T. Belman. Israel asked Germany to work for a softer resolution that it would vote for. In other words, Israel wanted Germany and India and others to trade their yes vote for a softer resolution.
Germany’s readiness to participate in anti-Israel demonization taking place in the UN and similar venues is a growing source of friction.
In a full year of celebrations marking 50 years of German-Israel diplomatic relations, diplomatic niceties were absent at last week’s UNHRC Gaza report vote in Geneva, where the Merkel administration condemned Israel for its military methods during Operation Protective Edge.
Asked by The Jerusalem Post on Monday why Germany voted against Israel, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry wrote, “Germany led intensive negotiations with EU states in the United Nations Human Rights Council over the draft of the resolution. Thereby important changes of the content of the resolution could be reached, for example, a restriction of the follow-ups to the report of the fact-finding commission.”
The spokeswoman said the “Foreign Ministry stands in a close and constructive exchange with the Israeli Embassy.”
However, the London Jewish Chronicle reported on Monday that “Benjamin Netanyahu’s office then began a series of phone calls to some of Israel’s key allies, including Angela Merkel, making the extraordinary request that they vote against Israel and against Israel’s public opposition to the resolution.”
Chronicle editor-in-chief Stephen Pollard, author of the article, confirmed to the Post that a UK source had said Netanyahu’s office asked Germany to support the resolution. According to the Chronicle, “Highly placed Whitehall sources have revealed that the Israelis regarded Friday’s UNHRC vote as being the lesser of two evils. Although accusing Israel of war crimes, it also held Hamas responsible, and marked a significant watering down of the original resolution put before the council.”
When asked where Israel urged Germany to vote for the Gaza resolution, a spokeswoman for Israel’s Embassy in Berlin referred to a statement from Israeli officials on Monday: “Israel informed the members of the UN Human Rights Council that it strongly opposes the resolution adopted on Gaza, as was widely reported in its official statements. At the same time, Israel asked members of the council to ensure that the proposed draft would not be made even worse.”
German and Israeli critics hammered away at the Gaza report because of its one-sided attack on Israel. Philipp Mißfelder, a leading Christian Democratic Union part MP in the Bundestag , told the Post on Monday, “Germany should not have supported the UNHCR report covering Operation Protective Edge.
Mißfelder, the foreign policy spokesman for the CDU-CSU parties in the Bundestag, added, “The report did not do justice to Israel’s engagement. The Jewish state has the obligation and right to protect its territory and citizens. Although Hamas frequently used human shields, Israel’s military did everything to prevent losses among the Palestinians. Since the end of the operation, Israel has actively supported the rebuilding in Gaza. It would have been better in the UNHRC report to praise the rebuilding than to place blame.”
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center– Israel Office, told the Post “How sad that as we mark 50 years of Israel-German relations, the Federal Republic has chosen to approve a UNHRC report which reeks of anti-Semitism and ignores the enormous efforts made by the IDF to avoid civilian casualties, often at the risk of Israeli soldiers.” The center’s chief Nazi hunter added, “It is particularly unfortunate that Germany, which in the past has exhibited justified sensitivity for Israel’s genuine security needs, should fail to recognize the serious flaws in the UNHRC report and it’s obvious anti-Israel bias.”
Prof.Gerald Steinberg, the head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, told the Post,” For many years, the UNHRC has been the hub of anti-Israel political warfare, led by the Islamic bloc, and conducted via the exploitation of human rights and international law.
The European Union and its member states, including Germany, are well aware of this hypocrisy, but lack the political courage to condemn it. When Mary McGowan Davis and the UNHRC staff presented their biased “report” on the 2014 Gaza conflict, based largely on unsupported NGO allegations, the German government and its representatives in Geneva were clearly aware of the failures.
”But they still joined the world’s dictatorships and repressive regimes in approving the resolution endorsing this charade. While Germany and Israel mark 50 years of cooperation, Germany’s readiness to participate in the ritual anti-Israel demonization taking place in the UN and similar venues is a growing source of friction.“
@ watsa46:
What will it take for us to accept facts and deal with them?
