Peace is not a "fragile truce drawn on parchment"; it requires "the steady hand of the surgeon, the patient pen of the poet. It demands the wisdom to see the face of the other not as an enemy, but as a travelling companion".

What is happening in the Holy Land deeply questions the conscience of the Jewish people, "a people who have danced on the razor's edge between exile and sovereignty, between destruction and dawn," emphasises Pinchas Goldschmidt, Chief Rabbi and President of the Conference of European Rabbis, speaking at the international meeting of the Community of Sant'Egidio 'Daring Peace'.

Goldschmidt, who was Chief Rabbi of Moscow from 1993 to 2022, also spoke about other situations. "Today, once again," he said, "the world is consumed by the voices of extremists who spread war instead of peace, death instead of life, misery instead of prosperity. Hatred consumes our world, makes our streets unsafe and calls into question all the progress humanity has made since the end of the most horrific of wars, the Second World War." The way forward is to disarm mistrust, whereas "in the halls of power, with rhetorical speeches, and on the battlefields of prejudice, we accumulate our wounds like the coins of stingy people", also due to the effects of the "abyss of social media"; yet 'peace is not achieved with the cries of warriors, but with the whispers of us'.

Drawing on the past, Goldschmidt issues a warning about the present: "Pride builds palaces that collapse in storms; humility builds bridges that outlive empires". Peace "is not insipid courtesy - it is the strong flavour of enemies becoming friends" instead of "false fiery rhetoric".