Germany and Israel A Relationship Full of Misunderstandings By Christiane Hoffmann and Ren Pfister….see note please
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-debates-the-meaning-of-anti-\
semitism-a-877414.html
Well you see where this is going…..bashing Israel is far more “respectable” than just unvarnished anti-Semitism….and Israel’s witless critics have given Germany the cudgels …..rsk
How critical can one be of Israel? It is a question that Germany has been
debating since SPIEGEL ONLINE columnist Jakob Augstein was included on the
Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of the world’s worst anti-Semites. Political
leaders in Berlin have a different answer than Germans at large.
Does Angela Merkel mistrust the very people she governs? Is she
uncomfortable with the German people?
In October 2011, the German chancellor stood onstage at the academy of the
Jewish Museum, in Berlin, next to conductor Daniel Barenboim. The
celebratory concert had concluded, and the museum’s director had just
presented Merkel with its Award for Understanding and Tolerance.
This is one of many awards the chancellor has received from Jewish
institutions over the last couple years, including the Heinz Galinski Prize
from the Jewish Community of Berlin, the American Jewish Committee’s Light
Unto the Nations Award and an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University.
At the Jewish Museum, Merkel spoke a few pleasant words, calling the award
both an honor and a responsibility. Then she cited a study, according to
which 60 percent of Europeans — including Germans — consider Israel the
most significant threat to world peace.
Following Merkel’s logic seems to present a conclusion that two thirds of
Germans harbor anti-Semitic sentiments. Is this really what the chancellor
believes? Or was her intention simply, as she said in her speech, to warn
against allowing anti-Semitism to increase?
Merkel’s speech provides a direct path into the minefield that is relations
between Jews and Germans, and between Germany and Israel. Of course it is
absurd to label Israel the world’s worst aggressor. But does simply making
such a statement count as anti-Semitism?
Where does objective criticism end and defamation begin? The controversy over journalist Jakob Augstein’s
columns in SPIEGEL ONLINE and elsewhere has re-ignited this debate, a storm
triggered when the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles placed Augstein on
its list of the world’s worst anti-Semites.
Every Society Needs Taboos
Two different arenas of discussion have arisen in Germany in recent years,
one for the country’s politicians and one for the public. Most politicians
cling tightly and fearfully to the safety of the official line when they
give speeches. Particularly members of the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament,
haven’t forgotten the 1988 case of Philipp Jenninger. Then president of the
Bundestag, Jenninger expressed himself unclearly in a commemorative speech
on the anniversary of the Nazi Kristallnacht pogroms in 1938, leaving his
own views too open to interpretation. Within 24 hours of that speech,
Jenninger resigned.
The general public, on the other hand, is tired of the strictures that
dictate what can and cannot be said for the sake of maintaining good
German-Israeli relations.
Every society needs its taboos, of course. In Germany, Holocaust denial is
one such taboo, as is casting aspersions on Israel’s right to exist. But
doesn’t each era need to find its own particular language in which to
communicate? World War II has been over for more than six decades. The
generation that perpetrated the crimes is dying out. Germany has become one
of Israel’s closest allies, as can be seen from the billions of euros’ worth
of arms sales from Germany to Israel. Isn’t that grounds enough for speaking
openly, even expressing severe criticism if necessary?
The chancellor certainly doesn’t think so. More than any other head of
government, she has aligned Germany with Israel. Some see these efforts
toward reconciliation with the Jewish people as the only conviction the
chancellor truly holds. “She takes the matter personally,” says Deidre
Berger, head of the Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee. Shimon
Stein, former Israeli ambassador to Germany, was even a private guest at
Merkel’s weekend house in the Uckermark region northeast of Berlin.
In a 2008 address to the Knesset, Merkel declared Israel’s security “part of
my country’s raison d’�tre.” Even more spectacular was the statement that
followed: “And if that is so, then these cannot be allowed to remain empty
words at a critical time.” This can only be understood as Merkel assuring
Israel that Germany will step in with military aid if necessary.
Unconditional Solidarity
“A German politician must establish a relationship of mutual trust with
Israel, so that criticism of Jerusalem is not misunderstood,” says Ruprecht
Polenz, a member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and chair of
the Foreign Policy Committee in the Bundestag. Chancellor Merkel has
certainly done this. But she has also offered at most quiet protest over
Israel’s settlement policy, to little effect. Many within the Chancellery
are frustrated that these arguments have not moved Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu in the least.
