Berlin Declares Support for Israel as One of Germany’s Very Reasons To Exist, as It Takes Fight to Hamas

The raid on Thursday, by 500 German police officers, of 16 properties suspected of housing Hamas sympathizers in the heartland of the former Third Reich is an endeavor to be a safe harbor for Jews. Just this month, more than 70 properties across Germany suspected of housing Hamas and Hezbollah fellow travelers have been visited by law enforcement. The country’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, explains that “we are keeping a close eye on the Islamist scene. Islamists and antisemites cannot and must not feel safe anywhere here.” The extraordinary raids demonstrate that even as the weeks since October 7 have seen an upsurge in antisemitism across Europe, Germany has chartered a different course. On the day of the attacks, the Brandenburg Gate was illuminated with the blue and white hues of the Israeli flag. On November 11, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, it assumed the same colors, along with the maxim, “Never Again Is Now.” Beyond that gate, though, on the streets and at the Reichstag, a debate is raging over what Germany’s past means for its present responsibilities to the Jewish state, now embroiled in a war with Hamas. At stake is not only whether the European powerhouse supports Israel. Hanging in the balance is what it means to be German, seven decades after the Holocaust. It is possible that no city outside of Israel has quite as many signs indicating points of Jewish interest as Berlin. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe sits beside the Tiergarten. The pavement is studded with Stolpersteine, or “stumbling stones,” indicating where Jews once lived. In 1933, there were 160,000 Jews at Berlin. In 1945, that total was 8,000. Currently, there are about 11,000 Jews affiliated with Berlin’s Jewish community, though the true number is likely significantly higher. Some estimates have 10,000 Israelis alone living in the city. Among them are the director of the Maxim Gorki Theater, Yael Ronen, as well as the conductor of Berlin’s state opera, Daniel Barenboim. The Gorki describes one director, Sivan Ben Yishai, as the “new Jewish-Israeli star in the heavens of the German (art)world.”What does Germany’s self-professed “special responsibility” for the Jews mean in an age when the Palestinians have become a cause célèbre for many young Europeans, especially those on the left? This correspondent saw such sentiments, in the form of graffiti, written on walls across some of Berlin’s hippest districts. There have been attacks on synagogues and Stars of David scrawled on Jewish homes. Graffito at Neukölln, a borough of Berlin that has been the site of anti-Israel protests. A.R. Hoffman/The New York Sun What sets Germany apart is not these attacks — they are lamentably common across Europe — but the state’s response. Chancellor Scholz told lawmakers that “at this moment, there is only one place for Germany — the place at Israel’s side. Our own history, our responsibility arising from the Holocaust, makes it a perpetual task for us to stand up for the security of the state of Israel.” The sentiment that Israel’s security is at the bedrock of German identity is captured in a neologism — Staatsräson, or “reason of state.” It was coined by Germany’s last chancellor, Angela Merkel, in a speech before the United Nations in 2007 and repeated the next year at the Knesset. In the last month, amidst a spate of antisemitic incidents, it has been endorsed by all of Germany’s governing parties as a foundational principle. Mr. Scholz was the first European head of state to visit Israel after the attacks. During the visit, Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, reflected that “Germany is one of our biggest and closest allies.” The chancellor has tweeted a demand for the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” and reiterated that “Israel has the right and duty to defend itself.”A contrast with the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, is instructive. While Mr. Macron also visited Israel in the days after October 7, he has since taken a less sympathetic stance. A conference he convened at Paris called for a ceasefire, despite Israel’s assertions that such a development would only help Hamas. He told the BBC that there was “no reason” and “no justification” for bombing “babies, ladies, and old people.” Israel’s cause has found support beyond Mr. Scholz’s office. Berlin’s public prosecutor is on record that the chant “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” will be prosecuted. Section 130 of the German penal code, which has been used to effectively ban public expressions of antisemitism, makes it a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, to “incite hatred against segments of the population or calls for violent or arbitrary measures against them.”Earlier this month, the interior minister, Ms. Faeser, announced a total ban on activity supportive of Hamas. At a press conference announcing the measures, Ms. Faeser explained that she has “completely banned the activities of a terrorist organization whose aim is to destroy the state of Israel.” That prompted Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, to accuse Germany of possessing a “Holocaust mentality.” The Sun spoke to a press officer, Michael Pfalzgraf, for the right wing Alternative für Deutschland party, whose members are skeptical of the European Union and opposed to immigration. Its political fortunes have been rising nationally, not just in its formerly East German heartland. Mr. Pfalzgraf cited an observation from an AfD federal spokesman, Tino Chrupalla, who told the party in a plenary session that “Israel is of course allowed to defend itself against attacks. The right to self-defense is provided for in international law. However, Israel must pay attention to proportionality. Humanitarian disasters must not occur. A conflagration in the Middle East must be prevented.”One of the most sterling defenses of Israel to have emerged from the Old World comes from Germany’s vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, a member of the Green Party whose political commitments — firmly of the left — are a world away from Mr. Pfalzgraf’s. In a viral video titled “On Israel and Antisemitism,” Mr. Habeck offers a rousing defense of the Jewish state. Staring into the camera, he declares that the “phrase ‘Israel’s security is part of Germany’s raison d’état’” — its Staatsräson — “has never been an empty phrase, and it must not become one. It means that Israel’s security is essential for us as a country.” Mr. Habeck explains that it was the generation of his “grandparents that wanted to exterminate Jewish life in Germany and Europe” and that “after the Holocaust, the founding of Israel was the promise of protection to the Jews — and Germany is compelled to help ensure that this promise can be fulfilled.” He adds his concern “about the antisemitism in parts of the political left.” The Wall Street Journal, in a laudatory editorial, notes that Mr. Habeck could serve as an example for “President Biden, who is struggling to suppress antisemitism in the Democratic Party.”

Berlin Declares Support for Israel as One of Germany’s Very Reasons To Exist, as It Takes Fight to Hamas

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