Israeli ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer highlighted Israel’s role as refuge for every Jew in a speech delivered Sunday. Dermer noted that possibly as much as 3% of France’s Jewish population could move to Israel in 2015 and asked rhetorically, “Despite all the concerns regarding the future of French Jewry, one set of questions is not being asked today: Where will the Jews go? Who will take them in? Where can they find refuge?”

Dermer’s remarks on Israel as a refuge are excerpted follow and a video of those remarks is embedded below.

But above all else, the birth of the Jewish state should make the Jewish people grateful for three things: First, Israel gave us a voice. Second, Israel provided a refuge. Third, and most important, Israel enabled us to defend ourselves.

Now, everyone can appreciate the significance of having a refuge. For nearly seven decades, Jews fleeing oppression have found a home in Israel. They came from the killing fields of Europe, were driven out of hostile states in North Africa and the Middle East, were rescued from Ethiopia and arrived en masse when the iron curtain fell.

Today, it is the Jewish community of France that is flocking to Israel. Three years ago, 1900 French Jews made Aliyah. Two years ago, 3500 came. Last year, 7,000 came. This year, we expect 15,000 to come.

That’s nearly 3% of the French Jewish community – the equivalent of some 200,000 American Jews moving to Israel in a single year.

French Jews are coming because like Jews elsewhere in Europe, they live with a fear they have not experienced since the 1940s.

Their cemeteries and synagogues are desecrated, their schools are attacked, and their fellow Jews are murdered for being Jews.

For a few decades after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism in Europe was politically incorrect. But time has shown that this proved to be a notable exception rather than a new norm.

Anti-Semitism has once again become as European as Croissants.

And it is not just militant Muslims in Europe, who with their grotesque chants of Gas the Jews, spread the old poison. It also includes many European intellectuals — only they mask the old hatred of the Jewish people behind a new hatred of the Jewish state.

When Nobel Laureates compare Gaza to Auschwitz, when the Middle East’s only democracy is singled out for boycotts, and when European governments fall over themselves to embrace a Palestinian government which is backed by a genocidal, terror organization, it’s not legitimate criticism of Israel. It’s anti-Semitism.

When 60% of the Human Rights Council’s resolutions are directed against Israel as hundreds of thousands are being butchered in Syria, gays are being hanged from cranes in Tehran, and scores of journalists rot in Turkish prisons, it’s not legitimate criticism of Israel. It’s anti-semitism.

A few weeks ago, the signatories of the Geneva Conventions convened for only the third time in their history to condemn a county – and guess what, all three times they have met was to condemn Israel.

They didn’t meet to condemn the Khmer Rouge for killing two million Cambodians. They didn’t meet to condemn the genocides in Rwanda or in Darfur. They didn’t meet to condemn the giant concentration camp that it called North Korea.

They met to condemn Israel, the most beleaguered democracy on Earth – where there is free speech, freedom of religion, independent courts, genuine elections and where the rights of women, gays and all minorities are protected.

And one more thing: When the International Criminal Court – a court that was founded in the wake of the Holocaust to be a permanent Nuremberg that would ensure that mass murderers are brought to justice – when that court goes after Israel for defending itself against a terror organization that fires thousands of rockets at its cities and uses its own people as human shields, it’s not legitimate criticism of Israel. It’s anti-Semitism.

But amidst all this hatred, and the threats to Jews living in Europe, one thing has changed.

Despite all the concerns regarding the future of French Jewry, one set of questions is not being asked today: Where will the Jews go? Who will take them in? Where can they find refuge?

Those questions are not being asked because Israel is the answer. And I am proud that my Prime Minister made clear to all French Jews that while they have the right to be protected in France, they will be welcomed with open arms in Israel.

And if they decide to come to Israel, they will not be treated as visitors from a foreign land but as family members who have come home.

Dermer’s speech also addressed political issues including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s acceptance of an invitation to speak before the United States Congress and the close ties between Israel and the United States.

[Photo: The Israel Project / YouTube ]