A friendship between Germany and Israel didn't always seem natural.

I believe that our democratic values are also born out of our Jewish faith, a 'love for the stranger,' and equality before the law - these are not foreign values: this is Judaism.

It seems to me that many of the belligerent Jewish movements that were built upon hatred of Arabs - and I'm not only talking about Lieberman, but within the Likud as well - grew out of the patronizing socialist attitude that said, 'They'll be there, and we'll be here.'

A multicultural society does not reject the culture of the other but is prepared to listen, to see, to dialogue and, in the final analysis, to possibly accept the other's culture without compromising its own.

Direct talks is the only possible way to build trust and to resolve the conditions for a peace perspective between Palestinians and Israelis.

Learning the core curriculum cannot come through coercion. It must come through a recognition of the need to integrate with economic life.