Israel’s President Isaac Herzog Calls To Reclaim Zionism in Visit to Switzerland

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog told a gathering in Basel, Switzerland to mark the 125^th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress that Zionists – who believe that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own land – must “reclaim Zionism, and to do so with pride and most importantly with responsibility: pride in our mighty achievements, which have brought us thus far, and responsibility for our Jewish identity as individuals and as a people, connected to our homeland, to the sovereignty and prosperity of the State of Israel, and to tikkun olam — healing our world.” Herzog spoke in Hebrew at the event, which was mostly conducted in English and attended by over 1,300 people from Israel and Jewish leaders from around the world. Earlier on Monday, Herzog recreated a famous photograph of Theodor Herzl, who convened the First Zionist Congress, that was taken on the balcony of Basel’s Hotel Trois Rois, looking out at the Rhine River. The Israeli president’s father, Chaim Herzog, who served as Israel’s sixth president, was photographed in the same pose during a state visit to Switzerland in 1987. Herzog also met on Monday at Lohn Manor with Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, where he thanked Cassis for Switzerland’s friendship with Israel and called on “all governments, and of course the Swiss government, to oppose the Iranian nuclear program, in no uncertain terms. Iran has sworn itself to Israel’s destruction and is working tirelessly to destabilize our region and the entire world.”