BERLIN/TEL AVIV (own report) – The European Union continues to refuse any action against Israel in response to its brutal warfare in the Gaza Strip, even after the most recent plans for deporting and incarcerating the Palestinian population. The latest decision to do nothing was affirmed by EU foreign ministers at their meeting on 16 July. They argued that a promise of a short-term expansion of Israeli aid deliveries into Gaza was sufficient grounds for blocking the demands of a few EU countries, including Spain, to at least suspend the EU’s Association Agreement with Israel. Germany in particular has been a strong advocate of blocking any practical measures against Israel’s far-right government. And Berlin can rely on support from the right-wing governments of Italy and Hungary. Yet the voices of criticism and active protest against Israel’s war on Gaza are growing louder. Even a former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is saying that the planned enclosed “humanitarian city” to be created by Israel on the rubble of Gaza, in which some 600,000 Palestinians are to be kept as a first step, will in fact be “a concentration camp”. Meanwhile, a gathering of thirty or so countries in Bogotá is seeking to introduce concrete measures against Israel. This “emergency summit” is calling out the West’s “exceptionalism” expressed in its decision to ignore international law. Read more

BERLIN/TEL AVIV/TEHRAN (own report) – The German government approves Israel’s current war of aggression against Iran, which is clearly in violation of international law. No criticism can be heard from Berlin over the targeted assassination of civilian scientists. On Friday, Chancellor Friedrich Merz categorically stated, “We reaffirm that Israel has the right to defend its existence and the safety of its citizens.” As numerous judgements by renowned international law experts have shown, a “preventive” strike such as Israel’s attack on Iran is only permissible if it really prevents an imminent and overwhelming attack that cannot be averted by any other means. This was not the case here. Indeed, Iran was engaged in talks with the United States over its nuclear programme. Nor can the targeted killing of Iranian scientists be justified under international law, as a US legal expert has confirmed. German governments of various stripes, whether a ‘grand coalition’, an SPD-Greens coalition or a CDU/CSU-FDP coalition, have typically chosen to cover up crimes committed by close allies. The CIA’s abduction of terror suspects to torture dungeons and US drone killings around the world under Obama are cases in point. Read more

TEL AVIV/BERLIN (own report) – Israel’s ultra-right government seeks to deepen its cooperation with the extreme right in Europe and, in principle, does not rule out working with the AfD. Representatives of various parties aligned to the far-right Patriots for Europe (PfE) bloc, now the third largest group in the European Parliament, attended an international conference in Israel last week. Organised by Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs, it was billed as a gathering to discuss the fight against antisemitism. Attendees included Jordan Bardella, President of the French Rassemblement National (RN). Likud, the party of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had earlier been accorded observer status with the PfE grouping in the EU. Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, has instructed Israel’s diplomats in France and elsewhere to normalise relations with various extreme right-wing parties. Yet the majority of these parties grew out of traditionally antisemitic circles. In many cases they are directly linked to Nazi collaborators. Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli, says that he “hopes” the AfD will break with certain controversial politicians, clearing the path for direct cooperation with his government. The German government works very closely with Netanyahu, who supports Chikli. Read more

TEL AVIV/BEIRUT/BERLIN (own report) – The German government is still refusing to criticise Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, and now in Lebanon. Berlin will not even call for a halt to the supply of deadly weapons to Israel. In recent days, several senior United Nations officials have taken a clear and strong stance against purported war crimes committed by the Israeli Defence Force. French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a halt to the supply of weapons of war to Israel. In a speech delivered yesterday, Sunday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz limited himself to a generalised plea for “a ceasefire”. The Hamas massacre of 7 October 2023, in which almost 1,200 people were directly murdered, is now being widely commemorated. Israel answered the massacre with a war on Gaza that has long since transgressed all humanitarian limits. The number of civilians killed in the Gaza Strip after one year of war is twice as high as the number of civilians killed in Ukraine after thirty months of war. More than 80 per cent of all schools in Gaza and almost all hospitals have been severely damaged or completely destroyed by bombing. For Germany, Israel remains its most important military partner outside of NATO. Read more

BERLIN/TEL AVIV (own report) – German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock does not rule out the deployment of Bundeswehr soldiers as part of an international ‘protection force’ for the Gaza Strip. This move would see Germany engaging in a military intervention designed to oversee a ceasefire. Other politicians in the ruling ‘traffic light’ coalition generally agree but reject – at least for the time being – Bundeswehr involvement in combat operations. If the mission did materialise it would build on what is now a long tradition of German-Israeli military cooperation. This began at the end of the 1950s, when Israeli soldiers were trained on German weapons in the wake of the Suez Crisis. Military cooperation grew closer during the 1980s and became particularly strong in the 1990s. The idea was to leverage the extensive operational experience of the Israeli Defence Force for the desired transformation of the Bundeswehr into an effective global intervention force. German soldiers have undergone specialist training in Israel in areas such as ‘house-to-house combat and tunnel warfare’. The Bundeswehr itself describes cooperation with the IDF as “incredibly close”. Read more

