On May 13, one and a half days after Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Berlin with his wife, Michal Herzog, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife, Elke Büdenbender, traveled to Jerusalem. Hours after arriving, the German delegation had to rush into their hotel's bunker because of rockets fired from Yemen.

There had been plans for the two presidential couples to fly in the same plane. Why this didn't happen was likely due to security issues, not because of political differences. And yet, it was symbolic all the same. Even though they traveled separately, it is quite clear that Herzog and Steinmeier, who have known each other for around 20 years, are on friendly terms.

Whenever Germany and Israel come together to celebrate, commemoration is always part of the process. This was clearly the case at this year's 60th anniversary of the beginning of full diplomatic relations between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany, which began on May 12, 1965.

At a festive dinner in Bellevue Palace, Steinmeier said it was a "political miracle, a human miracle" that Israel had extended a hand to Germany 20 years after the end of the Second World War and the Nazi terror in Europe.

It is an opportunity to recall just how significant the first meeting between the two heads of government, David Ben-Gurion and Konrad Adenauer, was in New York in 1952. As Steinmeier mentioned several times, it was not only politics that brought the two sides together to forge closer ties, but also the people who dared to take the first steps.

What began in 1952 as a political objective, the........

© Deutsche Welle