We are living in times not of our own choosing, times that in recent years have made it clearer, almost from month to month, not only that democracies are in competition with autocracies, but also that there are key actors in this world who will not shy from destroying humanity and whose aim is to play people off against each other, at international level but also within our own societies.

I am thankful for what we as democratic actors have together made so very clear not only here at home but also – in view of the dreadful crimes and acts of terrorism committed against Israel by Hamas since 7 October – internationally.

Namely that we stand together, we stand united as democrats, across party lines, even if our views on foreign policy naturally differ at times.

We stand united in our solidarity with the victims of terrorism, in our absolute goal of obtaining the release of all hostages.

United in our understanding that Israel’s security and the protection of Jewish life are part of Germany’s raison d’état. United in the understanding that Israel, like every country in the world, has a right to defend itself against terrorism.

United in the belief that respect for international humanitarian law and human rights is fundamental, that instances of human suffering cannot be played off against each other, but that every life has the same value. United in the understanding that all this is not a contradiction, but very closely interconnected.

I am emphasising this so strongly today because the terrorists’ perfidious game on 7 October was not simply an attack on humanity, an attack on Jewish life in Israel; rather, another aspect of this perfidious game was to put Israel’s security on one side and international humanitarian law on the other and then to suggest that a decision had to be made between the two – that a decision had to be made between Israeli lives and Palestinian lives. The important thing for us since 7 October has been that this perfidious game on the part of the terrorists should come to nothing, because 7 October was intended to be an attack on the Israeli Government’s moves towards rapprochement with its Arab partners, an attack aimed at destroying the Abraham Accords, at provoking a response from the Israeli Government that would lead to Israel being completely isolated in the world.

This in part was why one of our most important tasks as friends and closest partners of Israel and as advocates of a world in which international law, human rights and the indivisibility of humanity prevail was to do our utmost to ensure that that did not happen.

Because there can only be lasting peace for Israel if there is also lasting peace for the Palestinians, and conversely because Palestinians can only live in peace if Arab countries are committed to Israel’s security. We have worked intensively on this with our American, British and French partners and, despite all the brutality of the past few months, we have succeeded in precisely this: Arab countries have publicly declared that they are committed to Israel’s security, also because we have made it clear every day that as well as supporting Israel we are also committed to the safety of innocent Palestinians, and that we will not allow further states such as Jordan to be destabilised or terrorism to spread there.

I commend the power of a simultaneous approach, the power of differentiation, that has guided German foreign policy for decades – also with an eye to the Bundestag election campaign, which is drawing ever closer. I advocate for it here because Germany’s most important currency is international trust, international reliability. The fact that we are driven not by action for action’s sake, but by our values, for which we engage at international level.

Because at this time, when destabilisation is spreading, a commitment to the right of self-defence, a commitment to international law and to human rights, is the best protection for the security of the people – the security of the people in Israel and the Middle East, the security of the people in Ukraine, the security of the people around the world. That is the principle underlying the foreign policy pursued by the Federal Government and by me as Federal Foreign Minister. And I am thankful that this principle underpins to this day the foreign policy pursued by the democratic parties, of all hues.