"I stand here today as prime minister and as a bereaved brother. As a member of the family of bereavement, I am part of you. Forty-five years ago, my beloved older brother, Yoni, was killed while leading the Sayeret Matkal commando unit to rescue the hostages in Entebbe. Forty-five years ago, my brother fell, and every day since then I have thought about him and I have missed him. You experience the same thing about your loved ones, who fell while defending our country. We all stand together, united, in anguish, and with us stands each and every citizen of Israel.

We raised sons and daughters and reared them—and for 73 years, they have courageously safeguarded Israel's independence; 73 years of grief, 73 years of rebirth.

At the beginning of the War of Independence, the late Zvi Ashkenazi, a Palmach soldier, wrote, "The country's establishment was not marked by celebrations, but rather by blood. We have been waiting for this moment for two millennia, and when it comes, we will make the necessary sacrifices for the country."

Zvi was one of these sacrifices. Seventy-three years ago, he was killed in battle while accompanying convoys to the besieged Gush Etzion. For 73 years, as Zvi Ashkenazi wrote, there have been no independence day celebrations without the burden of grief.

This number, 73, expresses that. It is a number that is deeply engraved in me, in all of us. I remember that terrible night in February of 1997, the night we lost 73 soldiers in the helicopter disaster. One of the fallen was Kobi, the son of our friend Eli Ben-Shem.

I received the news about the mid-air collision in the cabinet room. The magnitude of the catastrophe was clear from the very first moment. Seventy-three soldiers, 73 graves, 73 grieving families—and one nation embracing them with infinite love.

I said at the time, "The group of fighters who were killed in this terrible disaster came from all sectors of our nation, from all over the country. This group symbolizes the profound unity in the IDF. Our faith in the army and our faith in the resilience of Israel are what will grant us and the 73 families of the fallen the strength to overcome the deep grief and the strength to lead the State of Israel to a safe haven of security and peace."

The number 73 is linked to another period that greatly tested our people. I remember the fall of '73 very clearly: The Yom Kippur War began with the shock of a surprise attack and ended in a great victory. In between, the battles to stop the enemies and to resolve the war were waged day and night.

On the second day of the war, I halted my studies in the United States to join the fight for our home. The flight to Israel was full of soldiers, officers, reservists. They crowded the plane, literally fighting one another for a seat in order to return home to fight for our homeland.

But when I returned to America after the war to resume my studies, many seats on the plane were empty. The 1973 campaign was fought in the sands of the Sinai Peninsula and on the basalt cliffs of the Golan Heights. The soldiers and commanders on the ground took on a tremendous responsibility. They stopped the attacks on two fronts with their bodies, they boldly charged into the line of fire, and ended the war on the outskirts of Cairo and Damascus.

The battles of '73 and the tremendous sacrifice of our soldiers paved the path to peace with Egypt. They also taught us an unforgettable lesson: We cannot remain indifferent to the threats of war and destruction from those who wish to kill us. If we had recognized the danger in 1973 in time, it may very well be that we would have been spared many fallen and injured soldiers.

And there is yet an additional historic significance to the number 73. In the year 73 CE, exactly 1,900 years before the Yom Kippur War, Masada was under siege by the Romans. Although this last stronghold fell, Masada became a Zionist value, a symbol of a war for freedom. Many of the people sitting here today have visited Masada and climbed to the summit from one side or the other of the mountain and have taken in its ancient majesty.

My brother Yoni described his feelings during one of his exhausting navigation drills in the Judean Desert that ended at Masada. The steep cliffs made it clear to him why it was so difficult to defeat the handful of people defending the mountain. He wrote, "I saw and felt the beauty of the Judean Desert, the strength and heroism in the fortress of Masada, the lives of our ancestors in the desert oases." How tremendously far we have come since the year that Masada fell and our country collapsed—from that year, 73 CE, to this year when we celebrate 73 years of our magnificent independence.

The chain that was broken has now been forged anew. The defenders of today say to the defenders of the past, "Masada will not fall again." In order to ensure that it does not fall again, in order to ensure that the State of Israel does not become a transitory episode in the history of our people, we must hold onto our country with all our might and all our determination.

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Brothers and sisters, dear families, each of us remembers the moment we heard the news of our fallen loved ones. When they fell, we also fell. When my brother died, I did not know if I would ever get up or if I even could. It felt as if I had lost a limb—a hand, a leg, a heart. The shock was so great that I completely lost my sense of taste, and life made no sense. I know this has also happened to many of you. My late parents felt the same, as did my younger brother. And despite this, like many of you, we found the strength to get up. Many years later, my father said, "Life is a great river that carries you forward and infuses you with new strength." We all mourned deeply, got up and seized life, and so too did our people.

We did not lose our hope when Masada fell. We did not relinquish the dream of generations, and we re-established our country. Thanks to the fallen, our nation's heroes who are always with us, we mark 73 years of renewed life, 73 years of building the country, of impressive achievements, remarkable prosperity. Seventy-three years of sorrow, 73 years of rebirth. May the memories of the fallen in Israel's wars be forever cherished by our people."