Israel’s cabinet ministers on Sunday morning stood and observed a minute of silence at the start of their weekly meeting, in memory of the 11 Jewish worshipers who had been murdered in Pittsburgh yesterday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the following remarks:
“The entire people of Israel grieve with the families of the people who were murdered in the shocking massacre at the Etz Chayim synagogue in Pittsburgh. On behalf of myself, the Government of Israel and the people of Israel, from the depth of our hearts, I send our condolences to the families who lost their loved ones. We all pray for the swift recovery of the wounded.
“It is very difficult to exaggerate the horror of the murder of Jews who had gathered in a synagogue on Shabbat and were murdered just because they were Jews. Israel stands at the forefront with the Jewish community of Pittsburgh, with all Jewish communities in the US and with the American people. We stand together, at the forefront, against anti-Semitism and displays of such barbarity.
“I call upon the whole world to unite in the fight against anti-Semitism everywhere. Today, regretfully, we refer to the United States, where the largest anti-Semitic crime in its history took place, but we also mean, of course, Western Europe, where there is a tough struggle against the manifestations of a new anti-Semitism. Of course there is also the old and familiar anti-Semitism, and that of radical Islam. On all these fronts we must stand up and fight back against this brutal fanaticism. It starts with the Jews, but never ends with the Jews.”