The symbolism could not be more stark: 60 years after Germany and Israel established diplomatic relations—a milestone following the Holocaust—Germany’s government is capitulating to the anti-Israel lobby. Meanwhile, antisemitism has reached alarming new heights, as a recent study confirms.
The usual diplomatic platitudes preceded the anniversary: “Germany’s responsibility for the security of Israel, its citizens and the Jewish people is and will remain a cornerstone of German foreign policy,” declared an official German Foreign Ministry page in April.
Four weeks later, the tone shifted dramatically. Instead of reaffirming friendship and support, leading German government representatives criticized Israel with a smugness and harshness unseen in the post-war era.
It began with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) calling for “immediate aid for the Gaza Strip” during Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s anniversary visit to Berlin.
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul followed suit, “warning” Israel against “pressuring“ Germany into what he called “compulsory solidarity,” while threatening to halt certain arms deliveries.
Then came the most damaging blow: Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) openly reprimanded Israel in a tone that conservative commentators have rightly called unprecedented for any post-war German chancellor. Speaking at Re:publica—a trendy tech conference attended primarily by young green-leaning progressives—Merz declared: “Harming the civilian population to such an extent, as has increasingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism.”
He claimed to no longer understand the Israeli army’s objectives in Gaza and spoke of a “human tragedy” involving the alleged targeting of children—language that, however unintentionally, echoes tropes that have fueled antisemitism for centuries.
The magnitude of this betrayal becomes clear when examining Merz’s previous positions. As opposition leader, he had been a staunch Israel supporter, calling former Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s statement about following “law and order” regarding potential ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu a “scandal.” When he discovered the government had temporarily blocked arms exports to Israel, he pilloried Scholz in parliament.
Following the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Merz spoke of a scandal, and even invited him to Berlin, just hours before February’s election. Now, government circles whisper that Netanyahu will never again be welcomed in Berlin.
What we’re witnessing represents nothing less than the abandonment of Germany’s special obligation to protect Jewish life—a commitment born from the country’s darkest chapter. The promise of Israel’s security as Germany’s raison d’état—famously articulated by former Chancellor Angela Merkel in her historic speech before the Knesset in 2008—is proving to be empty rhetoric precisely when Israel needs friends most.
The connection between government rhetoric and street-level violence is undeniable. Germany’s Federal Research and Information Point for Antisemitism (RIAS) registered 8,627 incidents of violence, vandalism, and threats against Jews in 2024—eight involving potential loss of life or serious bodily harm. The extent and severity of antisemitic incidents matched those that erupted in the weeks following October 7th.
By repeating anti-Israel stereotypes, the government is legitimising the radical elements that have made Germany’s streets and universities unsafe for Jews. Jews now live in a permanent state of emergency in Germany. Yet in a Fox News interview, Merz claimed his government was doing “everything” to counter rising antisemitism, including tackling “imported” Islamist antisemitism. Although many Germans were surprised and pleased to hear Merz acknowledge the country’s Islamist problem, his promise, as seems to have become the norm with Merz, proved awfully short-lived.
Merz’s sudden “change of heart” regarding recent war developments lacks credibility. This represents another in a series of convenient reversals during his brief chancellorship, reminiscent of his debt policy U-turn in February—justified by citing a Trump speech delivered just days after his election.
The truth is more disturbing: this represents pure virtue signaling and political calculation. Merz and his supporters in the government have concluded that it’s more convenient to abandon Israel and appease the increasingly vocal Left-antisemitic lobby, even within his own coalition, than to do the hard work of principled leadership.
From the outset, Merz prioritized coalition harmony above all else, believing political strife leads to governmental decline.
Merz is also desperately courting younger voters, mimicking Die Linke’s success in February’s elections, where many believe the party’s anti-Israel rhetoric attracted middle-class youth. It’s a calculated attempt to win over young voters who didn’t support the AfD—Germany’s second most popular party among the young—while writing off those who did.
Equally revealing are Merz’s EU ambitions. The green-leaning, progressive taz newspaper astutely labelled him ‘Friedrich Merz—the wannabe “foreign chancellor”‘, albeit in a nauseatingly Israelophobic commentary. His desire to become the EU’s new liberal leader, just as his predecessor Merkel had been, is well known. Consequently, he has come under pressure from his eager European colleagues, namely France, Spain, and the non-EU member UK, who have announced sanctions against Israel.
As the EU increasingly becomes a club of Israel-haters, Merz is seeking to position himself on the ‘right’ side. He has distanced himself from his earlier statements, including his condemnation of the scandalous ICC ruling, to avoid being associated with leaders such as Viktor Orbán, who, although he is principled in his fight against the ICC’s antisemitic ruling, is not popular with the wider EU bureaucracy.
This ‘European solidarity,’ which is largely anti-Israeli, comes at an enormous cost. Merz is jeopardising the special relationship that Germany has painstakingly built with Israel over several decades.
The implications for Germany, with its rising antisemitism and growing Islamist activism, are catastrophic. By choosing to stand with those who trivialise Hamas terrorism over those who support Israel’s democracy, Merz has sided with the latter.
As Ulrich Reitz, a journalist from Focus, rightly observes, this has increased unease within conservative circles. Reitz sharply criticises Merz for not mentioning the Hamas terror attacks or the hostages. Reitz rightly points out that if a CDU chancellor were to stop supplying arms to Israel simply because he disapproved of the way the country was waging war against a terrorist organisation—an organisation which is known to use civilians as human shields—this would spell disaster.
If Merz hoped to appease the anti-Israel lobby and harmonize his coalition, this strategy has already proven counterproductive. Predictably, his coalition partner SPD—with its deeply anti-Israel factions—has intensified demands for ending arms deliveries following Merz’s “concession.”
Other members of the anti-Israel lobby have also been emboldened. When Germany’s interior minister Alexander Dobrindt from the CSU (the Bavarian branch of Merz’s CDU party, which has thankfully contradicted Merz) met his Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa’ar and reconfirmed Germany’s support for Israel—stating “Germany and Israel are close partners. We learn and benefit from each other through our trusting cooperation in civil protection, cyber defense and security issues”—there were immediate open letters and protests from the usual suspects—largely from Germany’s state-sponsored cultural sector.
If Merz abandons Israel for short-term political calculations, he will betray not only a crucial ally but his own country and the principles it so carefully constructed from the ashes of its darkest period. This is more than a foreign policy failure—it’s a moral collapse that dishonors Germany’s post-war transformation and endangers Jewish life both in Germany and beyond.
The question isn’t whether Germany can afford to maintain its support for Israel. The question is whether Germany can afford to abandon the moral foundation of its post-Holocaust identity. If Merz answers yes, Germany will face consequences that extend far beyond diplomatic embarrassment. It will not merely appease but actively encourage Islamism and fuel the scourge of antisemitism that brought such disaster upon the country in the past. A Germany that succumbs to antisemitism is bad news not just for Germans or Jews—it spells danger for all of Europe.
