Netanyahu to German TV: Kerry’s efforts will lead to peace
Chancellor Angela Merkel is slated to visit Israel on Monday with her full cabinet as part of the German-Israel government consultation meetings. Her second term (2009-2013) filled the “special relationship “with a mixed bag of bitter disappointments and encouraging security commitments for Israel. If past is prologue, Merkel’s third term will lead to her impose the same policy of sticks and carrots on Israel.
Merkel famously declared in her 2008 Knesset speech that Israel’s security interests are integral to those of Germany. In short, she said Israel’s security is “non-negotiable” for her administration. German commentators write obsessively about the semantic interpretation of Merkel’s assurance that Israel is part of her country’s raison d’être.
Israel expects a marriage made in preserving its security.What animates Israel is transforming Merkel’s lofty rhetoric into actions. After all, security is a fighting word for Israel because of its jingoistic enemies in the Middle East.
From Israel’s perspective, Merkel engaged in a kind of “War of the Roses” marital dispute in the diplomatic realm. Her government abstained during the UN vote to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization as a non-observer member state. In sharp contrast, Canada and the Czech Republic—countries that do not invoke the raison d’être language of Germany—rejected the PLO bid.
Her government has showed no resistance to labeling products from the disputed West Bank and Golan territories. Merkel did not contest the EU policy to outlaw funds for Israeli academic institutions beyond the Green Line. The Jerusalem Post’s diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon broke the story last year that the Federal Republic stymied Israel’s efforts to secure a seat on the UN Security Council because Germany wanted the post. The spat triggered scores of articles. An Israeli official said at the timie“there is not the same kind of attention and sensitivity to Israel’s battle for international legitimacy” from Germany’s government.
All of this helps to explain why the Spiegel titled its article last week “Tensions Flare in German Israeli relations.” The Spiegel article underscored the tight-lipped Israel-German relationship: Only anonymous sources were quoted. For example, Israeli government sources said the “special relationship” means that Germany allies itself with Israel in moments of doubt.
Put simply,think of the administration of Canada’s Stephen Harper and his pro-Israel policies. Whereas Canada declined to publicly chastise Israel’s settlement policies, Merkel’s government has worked to rebuke Israel in its official discourse and at the UN. According to Spiegel, an unnamed source in Merkel’s Chancellery said , “It is precisely because we are committed to the future of Israel as a Jewish state that we will remain so firm on this point.”
But for Israel this is the flip side of the dangers of the special relationship, where Germany serves as a school master about to crack the whip when Israel allegedly transgresses. In other words, to paraphrase the writer, Wolfgang Pohrt, Germany’s hubris culminates in Germans acting as Israel’s probation officers to prevent „their victims” from relapsing. It is a cynical view, but it captures the actions of many German politicians who invoke working through the history of the Holocaust to show—in obnoxiously didactic terms—what Israelis ought to do in the conflict with the Palestinians.
Putting aside the marital friction, Merkel has continued the delivery of second-strike nuclear-capable submarines to Israel. The highly sophisticated submarines are vital for Israel’s defense. She has gone to great lengths to defend Israel’s right to counterstrike in Operation Cast Lead and Operation Pillar of Defense. Intelligence sharing is at all time high between the two governments.
Public and media discourse remains highly critical of Israel. With the few exceptions such as the pro-Israel deputy from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union Party, Phillip Missfelder, there are scarcely any German deputies who aim to counter the anti-Israel mood. Missfelder called for a full ban of Hezbollah as a terrorist entity. Merkel’s administration consider only Hezbollah’s political wing to be a terrorist organization.
Sacha Stawski, the head of the organization “I like Israel” in Germany, told the Jerusalem Post that “German-Israel relations are multi-fold. Clearly the message Chancellor Merkel is sending by taking her entire cabinet to Israel, is that these two democracies have things in common on all levels of the legislature, far beyond just the slogans the public is being fed in the mainstream media day in day out. Business, science, technology, environment, education culture, etc. – much more than just politics.”
However, he added, “Merkel’s coalition partner, the Social Democrats, have in recent years made headlines a number of times, associating themselves with the Fatah organization and speaking of ‘common goals.’ A number of Bundestag resolutions highly critical of Israel passed the Bundestag.”
