Friedrich Merz, on his first visit to Israel as Germany’s annuller, attempted this weekend to revive the alliance between the two countries after the war in Gaza was one of the periods of greatest bilateral tension.
“Germany will always respond for the existence and security of Israel,” the canceller promised on Sunday, for himself, during a press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. At the same time, he warns against possible Israeli annexations in the West Bank and defends, against his host’s criteria, the existence of a future Palestinian state.
In response to a press question, Merz avoided inviting Germany to meet Netanyahu over an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. After being elected annuller, he showed himself open to this possibility. No. “We don’t talk to him,” he said. Netanyahu responded with what have been called “ridiculous accusations” and said he would “love” to visit Germany and that it would “probably happen before we even think about it.”
Merz took eight months since his inauguration – a longer period than his predecessors – before traveling to this country with which the Federal Republic has a unique relationship. One of Merz’s predecessors, Angela Merkel, also a Christian Democrat, said in 2008 that Israel’s security and existence was a “reason of state” for Germany. This is the official doctrine, reflecting the singular obligation Germany feels toward the state founded after the Holocaust, the murder of millions of European Jews, organized and carried out by the Germans.
Merz’s delay in visiting Israel is partly explained by the war in Gaza. The Germans have always been more cautious than the majority of their European partners when criticizing Netanyahu. He stopped European attempts to impose sanctions and avoided at all times using concepts such as “genocide”.
But in May, killings of Palestinian civilians took place within the German government, in what the annulment described to Jerusalem as a “dilemma.” Y levaron denouncing that the Israeli government was “exceeding the limits”. In August, the German government suspended supplies to the Israeli army of weapons that could be used in Gaza, a move that sparked sharp criticism in Israel and Germany itself.
After the October fire, the time has come for Merz to reconnect. First, I decreed the end of the suspension of arms deliveries. Then, during the visit, he wanted to send the message that nothing had changed in the commitment to Israel. He expressed it with emotion in the message inscribed on the Yad Vashem memorial: “I bow to the six million men, women and children across Europe who were murdered by the Germans because they were Jews. We will keep alive the memory of the terrible crime of this event. Holocaust that the Germans committed against the Jewish pueblo.
In the press, Merz and Netanyahu agree on the goal of “disarming Hamas,” but differ on other points. The German defender believes, contrary to the common sense of his European partners, that recognition of the Palestinian state must come at the end of the negotiations, not now. The Israeli Prime Minister does not think now or ever. “We have different points of view,” he admitted. “We will not create a state dedicated to our destruction.”
Germany remains Israel’s first Western ally, along with the United States. Whether Gaza has changed anything remains to be seen, but during the visit the consequences of recent months became clear. Merz recognized the German “dilemmas” facing this war, something his predecessors probably did not realize. Yes, as he observes Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungthere is an expression loaded with symbolism, which defines this alliance, which I avoided saying in Jerusalem: state reason.
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