The Israeli government’s actions in Gaza “can no longer be justified,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday, signalling a profound shift in tone from one of Europe’s traditionally most staunch supporters of Israel.
The Israeli government’s actions in Gaza “can no longer be justified,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday, signalling a profound shift in tone from one of Europe’s traditionally most staunch supporters of Israel.
Ok so despite the other salty comments, I do feel like this is a big shift in Germany’s rhetoric, and it’s a move in the right direction.
Yes, the actual news is that he said it, aloud and in public.
Problem is that it is only a rhetorical shift. At the same time Germany opposes to review the EU association agreement with Israel. The same day the government reemphasized that they want to continue selling weapons to Israel against a parliamentary initiative.
They try to claim that them “talking” to Israel is working, while opposing any actual action.
It is crucial not to let them get away with it. Merz is big on talk and it is often not followed by action, or by action directly opposing the talk. For instance they blew up the former government by blocking the taking on of new debt to finance infrastructure investments/upkeep that are direly needed. Now as the new government they passed a huge block of new debt to do exactly that.
It is a poor attempt of getting plausible deniability.