On Wednesday, the 18th of April 2017, an informal exchange with Mrs. Talya Lador-Fresher - ambassador of Israel to Austria and the International Organisations - and Austrian journalists, professors, former politicians and other experts took place at the International Institute for Peace (IIP) in Vienna. The overall topic of the discussion has been The Role of Israel in the MENA Region and in the New World. As Israel has a unique position in the region and the Israel-Palestinian question still is an important one for the security of Israel itself, but also for the neighbouring countries and the Palestinians, it is of great value to share opinions and to open up dialogue channels in order to discuss and in order to think about the status quo of Israel, its vision for the future and its societal and political developments. The year 2017 is the year of the jubilees, starting from the first Zionist Congress in Basel 1897 to the Balfour declaration 1917, the UN - Resolution 181 from 1947, the 6-Day-War 1967, the visit of the then Egypt President Sadad to Israel in 1977, the London Agreement of 1987. These jubilees can be used as a possibility for fresh debates on how to continue the relation with the Palestinian authorities, the Arab neighbours and Iran but also with the western world to which Israel has a feeling of belonging despite its geographical distance.