it is Jewish versus Israeli morality, something that invites reflection and discussion).

And I doubt that any Israeli is distracted from the fact that there are 59 men and women still in Hamas captivity. As I am sure that every Israeli (except those who support the jihadists) wishes they could all come home now “in one fell swoop.” We all want that. And our debate is over the best way to make that happen. THAT is the point we seem to forget and that is what makes our disagreements so vicious.

Amir Kochavi’s Holocaust Remembrance Day speech

My translation of his entire speech, and not just the objectionable pieces of it that were published in the news and on social media is in italics beneath the video. I inserted explanatory notes in square brackets and my opinion in regular font.

My name is Yosef Wiener and I am 97 years old. I was saved from the Nazi beasts.

My entire family was annihilated in the terrible inferno. Cut off from my deep roots, I erected a monument of basalt stones in their memory. Out of exhaustion, despair, and drowning, I clung to the earth and put down roots in Zion.

I married Aviva and raised two wonderful children, Ofer and Nurit. Ofer and Michal gave us four grandchildren in Kfar Aza [one of the kibbutzim that was attacked on Oct 7th]. Nurit and Miki gave us six grandchildren in Kfar Aza.

My family tree was planted firmly in the fruitful soil of the homeland. But suddenly, from among the fences of evil, came the 7th of October 2023. The bitter sight of fire and dust, the terrible killing and murder of innocents, came to me again.

My grandson, Yahav, dearer to me than anything, may his memory be blessed, was murdered while protecting his wife Shaili, and his one-month-old daughter Shia. My granddaughter, Hadar, dearer to me than anything, may her memory be blessed, and her husband Itay, may his memory be blessed, were murdered while protecting her ten-month-old twins, Ro’i and Guy. Again I have no strength, I am drowning in desperation, and I have no more land to hold on to.

In December 2024, at age 98, after having seen the very worst, more than any man can imagine. Yes, Yosef Wiener passed away.

This is a powerful way to begin the speech. Kochavi could have taken it in the direction of positivity, a message of resilience in spite of the blow we were dealt when Israel absorbed the worst atrocities in a single day since the Holocaust.

Yes, Yosef Wiener passed away feeling he had no more land to hold on to and that is tragic. I would have liked to see Kochavi cry out to the deceased Wiener, telling him that we will do better and the land will be safer for his surviving family and their descendants.

That is not where he went.

Israel 2025 is a country at war. An external war against enemies who seek to destroy us, an internal war among ideological movements fighting over the Israeli story: a war to bring home 59 kidnapped men and women who have been in a personal and family holocaust for far too long, so that we may fulfill our basic moral duty, toward each other, and so that we may begin to heal as a society from the 7th of October 2023.

I am not sure about the wisdom of using the word, holocaust, for anything except THE Holocaust. Too many people around the world are applying that word to situations that bear no resemblance to it. We should not be doing that ourselves.

And it is too early to talk about healing as a society. There is no healing while the traumatic situation is still ongoing. Yet, from the demonstration stages and in the virtual spaces, so many are making statements about our healing. And giving the return of all the hostages as a criterion for that healing to begin. Too early. And probably not even possible — returning all of them, I mean. Even with a deal. But that is a different debate.

In his article, “The need to forget” [published in Haaretz in 2012], Auschwitz survivor [and History of Science professor] Yehuda Elkana stated that two types of survivors emerged from Auschwitz, those who decreed “never again,” and those who decreed “never again — for us.”

Israeli morality dictates that we must ensure a safe, stable, and strong home for the generations that survived, for the people and the state that arose thanks to them. Jewish morality dictates “never again” not only for us, but for all peoples, as a moral and ethical imperative of a just and healthy society. We cannot be silent in face of the atrocities that are carried out towards people of other nationalities, in the world, even if they are carried out in our name.

Firstly, Jews have generally not been quiet. We marched against discrimination toward Blacks in the United States. We risked our lives in fighting South African Apartheid. You will generally find Jews in most movements for equality, sometimes in leadership roles.

Secondly, is Kochavi suggesting here that atrocities are being carried out toward the Gazans? Atrocities? Come on now!

