Also unprecedented is opposition to Jerusalem being recognized as Israel’s capital and calls for ‘democratic progress’ in Ramallah
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats sealed a deal Wednesday on a new coalition, reports said, based on an agreement that for the first time includes explicit criticism of Israeli settlements.
“Israel’s current settlement policy contradicts applicable international law and is not supported by us because it impedes a two-state solution,” the treaty reads.
Previous coalition treaties between the two parties have included an endorsement of a two-state solution, but stopped short of condemning the settlements.
The text agreed upon Wednesday also for the first time takes a position against recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital before a final-status peace agreement with the Palestinians has been reached. Also unprecedented is its pledge to support UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinians refugees, and a call for “democratic progress” in the Palestinian territories.
The passages were likely written in response to recent moves by the US administration. On December 6, Washington recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and in response to vehement opposition from Ramallah threatened to cut or withhold funding to the Palestinians.
The new German coalition agreement also reiterates Berlin’s commitment to Israel’s security and recognizes its character as a Jewish state.
“We commit ourselves to Germany’s special responsibility toward Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and its security. Israel’s right to exist and its security are non-negotiable for us,” the agreement reads, echoing almost verbatim the coalition treaty signed by the so-called Grand Coalition in November 2013.
“Germany will continue to work for a solution to the Middle East conflict based on a two-state solution,” the 2018 version goes on. “The status of Jerusalem, as well as other final status issues, will only be settled in the course of negotiations in order to be permanently accepted and durable.
We are committed to supporting the Jewish communities. We are grateful that after the Holocaust a rich Jewish life has developed in Germany
“At the same time we condemn any calls for violence and incitement. Israel’s right of existence must not be called into question. We demand that any actions — by either side — that are opposed to a final peace agreement be ceased immediately. In the Palestinian territories democratic progress is needed at all levels.”
The Israeli-Palestinian section of 2013’s coalition agreement was decidedly less detailed. Besides the commitment to Israel’s security, it stated that Germany has a “significant interest in peace and stability” in the Middle East. “Our goal is a two-state solution with a State of Israel within recognized and permanently secure frontiers as well as an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security.”
Opposition to Israeli settlements is consensus in German politics.
“As a friend and close ally, we need to know if Israel is not supporting a negotiated solution to this conflict anymore,” Foreign Minister Gabriel said during a speech in Tel Aviv last week. “So I ask those who oppose a Palestinian state: How do you want Israel’s future to look? Are you prepared to pay the price of perpetual occupation and conflict, a price that will continue to grow if there is no hope for self-determination on the Palestinian side?”
He added, “Are you willing to bear the consequences of fully fledged annexation — a one-state reality of unequal rights? Or are you ready to accept a single democratic state between the sea and the river?”
Gabriel is likely to be replaced as foreign minister by the Social Democrats’ failed candidate for chancellor, Martin Schulz.
The new coalition agreement also includes several passages devoted to the fight against the hatred of Jews and support for local Jewish communities.
Most noteworthy, the new government vows to install a special commissioner for Jewish life in Germany and for combating anti-Semitism.
The coalition partners promise to “fight decisively against anti-Semitism and likewise confront anti-Islamic streams,” it says. “We are committed to supporting the Jewish communities. We are grateful that after the Holocaust a rich Jewish life has developed in Germany. After the deprivation of rights and the murder of six million European Jews, we Germans have an everlasting responsibility in the fight against anti-Semitism.”
I saw a video yesterday by a New German Organisation for Women, in which they roll-called number of dead women in several EU countries who were attacked, sexually abused and murdered by Muslims. They are calling on ll German women to unite and battle against the Islamic horror.they have a basic defence kit of pepper spray, whistles etc, but thy will find that it will be no defence against attackers muffled up to the hairline.
No doubt they will see the good sense in also including long, sharp knives, and perhaps other more lethal items.. and no doubt will be taking “self-defence-for-women courses by the hundred thousands. This is expected to spread to all womens’ organisations in the EU. It also heralds the last hurrah of Merkel, who will never be PM again. They blame her foolish policies for their lack of protection.
