President Isaac Herzog warned that isolating Israel would weaken Europe’s strategic and moral fabric, urging deeper science, economic and cultural ties to block the rise of extremism.
President Isaac Herzog told an audience in Herzliya, at an event hosted by German Ambassador Steffen Seibert ahead of German Unity Day, that Israel-Europe partnership is not optional — it is essential for prosperity, security, and the defense of the liberal world order.
Herzog framed cooperation with Germany and the EU as a mutual engine of progress: “The collaboration in the present between Israel and Germany, and also between Israel and Europe at large, across science, research, culture, and so much more — serves the mutual interests of all partner countries. And it is important to state in these times: It must continue.”
He argued that Israel’s innovative economy is a strategic asset for Europe and warned that political moves to ostracize Israel would be self-damaging: “I believe deeply and fully in the exceptional creative forces of the Israeli economy… And everything to lose from weakening them.”
Turning to rising calls in parts of Europe to exclude Israel from collaborative frameworks, Herzog issued a blunt caution: such isolation plays into “the manipulations of agents of chaos” and risks replacing a “coalition of moderates” with an “empowered axis of extremism.” He applauded Germany’s stance in defending Israel’s role within EU structures as both strategically sound and morally necessary.
Herzog closed by acknowledging the human tragedy of the past two years while reiterating Israel’s goals: an end to the war, the return of hostages, and a post-conflict Gaza free of Hamas terror. “We, too, wish to shape a Day After for a Gaza not dominated by Hamas terror and oppression. And for a region not dominated by forces of extremism and radicalism. We wish this for Israel. We wish this for the Palestinians. And we wish this for the entire region. And for the stability of the world.”
His message was simple and urgent: sustained Israeli-European partnership — in research labs, classrooms, cultural halls and boardrooms — is both a pragmatic necessity and a moral imperative if the democratic West is to withstand the destabilizing forces now gathering across the globe.
