Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, along with Israeli soldiers, lit the menorah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Thursday to commemorate the fifth night of Hanukkah.
“There is a great victory here: The great persistence and continuity of our people, which overcomes all rules of history by the power of our faith and our will. Today, we are celebrating 70 years since the revival of the State of Israel,” said the prime minister.
“The power of this spirit finds expression across the world in the rising status of Israel, in the special strength that emanates from here throughout the Middle East, Arab and Muslim states, here in the Middle East, in Africa, in Asia and in other places, that want our proximity, our peace and relations with us,” he added.
The ceremony preceded the United Nations’ rejecting a resolution to condemn Hamas for launching more than 450 rockets from Gaza into civilian areas in Israel, in addition to its continued building of tunnels to infiltrate and attack the Jewish state.
