NETANYAHU: ISRAELIS ADMIRE SERB PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE AGAINST NAZISM

BANJA LUKA, OCTOBER 20 /SRNA/ – Israeli writer Ido Netanyahu says that the Serbs were almost the only people who actively fought under Nazi occupation and made great sacrifices, and that Israelis are aware of this and admire the Serb people because of it.

Netanyahu added that he personally felt admiration for the Serb people's struggle to preserve their national identity. "From what I’ve seen here, I believe this is a widespread sentiment among the people. Courage to fight when necessary is needed to survive, which you did and showed. That’s why you have autonomy; otherwise, you wouldn’t have it. I think the world shouldn’t be teaching us, but rather learning from you," Netanyahu emphasized. He pointed out that the most important factor is a sense of secure identity, which can be called nationalism. "Nationalism gained a bad reputation after World War II because of the Nazis, but that was pathological nationalism. Any ideology can be either normal or pathological. The Nazis took it to an extreme level, which was horrific," Netanyahu said in the SRNA podcast. He noted that nationalism should not have a bad name, as it is almost a prerequisite for human freedom in society, because it allows people to determine what happens to them. "When decisions are made from above, it’s no longer democracy. It’s something else. It’s no longer freedom," emphasized Netanyahu, who is also the brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He says the Jewish people have a sense of being the world’s oldest nation, and that the feeling of identity as a people was strong among Jews in ancient times, as well as throughout the centuries. "In modern times, certain Jewish groups appeared among whom that identity faded, but it remained strong enough within us to enable Zionism and /Theodor/ Herzl, the founder of Zionism, whose father was a Serb, I’m not sure people here know, although he was born in Hungary and lived in Austria. When Herzl presented the idea of returning to the land of Israel and how to do it, all those Jews accepted it, because the sense of nationalism was so strong," Netanyahu explained. He stressed that on October 7, 2023, the day of the attack in the Gaza Strip, the Jewish people and their mindset were misjudged. Netanyahu said that Arabs, Palestinians, terrorists - in fact, the entire Gaza population - believed that Israelis were divided among themselves, with street protests being linked to political events, and they judged it the perfect time to attack. "On that October 7, although the army wasn’t ready, young people had weapons at home, took what they had, and went to fight near the Gaza Strip to protect civilians from being killed. These were volunteers. I met an individual who was in the army. That morning, he was called to his unit in Jerusalem. He told his commander: ‘Sorry, I’m not going to my unit, I’m going to Gaza to fight.’ Because they wanted to save their people; they felt that Israel was under threat," Netanyahu said. He added that all those who had protested the day before against the Israeli government came together, which shows the strength of Israeli society - the desire to live as one people. Netanyahu believes that all nations wanting to preserve their identity, such as Serbia, Republika Srpska, Hungary, and others, should unite and oppose the global dominance in which nations are becoming irrelevant. He considered it very important that countries which support the trend of transnationalism and the erasure of national identity, such as the EU and previously the USA, are now starting to change. "In order to embrace the left-wing wish, which is aligning with radical Muslims in the West to erase national identity - that's what connects them. A strange alliance between progressive forces in the West and Muslims. What are they doing together? The main thing is that both sides hate Western ideology, Western ideas, and hate the idea of nationalism, because Islamic ideology is transnational," Netanyahu said. According to him, Serb national identity is closely tied to Serb culture. "Of course, every culture is influenced by other culters - to advance, a culture can’t close itself off to foreign influences, as some nations do… But each should preserve its own identity," Netanyahu said. He pointed out that, today, it is often the case that clearly defined identity ia falling apart. "There is too much prevalence, I would say, of general American influence, which suppresses other cultures. That’s why it is very important to preserve our distinct cultures, to maintain languages, and to have a recognizable voice. Culture and the sense of national identity are linked, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to be exposed to different cultures, because another culture might have something valuable that you’d want to adopt," Netanyahu concluded. The podcast will soon be available on SRNA’s YouTube channel.