Delivered at the General Monash Remembrance Day Service, November 7, 2003.

 

June 6, 1944. D-Day. The turning point of the Second World War – the bloodiest conflict in recorded history – which at that time had been raging for nearly five years. By June of 1944, the momentum of the Nazi attack on civilization had been blunted, but at the cost of millions of lives and untold destruction. The tide of blood unleashed by the Holocaust was just reaching its horrific peak. Altogether, the final outcome of the war was still very much in doubt.

 

But on June 6, a massive thrust of men and materiel – American, British, and Canadian – hit the beaches of Normandy. The Nazi defenders were ready, and waiting. As the troop carriers unleashed their human cargo, the German shore defenses opened up. Many died even before they were able to disembark. Others, forced to jump over the sides of their carriers and into the ocean, drowned beneath the waves, dragged to the bottom by the weight of their guns and equipment.

 

However, with nothing but the sea behind them, there was nowhere for the Allied soldiers to go but forward. And go forward they did – straight into the line of enemy fire. Thousands of young men died on the beaches of Normandy that day, and thousands more in the succeeding days of the invasion.

 

These soldiers fought under conditions that would be unimaginable in these days of smart bombs and limited losses on the ground. We can hardly imagine the fear and uncertainty that must have clouded the consciousness of those young men as they fought and died on the beaches of France that day, a little more than fifty-nine years ago.

 

Yet the D-day invasion was the turning point in a war of good against evil, of light against the forces of darkness, of democracy against dictatorship, of the values of Western civilization against Hitler’s New Order.

 

Had the D-day invasion failed; had the Nazis emerged as masters of Europe, there is little that would have stopped them from ruling the entire world. The whole planet would have been plunged into a darkness unimagined since the dawn of time. The cause of civilization would have been set back at least a thousand years.

 

Moreover, with a Nazi victory in World War II, Jews, and Jewish civilization, would have been completely erased from the world. The creative genius of the tiny Jewish nation would have been lost to humanity forever. No trace of Jewish DNA would have survived to tell any tale. The descendants of the authors of the Bible would have been completely annihilated. This would have been the result of Hitler’s aptly named “Final Solution”.

 

Obviously, we owe a debt of profound gratitude – almost too profound to express in words – to the veterans of that great conflict. Tonight, in anticipation of Remembrance Day, we remember those who made the supreme sacrifice in the various theatres of the war to ensure that we – their children and their children’s children – might live, grow and flourish, nourished by the sunlight and fresh air of freedom.

 

As well, we honour the memory of those who survived the war and who went on to lead productive lives; who, as citizens, professionals, fathers and mothers, helped to build this country, and make it what it is today; who lived to be able to realize and enjoy the fruits of their labours, in relieving the world of a great tyranny; and who have gone the way of all the earth.

 

Finally, we want to thank, praise, laud and celebrate those who fought for liberty, democracy, the right to free speech, free assembly and freedom of religion – and who prevailed, and who are with us tonight. Without their great efforts on our behalf, none of us would be here, and none of us would be living the lives that we are living. Without them and the sacrifices they made, the world would be a far different place than it is – a much darker and foreboding place than we can possibly imagine.

 

But history never allows us to fully rest on our laurels. Today, we face new challenges and new threats – threats to the State of Israel, to the Jewish people and to the whole democratic way of life. Most unfortunately, a terrible veil of hatred of Jews, the State of Israel and the whole of modern Western civilization is lowering itself upon the Muslim world.

 

The Wahabbi sect of Islam – a radical, extremist group originating in Saudi Arabia, bankrolled by billions in Saudi oil revenues, and that has about as much to do with real Islam as the Ku Klux Klan does with Christianity – is slowly, surely, hijacking the entire international Muslim agenda.

 

The Wahabbi rejectionist message of hatred for all things Jewish and Western, broadcast daily throughout the Islamic world, wins new converts to its cause every day. Just a few weeks ago, Mahathir Mohamed, the president of Malaysia, while addressing a large gathering of Muslim religious and political leaders, resurrected the age-old canard of a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world.

 

These were his words: “1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews … We are up against a people who think … they have now gained control of the most powerful countries … We cannot fight them through brawn alone.” Mr. Mohamed received a standing ovation from the Muslim leaders of 57 different countries. None of them saw anything unusual in this ostensibly moderate Muslim giving voice to the Nazi’s primary rationale for the slaughter of six million innocent Jewish men, women and children only sixty years ago.

 

The world today is experiencing the worst resurgence of anti-Semitism in 50 years. Its main objective is the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel, to the point that the idea of eradicating, and indeed obliterating, the world’s only Jewish State becomes respectable and even laudable. The psychological grounds for a new Final Solution, instigated by Islamist radicals, are being prepared, even as I speak.

 

Does it ever end? Will there eventually come a time when SHALOM – a true, enduring peace – will reign in the world? When war will be impossible? When hatred, poverty, ignorance and disease will be dim and distant memories of the past?

 

According to both Jewish and Christian belief, there will be such a time. As the 12^th century rabbi, physician and philosopher put it, “I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah. And though he should tarry, daily will I await his arrival.”

 

Obviously, we’re not there yet. But with the concerted efforts of people of good will from all faith groups, cultures and nationalities, may we soon succeed in transforming our world into a heavenly place of peace, prosperity and good will for every man, woman and child on earth.

 

Amen.