Despite the fact that as an art, music cannot compromise its principles, and politics, on the other hand, is the art of compromise, when politics tra… - Daniel Barenboim

I have the greatest respect for the survivors of the Holocaust. We can't even imagine what these people went through. And yet even they have differing positions … I respect that there are survivors who can't, and certainly don't want to, listen to this music. But I don't accept that the fact that an orchestra playing Wagner in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem would do any harm to someone sitting in an apartment in Haifa.

I live in Germany with great concern. Today, there is a highly dangerous new anti-Semitism in Germany, and reactions to this fact, both in society and politics, are far too weak. In the early 1990s I would not have believed that anti-Semitism and xenophobia, glorification of the Nazi past and an aggressive, racial nationalism could become socially acceptable again in Germany in 2019. What is happening every day in Germany cannot be brushed away as “alarm signals”; it is far too late for those. We must condemn and countermand anti-Semitism and xenophobia roundly and jointly, every day. For there are many aspects of German culture I value greatly: literature, music and philosophy, for example. Nazism, however, does not represent the human values this German culture is founded upon. Nazism is inhuman. Before I end, permit me to say a few words on another subject which fills me with concern: in Israel, it is currently unclear how the next government will be formed. No matter how the new government turns out, however, Israelis must finally understand that their own security is inextricably linked to justice for the Palestinian people, which is so urgently needed. There can only be true and lasting peace if the unjust occupation of the Palestinian territories finally ends.

Israel's lasting future depends on its government's willingness to enter into a genuine peace agreement with the Palestinians. That this also goes for the Palestinians grouped around Hamas hardly needs to be stressed. Both sides have to understand that they must live together for better or worse and that hatred, terror and territorial, ethnic and religious exclusion have never produced peace, but rather have led to killing and more killing.