At the entrance to the German conservative Christian-Democratic Union Party’s meeting room in the Bundestag hangs a photo documenting a historic moment of the relationship between Germany and Israel.
The picture shows West Germany’s first chancellor Konrad Adenauer meeting prime minister David Ben-Gurion in New York’s Waldorf Astoria in March 1960.
Fifteen years after the Holocaust ended, this public meeting symbolized the beginning of the reconciliation process between the land of the Nazi perpetrators and the Jewish state, representing many Holocaust survivors.It paved the way for diplomatic relations between West Germany and Israel five years later.
German-Israeli relations
In 2025, reunified Germany and Israel are celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations but not without difficulties.Despite the close alliance, which developed over the years, and Berlin officially declaring solidarity with Jerusalem, the Israel-Hamas War estranged Germany and Israel.
At long last, young German generations are feeling that the time has come to free their country and themselves from the “shame” that ensued from the crimes committed by older generations and from any “historical responsibility” towards Israel, which many of them wrongly consider as a new “perpetrators land.”
CDU leader Friedrich Merz, the projected winner of the German general election on Sunday and the most probable next chancellor, often refers to the meeting between Adenauer and Ben-Gurion when he speaks about Germany’s commitment to Israel, its existence, and its security.
In a political atmosphere in which standing by Israel becomes increasingly difficult and rare, Merz’s clear and continued support of the Jewish state shines as a light in the darkness. While the last CDU chancellor, Angela Merkel, defined Israel’s existence and security as being part of Germany’s “raison d’état,” Merz upgraded this definition.
In a speech at the Bundestag in May 2023 on the occasion of Israel’s 75th Independence Day, he declared: “The right of the State of Israel to exist and its security are part of the inviolable and indispensable core of the policy of the Federal Republic of Germany and of all our state institutions.”
During a special debate at the Bundestag commemorating the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks, Merz – as leader of the opposition – attacked the German center-left government of Olaf Scholz for freezing the export of weapons to Israel, forcing Scholz to unfreeze the export.
Merz stressed in his speech that “there should be no cracks in the solidarity with Israel when Israel does what it needs to defend itself,” and he vehemently criticized what he called the antisemitic, anti-Israel positions of the German Left, expressed especially in art and cultural institutions and events.
He also insisted that one way to efficiently fight the spread of antisemitism in Germany would be to stop the massive immigration of young men from Arab and Muslim countries, “where the elimination of the State of Israel, and not its defense, is part of the socialization.”
New peace initiative
HOWEVER, IN the same speech, he mentioned the new peace initiative of former prime minister Ehud Olmert and the former Palestinian foreign minister and nephew of Yasser Arafat, Nasser al-Qudwa, as a ray of hope to relaunch a peace process.
Olmert and Qudwa have been traveling all over Europe in recent months, promoting their “peace initiative,” which is based on the generous but failed peace proposition that Olmert presented in 2008 to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas never rejected the peace plan. He just didn’t react and waited for Olmert to step down. Believing that a two state-solution peace plan, which didn’t work almost two decades ago, can be relevant after the horrors of October 7 – committed by Palestinians and perpetuated by the cruel treatment of hostages – doesn’t reflect a sense of political realism.
The German political establishment, from the Left and Right, has been defending the Palestinians for far too long. Somehow, the strange idea of a German “double responsibility” towards the Jewish victims of the Nazis and the “victims of the victims,” i.e., the Palestinians, became a leitmotif of German foreign policy in the Middle East.
This allows Berlin not only to interfere in Israeli internal and external politics but also to very generously finance the Palestinians, despite their commitment to the destruction and annihilation of the Jewish state.
According to official records, Germany paid Palestinian bodies, including UNRWA, €913 million in 2023 and 2024. The Germans have become one of the Palestinians’ main donors, however anti-Israeli and anti-peace they are.
Such an attitude reflects more irresponsibility than responsibility. If he becomes chancellor, Merz should break with this traditional German attitude that has contributed to delaying and avoiding peace instead of promoting it.
The Palestinians must understand that there is a high price for their violence and terror. It must be made clear to them that murdering Jews is not a profitable profession. Ending the “pay to slay” mentality and the “denazification” of Palestinian society are two primordial preconditions to any future peace process.
Another one is the dissolving of all “Palestinian refugee camps” in the Middle East and erasing the artificial Palestinian refugee status. Instead of opposing US President Donald Trump’s attempts to think outside the box to solve the Middle Eastern conflict, Germany should mobilize itself to help him, rethinking its attitude.
Sixty-five years have passed since Adenauer met Ben-Gurion in New York. Remembering history is important, but forming the present day for the sake of a better future is much more important.
Merz is right to follow Adenauer, but he should show that he is no less a leader. Realpolitik should replace illusions.