The decision to award the Nobel Prize for peace to the European Union has produced as many congratulations as critical remarks.
The reason stated for awarding the most prestigious peace prize was the result that the awarding body finally realised that Europe managed to keep peace during six decades. It is undeniable that most of the European population does not fully appreciate the physical peace environment they leave in. You have to go to Africa and the Middle East to realise that peace is not a given right and that war is in many countries the natural state of life and a constant fight for survival.
Israeli citizens can probably underhand better the award, blown maybe too much to mythical proportions, but still the award of choice for humanity as a whole. Israeli citizens still live in constant fear of war; a war that has taken the face of terrorist acts, but still can expand into an existential attack.
Israel has evolved as one of the most prosperous countries in the world, but still is not allowed the privilege to bring its children to school without that their parents can look behind their shoulders or fear every bus stop and its nation as a whole is threatened with nuclear annihilation while politicians discuss the prize of oil.
The Nobel Committee awarded its prize so that European citizens appreciate the difference between the Second World War and their current living circumstances. The Shoah was the ultimate inhuman act of war.
To prevent war in Europe is also to prevent hate which led Europeans to massacre on an unseen and industrial scale millions of their own citizens just because they worshipped a common G"d.
The European Jewish Union and the European Jewish Parliament are initiatives to strengthen the European feeling of Jewish population across Europe and make them feel part of the great adventure which the European Union has become.
We, the Jewish people of Europe, are proud to be part of the creation of a new economic and political continent unified to prevent the horrors of the past of which our fathers suffered so much.