BERLIN/TEL AVIV (own report) - The delivery of another German-built submarine to the Israeli navy is imminent. According to media reports, the vessel is named INS Drakon and is currently being completed by ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) at its Kiel shipyard. Work and sea trials are almost finished and the sub – to be the IDF’s most expensive combat weapon – can be handed over very soon. It will be the next in a long line of weapon systems and components that Germany has supplied to Israel’s armed forces. Arms cooperation between the two countries dates back to the 1950s and is central to bilateral relations. It extends far beyond the basic arms trade to include joint defence sector research and development. Israeli defence companies developed, for instance, airforce technologies that were successfully tested by the Israeli Air Force in the 1982 Lebanon War and later used by the German Luftwaffe in Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Conversely, the Merkava tanks that Israel is likely to use in a possible ground offensive in Lebanon are powered by German engines. Experts in the field say that this armaments partnership is essentially based on common interests. Read more

BERLIN/TEL AVIV/BEIRUT (own report) - Even after the wave of Israeli attacks on Lebanon yesterday, Monday, the German government is upholding its support for the Israeli government’s bellicose policy. Hundreds of people were killed in the attacks, including numerous civilians, paramedics and children. Berlin had already sought to legitimise Israel’s strikes on population centres by declaring that the threat posed to Israel by Hezbollah is decidedly “intolerable”. Berlin failed to criticise the attacks last week with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies. They were deliberately triggered in civilian areas, killing and horribly maiming Hezbollah members, many in civilian roles, along with civilian bystanders. The German government’s own strategy for the Middle East is based heavily on cooperation with Israel, the region’s player most wedded to the West both socially and politically. The bigger picture is that Berlin, acting in lockstep with Washington, aims to strengthen German-European positions in the Middle East in order to make it easier for the US to redeploy its forces as it shifts to a power struggle against China in the Asia-Pacific region. China is now a major priority for the US military. Read more

BERLIN/TEHRAN/TEL AVIV (own report) - The EU and several G7 states are preparing new sanctions against Iran, partly in response to German pressure. This move follows Iran’s attack on Israel last weekend. The missile and drone bombardment was the first time Iran has directly targeted Israeli territory, although the two states have been engaged in violent clashes for many years. Since 2013, and increasingly since 2017, Israel has been hitting Iranian positions in Syria. Since 7 October 2023 the Israelis have focused on targeted assassinations of Iranian commanders, killing almost a dozen by the end of March alone. The airstrike on an Iranian consulate building in Damascus on 1 April killed seven Iranian commanders, some of them high-ranking. It marks “an unprecedented escalation” by Tel Aviv, notes the London-based think-tank Chatham House. It could yet prove to be “the spark that ignites the Middle East”. In response, the West has taken no action against Israel for, not least, violating the Vienna Convention on diplomatic sites. Iran’s retaliatory strikes – a choreographed show of strength communicated in advance – immediately triggered Western punishment. The double standards once again on display have given rise to some fierce criticism from the wider international community. Read more

BERLIN/TEL AVIV/THE HAGUE (own report) – Germany must, for the first time, answer to the highest UN court. The charge is complicity in genocide. Accusing Germany of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention, Nicaragua’s legal intervention led to public hearings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague at the beginning of the week. Managua accuses Berlin of supporting Israel both politically and militarily through arms supplies, despite the fact that Israel’s conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip is currently being investigated by the ICJ for its potentially genocidal character. The ICJ has already established evidence for genocide that is at least plausible. If this suspicion is confirmed the German government would be guilty of aiding and abetting genocide by authorising arms exports to Israel. A first formal ruling by the ICJ is expected in April. A number of Western countries have already seen courts, parliaments and corporations moving to stop arms deals with Israel in order not to risk an open breach of international law. The death toll among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip now exceeds 33,400, including large numbers now dying of malnutrition or water deprivation. Read more

BERLIN/TEL AVIV (own report) - The German government is about to authorise new arms exports to Israel. Reports indicate that it has already decided to green-light the export of 10,000 rounds of 120-millimetre precision guided ammunition to the Israeli military. The only aspect still under discussion is the price. These shells are apparently being fired in very large numbers in the Gaza Strip. In December, the US administration had already approved the supply of almost 14,000 rounds of the same calibre, in a procedure that bypassed Congress. Last year Berlin approved a delivery of 3,000 portable anti-tank weapons and 500,000 ammunition rounds for semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms. German munition is flowing into war zone at the same time as Israel is having to defend itself before the International Court of Justice against the charge of genocide in Gaza. Berlin now wants to intervene in the main court proceedings as a third party and present arguments in support of Israel. If the International Court of Justice finds in favour of the South African plaintiffs, Germany would be doing nothing less than aiding and abetting genocide by supplying lethal arms. Read more