And against the Gazans who happily declared that they will carry out future Oct 7ths until they saw that we were not going to be satisfied with a few days of retaliatory bombing of empty buildings THIS time? Will that ambition go away, or is it just hibernating until the memory of destruction fades and their need to regain their honour and subjugate the Jew returns?

It is certainly legitimate to question the efficacy of the fighting in Gaza, or lack thereof. It is certainly legitimate to debate whether or not the war has reached a point of diminishing returns and should be ended, or not. But is it reasonable to suggest we are committing atrocities in Gaza? Well, we can debate that, but on the Eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day? Is that the appropriate platform? Is that the appropriate time?

Auschwitz was not created by Satan or God, but by man, wrote [author and Holocaust survivor] Ka-Tsetnik. Fifty-nine brothers and sisters are still kidnapped in Gaza, their never again is still ongoing.

The desire for revenge, blood, and destruction did not bring back the dead, nor the living.

I know that many think that this is a war of revenge. I do not see it that way. I see it as a preventative war — not revenge for Oct 7th but prevention of the anticipated future Oct 7ths. We can debate this interpretation. But was this the time? Especially since no discussion was invited or possible. He was on stage lecturing to a ‘captive’ audience whose only recourse, if they felt disgust, was to leave. And why should anyone be made to feel that way at a ceremony in commemoration of the Holocaust?

As descendants of Holocaust survivors, who, together with other pioneers, established the Jewish state, we must ensure that the memory of the Holocaust, the processes that led to it, the legal and ethical justifications given to it, and the silence that accompanied it, all serve as a warning sign to the entire world, and to us as well, for what we will remember and be careful of.

Along with the great ethical obligation, we also have an individual obligation, to each and every one of the survivors, to remember the heroism. We owe each and every one of them, those who are with us to this day and those who are no longer with us, an enormous and priceless moral debt. Not only for your very survival and your inconceivable choice to return to life from the depths of darkness, but also for your efforts to establish a city and a country, and your struggle over the years for its security and physical and moral resilience.

We must remember and remind ourselves of this debt every day of the year, and continue to build a country that you will be proud of and that will be worthy of your legacy. A country that symbolizes your spirit in its ethical choices. This is our duty, we did not choose it, it chose us.

We will return to building and developing the State of Israel as a model society that will be the best home for our children and for future generations. A strong home: morally, security-wise, socially. A country that will always be a light for the Gentiles and for the Jews.

We will “return to?” As if this current period of time is disconnected from and has nothing to do with our continuing efforts to build and develop our State. I think the current discord among us — our current low degree of tolerance for differences of opinion, our deeply felt investment in the arguments, each from his or her own sense of justice, morality, ethics, etc. — comprise growing pains as we move into the next stage of growth.

We all want Israel to be a model society and best home for our children and their children. We all want it to be strong and moral and just. We see different ways of achieving that and it is perfectly legitimate to debate these different ways if we keep in mind that we all want Israel to be the best she can be. But why raise, on Holocaust Remembrance Day Eve, the triggering issue of our disagreement over how to handle the current war ? And why raise it using such language that makes it seem as if he is drawing a parallel between the IDF and the Nazis?

And it is no less important to continue to pass on the torch of memory from generation to generation. To remember the past in order to work to correct the future, to know how to recognize the moment when we must not stand idly by. This is our duty to the murdered, this is our commitment to the survivors, this is our promise to Yosef Wiener as well.

May the memory of the victims of the Holocaust be blessed forever and ever.

When Kochavi’s speech drew condemnation, he retorted by claiming that his critics were distracting people from the fact that there are still 59 hostages in Hamas captivity. That is no different from accusing those who think it is wrong to end the war now care nothing about the remaining hostages. That is emotional manipulation. It is hitting below the belt. It is taking the high road. And it is wrong. Just simply wrong.

And it is never okay to hint even ever-so-slightly that the IDF is comparable to the Nazis. Because there is no comparison.

Could Amir Kochavi, Hod Hasharon’s mayor, not just have kept in the powerful parts of his speech and discarded the pieces that distracted from them?