BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered his most severe rebuke of Israel to date on Tuesday, criticizing massive air strikes on Gaza as no longer justified by the need to fight Hamas and “no longer comprehensible.”
The message, delivered from a press conference in Finland, reflects a broader shift in public opinion but also a greater willingness from top-ranking German politicians to criticize Israel’s conduct since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.
There was similar criticism from Merz’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul and calls among his junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats, to halt arms exports to Israel or else risk German complicity in war crimes.
While not a complete rupture, the shift in tone is significant in a country whose leadership follows a policy of special responsibility for Israel, known as the Staatsraeson, due to the legacy of the Nazi Holocaust.
Germany, along with the United States, has been one of Israel’s staunchest supporters, but Merz’s words come as the European Union is reviewing its Israel policy and Britain, France and Canada also threatened “concrete actions” over Gaza.
“The massive military strikes by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip no longer reveal any logic to me. How they serve the goal of confronting terror. ... In this respect, I view this very, very critically,” Merz said in Turku, Finland.
“I am also not among those who said it first ... But it seemed and seems to me that the time has come when I must say publicly, (that) what is currently happening is no longer comprehensible.”
The comments are particularly striking given that Merz won elections in February promising to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on German soil in defiance of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Merz also has hanging in the chancellery a picture of Zikim beach, where Hamas fighters arrived on boats during their rampage in 2023 that killed around 1,200 people.
The Chancellor plans to speak to Netanyahu this week, as attacks on Gaza killed dozens in recent days and its population of 2 million is at risk of famine. He did not reply to a question about German weapons exports to Israel, and a government official told a briefing that this was a matter for a security council presided over by Merz.
Israel’s ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, acknowledged German concerns on Tuesday but made no commitments.
“When Friedrich Merz raises this criticism of Israel, we listen very carefully because he is a friend,” Prosor told the ZDF broadcaster.
PRESSURE FROM BELOW?
Merz’s comments come on top of a groundswell of opposition to Israel’s actions. A survey by Civey, published in the Tagesspiegel newspaper this week, showed 51 percent of Germans opposed weapons exports to Israel.
More broadly, while 60 percent of Israelis have a positive or very positive opinion of Germany, only 36 percent of people in Germany view Israel positively, and 38 percent view it negatively, a survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation found in May.
This represents a notable change from the last survey in 2021, when 46 percent of Germans had a positive opinion of Israel. Only a quarter of Germans recognize a special responsibility toward the state of Israel, while 64 percent of Israelis believe Germany has a special obligation.
In another striking rebuke of Israel, Germany’s commissioner for antisemitism Felix Klein this week called for a discussion about Berlin’s stance on Israel, saying German support after the Holocaust could not justify everything Israel was doing.
Israeli historian Moshe Zimmermann said popular opinion in Germany toward Israel has reacted the same way as in other countries.
“The difference is in the political elites — the political elite is still under the influence of the lessons of WWII in a very one-dimensional way: ‘Jews were our victims during WWII, so we have to take sides with the Jews wherever they are and whatever they do,’” he said.
“You can feel it in the reaction of the new foreign minister, Wadephul, and indirectly the fact that Merz didn’t repeat his promise to invite Netanyahu. This is an unprecedented situation where the pressure from below is forcing the political class to reconsider.”
Germany shifts tone on Israel over ‘incomprehensible’ Gaza carnage
https://arab.news/22vaq
Germany shifts tone on Israel over ‘incomprehensible’ Gaza carnage
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says the Israeli military strikes on Gaza "no longer reveal any logic to me"
- 51 percent of Germans oppose weapons exports to Israel according to a published survey
Hegseth says he would have ordered second strike on Caribbean vessel
- The Trump administration has framed the attacks as a war with drug cartels, calling them armed groups and saying the drugs being carried to the United States kill Americans
WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Saturday that he backs a September 2 decision to launch a second strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean.
“I fully support that strike,” Hegseth said at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California. “I would have made the same call myself.”
A video of the attack was shown to members of Congress on Capitol Hill behind closed doors on Thursday, days after reports surfaced that the commander overseeing the operation ordered a second strike to take out two survivors to comply with Hegseth’s direction that everyone should be killed.
Officials from President Donald Trump’s administration have since said that Hegseth did not order the additional strike, and that Admiral Frank Bradley, who led the Joint Special Operations Command at the time, concluded the boat’s wreckage must be neutralized because it might contain cocaine.
Hegseth on Saturday repeated his account of the day, saying that he had seen the first strike on September 2, but then left the room to attend another meeting. He declined to say whether the administration would release the full video, calling the issue “under review.”
The September 2 attack was the first of 22 on vessels in the southern Caribbean and Pacific carried out by the US military as part of what the Trump administration calls a campaign to stem the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.
The strikes have killed 87 people, with one carried out in the eastern Pacific on Thursday.
Accounts of the September 2 strikes have prompted concerns that US forces carried out a war crime.
The video of the attack shown to lawmakers showed two men clinging to wreckage after their vessel was destroyed, according to two sources familiar with the imagery.
They were shirtless, unarmed and carried no visible communications equipment.
The Defense Department’s Law of War Manual forbids attacks on combatants who are incapacitated, unconscious or shipwrecked, as long as they abstain from hostilities and do not attempt to escape. The manual cites firing upon shipwreck survivors as an example of a “clearly illegal” order that should be refused.
The Trump administration has framed the attacks as a war with drug cartels, calling them armed groups and saying the drugs being carried to the United States kill Americans.
