Reuven RivlinVerified account

I believe and wish that the people of Germany and its leaders will continue, in the coming decades, to repel hatred and incitement and continue to set an example of leadership for whom historic commitment, responsibility, moderation and toleration, are its guiding lights.

We do not have the privilege of ignoring either the Iranian leadership’s policy or its rhetoric. We all know well how rhetoric that preaches hatred, hatred of Israel, to destroy it, how dangerous it is. We all know its power.

The threat posed today by the Iranian leadership is not theoretical. For us, it is existential. We are not the ones to describe it like this, but rather the Iranian leadership, which definitively claims that it aims to destroy the State of Israel as its political-diplomatic goal

We are not in 1938, but we will not turn a blind eye when they give terrorist organizations on our borders hundreds of aircraft and trucks filled with dangerous weapons including precision missiles which have one target - to hit Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and other Israeli cities.

In the face of a political vision such as this, a leadership such as this there is only one possibility: we must isolate it and we must denounce it until its murderous aspirations have been defeated.

Yesterday in Washington we saw moments that could bring great hope. After long years of diplomatic stalemate President Trump, a courageous friend of the State of Israel, presented a plan that could allow the two peoples to renew dialog and make progress towards a shared future

It is no simple matter and both sides need to study the plan in depth. It is a plan that demands deep, difficult and complex concessions from both sides but we must not give up, for those who surrender, surrender the chance - and I refuse to surrender.

Here with me today are the Goldin and Shaul families. Five and a half years ago during Operation Protective Edge IDF Lieutenant Hadar Goldin and First Sergeant Oron Shaul were killed. Their bodies are still held by Hamas.