this is g.w. news live from her lead the french president stages and the e.u. charm offensive in germany a manual now called arrives in berlin for talks with the chancellor angela merkel he's got a big ideas for reforms for the european union but will germany be on board for change that comes with a hefty price tag we'll go live to have coverage and analysis also coming up israel turns seventy after memorial day for israel's fall and now comes the festivities lasting until saturday night in jerusalem prime minister benjamin

netanyahu welcome to the real seeds of peace and from some of israel's arab neighbors and a twist in an apparent anti semitic attack that has stoked outrage in germany a young man tells to w. that he and his friends were beaten up for wearing the kick but in burlesque and they weren't even jewish plus for almost six decades cuba has been cashed country he dealt with power in the one nine hundred fifty nine revolution and handed it on to his brother raul ten years ago now this man may get d.s. come out of his taking the hounds but will he be looking down a different path. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program french president among you i'm up. has

arrived in berlin for talks with german chancellor angela merkel president mccrone is here to breathe fresh life into his vision for e.u. reforms now germany and france have pledged to deliver a reform roadmap just in time for an e.u. summit coming up in june but across reform ideas are facing resistance here in germany president mccrone is due to hold talks with chancellor angela merkel little later today after a joint press conference that we will be bringing you live on our program for more on that let's bring in political correspondent hooper vito vald who is joining us here in the studio so what's ahead today. we look at the official title of the meeting it is not nothing more than just a working session but already the setting shows that there's much more to it the ungrammatical welcomes and one who i might call on the construction side on a construction side of a museum on a museum which is supposed to have a cultural. issues of cultural importance for especially european importance

on the display when it's opened some one day so this shows there's much more to it than just a working session and if we look at the political setting this meeting takes place up last september among them a call delivered his big so bones beach in which he said how he wants to reform the european union and you also said i need germany for this and everyone in germany for years have been waiting for france to do something like this but last september we all know the parliamentary elections here and america that great difficulties to form an election took a five months five months of gridlock in the end in which nothing happened so today this is the first time where we can really see what is going on how much can these two european leaders really work together to do this european reform why that change until now i mean surely that's not only about the election here in germany an american difficulty is that why it is not call encountered so much resistance

from berlin there well i don't know if there's a big change of tone but the problem is the majority. it's much much less event and then the majority shihad in the past month was much stronger in the past and now she's the last elections are seen a little bit weakened she has to come to terms with the coalition part of the social democrats who have their own ideas on how to reform the european union and she also has to come to terms with her own party with the c.d.u. and her own party is very very different with many of the ideas him on a macor ha's and one of my call wants to have a view. europe in which the fosses and the strongest take the lead and go wherever they want to go and the. to you and they see the little bit differently they want to have a europe in which all countries move at the same pace then of course the big money problem germany is opposed to anything that looks like taking over the depth of the need of other countries and minimum of coal has completely different ideas so

there's quite a lot of which is already where this conflict the rise and we are monitoring to see we know that they're going to be able giving a press conference a short while from now as you can see there in your screen you can see that we're standing by for that press conference we're monitoring for it for you here at w. and robert i just want to ask you because you know you mentioned the points where they diverge the points where they do have consensus just walk us through concretely what those are in terms of specific initiatives. it starts with the the money part of i think the money part is the biggest problem here because. when we saw the big financial crisis in two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine here in europe many in germany have the impression that germany is the one that's bailing out for instance greece or portugal spain and that's something that has deeply brought in some some some severe deep deep problems with the whole idea of a european budget of european of of

a common policy of european dept and these are just the things among them of course right now proposing he proposes more. a joint budget for the european zone for the euro zone he proposes. even some sort of a financial minister for the e.u. something we haven't seen yet and these are the things that germany is very opposed to remember there's very critical against because it looks a little bit like like taking over debt from other countries this is something especially the c.d.u. of uncle americal and her sister party these you don't want to provide a vault and berlin thank you and welcome. and for more let's bring in max hoffmann now our correspondent who is standing by with the latest from the french capital and paris a beautiful sunny day there as we can see max so tell us you know is it also likely to be a sunny day though for. in berlin how important is this visit when it comes

to achieving his reform plans. well the political weather report in isn't as favorable as the weather we have here in paris to tell you the truth in my remark all is fighting for the survival of his political ideas for the european union some already say they're dead in the water were some of his proposals for rupert for example having a european finance minister having. an investment budget for the eurozone to strategically invest in certain parts of the european union sharing the load more going away from the austerity program that the germans were symbolic for in the past and so he really is not only fighting for those plans but it seems like he's fighting for the survival of the european union in mind when mccall really believes that the european union force especially germany and france the to join forces now might even change to change the treaties to really go