Netanyahu was, is and will be a TV face, a speechster, totally unreliable, self serving if not worse dud.
He has INTENTIONALLY stopped Jewish self reliance on anything that has to do on our rights to Eretz Israel.
He has betrayed on all of his utterances.
He allowed Iran to advance to nuclear state, intentionally and by cowardice.
His disgraces in uniform and himself INTENTIONALLY did not defeat HAMAS.
He has abandoned Temple Mount, Kever David and our people as a whole.
Not clear enough?
Replacing the putrid system, (combina), is a matter of Jewish National survival, not partisan politics. And it must be done now.
Procrastination gives the advantage to the opponent. So why does BB procrastinate? Does he expect a sudden conversion of the Muslims to reason?
Germans cannot forgive Jews that they(Germans) murdered them.
This is the main reason. It is only a beginning. Israel and Jews should be very careful with them and don’t share with them any strategic plans. I am worry that Israel buys strategic submarine from them. They should be checked and rechecked.
BB gov has implicitly admitted that it did request the negative votes from the EU. The narrative is that it prevented a worse situation. but does it make sense to reinforce the libels against Israel as war criminals to avoid sanctions or prosecutions.
Does Israel have no plan against acts of war like sanctions?
There is another explanation for BB requesting the votes which fits with his past behavior:
BB’s past behavior is to do nothing to advance settlement building in YS….
BB has frozen settlement building in YS for years….
BB allows the euros to build for arabs in area C…..
BB does nothing to prevent the euros from violating Israel law…
BB has single-handedly made YS settlement a fringe discussion, no one mentions building in YS anymore…..on BB’s watch.
BB has covert understandings with the arab leaders to which the gov has already admitted and boasted about….
BB is already gung ho about building up gaza soon after sending solders into gaza to die for nothing, they died to build up gaza…
BB regularly plays a game of tax withholding and giving in to the pals for public consumption…..
suddenly the military is issuing scare monger tactics about IS, hamas rebuilding tunnels, etc but isn’t their job to do something about it rather than issue scare mongering?…..
the Eu is threatening sanctions…….
A new report is suddenly issued on the cost of the threatened sanctions… a report which would normally be a national security issue is released on a ruling of the local jerusalem district court, as if BB wanted it released now…..
Here is an alternative possiblity:
BB has understandings with the gulf and the euros regarding final outcomes but the street needs time to be weaned off keeping YS and settlements. All the threats relate to YS and settlements. It is commonly accepted that such deals must be made by the right wing to be acceptable. In order to keep his right wing credentials while implementing left wing policies it must always be seen to be forced upon him, that he is the man making the big struggle against outside forces when in fact he always does nothing. Perhaps all the scare mongering is to soften the Israeli public to accept giving up YS and settlement to avoid war and sanctions.
BB has already accomplished the disappearance of YS from the Israeli vocabulary and has neutered the supporters of settlement in the coalition. He has turned Bennett into a eunuch, got rid of right wingers in his own party.
He is reserving seats in his cabinet for the left, why? He expects in the future to lose the support of the right wing members of his coalition. But why should that happen unless he expects to make major moves in contradiction of their expectations of him?
The only debate over BB is not the fact that he has done nothing for the right wing platforms of YS and settlement, in his past 2 terms, but the reasons behind his behavior. His supporters always assume that he must have a good right wing reason and buy his excuses. Perhaps his behavior is the sum total of what he intends.
So Germans don’t like Jews?
The Gaza conflict provided valuable insight. The world objects to Israel defending itself against terrorists sworn to its destruction, even when the IDF takes greater care to avoid civilian casualties than any military force ever. This is a deafening wake-up call to Jews who still pine for acceptance. It will not happen. Bitter reality can be disregarded in favor of futilely pursuing approval, or it can be embraced as a foundation for a new Israeli policy of just doing what needs to be done irrespective of international catcalls.
The pintele Yid again at it.
Germany will always be Germany. I will remain as it was, is and will be.