German-Israel ties at all-time low as Merkel prepares to visit Israel

Phone calls between Merkel and Netanyahu have degenerated into shouting while discussing Israeli policies toward Palestinians, according to Der Spiegel.

HAARETZ

Merkel

Merkel, who broke her hip while skiing, walks past carnival enthusiasts in Berlin. Photo by AFP 

Relations between Germany and Israel are at an all-time low, according to an article published in Der Spiegel on Tuesday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to arrive in Israel next Monday for consultations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Deals on smaller issues may be possible during next week’s meetings, Der Spiegel writes, “but divisions over Israeli settlements will persist.”

Merkel and Netanyahu have resorted to shouting at each other on the phone on a number of occasions while discussing Israeli policies toward Palestinians, the magazine writes, “but relations between the two countries have never been as difficult during Merkel’s three terms in office as they are now.”

The view in Berlin is that the Netanyahu government is both incapable and unwilling when it comes to pushing forward in the peace process with the Palestinians. Israelis, on the other hand, feel abandoned by the Germans. “The conflict has deteriorated to the point that some are questioning the special relationship status between the two countries.”

Given the absence of trust, “small disputes are turning into bigger ones,” Der Spiegel writes. As an example, it points to the Horizon 2020 agreement that European money for research subsidies cannot flow into the occupied territories. The German government now wants that language to be included in two bilateral agreements. Israel, of course, is opposed.

Merkel is anxious to defuse the tensions, according to Der Spiegel. “To demonstrate how important relations are, she has called on all of her ministers to travel to Israel next week. She’s never taken such a step ahead of government consultations with Israel in the past.”

But the chancellor has not indicated any willingness to bend on what is proving to be the biggest sticking point – Israel’s settlement policy. She and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier both believe that Israeli’s settlement policy represents a decisive barrier to the peace process. “It’s also something they don’t shy away from saying in public, much to the Israeli’s chagrin.”

February 19, 2014 | 6 Comments »
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6 Comments / 6 Comments

  1. uzi Said:

    the krauts never repented for their past but simply waited that the storm gows by in order to restart where they were interrupted

    I think you are right regarding europe in general. they have not been waiting and they have never stopped they have been operating covertly and these covert operations have been emerging in the last few years. The Eu funding of the jews enemies and the Jews killers coupled with the BDS churches has been going on for years. Nothing has changed and it is once more becoming overt.

  2. by the way merkelova’s mother’s name is Kasner – a Jewish name at it seems that merkelova as well as kerry-Kohn descend both from apostate Jews – that explanes two things: there will to destroy Israel and their official pretention to be friends

  3. merkelova was never a friend – may be people will start to wake up now
    I know the krauts very well since I lived there for 26 years – the krauts never repented for their past but simply waited that the storm gows by in order to restart where they were interrupted

    how absurd and naive it is to assume that a nation wich such a past – and I am not only talking about hitler imah shemo – could change so suddenly. as Daliah Lavie put it: Parole – Parole – Parole. but infortunately jewish “leaders” – in particular in germany – are so cheep to buy with empty words…

  4. I always said that merkelova is not a friend – may be people will start to wake up now
    I know the krauts very well since I lived there for 26 years – the krauts never repented for their past but simply waited that the storm gows by in order to restart where they were interrupted

    how absurd and naive it is to assume that a nation wich such a past – and I am not only talking about hitler imah shemo – could change so suddenly. as Daliah Lavie put it: Parole – Parole – Parole. but infortunately jewish “leaders” – in particular in germany – are so cheep to buy with empty words…

  5. To demonstrate how important relations are, she has called on all of her ministers to travel to Israel next week. She’s never taken such a step ahead of government consultations with Israel in the past.

    A meaningless gesture of no value to Israel.
    All this trouble comes from the Israeli gov refusal to state the Jewish rights to YS.
    They cannot even bring themselves to utter the words
    as if the words themselves were an obscenity.
    So many jews identify with the pals position that i wonder if there is a cancer among the jews.
    How odd.

  6. Original “SPIEGEL ONLINE International” Article ” ‘Significant Escalation’: Tensions Flare in German-Israeli Relations”

    The Israelis are still deeply unhappy with Germany’s abstention in a vote before the United Nations General Assembly in December 2012 to grant the Palestinians the status of a “non-member observer state.” Leaders in Jerusalem had believed Germany would vote against it. Berlin’s vote was particularly important because Israel had long seen Germany as a guarantee that the EU would not be unanimously opposed to Israeli interests.

    An Absence of Trust

    That no longer appears to be certain. Lieberman reportedly told Steinmeier that Israel wants assurance that Germany will resist the next time the Palestinians submit a membership application to an international body.

    Merkel, of course, is anxious to defuse the tensions….

    Pensions for Jewish Ghetto Laborers: Israel Angered By German Government

    The ruling parties in Germany’s parliament blocked a measure to resolve the amount German pension funds must pay to former laborers in Nazi-era ghettos. Israeli officials are incensed and have promised to increase pressure. The debate stems from a 2002 Bundestag law that promised to quickly make it possible for Jews who once worked in ghettos to draw a modest pension from Germany. Initially, state pension fund providers rejected roughly 90 percent of applications for this pension. Officials often disputed that the former ghetto residents had worked “voluntarily” and received some form of “remuneration” for their work, which were two conditions stipulated by the German Pensions for Work in Ghettos law (ZRBG).

    The plan was blocked by Merkel’s coalition, made up of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP).
    Angry Response from Israel

    The Israeli Embassy has already set up meetings with Chancellery officials twice to discuss the issue. But both of them were cancelled on short notice.
    The Israelis have had enough of repeatedly being brushed off on this matter. Israeli Ambassador to Germany Yakov Hadas-Handelsman expressed his immense disappointment after Thursday’s Bundestag vote, telling SPIEGEL that the matter involved “legitimate demands of former Jewish ghetto laborers.” The elderly survivors, he continued, “expect that there will be a moral and legal solution before it is too late,” and the Israeli government will do all it can to see that justice is served on this issue.

    “It just can’t be that the German government gives out several billion to rescue Greece and other crisis-struck countries but is stingy with ghetto pensions,” says Elazar Stern, a member of the liberal Hatnua (“The Movement”) party headed by former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

    When he thinks about the battle to solve the pension issue, Stern also has his own parents in mind. His 80-year-old mother survived the Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camps, and his father, a survivor of the Mauthausen concentration camp, just celebrated his 90th birthday. Since it could only be a matter of days or weeks before they pass away, Stern plans to urge the media to put pressure on Merkel’s government now that the Bundestag has refused to act. “Starting now,” Stern says, “we will publicly calculate each week how many survivors die without living to see a resolution.”