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What Theodor Herzl once drafted in his visionary work “Der Judenstaat” and in his Novel “Altneuland” became reality, when half of a century later, after the darkest chapter for Jewish life in Europe, David Ben Gurion proclaimed the independence of the Jewish state under the portrait of the father of modern Zionism on May 14, 1948. Ben Gurion was aware of the circumstances and challenges, which the new country was facing and so the lines of the Declaration of Independence have to be seen as a strong commitment of the willingness of cooperation und coexistence.
The words of the Israeli Declaration of Independence speak the language of the only democratic state under the rule of law in the Middle East. They guarantee democracy, the upholding of the rule of law and the freedom of opinion, of press and religion. In no other country of the region, people can practice and live their different religions, beliefs and views of the world more open than in Israel and in no other state in the Middle East, Christians, Jews and Muslims live safer than in that state, which is accused of practicing Apartheid. Even the situation of Palestinians is better in Israel than in other countries of the region, which claim themselves as being pro-Palestinian. And in no other country outside the eastern borders of the European Union, life of society is closer linked to the principles of Western values.
Israel is the democratic bridgehead between the Occident and the Orient. It is a country of culture and innovation, of traditions and modernity, a start-up nation, that gets enormous power from generations of women and men who learn to protect their country in the IDF and are taught self-confidence and to believe in their own abilities. The smallest of all nations is standing in loyalty to its values and is keeping their spiritual virtues to have a brighter future, like it is written down in the fifth book of Moses. From the Mediterranean Sea to the Golan Heights, from the sand of the Negev to the (part-time) snowy top of Mount Hermon, from the nonstop city of Tel Aviv to the capital Jerusalem, Israel is a vibrant planet at a compact size, an innovation in itself.
At the same time, it is questioned and threatened in its existence like no other country in the world, from the anti-Semitic BDS-movement to the threats and permanent attacks from terror groups like Hamas or Hezbollah. The answer to this has to be a new and modern Zionism as a common understanding and commitment of all Europeans. A common commitment for a strong and secure Israel, where we should not even discuss its right of existence any more, as we do not do that with no other sovereign country in the world. Israel is real and stays – Point.
Uwe Becker is mayor and treasurer of the German city of Frankfurt.
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