Let us assume that an end of conflict agreement is arrived at that did not include such recognition. What possible tractionwould the refugeeshave to force Israel to satisfy them in whole or in part? Ted Belman
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST
BERLIN – An editorial in a regional paper denying Israel’s right to be a Jewish state unleashed on Monday a sharp wave of criticism from Israel’s embassy, German Jews and experts in modern anti-Semitism. According to the chairman of the region’s Jewish community, the commentary is anti-Semitic.
The Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (Neue OZ), located in the city of Osnabrück in the German state of Lower Saxony, published an editorial on Thursday entitled “Israel as Jewish state: Unacceptable demand.” It compared Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s goal of having the Palestinian leadership recognize Israel as a Jewish state to the creation of an “Apartheid state” or a “theocracy” such as the “Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The writer, Franziska Kückmann, argued that “Arab Israelis would be second- class citizens” if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas were to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Israel’s demand to be a Jewish state is not compatible “with a modern state” and “should not be accepted by the international community,” Kückmann wrote.
When asked about the editorial, a representative from Israel’s embassy issued a statement to The Jerusalem Post, saying: “Germany more than all other states should be aware of the necessity of Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. Every attempt to define Israel as a ‘two peoples’ state — and not to be defined as a Jewish state — misjudges the reality and damages the chances for success in the peace process. Israel is a democratic, pluralistic state, in which all citizens are treated equally, independent of religion, sex and nationality.”
The embassy statement continued, “Israel is committed to the two-state solution.
Our goal is two national states for two peoples. Israel recognizes the right of the Palestinians to their own state and expects, in return, that the Palestinians will recognize Israel as a Jewish state.”
In a telephone interview with the Post, Michael Grünberg, head of the Jewish community in Osnabrück, said Kückmann’s comparisons with Iran and Apartheid were a “new form of anti-Semitism.” He said that “when one denies Jews the right to their own state – and that is what the woman does –” it is anti-Semitism.
Grünberg said the Neue OZ had written articles that “blame Israel and are one-sided.”
He said the editorial showed “a lack of knowledge and callousness” toward Israel as a “democratic and Jewish state.”
Rabbi Moshe Baumel, who serves the Osnabrück Jewish community, told the Post that Kückmann “has no idea about the Middle East conflict,” and said her argumentation was “completely irrational.”
Responding to Kückmann separating Jewishness from Israel’s existence as a state, Rabbi Baumel pointed to Germany’s official celebration of Christian holidays as an argument against the editorial. “Why should one celebrate Christian holidays in Germany?” he asked.
He added that “Israel is a Jewish state – what could it be otherwise?”
Alex Feuerherdt, a German journalist and an authority on anti-Semitism in Germany, told the Post that Kückmann’s text was a “shameful, scandalous anti-Semitic commentary” and “an example of the delegitimization and demonization of Israel.”
Feuerherdt writes on anti-Semitism for many publications, including the main German Jewish newspaper, Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung.
The Neue OZ has a daily circulation of a little over 64,000 readers, and the city of Osnabrück’s 2012 population was listed as 155,000.
Speaking with the Post by telephone, Kückmann flatly denied any anti-Semitism in the article or her intention in writing it.
“I did not say that Israel was a theocracy or apartheid state,” Kückmann said, adding that it was “nonsense to accuse me of anti-Semitism. I am not anti-Semitic. There is no language in the commentary that denies Israel’s right to exist.”
When asked if she had visited Israel, she said no. She stressed that the commentary sought to ask questions and provoke thought about what Israel as a Jewish state would mean.
Asked if the editor-in-chief was in agreement with the editorial, Kückmann said that Burkhard Ewert, a senior editor, was “absolutely” in agreement.
In a Post telephone interview with Burkhard Ewert, who is a member of the paper’s editor-in-chief team, he said the critics had “falsely read” the commentary, leading to “misunderstandings.”
He said the editorial had posed the questions “what is a Jewish state, and how will the formation of the state in Israel be?” He stressed that Kückmann’s commentary was meant as a warning about Israel as a future theocracy or Apartheid state.
In response to the criticism that Kückmann’s editorial stripped Israel of its right to exist, Ewert said: “The paper advocates a two-state solution.”
The commentary “does not say anything about being against Jews,” Ewert said.
Dr. Elvira Grözinger, a member of the German chapter of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, wrote in an open letter to the paper that its editorial was “anti-Israel propaganda” and the “continuation of anti-Jewish agitation with new vocabulary.”
She wrote that such editorials in Neue OZ and elsewhere were irresponsible and contributed to an “anti-Jewish position” among Germans.
yamit82 Said:
From your link, the video helps explain the continued war against the Jews by Europe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nf5KeC4dAs&feature=player_embedded
Eric R. Said:
I think you are missing the the grand scheme and are seeing only what is obvious and what they want you to see. Must look deeper.
Iron Curtains, Rhetoric & Reality
Read all footnotes as well.
@ yamit82:
Yamit,
I am not questioning that Germany once again dominates Europe. But let’s give the credit where it mostly belongs – to the French, for screwing their country up so badly.
After all, you can’t help but win if the other team keeps scoring own goals.
German Arms Exports
Arms export report shows Saudi Arabia as top German customer More than a quarter of the revenue generated by German firms exporting military equipment in 2012 hailed from one country, Saudi Arabia.