Merkel’s unconditional solidarity with Israel has thus failed to pay off,
yet at the same time her approach has distanced the chancellor from many
Germans, who are unwilling to follow her so unconditionally. Just how wide
that rift has grown could be seen in the public debate last spring over a
poem by G�nter Grass, in which the author portrayed Israel as the aggressor
in the Middle East and a threat to world peace. None of the country’s top
politicians came to Grass’ defense. Hermann Gr�he, secretary general of the
CDU, said he was “appalled” by the poem and even Sigmar Gabriel, chair of
the Social Democratic Party (SPD) stated, “Some of it is excessive, and in
many parts hysterical.” These reactions only made the public’s support for
Grass all the more vehement, with letters piling up in the parties’
headquarters expressing outrage over the politicians’ rebuke of Grass.
What exactly does this response signify? Are the Germans a nation of
anti-Semites, with the ugly countenance of hatred toward Jews lurking behind
every corner, as author Tuvia Tenenbom recently suggested in his book “I
Sleep in Hitler’s Room: An American Jew Visits Germany”?
There have been a number of studies on anti-Semitism in Germany, and few
topics have been examined as extensively as Germans’ resentments toward
Jews. The most recent major study, conducted on behalf of the Federal
Interior Ministry, clocks in at 204 pages.
A Degree of Skepticism
Still, the question remains: How can one measure an attitude, a feeling? In
what units is hate calculated? Is someone an anti-Semite if they say Jews
have too much influence in Germany? Or if they express agreement with the
opinion that Jews never look after anyone but themselves and their own?
One thing can be said for certain, and that is that Germany falls more to
the middle of the spectrum on such questions. In Poland andHungary, for
example, resentment toward Jews is far more widespread than in Germany. All
told, according to the Interior Ministry study, 20 percent of Germans harbor
latent anti-Semitism.
Certainly these numbers should be taken with a degree of skepticism. The
researchers themselves admit it’s impossible to produce clearly measured
results in this field. But one thing is clear: Germans’ anti-Semitism acts
as a great temptation in politics — any politician looking to garner votes
for his or her party quickly can play on anti-Jewish resentment.
That, though, is a dangerous game, as politician Martin Hohmann found out
when he used the term “a nation of perpetrators” in connection with Jews.
Merkel excluded him from the CDU’s parliamentary group as a result.
The story of J�rgen W. M�llemann ended badly as well. M�llemann, a top
politician in the Free Democratic Party (FDP), played a game that held not
only many voters in thrall, but his own party as well, stating in an
interview that he could sympathize with Palestinian suicide attackers, and
accusing then-Vice President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
Michel Friedman of being “intolerant and spiteful.”
FDP party head Guido Westerwelle was slow to take any action on M�llemann.
Not until Hans-Dietrich Genscher and the party’s higher-ups intervened did
Westerwelle break with M�llemann. Israel hasn’t forgotten the incident and
keeps Westerwelle, now Germany’s foreign minister, under close observation
to this day because of the M�llemann affair.
‘Sobering’
Israel feels under threat more than ever before, both from Iran and through
the developments throughout the Arab world, and that sensitivity is only
growing. At the same time, from Germany’s perspective there are many reasons
to view Israeli policies critically. The country has changed, with
demographic changes due to immigration from Eastern Europe and Africa
causing a political shift to the right. Hardliners will have the say here
for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, Israel’s settlement policy will soon render the idea of a
Palestinian state impossible. When Hans-Ulrich Klose, the SPD’s top
politician on foreign policy issues, recently attended a political congress
in Israel, he met hardly any politicians still working for a two-state
solution — the solution Germany considers the only viable path to peace in
the Middle East. “It was sobering,” Klose stated.
What, then, should Germany do? Klose says he still believes the German
government should refrain from publicly reprimanding Israel. “Why should
Germany of all countries make itself Israel’s critic?” he asks.
But some younger politicians take a different view, and are increasingly
unwilling to stick to the old approach. “Germany has a historical
responsibility,” agrees Julia Kl�ckner, 40, head of the CDU in the federal
state of Rhineland-Palatinate. “But that’s not a blank check to be
uncritical in foreign policy.”
Germany needs to find a way to be less inhibited in its dealings with
Israel, Kl�ckner suggests. She adds, “Those who throw around accusations of
anti-Semitism at every turn lose credibility.”
“Less inhibited in dealings with Israel”? “Throwing around accusations of
anti-Semitism”? Are these acceptable things to say? Kl�ckner may find
herself taking considerable heat for her statements — or meeting with
considerable approval.
Translated by Ella Ornstein
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