Merz has misgivings Israeli security

By Corinna Schwanhold

Berlin (dpa) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has expressed reservations about the core principle regarding Israel laid out by former chancellor Angela Merkel, while making it clear that Israel’s security remains an important part of German foreign policy.

When asked whether Merkel’s declaration was obsolete that Israel’s security is a raison d’état, or reason of state, for Germany, the conservative leader said in an interview with the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung seen in advance by dpa: “I have always struggled with this term because it has never been fully spelled out in all its consequences.”

Former chancellor Merkel had declared Israel’s security a raison d’état in a speech before the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in 2008. A raison d’état is defined as a purely political reason for governmental action, based on the national interest.

Merz had already stated in early October on German public broadcaster ARD in response to the suggestion that he could not relate much to the term: “Raison d’état is usually for one’s own country and not for others.”

As recently as June, Merz had said: “Our raison d’état is the defence of the state of Israel in its existence.”

However, Merz told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that his stance on Israel had not changed. “There is this special core in the relations with the state of Israel, and this includes the idea that Israel’s security has always been an important part of German foreign policy – is, and will remain so.”

Every federal government must reassess, in light of the situation in the Middle East, how it “can best fulfil this responsibility for Israel’s security.”

On August 8, Merz had ordered that no further exports of weapons to Israel, which could be used in the Gaza conflict, would be approved for the time being.

After the agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement on the initial steps in a peace process, Merz stated that this regulation needed to be reconsidered. The arms export halt had caused discontent in Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Germany of rewarding Hamas for its terror with the decision.