Benjamin Netanyahu with Olaf Scholz: Meetings in times of crisis

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The political course of the right-wing government in Israel is worrying Berlin. And casts a shadow over the relations between Germany and Israel.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the way – here to a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem

Actually it was just a anniversary reception. However, during his speech on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Israeli University of Haifa at the end of last week, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier became downright political in his official residence at Bellevue Palace in Berlin. Unusual for the head of state. Steinmeier took a critical look at Israel and the country's domestic political developments.

The Federal President expressed his concern about the “escalation of hatred and violence” over the past few weeks and months and the Israeli government's “planned restructuring of the rule of law”. The Germans have “always looked with great admiration on the strong and vibrant rule of law in Israel. Precisely because we know how necessary this strong and vibrant rule of law is in the region.” So Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was German Foreign Minister from 2005 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2017.

Isaac Herzog and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, accompanied by their wives, September 2022 in Berlin

A head of state jumped, it seemed, to the side of another head of state. Steinmeier then made that clear: He was “in regular contact with my friend and colleague Isaac Herzog” and relied on his “clever and balancing voice in the Israeli debate”. The 62-year-old duke, who has been president of his country since mid-2021, is the most important admonisher to the Netanyahu government and is therefore under pressure himself.

Controversial judicial reform

Because the plan for a comprehensive Judicial reform by the ultra-right Netanyahu government would alter the state's democratic framework. The plans envisage that the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, could overrule decisions of the Supreme Court by a simple majority. The Knesset discussed some of the legislative amendments in the first reading.

Protest against judicial reform in February 2023 in Jerusalem

Never before has there been such clear public criticism of Israeli domestic policy from a German head of state. Certainly, in the final phase of Moshe Katzav's term of office, Israel's President from 2000 to 2007, until he resigned on charges of sexual assault, the German side decided not to travel to Jerusalem. But public criticism of Israeli domestic policy was rare, even when commenting on the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Because the relationship between Germany and Israel is of a special kind. It will always be shaped by the Shoah, the mass murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany. The relationship has developed impressively since 1965, the year in which full diplomatic relations were established between the two countries. The most recent example is a German-Israeli youth organization that was decided in late summer 2022.

An early friendship

David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973) stands for early reconciliation. The legendary first Prime Minister of Israel argued early on for the view of the “other Germany”. Ben-Gurion and the first Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) only met twice in their lives – in 1960 and 1966. And yet both statesmen seemed almost like distant friends.

David Ben-Gurion and Konrad Adenauer when they first met in 1960 in New York.

The first official talks between the Federal Republic and Israel began as early as 1952. First it was about a reparations agreement, then there were secret contacts for German arms deliveries to Israel.

When this became known in the area of ​​tension in the Middle East in 1964, there was great excitement. And yet it was the final impetus for the establishment of full diplomatic relations in 1965. A step that many people in the young Jewish state found difficult. The arrival of the first German ambassador was accompanied by riots.

Kohl, Merkel and Scholz in Israel

The relationship and solidarity were strengthened through joint commemoration days and visits by German government representatives. Helmut Kohl only traveled to Israel twice in his 16 years as Federal Chancellor. Angela Merkel, however, is different: she visited Israel eight times, most recently as Prime Minister in October 2021.

“The fact that we are united by ties of friendship today is an invaluable gift; and given our history, it is an unlikely gift,” Merkel said in 2018, also addressing anti-Semitism in Germany. Chancellor Olaf Scholz made an inaugural visit to Israel in March 2022, his only visit to date as Chancellor. He was overshadowed by Russia's massive attack on Ukraine, which had just begun.

Olaf Scholz and Naftali Bennett in March 2022 in Jerusalem

What was noticeable in the Merkel years from 2005 to 2021: During the right-wing nationalist government of Benjamin Netanyahu, the chancellor traveled to Jerusalem less frequently. Bilateral government consultations in Jerusalem were even canceled once in 2017 and formally rescheduled in October 2018, the 70th year of the founding of the State of Israel.

Promote the two-state solution

The German heads of government, especially Merkel at the age of 16, always and unequivocally emphasize Israel's right to exist. Parallel to the Israeli settlement policy in the Palestinian territories, however, they repeatedly advocate a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians and also mention this in their appeals to the Palestinian side. Every new Israeli settlement is accompanied by warnings from Germany not to further burden the tense situation in the country.

An early highlight of mutual relations was certainly an appearance by Merkel in the Knesset. In 2008 she was the first foreign head of government to speak there: in German, the language of the perpetrators. And she seemed visibly touched when she spoke the words: “Every federal government and every chancellor before me was committed to Germany's special historical responsibility for Israel's security. Germany's historical responsibility is part of my country's reason of state. That means Israel's security is never negotiable for me as German chancellor.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel 2008 in the Knesset in Jerusalem

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“Germany will – you can rely on that- continue to stand firmly by Israel's side,” declared Federal Chancellor Scholz in March 2022, when he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem at the beginning of his inaugural visit. There he spoke explicitly of Germany's historical responsibility for the state of Israel. After the talks with the then Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Scholz announced that his entire cabinet would soon be invited to German-Israeli government consultations in Berlin.

Government consultations are hard to imagine

These government consultations are perhaps the clearest indication of alienation for all historical commitment. In 2008, back then in Jerusalem, the first of these major government meetings took place. Since then, by 2018, six more, three in Berlin, three in Jerusalem. Now, in view of the political constellation, many observers can hardly imagine a meeting with all cabinet members.

Chancellor Scholz congratulated Prime Minister Netanyahu after he took office again at the end of 2022 and mentioned the special and close friendship between the two countries. But the German side is critical of the integration of right-wing extremist parties and politicians in the government. Their goals include so-called judicial reform, the reintroduction of the death penalty and the expansion of settlements in areas that the Palestinians claim for a future state .

Criticism from Berlin becomes clearer

Initially, criticism from the German side came only from government spokesmen at the federal press conference, who recalled the desired two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. But at the end of February, two important German ministers also expressed concerns and criticism.

The German Federal Minister of Justice, Marco Buschmann, was the first German government official to visit Jerusalem since the change of direction and power in Israel. He became – in conversations, in interviews, on Twitter – clear. It is important to “position oneself clearly against tendencies that endanger the rule of law,” he warned. It's about “preserving liberal democracy,” emphasized the FDP politician, and warned against “endangering the rule of law.” Hardly ever before had anyone from the German side made such critical comments about the domestic political situation in Israel.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will receive her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen in Berlin in February 2023

A week later, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock received her new Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen, in Berlin. “I don't want to hide the fact that we are worried abroad,” Baerbock said publicly in the presence of Cohen. A strong democracy needs “an independent judiciary that can also review majority decisions”. And: Basic rights are “by their nature minority rights”. At the time, tens of thousands were already marching through the streets of Israel protesting against the government.

Critical questions from Israel, too

Now comes Netanyahu. A visit as exciting as ever. Germany and Israel, this historically charged story gets, one way or another, another chapter. The guest from Israel will also bring critical questions with them. Because Germany still has a problem with sometimes massive anti-Semitism. When Scholz was a guest in Israel, the debacle of the Documenta in Kassel, one of the world's most important art exhibitions, was still to come with a series of anti-Semitic depictions.

And maybe Scholz and his guest will make press statements after their lunch just at the point where the Chancellor appeared with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in August 2022. At the time, Abbas lamented multiple holocausts against the Palestinians – and Scholz remained silent. Only later did the chancellor condemn this “derailment” of the guest. But a shadow remained.