Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Germany was cut short due to negotiations over a possible compromise on the government’s judicial overhaul plan and a likely Hezbollah infiltration into northern Israel.
Netanyahu had initially been scheduled to leave Wednesday morning for a two-day visit to Berlin, a timetable which was pushed off to the late afternoon and then into the night as the prime minister held talks in the Knesset.
At the last minute, Netanyahu also cut short the trip on the return end, so that he will be in Germany for less than 24 hours. He is scheduled to depart Berlin for Israel on Thursday night rather than on Friday, due to the deteriorating situation along Israel’s northern border.
The IDF is exploring the possibility that the Lebanese terrorist who infiltrated into Israel and placed the bomb at the Megiddo junction that exploded earlier this week is tied to Hezbollah.
While in Berlin on Thursday, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Schultz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He will also visit the Platform 17 Memorial at Grunewald Station, from which German Jews were deported to their deaths during the Holocaust.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that the meetings with Schultz and Steinmeier will be the “first meeting in their current positions and expresses both the special relations between Israel and Germany and their cooperation on a range of issues.
“The two leaders are expected to discuss various diplomatic and security issues, especially Iran and developments in the region.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu will emphasize the need to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” the PMO said.
Netanyahu and Scholz will probably discuss judicial reform
Opponents of the government’s judicial overhaul plan disrupted traffic around Ben-Gurion Airport during the day to make it difficult for Netanyahu to depart, unaware that he was nowhere near the flight terminals. German protesters who oppose that plan are expected to rally against him in Berlin on Thursday.
Schultz and Steinmeier are likely to express their concern about the plan which European countries fear will weaken Israel’s democracy. Germany has been outspoken regarding their fears, particularly given its history in which its democratic Weimar Republic gave way to a Nazi dictatorship in 1933.
The German leaders are also likely to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially the mounting concern of a violent outbreak in the West Bank and east Jerusalem during the month of Ramadan, which begins on March 22.
The trip also has a heavy security component. Russia’s war against Ukraine, now in its second year, will also be on the agenda as Germany, like many European countries, is worried that Moscow will set its sights on them next.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the US of occupying Germany, saying that it never really became a sovereign state after World War II. Like most European countries, Germany is strengthening its military and has looked to Israel to help boost its air defense as it seeks to purchase the Arrow 3 missile-defense system.
Russia’s growing military alliance with Iran coupled with Tehran’s enrichment of uranium to 84%, just short of the 90% needed for weapons-grade enrichment, has allowed Israel to find common ground with Europe over the dangers of a nuclear Iran.
Netanyahu will also seek to sway Germany to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organization and to push the European Union to do so as well.
The trip abroad to Germany is Netanyahu’s third since he returned to office in December. He has also gone to France and Italy, as part of his push to tighten those alliances against Iran.
He has yet to receive an invitation from the United States to visit the White House, nor has he been invited to the United Arab Emirates. It had been expected that these would be his first two trips.
Netanyahu spoke of the importance of the US alliance when he met Wednesday with the board of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Jerusalem.
“Superpowers need alliances – so a small country like Israel definitely needs alliances,” said Netanyahu.
Netanyahu told them that Israel and the US were working together with other countries to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, according to the PMO. He added that simultaneously he was working to expand the 2020 Abraham Accords, under whose rubric Israel agreed to normalize ties with four Arab countries: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
Iran, however, has also been pushing to strengthen its ties with the Gulf countries. Last week, it reestablished diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia after seven years.
Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said on Wednesday that Saudi investments into Iran could happen “very quickly” following the restoration of ties.
“There are a lot of opportunities for Saudi investments in Iran. We don’t see impediments as long as the terms of any agreement would be respected,” Al-Jadaan said during the Financial Sector Conference in Riyadh.
Separately, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani will visit the UAE on Thursday, according to Nour News, which is affiliated with the Iranian top security body.
Shamkhani’s trip to the UAE highlights growing ties between Tehran and Abu Dhabi since the latter sent an ambassador back to Iran in September, more than six years after the Gulf Arab state downgraded ties with the Islamic Republic.
Reuters contributed to this report.