Germany boosts arms exports to Qatar
German arms exports to the Gulf region are on the rise. Critics say Germany should not be supplying countries with such questionable human rights records.
Not many know that one of the chief exports of Germany are high tech tanks, submarines and warships. Last year their profit on them was over €2Billion and that is expected to rise sharply. Germany is expected to do a ‘land office’ business with arms exports.
They sell to Singapore, Canada, Asia, Chile, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Netherlands and many more.
But while most of their sales are to Western nations, they are also selling a great deal of arms in the middle east .
It would be smart of the world to pay attention to the re-militarization of Germany and the deepening involvement she is showing in African and Middle Eastern conflicts.
@ yamit82:
Germany, The Master of Europe
“Angela Merkel has made Germany master of Europe in a way Hitler and Kaiser Wilhelm only dreamt of. The implications are frightening.”
Read More
Eric R. Said:
4th Reich :The Revival of the Holy Roman Empire
The European Union and it’s prime prize, the Charlemagne award have their roots in Nazism.
Those awarded this prize for service to European unification include Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Edward Heath, Angela Merkel, Henry Kissinger among others.
The EU was founded and run at it’s inception by actual Nazis and is the extension of Hitler’s plans for world domination as laid out in a letter found in 1947 with plans for world domination in the event Germany lost WW2.
Those plans included the use of German corporations to help fund the furtherance of German plans for a single currency and a single German lead government.
The first men involved in the European Commission, which was the beginning of the EU, were very much fascist minded.
Walter Hallstein the first President of the EC in 1957 was a Nazi leadership officer who taught fascism the Nazi way in German universities.
Paul Henri Spaak called a founding father of the EU was a rather formidable fascist as was Walter Funk who was Goebbels helper as a minister of propaganda. He was Reich’s Economic minister and as such oversaw stealing Jewish property. This is the man who wrote the 1.”economic blueprint for a united Europe adopted by the European Union.”
Hans Josef Globke a personal friend of Adolf Eichmann, was the man responsible for the Nuremburg Race Laws and was director of the German Chancellors office from 53-63 . Today his race laws are used to determine the ethnic background of citizens of Europe and who is European and who is not.Jews and Gypsies are “not”.
Globke formulated the laws that gave Hitler unlimited dictatorial powers and was chief legal adviser in the Office for Jewish Affairs in the Ministry of Interior.
He was appointed “Ministerial Counsel” for the Third Reich because of his “extraordinary efforts in drafting the law for the Protection of the German Blood” and because of “his services to the Nazi regime were highly appreciated by the party hierarchy and he was highly rewarded”
Crown of the holy Roman Empire
It is not surprising then that there is a Balkanization of the world going on now while at the same time there is a push for globalization. This is seemingly contradictory but when you realize that not everyone is wanted in a global economy or kingdom, then it becomes more understandable. READ MORE
yamit82 Said:
The irony is that the European Common Market (later the EC, then the EU) was set up precisely to hold Germany in check. The problem with the rise of Germany, though, does not really lie with the Germans. It lies with all the other European countries – especially France, Italy and Spain – who managed to royally f**k themselves up; leaving Germany dominant almost by default.
I can blame the Germans for many, many things. But I cannot blame them for the utter stupidity of the French, Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, and Portuguese.
@ SHmuel HaLevi 2:
A Kraut is a Kraut is a Kraut.
A must read!!!!
Deutscheland Uber Alles
Germany is back with global ambitions
THE NAZI ROOTS OF THE ‘BRUSSELS EU’</strong>
Paul Anthony Taylor, Aleksandra Niedzwiecki, Matthias Rath
CuriousAmerican Said:
Your a bone head. Name a Nation that deals openly and honestly? And Colorado is more beautiful then NM.
CuriousAmerican Said:
If that is the case what’s wrong with being dishonest to the more dishonest?
Your double standard is showing again.
Is their a nation worth the name less dishonest than Israel?
I would say being too honest is one of our major failings.
We should learn from you people how to be really dishonest.
Israel is NOT committed to the two state solution NOR should it be.
It WISELY refuses to surrender the Jordan Valley.
Israel WISELY wants to control entrance and exit to the Arab areas.
THIS IS NOT A STATE.
All Israel offers is autonomy to the Arabs which is probably too much.
This is double talking dishonesty which will hurt Israel.
If ISRAEL promises the Arabs and the world a two state solution, then the Arabs and the world will expect Israel to deliver a two state solution.
Israel is putting its foot in its mouth.
Israel comes across and lying and dishonest.
But worse than that, Israel is hurting itself
What does it take for Jews to understand reality? Germans will never change, get it?
I visited Germany seven times since 1972 to 2002. Not guided tours by working with highly specialized research facilities and equipment design.
Germans are the same as always.
Yidvocate Said:
Is anti-semitism ever rational?
The Germs are at it again!!
How does Abbas’ recognition of Israel as a Jewish state result in Arab Israelis becoming second-class citizens? What are they now that they will become different with such recognition?
I guess anti-Semites don’t have to be rational, clear thinking human beings.
@ Laura:
Of course that would be acceptable as there would be no Jews there so it would not be an apartheid state.
So why not make the Kuckmann/woman happy and evict all the Arabs from the Jewish state?
What does Neue OZ and Franziska Kückmann have to say about the idea of a “Palestinian” state free of Jews? Is that acceptable?