a step forward to invent a new european union and so far we haven't heard anything from berlin that seems like they're supporting this idea why is he pushing now for these changes so urgently max. well the logical thing for him is that what happened back couple of years ago in greece as river just mentioned when greece really didn't have the means to counter the financial and suing economic crisis they had because they didn't have their own currency you know all the different eurozone countries of course have the euro so they couldn't really counter act there didn't have the means to invest or at least value their currency because they didn't have their own currency and they got stuck in this crisis not having the germans at the same time imposing on staring them many believe made them take longer to get out of that hole really didn't give them any

tools and that on the other hand started fueling populism there and that's what it meant to michael it's a fight next health meant and paris thank you. and as we mentioned we are standing by for that press conference between angle americal and emanuel as we mentioned he is in berlin trying to breathe some fresh life into his visions for the e.u. and we will bring that to you as soon as we get it but in the meantime we'll head to some other news because israel is celebrating seventy years since its founding according to the hebrew calendar that anniversary began at sundown on wednesday to honor the moment that the founding father david ben-gurion announced the state of israel into existence the following years saw of course the jewish state at bitter odds with its arab neighbors but prime minister benjamin netanyahu told crowds in jerusalem that real seeds of peace were beginning to sprout in the region.

in a blaze of fire the menorah the symbol of the state of israel comes to life. the town. with a colorful ceremony the country marked its independence day. seventy years since the jewish state was founded in the middle east israelis celebrated the country's economic and cultural accomplishments. the event also marked israel's memorial day a fleet of drones in the night sky formed the star of david over jerusalem to honor those who died for the country. prime minister benjamin netanyahu that an honorary torch to remember those killed in his speech he issued a warning to the world that israel would defend itself against any would be aggressors. in addition to today we are not deterred from his struggle against those who strive to annihilate us

because we know how to defend ourselves with our own forces which is the essence of independence we are as determined as ever we're as strong as ever. shoot at that news just weeks ago saudi arabia signaled a something of its fully anti israel stance netanyahu also emphasize israel's hand is quote outstretched in peace to all our neighbors who want peace. i'm joined from jerusalem by the israeli historian and journalist tom said he is a member of a group of israeli academics known as the new historians a group that challenges many of the nation's traditional narratives welcome to you and thank you so much for joining us i'd like to first begin by asking you because for this is a really of anniversary of israel's founding you actually just completed a biography of the state's founder it's called david ben-gurion

a state at all costs tell us what's behind the title beyond the title for itself they would be gory to establish a jewish state and the willingness and awareness that the price will be very high as early as nine hundred nineteen and actually stated that the conflict between israelis and palestinians cannot be solved it can only be managed and so at all costs means among other things that life in the jewish state would be life without peace so that's quite a high price to pick and in fact he articulated that as long as there is no peace the state of israel has yet to be created what would you say is left of his dream is there any hope there. oh if.

we do peer review could very he would. be amazed that it's going to find israel is in fact one of the most dramatic success stories of the twentieth century if you compare international statistics you see that israel is always among the top fifteen countries which means that most israelis lead better lives than most other people in the world but of course the future is quite bleak and our major problem we treat is the problem of or future relations with the palestinians remains unsolved absolutely and i want to ask you a little bit more about you know a potential solution there because today of course a lasting peace that seems more distant than ever many peace plans failed in the past the major stumbling block usually the goal of this this two state solution which has been proposed do you see peace between israel and the palestinians still is possible will we ever see a two state solution implemented. well i must warn you about i'm always wrong

about my predictions if you were to ask me about forty years ago i would probably tell you but by now we will have peace at the present time i am quite pessimistic and as far as i can see most israelis and most palestinians don't believe in peace but i think that the situation can be managed in a much better way than it is particularly in the direction that. people particularly palestinians will lead better lives than they do to day. to day most palestinians are under israeli occupation and their. civil rights are human rights are systematically violated and i think that's something that can be changed for a first step and from the palestinian perspective i mean they might also argue that they have been provoked recently after u.s.

president donald trump. you know came up with this formal recognition of diverse a lot as the capital of israel saying that he's going to move the embassy there where does that leave israel and the prospects for peace. i think that that's like many things president trump do does not really very significant and that's not something that changes the everyday life over whether students or israelis it's really a very symbolic gesture. i don't think that it has very big significance. and that was the israeli historian and journalist tom so you have talking with me a short while ago from jerusalem meantime in other news in germany an attack on tuesday evening has raised concerns for the safety of jews in the capital city berlin two young men say that they were beaten up for wearing a traditional head covering for jewish men.