By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency / Jewish News Agency
Jerusalem, Israel — June 3, 2024 … Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to US Jewish Students: “We’re facing a world struggle to fight slander against the Jewish people and the Jewish state. The most important thing is you have to fight. And how do you fight lies? With the truth.”
Netanyahu and Israel Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, today, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, met with a delegation of US Jewish students, who have arrived in Israel at the initiative of Olami.
The Prime Minister thanked the students for standing alongside Israel and said that he was impressed by the struggle they are leading against antisemitism on campuses in the United States.
“We certainly have the power to fight back against the anti-Semites that surround us. For example, Iran and all its minions, we fight them all the time,” said Netanyahu.
“We’re facing a world struggle to fight anti-semitism and hate against the Jewish people and the Jewish state. What do you have to do in order to fight? The most important thing is you have to fight. The most important thing is you have to do is fight. And how do you fight lies? With the truth.
A lie can circle the earth 1,000 times before a single word of truth gets through, but we have no other choice. You fight by exposing racist lies.”
MIT student Talia Khan responded: “I’m the daughter of a Jewish American mother and an Afghan Muslim father, and I am the proud president of the MIT-Israel Alliance. I’m a Jewish student currently immersed in an extremely toxic environment of antisemitism at MIT.
As a Jew, I know the importance of the State of Israel in the shadow of the Holocaust. As a woman of Afghan descent, I understand the importance of Western values and fighting the forces that are trying to set us back. And as a patriotic American, it’s obvious that US interests are best served by providing our best and loyal ally Israel with the tools it needs to continue being a beacon of light and democracy.
For this reason, I ask you, Prime Minister Netanyahu, to help us become better partners in this war on terror. We all in this room, and many others that couldn’t make it on this trip, we’re all ready to dedicate our lives to protecting democracy, Western values and Israel and America.”
The delegation was compromised of students from Columbia University, UCLA and MIT, as well as from various universities in California, Arizona and Michigan.