The canny politician who seizes the opportunity will, on the votes of these women , be the next German Chancellor.
Why don’t the Germans condemn the Palestinians, both PA/PLO/Fatah and Hamas for openly rejecting the “two-state solution”???
This current German coalition agreement is an ‚improved‘ version. The original draft was even more biased against Israel.
The initial text did not acknowledge Israel as a Jewish State. That was not an omission by error but an attempt to isolate Israel as being apart from the Jewish people.
Furthermore, the original text attacked Israel’s “settlements policy’ without even so mentioning Arab terror.
Immediately pursuant to the section on Israel, the coalition vaguely alludes to the crises in the Middle East as being responsible to Europe’s mass migration problems.
That implies guilt by association on Israel for being part of the conflicts within the Middle East. Nothing is further away from the truth.
The current Mid-East upheavals are a direct result of Obama’s policies carried out by Clinton and Kerry to bomb Libya, install the Muslim Brothers in Egypt and disrupt the Assad regime.
The ensuing mass migration is a pre-determined consequence of the operations of hundreds of government funded (sic) non-government-organizations that are chauffeuring millions of Arabs into Europe.
These migrations were well prepared by UN studies and lobbying dating 20 years ago calling on Western governments to replace a dying population with migrants. And it was bolstered since the 1970s by the EU driven Euro-Arab dialogue organizations calling for a free movement zone surrounding the Mediterranean, with traffic going one way from Africa, to Europe.
Blaming the mass migration on Israel is evil.
Let’s give Germany the benefit of the doubt for a moment and assume that this latest important feature of the new government is simply their attempt to appease the Arabs in order to avoid fuel problems in the near future.
When they finally learn that Arabs cannot be appeased, they might just realign with Trump, although I won’t be holding my breathe…
Israel would be wise not to trust anything that the Germans say. Note the reference to the non-existent “international law” and ending the non-existent “occupation”. The main message I see here is a Germany ready to support a unworkable Two-State solution that the fake Palestinians have admitted is to them, just one more step to their goal of the destruction of Israel and the genocide of the Jews. History tells us that the part about protecting the Israelis is a joke coming from Germany. Especially when they are pandering to fake refugee Muslims at the expense even of their own people. I just see darkness in this move.
@ Hugo Schmidt-Fischer:
So tired of foreigners including these Germans telling Israel what to do and how to solve their problems. As you pointed out Germany should work on its’ own house which has growing problems. Seems their prescriptions or dictates to fellow EU members are also not so well received in many countries. If they continue the EU may whither in due course. They would be better off as a trading association in my view. Then I am sure they do not want my view either. Only I will agree that is their business. Now if they could ONLY STAY out of Israel’s business.
Germany’s ill-advised prescriptions for Israel are just projections of their own sorry state of affairs.
Berlin is a city divided between a dwindling indigenous German populace and the squalid Arab ‘hood’ of Neukoelln. You don’t want to visit there unless you are protected in an armed personnel carrier. Don’t rely on Germany for advice on the status of Jerusalem as a capital.
Germany is becoming a two state entity itself. And it is not something you would like to emulate. The country is rapidly metastasing into no-go areas throughout the country, replete with violent sharia police patrols, and officially sanctioned sharia courts. Do you really think Germany can lecture anyone about applicable international law?
With respect to so-called Arab refugees, I offer a suggestion. UNRWA will soon have a lot of unemployed staff in search of a mission. They are well experienced in handling fake refugees, and could be better applied in the Teutonic setting. If Germany would take them, it would be a welcome riddance.
Germany’s coalition plattform also committed to accept 200’000 Arab refugees annually. Can’t anybody pay those Shlepper gangs to pick up a few boatloads in Gaza once a month? Surely, the boys could manage that.
This would be MUCH cheaper than some of the grandiose plans being aired on Israpundit. It would amount to less than the proverbial drop in the bucket within the large streams of mass migration into the EU. Mogherini even claims it is needed to replace the natural decline of population.
And it would solve Israel’s problem in less than a decade.