A dinner with friends last week in Paris. Among the guests, an Israeli and a German, both of social democratic persuasion, both involved at a high level in the politics of their country. The conversation was light until suddenly the Israeli asked the German an abrupt question. A dialogue ensued between them alone, around which no one said a word.
The Israeli: Would the German government be ready to campaign within the European Union for a two-state solution imposed by an international coalition, which involves not only eradicating Hamas, but also dislodging, if it is necessary by force, the Jewish settlers of the West Bank?
The German: Germany stands with Israel. When we say that “the security of Israel is a matter of state for Germany”, it is not an empty phrase, we stand by it. It is an intangible principle.
Israeli: If you care about Israel’s security and the current Israeli government goes against Israel’s security, what do you do about this contradiction? By encouraging the power of Hamas, by continuing the settlements, by opposing a two-state solution, by forgetting the Palestinian question, Netanyahu’s far-right government cannot be an actor for peace and it endangers Israel.
German: I know it, we know it. But he is elected by the Israelis.
The Israeli: Hitler was also elected. Election alone does not create legitimacy. Netanyahu is on borrowed time. The Israeli government and state no longer exist, they no longer represent anything. It is for the security of Israel, which you defend unconditionally, that you must use your power over Israel and impose conditions on it. If the European Union does not exercise these constraints on Israel to establish peace despite the Israeli government, we are screwed.
The German: It is not up to the Germans to decide who is legitimate in your country. Our history requires us to defend the State of Israel, and therefore to stand alongside its government. We have built this alliance since the war. It’s our duty. It’s like that.
Historic promise
Since the war, Germany’s responsibility for the Holocaust has led to unwavering ties between Berlin and Israel, all parties combined. Even far-left elected officials did not hesitate to describe Hamas as “terrorist” following the pogrom of October 7 and 8. The indignation aroused in part of the German population by the massacres of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli counter-offensive in no way undermines Germany’s loyalty to Israel, whether political, diplomatic or military. “Germany’s special historical responsibility for Israel’s security is part of our raison d’état,” Chancellor Angela Merkel declared in 2008 before the Knesset. The entire Federal Republic is committed to this promise.
Elie Barnavi, historian and former Israeli ambassador to France, recently spent time in Paris and at the Parliament in Strasbourg trying to convince leaders and influential figures in Europe to create a contact group with the United States and some Arab countries, and to get involved – finally – in creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The European Union, he says, has its share of responsibility for the failure of the Oslo peace process (1993). “You were the facilitators. But, then, you left us, Palestinians and Israelis, alone face to face. You have means of pressure on Israel, you have on the Palestinian Authority, which will necessarily regain control of Gaza. Exercise them. Europeans, show your muscles!”
“Muscles”, in this case, are not the strong point of the leading European economic power. And the dinner the other evening gives an idea of the inability of EU member states, cacophonous on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to find a common position. The historian Barnavi wants to believe in a reason to hope: “History shows that from the worst humanitarian disasters arise the most daring solutions: it is the history of Europe, it is the history of Israel .”
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