From Russia's war on Ukraine to Hamas' terrorist attacks on Israel.

These crises, however different, call on Europe and America to take a stand - and stand together.

We must support these democracies ↓ [_link]

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 19, 2023

Speech by President von der Leyen at the Hudson Institute | 19 Oct. 2023 |

Thank you, Mr Walters, dear John, for the invitation.

And thank you for the outstanding job you do here at Hudson. In twenty years since Hudson moved to DC, you have become an incredibly authoritative source of ideas and analysis. Not only here on Pennsylvania Avenue, but also for us, on the other side of the Atlantic. Your positions, from your support to Israel, to keeping Ukraine on the path to victory, from AI to China, constantly reach European capitals and influence our own conversations. Your track record of mapping out unbiased solutions to the world's most complex challenges is in the image of your founders. And I want to start in particular by paying tribute to the late Max Singer. 

The vision he outlined in his great work, entitled `History of the future', is one that Europe and the US have been fighting for the last seven decades. It is a vision of a modern world in which democracy and freedom, security and opportunity, education and wealth, all become universal. The events of the last weeks in the Middle East, and of the last years in Eastern Europe, epitomise that this fight has never gone away. In fact, it is more acute than ever. What is at stake here dwarfs what is in front of us in these difficult days. We are shaping the history of our future. And I believe Europe and the US have a duty to mould that future together.

There is one old memory that I would like to share with you. It was 1987 and I lived in West Germany. Back then, it was unthinkable for most people to imagine that the Berlin Wall could fall. But not for a visionary leader like President Reagan. When he came to Berlin, and called on Gorbachev to `tear down this wall' - he touched the heart of all Germans. And Reagan never stopped working for that dream. He believed that `the Atlantic community is the house of democracy'. And for him this meant that we must `shelter [democracy] from all the winds that blow'.

[...]

For more than 600 days, our friends in Ukraine have been fighting and dying for their freedom against Russian aggression. And now Israel has suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history, and the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust. These two crises, however different, call on Europe and America to take a stand and to stand together.

Vladimir Putin wants to wipe Ukraine from the map. Hamas, supported by Iran, wants to wipe Israel from the map. Shelter democracies we must. Because if we don't the horror will spread.

The horror that I witnessed last Friday when I was in Israel in Kfar Azza. Six days before it was a lively kibbutz with 750 inhabitants. But on 7 October, Hamas came. I saw burned out houses, a baby seat covered with blood, debris, bullet holes, unexploded grenades. A ghost town. There was no limit to the blood, Hamas terrorists wanted to spill. They went home by home. They burned people alive. They mutilated children and babies. Why? Because they were Jews. Because they were living in the State of Israel.

And Hamas' explicit goal is to eradicate Jewish life from the Holy Land. These terrorists, supported by their friends in Tehran will never stop. And so, Israel has the right to defend itself in line with international law. And in the face of this horror, there is only one possible response from democratic nations like us: We Stand with Israel.