Amid the tumultuous and jarring political developments in transatlantic and European affairs over the past decade, Germany has been a bedrock of stability, with Chancellor Angela Merkel a key global leader.
The question of the designation of Hezbollah by European countries and by the EU is partly a question of reconciling the law with the facts. But it will remain ultimately a question of politics. As such, any decision regarding its status should be part of a broader diplomatic and/or counterterrorism strategy.
n a situation like the one between Israel and Poland, both parties should admit the following: there is too little chemistry binding them and too much destructive energy involved. Sincere communication between top leaders is necessary for the relations to start moving forward positively. Importantly, they will have to realize that they bear responsibility for a relationship that a generation of Poles and Israelis have built at great price, with huge efforts.
As the world marks the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, when German forces invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, is the history still relevant? Does it have contemporary meaning? Or is it destined to fade away, as the wartime generation of soldiers, eyewitnesses, and survivors reaches the twilight of their lives?
Both the State of Israel and post-colonial Africa were culminations of long-held messianic dreams, the first held by a two-thousand-year Jewish diaspora, the second by nations or tribes that chaffed for centuries under colonial oppression in their own lands.