The tone against Israel in the media has also become raw over the last few years. Writing last week in large daily Die Welt, a paper considered to be sympathetic to Israel, Jacques Schuster termed Israel’s behavior in the settlements to be “criminal.”
The prominent media lawyer Nathan Gelbart, a veteran observer of German-Israel relations and the head of Keren Hayesod in Germany, told the Post that Schuster’s comment “reached a journalistic low-point.” Gelbart said Schuster’s anti-Israel language is shocking because it contradicts the pro-Israel philosophy of the late Dr. Axel Springer, the founder of the Springer publishing house that prints Die Welt. He added that Schuster’s view is voiced by extremist left-wing anti-Zionist newspapers such as junge Welt.
The German-Israeli “special relationship” is still in its infancy and growing pains will continue. Merkel is a skilled politician and has internalized many of Israel’s core security needs. There is no sign of a divorce.
Benjamin Weinthal reports on Europe for the Jerusalem Post and is a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
As de Gaul said:”France has no friends but interests”!!!
We ALL agree.
A. Merkel knows what it means to be a VICTIM of the LEFT! Perhaps J. Schuster was from this side of the “Iron curtain”!
@ Eric R.:
.. South Korea, yes. But also Singapore and, especially, China. The latter country, which now more or less controls the economic fate of the USA, has been sending every possible signal of wanting closer relations with Israel. This certainly must include the plans to co-build, with Israel, a high capacity and relatively high speed rail connection between Eilat in the south and Ashdod and Haifa in the north. China would also be a worthwhile partner with Israel to co-design and co-build the next generation of fighter-bombers for Israel’s Chai’il haAvir.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Was it Nixon who supposedly said don’t listen to what I say, watch what I do? All politicians are inherently liars, otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten where they are. They will say what they feel necessary for them to get ahead rather what would be in the best interest of their country. Can anyone really believe now whatever Netanyahu says?
What’s this Germany-Israel “marriage” nonsense? I thought the Nurnberg laws of 1935 forbade such conjugal unions between Aryans and Jews?
Seriously, though. Sovereign states and the nations they represent have relationships ranging from friendly, neutral or hostile, in terms of their own specific interests. If Germany can make money by means of Israel, the friendship will continue, including delivery of yet additional ultramodern U-boats that they design and build so well. What else could we want from them, and them from us?
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ Eric R.:
she became a dissident when it became obvious that the regime will soon fall apart
before that she was secretary of propaganda at the humboldt university in cummnist berlin
While as an American conservative, I actually rather admire Merkel, who was a dissident in the old East Germany; the fact is that Germany is simply too steeped in 1000 years of Jew-hatred to ever overcome it. (The same is true of virtually all of Europe). Add to that the growing Muslim population, and it is safe to say that Germany will be back to being a genocidal state against the Jews in less than a generation.
It was nice to get the Dolphin subs from Germany, sure. But the Israelis recently signed a deal to buy two frigates from Germany. While Israel does need to expand her Navy, long the forgotten part of her armed forces, due to the gas fields and the growing Turkish Navy, she is foolish to depend on the Germans, or on any European state, to provide them. She should have gone to South Korea for the ships.
merkel is possibly a descendent of an apostate Jew since her mother’s name was KASNER, a Jewish name.
those people were always the worse to us, especially when they discover the ruse of presenting themselves as our friends.
merkel’s biography shows that there is not such a thing like “friendship” or “loyality” or even “principles” of “ideology” to her. she does what secures and advances her career, and career means to her to remain chancelor as long as possible and to receive positive media comments, especially on the international arena. she desavouted so many former friends, even people to whom she owns her whole career. she has made so many ideological u-turns in her life. she has no children and she in fact has only a formal husband since everyone of the two of them lives his own life and persues his own career, they never go together to any social event. she is alone and she knows that, once she leavs politics, only memories will remain, and when she dies, nothing will remain. however, she wants to enjoy what she has as long as she has it. she is moderate as she has no beliefs and no loyalities.
as the article puts it very truely: her “friendship” to Israel is merely verbal, as was germany’s “commitment” to Israel ever since the Shoa – mere words, and minimal deeds, as minimal as possible to still ensure a picture of “commitment”. unfortunately, assimilated “Jewish” “leaders” both in Israel as in germany are so cheep to buy with words.