Images in recent days of thousands of refugees herded on and off trains in Europe as they sought a safe haven from Middle East conflict struck a chord in Israel, a state created three years after the Nazi Holocaust which killed six million Jews.
Isaac Herzog, head of the main opposition Zionist Union party, appealed to Israeli leaders to "absorb refugees from the fighting in Syria", a northern neighbor that Israel considers an enemy state.
In public remarks at a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Israel was "not indifferent to the human tragedy" of refugees from Syria and noted that Israeli hospitals have been treating wounded from its civil war.